Customizing your sketchbook into an Art Journal
MyArtBoxOnline is a website where we are selling A curated box with all the Art supplies you will need to make mixed media Art: Hand picked Art supplies tested by our team of Artists Learn new...
View ArticlePreparing your paper for oil pastels, watercolor and mixed media. A...
I am working on a series of life drawings that I made in our weekly life drawing class ( You can visit our North Vancouver life drawing class website here). I like to keep the original drawings and...
View ArticleAn alternative to yupo paper – part 2: Painting a still life
In a recent post I was showing a technique I really enjoy, it allows you to make regular drawing paper water-resistant and behave a bit like yupo paper. You might also be interested in : An alternative...
View Article6 masking fluid tips
Watercolor and acrylic paint are somewhat translucent by nature, so it makes sense to preserve some areas of your paper or canvas so they stay white or light. Of course you can always use white gouache...
View ArticleSketchbook inspirations
If you are like me, you might be intimidated by sketchbooks, especially when they are new. Who knows you might get a new sketchbook for Christmas :)Actually the more beautiful they are, the more...
View ArticleHow to add visual texture to watercolor and acrylic washes.
Adding a bit of visual texture to your paintings will make them stand out. You can also use visual texture as a starting point to layer more colors or to make an abstract background. Here are my...
View ArticleFigures in watercolor and pen
Sketching in pen and ink is a fast and convenient way to give a bit more life to your drawings. It is the perfect mix of precise sharp lines, contrasting with loose watery washes of color. It is also a...
View ArticleOne drawing 7 versions
This is a fun exercise you might want to try on your life drawings or even any kind of drawing. Make a few different versions of the same drawing in different media, exploring different styles. You can...
View Article6 fun summer art activities to try for yourself or with your kids or grand-kids
Summer is a great time to have fun with art and work on easier projects that don’t require many supplies. All the art ideas listed here can be done with kids or grand-kids and can be finished in one...
View ArticleWatercolor pencils monoprints
If you want to learn more about printmaking, one of the easiest way to start is with monoprints. They can be relatively easy to make and they don’t require that much supplies. You might also be...
View Article5 ways to improve your watercolor painting skills
5 ways to improve your watercolor skills With a few changes in your habits you can easily improve your watercolor skills. 1.Have a plan Perhaps the most important advice on that list. Don’t get me...
View ArticleHow to paint skin tones with watercolor- 7 tips
Layering watercolor is basically a way to mix watercolors on your paper by superposing layers instead of mixing them on your palette. As you can mix most colors with the 3 primaries ( yellow, blue and...
View ArticleMounting watercolor paper on board
Princess Park, mixed media on board You might like painting with watercolor but become frustrated with the framing and matting process. Learning how to mount watercolor paper on board can be the...
View ArticleChecklist for successful paintings : Be your own critic
Irwin Greenberg : “Be your own toughest critic.” Assessing your work while you are painting it is a crucial step towards successful paintings. While it is not easy to take a distance from our own work,...
View ArticleSimple watercolor painting exercise : Painting a lemon from life
Training with watercolors does not have to be complicated, use what you have in your kitchen for some quick exercises! Paint a lemon from life with watercolors Paint from life: a fruit, egg,...
View ArticleHow to paint sea and clouds in watercolor : Try a layering technique
Learning how to paint sea and clouds in watercolor can seem tricky. A technique you can try that works well with clouds and sea is to layer your watercolors. Until now I have been using a layering...
View ArticlePainting a forest with watercolor and mixed media : step by step tutorial,...
I like to fix the watercolor paper on board before starting to paint that way I stretch it at the same time it is mounted.This is what I did here, before starting a detailed pencil drawing. I did...
View ArticlePainting trees and leaves with watercolor : On either side of the river
I did this painting for the watercolor biennale coming up at the Federation of Canadian Artists in Granville Island ( Vancouver ). I had a few guidelines to follow : the size had to be 19 x 27 which is...
View ArticleHow to paint trees and leaves with watercolor
This is a watercolor and mixed media landscape, I wanted to try painting a bigger sized watercolor but was limited by the size of my paper and the boards I had available so I thought painting a...
View ArticleHow to paint a watercolor tree step by step
Painting watercolor trees and leaves can be tricky, you have to decide what level of detail you want to achieve. When painting a tree from a distance, artists will usually look for areas of the same...
View ArticleNymph Echo : Painting lily pads and reflections on water with watercolor
Watercolor is such a great medium to render reflections on water and paint beautiful scenes with lily pads. One of the trick to render a water scene is to pay attention to the quality of your edges...
View ArticlePlan your watercolor paintings to easily paint a complex scene
Painting a watercolor from a complex reference picture can be overwhelming, so many details to paint! Having a plan and dealing with only a few elements at one time can make painting a complex scene...
View ArticleThe Trees Place : Layering watercolors to paint trees
When you paint with watercolors you have different ways of mixing your colors: You can mix them directly on your palette, mix them on the paper wet into wet, or layer them. Layering watercolor will...
View ArticleLily pads on One Mile Lake: Painting lily pads with watercolor
Lily pads are an inspiring subject for a painting, so many colors and then the reflections on the water! Here is how to paint lily pads with watercolor. This painting has been painted from a reference...
View ArticleArborescences – Painting a forest with watercolor
Painting a forest with watercolor can seem tricky but if you take it one step at a time, you can get pretty good results. This watercolor was painted directly on a paper that was mounted on board. To...
View ArticleA little Birdie told me, watercolor portrait and zentangle
It is fun to integrate zentangles in a watercolor painting. See how I did it on this watercolor portrait of my daughter with a step by step painting tutorial. This is my own version of zentangles as...
View ArticlePainting trees with watercolor, Hiking with the dogs
I did start this watercolor for a demo at the Opus Art Store, this is why some areas of the painting are almost done at the beginning. I wanted to show different stages of the painting. Once back at...
View ArticleA watercolor and zentangle postcard for the Twitter Art Exhibit
Twitter Art Exhibit postcard ready to be mailed I painted this watercolor and mixed media zentangle postcard to send to the Twitter Art Exhibit. It is a fundraising where Artists send postcard sized...
View ArticleFun mixed media technique with watercolor crayons, pastels and watercolor.
This is a fun mixed media technique to try,. I am sure kids would love it as well and I think it is a good exercise to loosen up your painting style as well. You will need: Here are the steps you can...
View ArticleHow to paint trees and leaves with watercolor, a step by step tutorial
Painting watercolor trees and leaves can seem challenging because of the amount of details you need to render to make them look realistic. Here is how you can do it step by step This painting is a new...
View ArticleHow to mount a watercolor painting on board, a step by step tutorial
I usually like to mount paper on board before I start painting as this allows me to stretch it in the process of mounting it. But you might have a few watercolor paintings on paper, that are already...
View ArticleHow to apply Dorland’s wax medium on watercolor
Applying Dorland’s wax medium on watercolor has many advantages, it will protect the paper from humidity and is easy and fast to apply, it also has a nice odor that is way less strong than varnish. I...
View ArticleHow to add zentangles to your watercolor paintings
I sometimes like to revisit a subject I already painted and work on it with a different medium. This time I did a different version of a flower painting I had done a few years ago with acrylics and...
View ArticleWatercolor cityscape tutorial : How to paint a rainy cityscape with watercolors
I like how the bright lights of the traffic are visually interesting in Vancouver when it is raining. Here is a watercolor cityscape tutorial that will give you at least a reason to like the rain here...
View ArticleHow to paint a flower still life with watercolor on canvas
English Garden Watercolor and mixed media on canvas 12 x 12 inches When you want to paint from imagination, starting with an abstract background gives you a good starting point to try to see shapes....
View ArticleFun painting activity : watercolor and mixed media postcards
When you want to learn new techniques, it can be a good idea to try them on postcard sized watercolor paper. You will have fun with these painting exercises, the postcards are easy to make and they...
View ArticleFun summer art activity: Watercolor Ombre Postcards
Summer is a great time to have fun with small postcards and watercolor. Here these watercolor ombre postcards are painted with one color and multiple layers to get an ombre effect. This is an easy...
View ArticleAdd impact to your paintings with India Ink
Color is fun and I love color but you can also give impact to your paintings by working in black and white. When working in black and white, I like to use India Ink as it has many advantages: It is...
View ArticleWatercolor and fluid acrylic: similarities and differences
I started painting with watercolor, I think the unpredictability of the medium and its refusal to do what I wanted it to do got me hooked right away. I still enjoy painting with watercolors but am...
View ArticleA yupo paper alternative for life drawings: Gel medium on regular paper.
Yupo paper is a wonderful surface to work on with many media, including watercolor. The most interesting properties of yupo paper to me are the fact that when the paint dries, a lot of textures are...
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