A quick tip for playful color exploration

Today I have an idea for a pressure-free exercise for you to practice your color mixing and wet on wet skills with small color compositions.

I like to create these small grids or stripes with artist tape (or washi tape), and explore a different color combination in each one. This helps me to learn how pigments interact, and how I can handle different wet on wet effects.

You can create simple landscapes or abstract color combinations; it’s not about a perfect end product but about studying what your paint can do, you’ll get to know your palette really well through this kind of exercise.

I often like to make these up entirely, but using a photo reference or an existing sketch is totally fine.

I try to vary the amount of water and pigment, and overall just go with the flow of painting, of adding water and different brush strokes. It definitely helps to take notes though, so that you can recreate an effect later.

All in all, these small color studies have been a very helpful instrument for me, they’re small practice pieces, and the effects I like can be included in a landscape sketch later.

P.S. I also explore this warm up in the workshop class “Luminous Mini Landscapes” that I just published.
You can still get Loose & Luminous Watercolor: Create Atmospheric Mini Landscapes together with Loose but Precise: Expressive and Simple Floral Paintings in Watercolor as a special course bundle until the end of the week! This is an opportunity to get two of my courses at a great price.

This bundle reflects the style I work in and that I enjoy the most: an expressive and playful approach to watercolor painting that still allows me to focus on precision and detail, which is something that I’ve always naturally gravitated towards. For me, this style combined the aspects of sketching that I love most, and brings spontaneity and attention for detail together. This is also what I want to teach other artists – the approach creates quick but nonetheless beautiful results, and can fit in our already full days.

Both courses are great for beginner and intermediate watercolor artists and sketchers, in fact I hope the landscape workshop can serve as a good introduction for what is possible with wet on wet, and the botanical painting class can teach you more advanced painting skills.

Sign up for the bundle here:
The Luminous Landscapes + Loose but Precise Bundle

You can also join the course on Skillshare, where you’ll have access to all my classes through their subscription, so this is like a big bundle as well. You’ll get one month for free if you sign up.