G&B Blog

Creating A Color Wheel With Colors From Your Palette

You might be surprised at how many artists truly believe that if they have three primary colors they can mix literally ANY other color.

It is so important for your painting practice to understand a little color theory, but it is even more important to understand how the colors in your particular palette will behave.

Inventing Color

By changing our language we can change the colors we see. And by truly examining the colors around us we can learn to see past the language we've learned to describe them. In this blog post we'll explore how words influence perception and go over an exercise to help transform the colors in your palette.

Jess Greenleaf Artist Watercolor Painting Greenleaf and Blueberry Pickett Mountain Range Washington North Cascades

Announcing Foundation & Next Level Watercolor Workshops in Boulder, Colorado!

I am pleased to announce a limited set of dates for Summer 2019 in beautiful Boulder, Colorado! I will be teaching both a Foundation Watercolor Workshop and a Next Level Watercolor Workshop, offering both during each set of dates.

Best Experiences of Beautiful Boulder, Colorado

If you happen to find yourself in this lovely place - whether while attending one of our Watercolor Workshops, while passing through on a road trip, or while on vacation, I invite you to dig in and immerse yourself. Here is a list of Matt and my favorite Boulder experiences...

How to Erase Watercolors

One of the biggest fears I've heard about watercolors over the years is that they cannot be erased, that mistakes are irrevocable. Hearing this never fails to send me to my soap box to passionately defend my favorite medium because it simply isn't true!

Watercolor Brush Basics

This post will walk you through the basics of watercolor brushes so that you will have a better idea of which ones are right for you. We'll start with the different parts of the brush, then go over the main component variables, talk about quality, and lastly we'll go over some of the various manufacturers.

Painting Project: Palette Portrait

Here's a painting project idea that you can file away for a rainy day when you're at a loss as to what to paint -- or to help get you painting today. You can make this project casual - a fun little painting exercise - or you can plan to make a formal finished painting to hang on the wall.

How To Use Ox Gall In Watercolor Painting

Before I gross you out, let's start, briefly, with why watercolor and ox gall are even a pair. When browsing the watercolor section of the art supply shop, you've probably noticed a line of little bottles with relatively vague information on the labels. Ox gall is usually in one of these bottles, sold as a watercolor additive.

How To Choose A Sketchbook

At the beginning of this year, I went on a sketchbook odyssey of sorts. I wanted to find the perfect match for my style and methods. I poured over different offerings online, and visited art shops all over the country. I touched, felt, smelled, and generally sized up every sketchbook I could find.

Basic Guide To Water Brushes: Comparing Brands, Pros & Cons, and Picking the Right Brush for You

This post is a basic guide to water brushes. I will go over the pros and cons of water brushes in general, do comparison of the different designs available, and offer tips on how to go about choosing the right brush for you!

New Paintable Project: Magic Paint Tubes

In the Magic Paint Tubes Paintable Project, you are provided with an assortment of drawings of paint tubes. Instructions will lead you through printing them onto watercolor paper. There is an information packet that will guide you step-by-step through painting in the value tones of your tubes. The project leaves you with sheets of nicely painted tubes - and YOU get to take it the rest of the way from there!

I decided to call the painting idea I started with: Pixie Dust Paint. I wanted to depict the colors in my palette as being enchanted and celebrate the pure potential they represent before they are brushed onto paper.

The Sunshine & Shadow Set: Painting Light, Temperature, and Value in Watercolors

The Sunshine & Shadow Set contains forbidden colors - all colors that in one way or another have been banned from watercolor palettes. (See my previous post on why watercolor and the color White belong together after all.) But this set was not created to fly in the face of tradition. It was designed around the concepts of Light and Value...

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