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Ultramarine Blue is in my top 10, probably top 5, favorite watercolor pigments. It's a single pigment color with awesome granulation, and I love to use it with a burnt orange or raw sienna to make interesting neutrals. It's a very "standard" color--it came with all the initial sets of paint I bought when I was starting my watercolor journey in earnest: the Winsor & Newton Cotman palette, the Holbein set, and the Sennelier. I also have it from Daniel Smith and Shinhan. In my handmade watercolor sketchbook, I have a few pages of paint comparisons since I have duplicates of many...

How did a beat up old, nonstick cookie sheet become a permanent fixture in my art room? "Billowing Clouds" was created with an old, battered baking sheet and experimentation with a non-traditional painting process: monotype. Monotype is actually a printing process, where a single print is taken from ink or paint spread on a flat surface. For this one, I squeezed pure indigo (always a favorite of mine), gold ochre, and maroon perylene pigments onto an old nonstick baking sheet--also a bit of a break from tradition since monotype is usually done on glass or an etching plate! Next I...

I always have good intentions to use my small collection of sketchbooks, however I think they're an aspirational purchase for me--I want to be the kind of person who will carry a little kit of supplies wherever they go and dash out a quickie painting whenever inspiration strikes. Unfortunately, I've never been much of a doodler or sketcher. For a while I didn't really see the point of having a sketchbook. I'm not a "sketcher," after all. I finally decided to get my first sketchbook in order to keep track of notes--things like color combos I particularly liked, or what...

I was the featured guest artist on Doodlewash yesterday! Doodlewash is a sketching and watercolor website created by another Kansas Citian, Charlie O’Shields. They have featured numerous guest watercolor artists over the years, and I got to be the latest when my article went live yesterday. It's the first time I've been featured on someone else's site (with a much larger audience than I currently have on my own) so it's super exciting.  The post has a lot more background on me, and how I got started with watercolor, as well as about a dozen images of my work, many of which...

I'm not even sure I should share this with you--if word gets out about this, I'll lose my chances at bargain supplies too! Well...since I've already got more supplies than I could possibly use up in the next few years, I suppose it won't hurt to let you in on my secret. If you are getting started with watercolor, you may hear or read on the internet that every artist likes different brands. Of paint, paper, brushes--you name it. So if you're like me, and you have hardcore FOMO on the "perfect" supply for you, you'll be very tempted to...