LATELY ON INSTAGRAM

The path to getting good at something isn't full of perfection and beauty. It's littered with trials, errors, and lots of repetition. We all start somewhere and if we build from the ground up, we'll eventually get there! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So while these exercises aren't the prettiest to look at, they are part of the journey and I would say, necessary, in order to understand how to work with watercolors. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This foundational course I've created isn't glamorous, and doesn't promise you a perfect piece to hang on your wall when you're done. But it does intend to help you build a really strong base so that you have the knowledge and confidence to take on whatever it is you want to try painting. ❤️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'm excited to work with everyone that has signed up already to build this foundation and watch everyone truly find joy discovering and painting with watercolors! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This will be my last post (I promise) about Just Watercolor. Registration closes in a few hours at 9pm PST. If you want to enroll before the doors close, check out the link in my profile! #justwatercolorco #justwatercolor ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'll be back to posting and painting more personal projects again soon! Classes for my online course, Just Watercolor officially start next Monday! Some students have been asking questions about what supplies they will need to do the course and I wanted to share here that I planned the course intentionally so that you don't to buy a lot of supplies. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ You can complete the course with only 3 colors and 1 brush, but if you have more than that, it means you just have more options to explore and play with! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you're thinking of enrolling, feel free to message me and ask me any questions you might have about the course! Enrollment closes TOMORROW at 9pm PST and classes start on Monday June 11th! Link in bio for more info! Hope to see you inside! . 📷: @joytheoryco I can’t even begin to tell you how excited and humbled I am to have had so many people join my course in the past few days. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I can’t wait to share everything I know about building a foundation in watercolors so that you can be confident that you have all the skills to keep painting and trying new things. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The best part is going to be meeting everyone in the private Facebook group and following everyone’s progress. For those of you that have signed up, I’ll see you in there real soon! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you’re thinking of signing up, early bird registration ends tonight (Monday 6/4) at 9pm PST- save $50!) For more info on the course, check out the link in my bio! #justwatercolor #justwatercolorco Got ✌️ things for you on this first day of June! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. Recognize this from a few posts ago? I digitized it for this month's free wallpapers! Just sent out both the desktop and phone versions to my email list, but you can grab a screenshot of the phone version in my stories if you want! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 2. Today is an especially fun start to June as I'm opening enrollment for my new online course, Just Watercolor for the first time. I am so excited to already have welcomed in some amazing students this morning - I seriously can't wait! If you want to check it out, visit the link in my bio or visit www.justwatercolor.co! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ There's a special early bird registration price right now, so grab it while you can! Enrollment closes next Thursday. Lessons start June 11th! Happy Friday everyone! I always love seeing where others started in their journey with their creative pursuits. . I dug this out from my file box: my first timid experimentation with watercolors in early 2017 after more than a decade of neglecting traditional art practice. (I had spent a lot time designing on the computer screen instead) . I remember not knowing what to paint or how to start, so I started small and attempted a page of these little guys. I still can recall the hesitation and uncertainty with colors, my brush, scale, what order to paint each element...basically all the things. . But the more you try, the more you learn and I’m still discovering new things everytime I paint. Hope you enjoyed this little snapshot and thoughts from my early watercolor adventures! #practicemakesprogress Breaking it down and putting it together 👉🏼 Took all the elements I’m teaching in my online course and combined it into one simple landscape. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It’s not the most realistic, perfectly composed, expertly detailed or even the best showcase of color but that’s the point 🙂. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This painting uses 3 colors, 3 basic techniques and knowledge of water & brush control. AND it can be completed step by step by building up a foundation of skills. Which means that anyone can learn watercolors ❤️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ It’s my hope that after you build the foundation to paint this, you’ll be confident in your ability to try any subject and style you want! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m doing a series of live videos on Instagram this week all about getting started with watercolors. Today I talked about why today is a good time to get started and tomorrow I’m going over the 5 basic supplies you need to actually start! Join me at 2:00 pm PST everyday this week (or catch the replay in my stories!) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If you want to be the first to know when enrollment opens for my course, Just Watercolor, sign up at www.justwatercolor.co ! It felt like this all week in Southern California but the sun finally came out today ☀️! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I was testing a way to really practice wet-on-wet and understand the effects you can make without getting too hung up with all the other factors watercolors throws at you and I think it’s these two things: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ 1. Keeping it monochromatic (one color!) 2. Painting skies and/or distant mountain tops ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Had fun trying testing a few skies and simple landscapes today - maybe you can give it a try too! Hope you have a peaceful weekend, it’s Friday! Watercolors can take on so many shapes and forms. It’s a single medium that, when put into each unique person’s hands, results in a different outcome. I think it’s what makes it so interesting but also that much more difficult to learn as well as teach. . As I’ve been developing the lessons in my course I’ve been thinking about the best way to teach watercolors and the answer I keep coming back to is that there is no “right” way. But what I *can* share is my own unique way. . Every person will have their favorite supplies, techniques and approaches. If you don’t have it when you start you will develop it as you go. That’s the beauty of learning. At the end of the day, we all start somewhere. . The best way I’ve thought about teaching the people who want to learn from me is by approaching it simply: with a strong base of knowledge, technique, and a lot of grace. . This palm leaf is made up of mastering a single stroke. That’s how I approach it and that’s how I teach it. I love how a single stroke, some color and composition can make a painting! Just wanted to share an example of what I’m teaching in my online course (that’s opening for enrollment next week!) . Sign up for the wait list at the link in my bio (you also get a free supply guide!) . Thanks for reading my long caption! ❤️ In my head, I have lots of things that I can't wait to paint and share with you! But for now, I'm busy over here playing with colors and working on filming exercises and projects for an online watercolor course I'm releasing (so soon!) ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'm excited because it's made dig up everything that I struggled with or had questions about when I first started and I truly hope that by getting it out of my head and into the world it will help others fall in love with this medium and enjoy the act of painting. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I'm nervous because I want it to be the best it can be but I know that I'm only human and I can't possibly cover EVERYTHING in one course. Also, I'm a work in progress myself - always learning and exploring #neverstoplearning! I've put so much thought into everything I would have wanted to know when I was just starting but not SO much that it would overwhelm me and prevent me from moving forward. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ So thank you for everyone that has provided me with insights, took my poll, and gave me feedback so far in this process! I can't wait to share this with you soon! Hop on the VIP list by visiting www.justwatercolor.co if you want to be notified when registration opens! ❤️Hope you're having a great week! Never knew watercolors could look so technical? 🤓 I have a hard time turning of my architect-brain sometimes so I wrote up a blog post and let you in on what is going on in my head when I paint this herringbone pattern. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Ever since I posted this video last year (swipe to see), I realized that even something that looks so simple can make people stop and wonder "how do you do that"? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I hope that by unpacking the thought process it helps you paint this too! Plus, I think it's fun and a nice mental/visual exercise! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Check out the post (and video) on the blog! If you try this out, tag me so I can see! I have to admit that the only painting I’ve been doing lately are these little daily studies I’ve been sharing for my 100 day project (in my stories). ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I’m grateful that it keeps me showing up everyday even if it’s just to pick up a paintbrush for 5 minutes. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ You’d be surprised at how much just 5 minutes of looking at an image and translating it through your own eyes and onto paper can do for your practice. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I feel myself improving each day through making mistakes and experimenting. So all of that to say that doing a little bit at a time is better than nothing at all ❤️ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ P.S. I’ve received multiple requests for a series of these for little girl’s rooms. Consider the seeds of this idea planted! Coming soon in the summer maybe? Better late than never, right? For those of you that were waiting for the May wallpaper, I finally got around to it! (P.S. Thanks for asking about it - I didn't know people actually look forward to them!) Grab the screenshot from my stories! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ (If you're on my email list you got this along with the desktop version in your inbox ❤️) _ I also posted up a blog post today about 3 common myths that hold people back from watercoloring. If you give it a read, let me know what you think. If there are other myths you've come across, let me know - I'm curious! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Hope you have a great week ahead! For 10 days I was painting single figures that took up most of the room of a full 5x8 sketchbook page. It was uncomfortable, there were definitely some challenges but I saw improvement and it got easier. But the whole time I knew I really wanted to paint small figures like this! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I googled simple watercolor figures on YouTube and found some great examples which helped guide me to painting these! Especially the videos by Trevor Waugh - love his figures! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ These little figures remind me of scale figures that you seen in architectural drawings and I love them because they are fun to paint and it’s a little bit of a surprise what kind of figure I’ll end up with! I don’t plan them, I just make marks and let the brush do it’s thing... sorta 🙂 ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Excited to paint more of these small studies for the next 10 days! (I post them in my stories and in my 100 day project highlights, if you’re wanting to follow along!) This May I'm doing something special to help spread the word about Project Beautiful, an initiative by Love Justice International. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ One of my closest friends works for this NGO and during the month of May, they are sending out a Mayday asking for support to save 1,000 lives from being sold into modern day slavery. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ In support and to help spread the word, I'm giving back 10% of all proceeds from my shop to Project Beautiful. Now is the perfect time to pick up art prints for all the moms out there as Mother's day is coming up! I've seen these mom and baby prints given as shower gifts and bought for nurseries. I love that these are finding their place into heart-filled homes and watching over little ones. Thank you for shopping this month and giving back to a great cause! Check out @lovejusticeintl for more info! . 📷: @joytheoryphoto I wrote a blog post that goes through everything a beginner would need to know regarding watercolor papers! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I know there's and endless amount of technical knowledge that just gets in the way of having fun painting so I didn't bother including that. (Which means hopefully it's not too dry!) I mean...I'd rather paint - wouldn't you? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This post gives enough information to be knowledgeable about what you're getting yourself into with papers. I think you'll really like the infographic I made - it's basically a summary of the whole post in one image (scroll to the bottom of the post to see it)! _ Lastly, I took some time to do pricing research on watercolor papers. I made a chart that goes through 14 different paper manufacturers, which formats are available (pads, blocks, sheet), AND how much the cost is per sheet. I never have compared paper brands in such depth so it was interesting to see where my favorites landed among the pricing spectrum! 🤓 If you want my comparison chart you can grab it for free in the latest blog post! Happy Monday! I remember my figure drawing instructor saying that the human figure is the most difficult thing to draw/paint because we can perceive almost immediately if something is “off”. When I took an animation class we were told that animating human movement was difficult for the same reason. It makes sense because the human form is something we are all too familiar with. We may not be able to pin point exactly why it looks “wrong” but we definitely notice it. _ People are probably the most challenging subject for me to paint. I don’t do it often, and these last few days of doing these not-so-simple studies for my 100 days of simple studies has been...interesting. _ I appreciate that it’s pushing me, but I also am kind of embarrassed to share them, if I’m being completely honest! Slowly but surely I feel like I’m getting closer to painting what I picture in my brain though! 🤔 I "doodled" this while shooting with @joytheoryco today for my course website and was reminded why I love Arches paper so much. This is Arches 140lb/300gsm Cold Press Paper (in Bright White - which I believe is only available in sheets). I love the way wet-on-wet technique looks on it and colors remain vibrant and beautiful after it dries. It feels cotton-y soft and luxurious - is that weird to say about paper? _ So that's it, just some nerdy paper love today! If you want to know more about my upcoming watercolor course, sign up for the email list and free supply guide (where I suggest Arches as one of my top paper choices, of course 😬) - link in bio! _ Colors used: Daniel Smith Quin Rose Daniel Smith Hansa Yellow Medium Winsor & Newton Quin Gold Learning how to paint with watercolors is more than just watercoloring. Those of us who love it and want to keep getting better aren’t in it just to paint pretty pictures. Have you ever asked yourself why you want to learn, why you want to get better, and why it is so rewarding? I’ve thought about it and here are 3 reasons why I think watercolors are so much more than just learning to paint: 1. Watercolors teach us to slow down 2. Watercolors encourage us to see the world differently 3. Watercolors help us discover our creativity _ But not everyone gets to the point of enjoying watercolors. I know there are many people that have attempted to control this beautiful fluid medium, became discouraged and gave up. It’s a shame if this was the path they were taking to rediscover their creativity, but felt defeat and retreated. _ That’s why I’m working on Just Watercolor, a course to build your foundation and creative confidence in watercolor. So you don’t have to keep searching YouTube videos, Facebook groups, and Instagram tutorials while attempting to paint things using techniques that you may not fully understand. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I can’t wait to show you everything I’ve been working on! Enrollment opens at the end of May for a limited time. Grab a free supply guide and get on the waitlist for the course - link in bio. _ If you want to read more on my thought process behind these 3 reasons, it's all in my latest blog post on the website! You know where to go: link in bio! _ Hope you have a wonderful week! 📷: @joytheoryco Broad strokes, a little too much water, and all indigo today. I think I'm finally figuring out how I like to approach these "abstract" painting studies now that I'm 8 days in. These simple studies I've been sharing my stories (and story highlights) for #the100dayproject have been really fun and low pressure. Which is perfect for me right now. It's been a busy month and May is going to be even busier! I'll share more about what's been keeping me busy next week! Until then, hope you have a wonderful weekend! 💙 _ Supplies used: • Moleskine Watercolor Notebook (5x8) • Winsor & Newton Cotman Indigo (I usually only use Daniel Smith now, but this is one of the first few tubes I bought when I started watercolors and I still love this color) • Brush: Princeton Heritage 4050R Size 10 👉🏼 swipe for real-time video! I decided to let myself paint Day 26 of #everydaywatercolor and listen to podcasts this morning instead of doing all the other things that I *should* be doing! But I don't regret it one bit 😏 _ You could say painting all the tree tops is tedious, but I love the repetitive and somewhat mindless act of painting the same strokes over and over. I always wanted to try a misty painting like this. I definitely want to do this again on a proper sheet of taped down paper or a block - instead of in a sketchbook because this type of painting requires lots of water. _ Speaking of watercolor papers, Priscilla @bypriscillalee and I are getting together on IG Live to chat all about them tomorrow at 10:30am PST. So if you're around, we would love for you to come hang out, ask questions and give us your opinions too! _ In case you're curious... Daniel Smith paint colors used: • Sap Green • Phthalo Green (Blue Shade) • Paynes Grey