by Kathy Collins | May 2, 2021 | Main |
I’ve been painting boats lately and started this watercolor in my usual way—- choosing composition, value pattern, shape, and color. Beginning with a vertical 14×11 piece of paper, I divided the design into 3 unequal parts: small sky, mid-size tree...
by Kathy Collins | Mar 20, 2021 | Main |
Once again I’m painting boats and using a palette with a warm dominance, perhaps in anticipation of nicer weather to come. My composition involves 3 layers and 3 values: light sky, dark background, and mid-tone water. The light/white boats were placed to show...
by Kathy Collins | Feb 10, 2021 | Main |
Achieving dark values is one of the hardest problems in watercolor. Two reasons: most of the colors are transparent, and then we add water which washes out the color. So how to get those juicy darks that contrast sharply with the white of the paper? One way is to add...
by Kathy Collins | Jan 7, 2021 | Main |
It’s freezing outside, but I pulled out a warm-weather photo from 2019, and painted this tropical scene. I like it for 2 reasons. First: the background stays back. Why? Because it’s grey and because it’s hazy. These two features suggest depth in a...
by Kathy Collins | Nov 23, 2020 | Main |
It’s easy to be preoccupied during the pandemic and that may have been what happened with the above watercolor. I started with a light wash for the sky, then brushed in very thick ultramarine blue and burnt sienna for the background foliage, saving whites on the...
by Kathy Collins | Nov 9, 2020 | Main |
The above watercolor is very simple, yet I like it. Why? The main reason I think this design works is that there is a clear dominance of shape, size, color, and value. There is no question but that the boat shapes are the main actors in this piece and the largest one...
