Beginner | 1 hour
Taught by Lindsay Stripling
Learn the essentials of working with your paints and brushes to create gorgeous washes in Part 1. Lindsay shows you how to create a color chart with customized tints and shades, as well as how to blend primary colors to create neutrals. Finally, Lindsay shows you how to clean up your workspace and care for your tools.
Learn how to:
  • Set up your palette
  • Handle your brushes
  • Create a flat wash, graded wash, two-color wash and wet/dry brush
  • Create a color chart
  • Gradually tint and shade your colors
  • Glaze colors to create depth and new colors
  • Mix primary colors to create neutrals and blacks
  • Clean up your watercolor workspace and care for your tools

Chapters
00:57
Part 1: Mixing Colors and Creating Charts
00:39
01:40
Watercolors and Brushes 101
11:30
12:20
06:29
10:08
01:40
Materials
Here’s what you’ll need:
  • 100% cotton rag watercolor paper (Lindsay uses Arches hot press block in sizes 9” x 12” and 14” x 20”)
  • Synthetic brushes (Lindsay uses Simply Simmons Synthetic Sable Brushes in sizes Round 6, Round 8, Round 10 and a 1" Flat Wash brush)
  • Enameled metal palette
  • Cotton Rag for drying
  • Water
  • Metal palette knife or butter knife (if using block paper)
  • Sharp, hard pencils
  • Pencil sharpener
  • Ruler
  • Eraser
  • Hair dryer (optional)
  • Paints:
  • HWC Burnt Umber
  • Sennelier Chinese Orange
  • HWC Quinacridone Gold
  • Sennelier Aureolin
  • Sennelier Brown Pink
  • Old Holland Green Deep
  • HWS Shadow Green
  • HWS Indigo
  • HWS Horizon Blue
  • HWC Lilac
  • Old Holland Bright Violet
  • HWC Bright Rose
  • MaimeriBlu Cadmium Red Deep
  • Schmincke Cadmium Red Light
  • M. Graham & Co. Ivory Black
  • Discussion
    Notes
    Your timecode tags and notes for this section
    Transcript
    Playing with Watercolor
    Now Playing
    Part 1:
    Playing with Watercolor: Mixing Colors and Creating Charts
    Lindsay Stripling
    Learn the essentials of working with your paints and brushes to create gorgeous washes in Part 1. Lindsay shows you how to create a color chart with customized tints and shades, as well as how to blend primary colors to create neutrals. Finally, Lindsay shows you how to clean up your workspace and care for your tools.
    Part 2:
    Playing with Watercolor: Part 2 - Painting Landscape Orbs
    Lindsay Stripling
    Part 2 is chock full of intermediate techniques, all of which are used to make intriguing circular landscapes (or orbs). Lindsay shows you how to create white space and add textures, including adding walnut ink to watercolor and using masking fluid. You will then put these skills into practice, creating abstract landscapes and horizon lines with both wet-on-wet and dry-on-wet techniques.
    Part 3:
    Playing with Watercolor: Part 3 - Painted and Collaged Landscapes
    Lindsay Stripling
    In the third and final part of Playing with Watercolor, Lindsay leads you through exercises for combining paintings with collage, resulting in highly textured artwork. You will learn how to create glazed layers and add salt for texture, then put everything together to create a collaged landscape filled with color and depth.