Painting an autumn landscape in watercolour I couldn't let the year finish without an autumn scene :-) So here are some very pretty silver birches we spotted on a hike the other day. They just glow against the darker mountain behind! While the main focus of this scene is the beautiful trees, there is also the pretty stream with little cascades over the rocks. Altogether, these create a super pretty autumn landscape. Happy painting! Find the full step-by-step tutorial on Patreon and Renee's Studio ..read more

Paint a robin in watercolour I'm going to say it! Christmas is coming!! So let's get a bit of head start by painting a cute, little, fluffy robin in the snow. You can scan your finished painting and turn it into a Christmas card or paint is as an original to give to someone special. I painted this one to match the deer in the snow that is a lesson from about a year ago. They'll look so lovely together. Happy painting! Find the full, real time, video tutorial on Patreon and Renee's Studio Thanks to Abdul Rehman Khalid on Unsplash for the lovely reference photo ..read more

Painting a sunlit ruin and stormy sky in watercolour A couple of weeks ago I discovered a new abandoned town - Tiermas. This one is an old Roman town and had some beautiful medieval buildings, including a very large church. In the 1950s most of the town, the old Roman baths and all the orchards and arable land was flooded to make way for a reservoir. Everyone, except 2 of the inhabitants, moved on, with the remaining 2 staying until they died. It's a sad story for sure. The part of the town that was on a hill still remains, and is quite extensive. But it certainly is very ruined! O ..read more

  Archway, Wharariki Beach, New Zealand Upcoming Zoom course! How do you paint beautiful, vibrant, watercolour landscapes with a wonderful sense of depth? When you paint a landscape with depth you draw a viewer right into your scene. You can tell a great story, create a painting with drama or peace and calm. Painting with depth informs every single one of my paintings. It doesn't matter what I paint - landscapes, abstracts, still lifes, animals - I'm always thinking about depth. Join me the first weekend of November, in this new online mini-course, where I'll ex ..read more

Painting boats on the north coast of Spain Painting boats, their reflections and their beautiful surrounding is one of the most romantic themes for watercolourists and a very popular subject. Boat paintings in all media have a very long history, and they conjure up feelings of adventure, travel, hard work and discovery of new places. Sketching them on location is just magical, because for sure you’re going to be in an interesting place - either somewhere surrounded by water, nature, birds and wonderful light, or in a harbour full of the bustle of boating people and fisher-folk. Wh ..read more

  Paint little boats step-by-step For the last few years it's been a tradition for us to travel to the north coast of Spain for a little seaside holiday in September. Like migrating birds, we seem to be drawn (excuse the pun!) to the same little haunts each year - our favourite beaches, cliffs and estuaries. Part of the tradition is for me to visit my favourite boats. It's a bit like visiting old friends - there they are, just where I saw them last. Some are a little more worse for the wear, some have a new coat of paint, but rarely is one gone or there is a new one. What does ..read more

  Comparing your painting and reference photo in greyscale to improve your tonal range Do you find that sometimes your paintings look a bit flat? That they lack sense of depth? That your buildings don't look truly 3-dimesional? Or that your painting lacks vibrancy? Perhaps you really like the reference photo you were working from, but somehow your painting is missing something that the reference photo has. Of course, the answer could be many things, but most often when I'm looking at student paintings, what I see is that the tonal values in their paintings could be improved. Wh ..read more

  Zebra - pen and watercolour By the time you watch this video I will be in South Africa visiting my parents and we'll be in the Kruger National Park, hopefully seeing zebras in the flesh. Of course I'll have my sketchbook with me and I'll be sketching memories of our holiday, but before I left for the trip I couldn't help getting a head start. And painting something with you of course! This gorgeous photo on Unsplash caught my eye. Such an intimate view of the zebra and such beautiful lighting. I knew that it would just glow in watercolours. This may be one of my favourite pa ..read more

  paint a norwegian boathouse in watercolours Such a wonderfully Norwegian type scene - the rainy sky, the lush green grass and the little yellow boathouse with it's tidy white flashings. It's just how I remember it being along many of the fjords. In this lesson we have a lot of fun with the bright colours and the interesting reflections in the glassy water. Happy painting! Full step-by-step lesson on Patreon or Renee's Studio ..read more

  Watercolour tutorials on Renee’s Studio We’re super excited to announce the launch of Renee’s Studio - my own iOS app for all my watercolour tutorials. Perfect for your iPad or iPhone, there are over 50 tutorials there already and I’m adding new content every week. You know I love to paint everything, so there’s a whole range of subjects - landscapes, buildings, seascapes, animals and more. There’s a range of difficulty levels from basic skills lessons right through to fine art style paintings. It’s all beautifully laid out and you can filter the content to easily find a tutor ..read more