FeaturesFeatured
10 Easy Winter Watercolor Ideas From a 4-Tube Palette
Easy winter watercolor ideas, 10 scenes painted from 4 tubes with no green or white paint. Each lists its colors, pigment codes, paper, time and steps.
13 min
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Every guide, review and reference
Technique guides, pigment and lightfastness explainers, and paper, paint and brush comparisons for watercolor painters.
Guides11 min
How to Stretch Watercolor Paper: 3 Methods by Weight
How to stretch watercolor paper in three moves, soak it, tape it wet to a board, let it dry overnight. Soak times by gsm, plus staples and frames.
Guides10 min
How to Paint Snow in Watercolor: 9 Tips for Clean Whites
How to paint snow in watercolor comes down to leaving the paper white and painting the shadows. 9 tips on masking, blue shadows, salt and opaque white.
Features15 min
12 Easy Watercolor Christmas Card Ideas for Beginners
Watercolor christmas card ideas for beginners, 12 cards painted from one 5-tube palette. Each idea lists its paints, pigment codes, paper and steps.
Features10 min
Synthetic vs Kolinsky Sable Brushes: What You Pay For
Synthetic vs kolinsky sable brushes differ in hair, supply and care. What Kolinsky hair is, how synthetics copy it, and when a sable round is worth buying.
Features11 min
Best Travel Watercolor Sets: 5 Pocket Boxes Compared
Best travel watercolor sets hold 12 half pans, but the colors inside differ a lot. Five pocket boxes compared by palette, extras, grade and size.
Features12 min
Watercolor Paper Weight GSM: 190 vs 300 vs 640 Explained
Watercolor paper weight gsm is the number to trust, because lb labels depend on sheet size. How 190, 300 and 640 gsm behave wet, and when to stretch.
Guides12 min
Rough Watercolor Paper: Granulation, Dry Brush and 6 Steps
Rough watercolor paper is the most textured surface, made for granulation and dry brush. Which weights you can buy, which paints to use, and a 6-step sky.
Features12 min
Ceramic vs Plastic Watercolor Palette: 5 Differences
Ceramic vs plastic watercolor palette comes down to how paint pools and how much weight you carry. Beading, staining, sealing and the fixes for new plastic.
Features12 min
Best Watercolor Sketchbooks: 4 With 100% Cotton Paper
Best watercolor sketchbooks use 100% cotton paper, and four widely sold books clear that bar. Weight, sizing and binding compared, plus the ones to skip.
Guides10 min
Wet-on-Dry Watercolor Technique: Crisp Edges in 6 Steps
Wet-on-dry watercolor technique means wet paint on fully dry paper, which keeps edges crisp. How to tell the paper is dry, and 6 steps to clean layers.
Features11 min
Hot Press vs Cold Press Watercolor Paper: 3 Surface Types
Hot press vs cold press watercolor paper differs in surface, not in how much water it takes. How mills make each finish, and which one suits your painting.