How to Paint Cute Whimsical Birds in Watercolor

The eyes have it! Start your whimsical animals with the big googly eyes all the best cute animals have and let your imagination run riot! Get started in whimsy with this easy beginner-friendly tutorial showing you some of the tricks you need to know to get a light and airy feel in your paintings.  The…

How to Paint and Draw Sweet Peas

Pretty Sweet Peas are everyone’s favorite, whether you’re a gardener, flower arranger or artist, and as well as being beautiful they have a lovely scent. In fact, in French they are called Pois de Senteur or “scented peas”. So today I’ve picked three colors – Cobalt Blue, Permanent Rose and Sap Green, along with my…

Three Whimsical Hens and a Surprise

If you’ve always hesitated over painting chickens, why not give these super-easy hens a whirl? Starting with nothing more than a watermelon slice shape, you can add the details that make the chicken a hen. When you read a book or watch a video on beginning watercolor the advice given is often “do NOT use…

Embellished Butterflies – Never Give Up!

Today I’m painting a little flock of butterflies with a romantic mood, using my set of six granulating Primatek colors, and the set of six QOR Introductory Colors as well. I am painting wet in wet on a 100% cellulose paper, Etival by Clairefontaine, and I am using Sennelier Walnut ink with a dip pen…

Whimsical Watercolor Birds

Today I’m painting three whimsical birds with a vintage feel, using a few colors selected from two sets of Daniel Smith watercolor tubes – the set of six granulating Primatek colors, and the set of six Jean Haines All That Shimmers iridescent colors. I am painting wet in wet on a 100% cellulose paper, Etival…

Can’t Sleep? Paint my Sheep!!!

This is the perfect painting project for a sleepless night – a quick, easy and stress-free way of painting a sheep! You only need three colors for this painting, plus some iridescent paint or a gold pen to add a bit of embellishment if you’d like to. It’s a simple design of a stylised sheep,…

Capturing Movement and Light with Watercolor

Today we are going to try to use granulating colors in a limited palette along with a little bit of ink and iridescence to capture the essentials of some pretty dragonflies. This is a very simplified way to paint these complex creatures. For the purposes of this exercise, I have deconstructed the insects into segments…

Three Cute Cats for a Cool Card

Today’s project is a two-in-one. We’re going to practice our wet-in-wet technique, and at the same time create a cute greetings card we can use for anyone and for any occasion. It’s a simple design of three stylised cats, and I’m using the lovely A. Gallo paints to create this, on a piece of Arches…