SIMPLE Painting Practice - EASY to use ANYWHERE!

▶︎Free Video Lesson: 7 Secrets of Fresh, Powerful Painting www.learntopai...
Practice is so important in improving in watercolor painting. I recently took a trip with my family and wanted a simple easy way to practice and to get down some quick notes that would be helpful in my more developed studio work.
Here is what I came up with.
*I put together a version of this simple setup on my Amazon Affiliate link: a.co/btdQw80

[@pendlera2959]

Protip: You can also do this with other colors; you don't have to use grey if bright hues are your thing. You can also use colors that work together, like a light turquoise for the light value, a mid-value ultramarine for the middle, and a dark purple for the dark. Or you could do yellow, orange, and dark red/dark brown. Or light blue, middle green, and brown. Or yellow, middle brown, and dark purple. In general, shadow colors feel more natural if they're cooler than the lighter tones, but as long as the values are correct, you can get away with weird colors.

[@Toni_Snark]

You can, but the point of this exercise is the different values and to keep it super simple, concentrating mainly on simple compositions, shapes and values, taking concern about color out of the equation.

[@pendlera2959]

@@Toni_Snark It's still taking color almost entirely out of the equation, which is good enough unless you're really struggling with values. If you choose your colors before you go, then you'll have to use whichever color has been assigned for each value regardless of the subject's local color. That means that the decisions regarding color and all the mixing to create those colors are still eliminated from the exercise, and that's what people usually have problems with when it comes to working with color. If that's too much for someone, using different shades of blue or green or brown or whatever isn't any harder than using different shades of grey. Burnt sienna is a common color used for value studies in portraiture. Personally, I don't hate the color grey, in fact I generally prefer it to browns or greens, but looking at nothing but greys too much makes me depressed. I once took a drawing class where we used nothing but charcoal and graphite and by the end of it I was so, so sick of grey. It's like listening to a song on repeat until you hate it.

[@agold1702]

What a great idea. Sometimes the day is too short and this is a great way to keep seeing and improving with the little time you might have.

[@derekfernandez7701]

This is such a great practice Matthew! Thank you!

[@dmt7793]

I really appreciate seeing the photo you're working from alongside the sketching/painting. For me, that's so helpful! Thank you! ❤️

[@ewamarcinek4740]

Merci pour tout les démonstrations monsieur Matthew Je les adore Bonne Anne 2023

[@manicsPerumbavoor]

Realy useful... Thanks Mathew 😍

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

Glad you liked it!

[@claudebousquet9413]

Thank you very much for yôu tutorials again.I wish you à happy New year 2023. Bonne année!

[@zoul3d]

Great lesson

[@dougg1075]

James Gurney also does a plane while at the airport on a trip. Great lesson thabks

[@msueldo]

lovely! thanks

[@DavidMiltonJones]

Nice one, Matt. Will give it a try.

[@Zenon-fg4dw]

What a great idea. Thank you!

[@smchalk3535]

I like this idea.

[@susanvoigt5083]

Great idea. Thanks for sharing!

[@pennykynigou6254]

Fascinated by this exercise! Deceptively simple but sooo challenging, I haven’t been able to put my markers away since watching this. This is really helping me to finally get to grips with seeing the mid values. Thank you, Matthew! Checking my finished drawing against the photo processed into 4 values in the Poster Shine app is also helping me to realize my blind spots..

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

It's pretty fun once you get going with it! Glad this is helpful for you.

[@kennytowns3309]

Very cool

[@paulcampbell-nh4zs]

Thank you for the encouragement-I sometimes wonder if my sketching has any impact on my painting.

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

▶︎Free Video Lesson: 7 Secrets of Fresh, Powerful Painting www.learntopaintwatercolor.com/7secrets

[@TheWoodsugar]

I love all of your videos. Just wondering the reason you use such a small portion of the page to sketch?

[@electrichen6243]

I use mixed media paper cut to postcard size, a cheap water based felt tip pen, water brush,, a paper towel and a plastic zip bag. Draw with the pen and then go over with brush to loosen pigment. For larger washes scribble on the bag and add a little water.

[@justinwr092]

Awesome. Do you get any bleedthrough in that sketchbook? Most of the ones I've tried don't take markers very well at all.

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

Yes, it usually bleeds through to the other sheet.

[@pendlera2959]

Water based markers on a mixed media sketchbook or watercolor sketchbook usually won't bleed through. For alcohol markers, the Rendr sketchbooks are amazing for preventing bleedthrough.

[@donnagoode6923]

do the Copic markers bleed through the paper?

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

Yes they do.

[@sujanithtottempudi2991]

How about watercolour brush pens

[@argus1500]

What a wonderful idea! Thank you.

[@learntopaintwatercolor]

You are so welcome!