Live! 12:30pm ET Let’s Paint a Lighthouse in Watercolor!

Edit: Here is the finished painting from Today’s Live stream. Enjoy the replay and have a great weekend!

Hi friends! Last week I had the opportunity to paint on Monhegan island with a group of delightful ladies from Louisiana. At the top of the island sits this quaint lighthouse.

Here is the on location sketch I painted:

I decided that I wanted to paint this again once I returned home so that is what we will do together live at 12:30pm ET today! You can watch live, or the replay in the player below but if you want to chat live and ask me questions as we go be sure to catch the live stream on YouTube.

Supplies can be purchased from our sponsor Jerry’s Artarama. Use coupon code: frugal20FS49 for 20% off $49 + Free Shipping (Excludes: Sale, Super Sale, Egift Cards, Buy It Try It’s and Vendor restricted items. Look for the green coupon eligible icon on the product listing.

• Watercolors (Sennelier) Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine, Cinereous Blue, Naples Yellow Deep (or yellow ochre), Bright Red (or cad red/scarlet), lemon yellow *All from the 12 plus 6 free half pan set! Plus olive (or sap) green not in set.
• Arches #140 paper CP tore down to 7″x11″
• Mimik Faux Squirrel brushes (value set)
• Printable pattern

My Mixed Mix it Up Mixed Media DVD is out…

…and on sale for $19.99 (Reg $44.99)  *Digital version is $14.99 this weekend too! If you have wanted to purchase my Craftsy class but prefered to have a DVD now is your chance. Craftsy selected my class to be in the DVD pilot program and I am so excited!!!

If you are not into mixed media I also have an online watercolor class:  Essential Watercolor Course  with over 5 hours of in-depth watercolor instruction to start your journey into watercolor painting off on the right foot. Oh! Exciting classroom news, you can now upload your artwork directly in the comments section of the classroom, right in the relevant lesson,  so you won’t need to post in the Facebook group to share your work. I am so excited for this development!

Pretty cool huh? I love this update because if you have a question while you are working through the course you can pop it right in the lesson where it is relevant, not only do you get help but it helps your fellow students! Sharing is caring my friends:)

I also wanted to let you know that there will be no live stream next Friday (vacation!) so make sure you tune in today if you want to catch the live show! See you soon and until then happy crafting!

A New Watercolor Poppy to Paint!

Hi friends! As you might have realized I like to paint poppies and there were some beautiful ones growing on Monhegan Island when I was out there last week. Here is one I painted from a flower in someone’s garden.

Watch the video for a step by step tutorial and paint along!

If you enjoyed this free painting tutorial please check out my Essential Tools & Techniques for Watercolor Course. It gives you the basics on the tools and supplies as well as foundational techniques so you can create stunning watercolors no matter what subject you choose to paint! From color mixing and holding a brush to creating 3 stunning paintings this class gives you the information you need with no filler boiled down to 5 hours of lessons you can complete at your own pace and you can keep the class for life! I hope to see you in class:)

Supplies:

• Watercolor paint in colors: Carmine (pinkish red), Pthalo Blue, Olive green, lemon yellow I used paint by Sennelier, this student grade kit has all the colors you need or this set of 48 is the best buy if you are looking for the artist grade (which I used but I have also used the student line and I think it is lovely)
• Watercolor round brushes (Aqualon) #10, #4 or sizes you prefer
• Arches 140# CP paper
• Prima watercolor pencils spring/fall set

Sketch and paint along with me! Feel free to pause the video if needed (or slow it down or speed it up:) There is a little gear at the bottom of the video player screen that lets you change the speed and quality of the video. Speed it up and I sound like a deranged chipmunk, good times. I took lots of photos on Monhegan Island so I hope to bring you some more coastal Maine painting tutorials soon. Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

Rembrandt Watercolor Review & Programming Notes!

Hi friends! First up I want to let you know that I will be away teaching a workshop on beautiful Monhegan Island this week so there will be no live stream on Friday. I do have a long, live narrated watercolor tutorial of peaches in a bowl coming up next Tuesday or Wednesday but I might not have a new watercolor tutorial for you before then. Luckily I have hundreds in the archive so you can check out my vast number of playlists if you are in the mood to paint:) I will have a couple cardmaking videos and a vlog posting this week but I didn’t want my watercolor friends to think I abandoned them:) Hopefully I will return from my trip with lots of new watercolor inspiration and coastal scenes to paint! Today though we have a review of Rembrandt watercolors. There were a great deal on Amazon recently and I grabbed a set, unfortunately they are now almost double the price so if you are interested I’d just keep an eye on them to see if they drop. Here is the video review.

Here are a couple paintings I did with these paints:

I have been painting with my new set of Rembrandt watercolor for a couple of weeks and I am really enjoying them. They are high quality watercolors (with high price to go with them usually) but when I saw a good deal on them I decided to try them.

The paints are available in tubes and pans. I am reviewing the 48 half pan set. You can also get a 12 half pan set and a 24 half pan set. *Note, the half pan sets are usually cheapest at amazon but if you want to refill the pans you will likely get a better price at Jerry’s Artarama, Blick or Cheap Joes.

Pros:
vibrant colors
26 single pigments *out of 48 set
Wonderful for glazing, colors stay bright and luminous
Nice palette included, no sharp edges

Cons:
The price has been jacked up on the 48 set since I reviewed it and list price is $510!?!
Two of the reds in the 48 set are very samey (they even use the same mixed pigments) and I found them rather dull, I would much rather have a Quin rose than the carmine or scarlet

This paint is quickly becoming a favorite and if you can try it at a reasonable price (not the crazy list price) I would recommend it. I have also used rembrandt in the tubes and find the quality of that excellent as well. The company who makes Rembrandt also makes a fantastic student line called VanGogh and it is one of the best student paints and I recommend them if the Rembrandt paints are not in your budget.  I hope you found this review helpful and til next time happy crafting!

 

Live today 12:30pm ET! Let’s paint rainbow crystals!

EDIT: Here is the painting from Today’s live broadcast! It was a lot of fun to paint!

Hi friends! I looked at a lot of geodes, crystals and gemstones yesterday trying to figure out what I wanted to paint today. I was playing with my paints on a scrap of watercolor paper earlier this week and painted a hunk of amethyst and it was really fun!

I just couldn’t decide on what kind of crystal to paint today, so I decided, since the technique is essentially the same for different gems, I would paint a big hunk of crystals with the colors of the rainbow! For your reference here is a clear photo of a crystal.

I am not listing colors because you can use any color you like, just go for very transparent colors and you will be fine. I am going to modify the sketch to fit my needs and we can sketch together during the live broadcast. You can watch the live stream or replay in the player below but if you want to chat live with fellow painters or ask me questions you will want to watch at 12:30pm eastern time today on YouTube.

Supplies can be purchased from our sponsor Jerry’s ArtaramaJerry’s Artarama: http://www.jerrysartarama.com/ Use coupon code: frugal20FS49 for 20% off $49 + Free Shipping (Excludes: Sale, Super Sale, Egift Cards, Buy It Try It’s and Vendor restricted items. Look for the green coupon eligible icon on the product listing

• Yarka/White Knights Watercolor *I am using the original set of 24 but Jerrys has many other sets to pick from at great prices. *As for colors you can paint the crystals any color you like, I am doing a rainbow (totally made up) composition of crystals from a geode base so if you want to paint the whole crystal chunk emerald, ruby, sapphire, tourmaline you can!
• Mimik watercolor faux squirrel brushes
• 140# CP Watercolor Paper
• White gel pen

Want more in-depth watercolor instruction? Check out my watercolor course: Essential Tools and Techniques for Watercolor with over 5 hours of step-by-step instruction to start your watercolor off on the right foot!

To take this watercolor course with me in person would cost $180 dollars but you can take it in the comfort of your own home and have it forever for the everyday price of $79 (payment plans also available). Join hundreds of happy students learning the basics of watercolor and creating beautiful paintings! Here is what some of them have to say:

Your class is great and so happy it’s always available. -Bonnie Warren

Thanks, Lindsay! I loved this course– I’m still quite new to watercolor and my paintings reflect that but they also reflect growth thanks to you, this course and your tutorials. Hope you have more courses in the future!  -Joanna Stratten

Lindsay U R an amazing painter. I’m truly enjoying practicing these techniques. I’ve learned so much from this class. Watercoloring is a lot of fun. I’ve always loved detailing, so I know I’ll enjoy doing this iris..it’s just so pretty.  -Kathleen Geisel

How to hold the brush is the best information you could have imparted! loving all these videos; can’t wait to start painting the iris. -Judith Taylor

Join hundreds of happy painters and learn the tools and techniques you need to succeed in watercolor! Enroll or find out more today!

I hope you can join me at 12:30pm ET Today for a fun colorful painting tutorial, til then happy crafting!

 

Sharpen the Saw & The Difference Time, Good Paper and Reading can Make

Hi freinds! I hope you are having a pleasant weekend.  I took some time this morning to paint while listening to an audiobook, I started listening the The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen. I thought since I am listening to the Peach keeper I might as well challenge myself and paint a peach in water color. My first attempt was a quick sketch in a lightweight watercolor journal (the Jane Davenport journal that I HAD to have but the more I use it the less I like the paper. I am not knocking it, it is great for mixed media but not as robust as I would like for straight watercolor.) Painting on paper I am not crazy about can be a positive and a negative. On the plus side it is fairly inexpensive and I can be free because I am not afraid of wasting it, heck, I’d love to use it up! I can paint til the cows come home and not give a care about using up my “precious” paper. On the downside the paper is flimsy, it tends to ripple, it can’t take much scrubbing and I really don’t want to put much time or effort onto anything in this book because I know if I come up with something really great the paper won’t handle me working on it with watercolor for that long. Because of this I don’t work on anything too serious in this book.

That said, working out a design on “practice” paper or in a journal can make you realize if it’s something you want to dive deeper in. Did you know many “old masters” would use watercolor for their on location studies and then paint their “real” painting back in the studio with oils. In the above example the peach on the left is painted on a sample of 300lb CP (oh so precious) Stone Henge Aqua paper and the one on the right was done in my Jane Davenport mixed media journal. Both were done with Rembrandt watercolors, I will have a review on that paint later:) Because I knew what I wanted to achieve with this painting after I “played” in my journal I was able to confidently dedicate time and effort on a nice piece of paper. The sketch took about 20 minutes, the final painting took about 2 hours which was a pleasure to spend while I listed to my audiobook. I didn’t film it. When I was about halfway through I thought “Oh shucks, I should have turned on my video camera!” but then I realized that if I was taping this I would have taken safe routes and tried to paint this in the quickest amount of time and not try new things to stretch my skills. I would have fallen back on my tried and true techniques instead of pushing myself to discover something new. I needed to sharpen the saw.

Like I said I like to listen to audiobooks when I am working and not filming. Earlier this year when I was working on my latest children’s book illustration project (more on that later) I listened to The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. He lists 7 habits that we should adopt to be more effective people and leaders:

1. Be Proactive
2. Begin with the End in Mind
3. Put First Things First
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek First to Understand, and Then to be Understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

I am not going to get into the first 6 habits, you can read the book (it is a popular one and your local library should have it) but the 7th habit was one I had been neglecting and it was really starting to bother me. For the three years leading up to about last February I had posted a tutorial a day. I certainly had daily practice in my craft but when you are focused on producing something decent continuously you don’t take risks, you repeat the same things that you know will yield predictable result. Well, you know what? Predictability does not yield exciting art and I had felt stuck, like I plateaued. Meanwhile my house was a mess and I was stressed! I got my home under control with the Konmari method (the decluttering method from the book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up by Marie Kondo) and I vowed to make progress in my art as well.

The “Sharpen the Saw” analogy goes something like this:

There are 2 woodcutters, the first one works non stop for a week cutting wood from sunrise to sunset. He looks over to the second woodcutter who seems to always be taking breaks and resting. At the end of the week the second woodcutter has three times the wood cut than the first woodcutter does. The first woodcutter says “How have you cut so much more wood than me? Every time I look over you are resting!” The second woodcutter replies “I was not resting, I was sharpening my saw.”

Deep huh? But so true, we spend our time running at top speed to keep up and not questioning the way we do things. Like the cleaning for instance, I would spend so much time trying to organize, dust and manage my junk and it did not occur to me to get rid of a bunch of stuff and you will have less you have to manage. If you feel like you are just repeating yourself in your art because you know how this will turn out and it is becoming repetitive why not take a risk and try something new? After all, precious or cheap, it’s just a piece of paper. Happy crafting:)

 

PS, I bet you can find most of the books I mentioned for free at your local library. Compensated affiliate links to amazon are provided in the post if you wish to own any of the books I mentioned.

 

 

Live Free Rose Painting Class Today! 12:30pm ET

Hi friends! I had some time yesterday to plan today’s live stream and this is what I came up with:

I really enjoyed painting this one although I am not thrilled with the 3 pale leaves in the upper right corner so I think I will leave them out, we can always free-hand them in later (so if you are tracing the pattern you can leave those out.) I think it is a wonderful lesson to learn how to capture the soft, smooth, velvety texture of rose petals by building luminous glazes. It is really a kinda advanced technique but as always I will break it down so even beginners can understand and I always make my replays available so you can work at your own pace and come back later if needed:) Below if the photo we will work from.

You can watch the live stream or replay in the player below but if you want to chat live with other painters or ask me questions as we go you will need to watch at 12:30 today on youtube.

Supplies (*Compensated affiliate links used. I earn a small commission on sales made via my links, it helps keep my tutorials free on YouTube without costing you a penny more, thank you for your support:)

• Stonehenge Aqua 140# watercolor paper *I used cold press in the example above and I am going to try hot press in the live video so we can compare!
• Rembrandt watercolors *I couldn’t resist this deal on 48 half pans for $134 (it sells for over $500 in stores-score!)
• Brushes: Mimik Squirrel (rounds sizes #2-#8 and 1″ flat) or Royal Majestic (better for beginners not used to thirsty (absorbent) brushes)
• Graphite paper or light box (optional-if you want to trace/transfer the pattern)
• Pattern
• Pencil, 2 water buckets, paper towels

Member’s Favorite classes are on sale this weekend at Craftsy for under $20 including my class Mix it Up Mixed Media Step by Step!

Browse hundreds of classes from painting, sewing, quilting,cardmaking, gardening and crafts and save big! Don’t you love to learn something new?

I hope you join me for a free live painting class today and if you love the friday live lesson please share with a friend! there are handy sharing links at the bottom of this post, you can pin it on Pinterest, share it on Facebook or even Tweet it! With all of the depressing stuff on social media these days let’s share something happy and fun! I’ll see you live at 12:30pm ET today, til then happy crafting!

Last Two Days to Save 50% on My Watercolor Course!

Hi friends! I just wanted to pop in with a friendly reminder that my Essential Tools and Techniques for Watercolor course is 50% off through tomorrow! Come June 1st it will cost $79 to enroll in this class but you can enroll today for $39 and have lifetime access so you can take you time in completing it and return to it whenever you feel like you want a refresher.

Still not convinced? Here is what some of the students have to say:

“Thanks so much for this class Lindsay as well as all the videos you do. You are so encouraging and motivating.” -Virginia Staib

“Lindsay, you’re the greatest! I’m pleased with the results of my still life after a second try. I’ve definitely enjoyed your in-depth course. Still need work on glass but it’s the best I’ve done. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to more classes.” -Priscilla M. Ware

“I hate for this to end. I have never done watercolor before because everyone said it was so hard but you made it so enjoyable, I’ve done oil and acrylic but I think……I really like the water color. Especially how you never waste any paint! It was so much fun and relaxing. I want to learn more, more, more so I hope you will have another one.” -Sherry Sandberg

“Lindsay, I am enjoying your class so much! You have such a nice manner and make everything look easy! Your lessons are such a pleasure, it is like spending time with a fun friend who also happens to be an artist!” -Gerri Dauer

The class is broken up into two parts. In the first part we go over techniques on their own and color mixing. We also learn washes. It is important to isolate these skills so you can practise and perfect them.

In the second part of the course we put those techniques to good use as we complete three finished paintings. Learning a technique is only useful if you see how to apply it in a painting.

In the iris painting we learn wet-in-wet wash, plastic wrap texture, scraping, glazing, shading, color mixing, masking fluid and cutting highlights.

In the landscape we learn wet-in-wet washes, lifting, layering, composition, perspective, spattering, masking with tape, side load shading, scraping, shading, color mixing and reflections.

In the still life we learn masking with masking fluid, controlled wash, wet-in-wet wash, salt texture, layering for texture, glazing, lifting, shadows, reflections and glass refractions.

You can see that many techniques are repeated in the painting lessons, that’s because application and repetition over different subject matters will help you learn where you can use those techniques on your future paintings making the techniques you learn in this class extend to your art outside of the classroom.

If you love watercolor but feel you are missing some of the foundations or you want to brush up (pun intended) on your skills and have three new paintings to show for it consider enrolling in Essential Tools and Techniques for Watercolor Today! On sale for $39 (regular $79) through May 31, 2017. Don’t miss out, learn the essentials for half price! Thank you so much for your support and til next time happy crafting & painting!