I discovered the artist Lisa Spangler (@sideoats) through Art Toolkit, where she sometimes teaches classes. Lisa recently posted a “What’s on my palette?” post, which as you know, is my cue to explore a palette!
My 2022 Sketchbook: All The Paintings of the Year
I thought it would be helpful, as I review 2022 and move into 2023, to review the paintings I’ve done this year! This may not include everything I painted (especially practice and swatches), but these are all the paintings that I was happy enough to save to my photo roll. The stats: TOTAL: 175 Numbers … Read more
A Year of Art! 2022 Retrospective/2023 Resolutions
2022 has been an exciting year for me as a watercolor artist, at the same time as it’s been a pretty dreary year personally, with health challenges for myself and my family members, career angst, and garden variety depression. But I think that hard times in life are when we need art the most, and … Read more
Lessons from Artist Palette Profiles
I’ve been doing a regular feature, Artist Palette Profiles, for months now. In this feature, I look up the palette colors used by an artist I admire, and I compare my own colors to see how I could imitate them better. To be honest, I think it’s probably one of the most boring features I do for everyone who isn’t me. So why do I do it?
Should I only get single pigment paints?
Single pigment paints are those that contain only one pigment, or color-making chemical. By contrast, mixed paints or “convenience mixes” contain multiple pigments. A frequently-given piece of advice is to stick to single pigment paints. But why? What are single pigment paints? The most obvious attribute of a paint is “what color is it.” The … Read more
Artist Palette Profiles: Kim Crick
Kim Crick has an amazing database of pigments and reviews of tons of colors, including brand comparisons. It’s an amazing resource. Today, I’m looking at her list of recommended lightfast colors.
Watercolor Top 8
Dr. Oto Kano has a recommended color wheel palette, which I showcased in the previous Artist Palette Profile, but the colors they actually use most of the time – their subjective favorites – are the subject of their Top 8 list. They’ve actually done two Top 8 videos – the original Top 8 (2018) and … Read more
Artist Palette Profiles: Dr. Oto Kano’s Complementary Color Wheel
I’ve learned so much about paint from Oto Kano’s Youtube channel, including comparing similar colors to each other, and finding my favorite version of such-and-such a color with their Colossal Color Showdown series. Recently, I became a patron, so I’m receiving a steady stream of multi-brand dot cards to feed my color curiosity!
Oto lays out their palette in a really unusual way: it’s a circular palette laid out in a color wheel. Colors are chosen in complementary pairs so that the colors opposite each other on the wheel are always complementary. It’s an incredibly systematic way to keep track of color theory information!
My First Watercolor Palette
While moving some of my watercolor stuff, I found the key to the first complete watercolor palette I put together from professional paints after I switched from Cotman student grade! I made it in an Etchr ceramic mini-palette with 19 wells. I carefully researched what I was going to put in here, picturing that it … Read more
Artist Palette Profiles: Carrie Luc, Watercolor Misfit
Carrie Luc, the author of Watercolor Misfit, specializes in fun, colorful, modern illustrations. I really enjoy her blog posts on technique and mindset, and she has a love of bright colors that I share!