I’m so glad a few of you had time to try the barn in the first paint-along … I’m looking forward to seeing more of your lovely paintings all week and in the weeks and months to come!
Paint-Along Series #2: Lighthhouse
The lighthouse will be a little tougher than the barn in some ways – so if you didn’t try that one, you might want to do that one first. And for mixing colors, you’ll need to mix up your own pinks, golds, purples – using the same type of mixing attempts we tried on that barn. To make them lighter, just use a bit more water – but be careful of using TOO much water, because that will cause those weird “blooms” from the water pushing back color. (Think of it like the colorless blender pushing color away from itself – water does a similar thing with paint.)
If I can get on periscope, I’ll be attempting a fullsize painting of this lighthouse; yesterday was challenging, for some reason I kept getting an error message, so only ended up sharing a little of the end of the barn painting.
As before, this video is all in real-time; I hope you’ll get your own watercolors out, download the sketch that’s below the video – and paint along with me! Share your own painting at the end of the post, and use the hashtag #paintalongwithsandy on instagram so we can all see what you’re creating! Watch the video below or click HERE to see it in HD on YouTube.
Download
Click below to download whichever version of the sketch you’d like, then print it out and copy to your watercolor paper as shown in the video!
- Full size sketch (if you want to paint it larger) (JPG)
- 1/4 page size sketch (fits on a quarter sheet of a 9×12 pad, and fits on A2 sized greeting card) (PDF)
Supplies
Below are links to the supplies I’ve used for today’s project; click on the listed items to go directly to it. Affiliate links may used, which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support toward the costs of running this blog! Read more.
- DANIEL SMITH Watercolors:
- Papers:
- Black Velvet Watercolor Brushes,
- Masking Fluids
- Hardbords
- Thermoweb Adhesive Pick-Up Square
- ShurTech Yellow Frog Delicate Multisurface Masking Tape
I love lighthouses. You are a great teacher. TFS
This was so much fun!!! I’m terrible but having a blast trying! Thanks so much for the tips and tricks and techniques. One of my favorite tips was to have 3 cups of water. I usually paint with only 2 but that 3rd one really helps! I don’t know why I never knew to do that! 🙂
Susan
Thank you so much for this fun paint along. It is so easy to start and stop the video so you can follow along. I’ve also enjoyed interacting with you while you paint on Periscope.
Quick question… I’m finding I seem to use a bit too much paint especially when I’m mixing to find that perfect color. Any advice on not putting down so much color to begin with? More water? Smaller drops of color? I’m really heavy handed and it can get me in trouble especially with staining colors.
Thanks again for all the encouragement and inspiration.
Wow! This was harder than I thought it would be, but so much fun! By the way, I don’t use Instagram, or Social Media for posting, so I hope using my blog would be ok. Also, I don’t use Periscope, so I hope I’m not missing any of your postings! (?)
Linking up from your blog is just great! And Periscope is just additional, it’s not required 🙂
Thank you for these awesome FREE lessons!! Loved seeing you work with the Quinacridones. I was surprised to see how you layered various colors to get the beautiful colors to the rocks. The painting is beautiful! If you are looking for ideas for periscope, I would sure love to see you do the same sketch using browns and grays for the rocks. I’m curious to see how you would mix colors to make the colors interesting.
Thanks so much for the lessons and sketches. I am not a water color person, but have followed along with some ink pads and a medium. I also do not do social media so not able to post any pics. Love your tutelage and especially your cat.
Thank you so much for giving us these wonderful projects to work on and guiding us through them. I love your style of instruction – it is relaxed and easy to follow. I am *very* new to watercolor painting (or any kind of painting), and I am looking for projects that I can try — something relatively easy but challenging enough to keep me interested. Please continue to do what you do – you do it all so beautifully! I have just ordered some Brusho powders and some Clean Color Real Brush pens to try – all inspired by the wonderful work you have done!
I still need to find the time to do the barn, and look forward to these other paintings! (And impatiently waiting for my DS paints and new brushes to arrive.) So pleased that you’re doing this series! Thank you!
I’m really enjoying this Paint-Along Series. I have wanted to watercolor small sized scenes for cards and this is a big help. I’m inspired! I don’t know how to upload a picture to your blog–class for computer dummies?????
Get the link from wherever you post it…..you can even use a fb pic. Just click on the pic’s date so you just get that one photo on the page.
Thank you so much for these videos! I am pretty new to watercolor and you really make it easier to follow along!!! I don’t have Daniel Smith colors but I do use Holbein- could you recommend colors similar to the ones you used? Thank you so much!!!!
I don’t know their line well enough to know what colors match up, sorry! 🙁 There might be websites that translate color names for you though.
Sandy, I simply can’t get enough of your Watercolour Series! I’m learning so much from your colour-mixing explanations and your brush techniques. Thank you for sharing your tips and techniques with us beginners. Looking forward to trying (and re-trying) the entire series.
Really having fun,still waiting for my Ellen Hutson order (it is in customs now, so not long anymore) and then i can start painting. Can’t wait. Thank you so much for doing this. I enjoy this so much. Always watching you on periscope, the replay most of the times, but learning lots and just love watching you paint.
I LOVE the Watercolor Series Sandy!! I have learned so much from you & really enjoy your videos! Please keep the Watercolor Series coming, love it!! Thank you!!!
Your rendering is beautifully done. I will try it in Copic or colored pencils. Thank you for making the sketches available for download. As always, your generosity is wonderful.
Donna
Too much fun on this blog right now.