Q&A for Holiday Painting Class

I addressed most of the questions in the video, but here are a few other questions below.

Question: Biggest Challenge - blending the sky around the main colors and keeping it soft. Do you always keep your board flat?

Yes, working with the sky does require us to paint while the layer is wet and have good control over the water/paint ratio in order to create smoothness and softness. Refer to some tips in the video about your brushes’ absorbability and techniques for speed. Regarding keeping the board flat, sometimes I paint at a slight angle with the board slightly lifted at the back, so the water and paint will travel downwards a little bit.

Question: Hello Rainbow, I Encountered challenges to darken the sky Without overwriting The blue-red- yellow colors. I also found it a challenge to keep the big white Masking liquid areas White, while making the edges smooth afterwards. I tend to make them dirty.

When you blend the colors, eg with clean water, make sure to always wash your brush in between each blending attempt.Otherwise the colors will consume rather than blend and create more muddiness rather than light.

Question: Hi! Thank you for the class! I have a question about color changing, at the beginning, did you use many brushes? It was hard to follow at the beginning because colors I was mixing was not so bright with one brush use. Also how may clear water containers did you use? ;D

If you have many brushes, you can use them in rotation so you don’t have to wash your brushes in between. Or perhaps use one brush for dark colors, another for bright colors. I usually use 1 or 2 brushes at a time, especially when working with various colors together in the first wash. In regards to the clean water containers, the smaller your container, the faster the water will become dirty! Also, you will need to change to clean water when you are working with light colors or bright colors. If you are painting shadows and dark colors, a slightly ‘dirty’ water mix will not impact too much.

Question: My lavender and yellows dried dull and matte. Do you ever use other media for highights?

You can look for other opaque or semi-opaque colors within watercolor brands. Otherwise, you can also use gouache paints for those small highlights. Though I have found that lavender, or even white watercolor paint works well.

Question: It was difficult to get the masking fluid off while the back is wet. Also hard to lift colors while the back is wet. Does this happen to you, too?

Make sure the surface is dry, if it is difficult to get the masking fluid, then it is not dry enough. Same for lifting colors. 

Question: How do we register for early bird pricing? The link doesn’t seem to work (well for me it isn’t)

The early bird registration is here. Link is working now!

Question: How do you keep your painting from looking dirty/muddy? And do you have tips for mixing dark colours but keeping the intensity? Thank you it was so much fun <3

Make sure to keep your light colors light and darks looking dark. Paintings become muddy when the light and vibrant colors start to become mixed in with our shadows. In this way, we loose our lights. When mixing dark colors, try to use less water, or use fresh paint. You need paint with thick consistency to create dark and rich colors.