Whether you’re a beginner or you’re just trying to dust off your supplies and get back into putting something down on paper after a break, I’ve always found ink & wash (also called line & wash) to be a great way to put down watercolor without the pressure of actually painting with watercolor. Watercolor paint gets to be simply an expression of color, movement, and texture while the ink lines carry the job of rendering the object or scene. As with any art that is made, there is no right or wrong way to approach ink & wash style.  Today, I want to share with you three ways I’ve ..read more

In this post, I’m sharing a review of a few budget-friendly watercolor supplies that are great for beginners by a brand called Meeden. I already own a few Meeden products and consider them on of the more affordable brands, so I hope this post and related video are helpful if you are looking to get started with watercolor painting without investing too much on supplies or if you’re just looking for supplies that are more budget-friendly. In full transparency, all the Meeden supplies were sent to me by Meeden and if you use the links in this post to purchase, I’ll receive a small commission at n ..read more

In July, I took an intentional break from painting. We had family visiting, my son was going through a transition from preschool to public school, there were swim lessons, and you know…all the life things. Great, joy-filled, first-priority type of life-things. Things that make putting painting on hold totally worth it. However, I found it more difficult than I thought it would be to come back from this creative break. I was more aware this time that I had to do a few things to get back to the actual act of creating. Coming back from a creative break isn’t as easy or straightforward as forcing ..read more

After seeing these Caran d'Ache Neocolor II watersoluble wax pastels all over the place for a long time, I found them on sale and decided to add them to my art supply collection. In this post, I’ll take you through the unboxing and initial swatching that I did when I first opened this set and then I’ll show you the first thing I drew with them! If you’ve watched my art supply organization and office tour video you might have gotten the sense that I tend to be little more on the “minimal” side when it comes to spaces and supplies. Though I suppose this is relative. I do try to be pretty selecti ..read more

One of the most popular search terms related to watercolor painting is “watercolor flowers”. I did some research on google and I think this is an accurate statement but I’m not saying this because I’m in disbelief. I believe it. Watercolor flowers are beautiful and it’s one of the first subjects I tried to paint when I started. But I’ll be honest here: I am not good at them. I’ve tried and tried. Even my mom told me once after seeing one of my attempts: “there is no life in your flowers”. Ouch. But it was true. I’m not going to say that I cant be good at them. If I keep practicing, I know I wo ..read more

While I can’t say I’ve tested out every single watercolor sketchbook, I have used a few of them enough over the years to have three good watercolor sketchbooks to recommend to you today. You would think that a watercolor sketchbook is a watercolor sketchbook. That all sketchbooks labeled “for watercolor or wet media” would work for watercolors. But if you’re here reading this post, it’s likely you have come to the realization that not all watercolor sketchbooks are created equal. In fact, there isn’t even one BEST watercolor sketchbook to rule them all. I can’t with a clear conscious tell you ..read more

I think it’s interesting that this rainy day scene doesn’t actually involve painting raindrops. It’s about finding a way to capture the effects that all those raindrops have on the environment they are falling on. For this painting I decided to just “go for it” with paint. Without any sketch or preliminary lines. You can see that I did a practice sketch prior to painting and I’m also painting right next to my practice sketch, which I found helpful to have as a reference. If you’d like to see the practice sketch for this scene and hear about why I find sketching to be helpful prior to painting ..read more

Each person has a different personality as a painter. When it comes to painting with watercolor, I think there are two main types: the type that will do studies and tests before diving into a painting. Perhaps swatching colors and making a plan - even if it’s a rough one. Then there are types like me. The type that has a visual idea, a rough idea of how to approach it, and then puts paint onto paper. No swatching, no studies. If I fail, I just keep trying it over and over again - or I abandon it all together and move on. I believe both are valid. Both are forms of practice, one is more methodi ..read more

While I’m 99.9% sure I’ll never truly master watercolors, I’m going to continue painting and practicing with this medium simply because it’s unpredictable and never boring. Which for me, makes it feel challenging in a fun way. In the video below, I share a timelapse process of a bunny that I painted with my membership community, Paint With Me, while I share with you 3 things that have helped me find more “success” with wet on wet watercolor painting. If you’d rather read through my tips, scroll down below! I love the overall look of paintings that are done when the paper is wet. The soft fuzz ..read more

I think this might be the first year I’ve actually started the year spending real time in my sketchbook. This year, on Monday, January 2nd, I started a creative kick-off with Paint With Me, my watercolor painting community. The idea of our kick-off was simple: 15 minutes for 5 days. We started on Monday and ended on Friday. Inside Paint With Me, I provided a daily prompt consisting of a descriptive word and a reference photo to go with that word. I hosted a live session each day for us to complete our 15 minutes together. To see a flipthrough of the first five paintings I did for 2023, ch ..read more