What do you think separates professional artists from amateur artists? We could probably list 20-25 things, but I think it really comes down to only two things.

The painting exercise shown in the video is a great one if you want to relax and paint, have fun, get loose, or study colors and composition for a larger painting. The key is to keep the color selections simple and not mix much, if any, color on the palette.

This week’s video has me painting again in light and shadow shapes using two values to investigate shape making. Shapes are one of the core building blocks of painting, and creating paintings with only two values, concentrating on making only light and shadow is a great exercise in learning about shapes.

I love to paint in only two values - the value of the light and the value of the shadow. I discovered this technique about 20 years ago as a way to learn to make and paint shapes. Anyone who has ever taken a course from me knows that I always emphasize the importance of making good shapes in a painting. Shapes are one of the core building blocks of painting.

In nearly every workshop I teach at least one student will confuse green and blue-green. Phthalo Green and Viridian Green are common and made by most all paint manufacturers, so students bring it thinking that if it says '“green” on the tube they can use it for green.

As artists who paint, we always get paint on our hands while working on a painting, right? I know I do every time I paint. Years ago I found a couple of products that really helped me get cleaner hands after painting.

Lots of new acrylic painters ask me what type of acrylic paint is right for them to use. There are lots of options out there for acrylic paint - that’s one thing that makes it so desirable to use. In this video I categorize acrylic paint by the viscosity (thickness or thinness) of the paint.

In this video I show you my entire watercolor painting process with instruction as I go through each step. It’s a long video, so there really isn’t much need for me to elaborate any further here.

Enjoy, and I hope it is helpful for you.

This painting is a companion piece to “The Light Within” shown on the vlog a couple weeks back. This piece is painted on a 22x30 sheet of 300lb Fabriano Artistico Watercolor Paper coated with gesso.

This painting uses an analogous color combination of red-violet, red, red-orange, orange and yellow-orange.

An artist resume’ is sometimes confused with an Artist Biography or an Artist Statement. Each of these is a distinct document that has a different function, with different information and written in a different way. The artist resume’ is sometimes called (if you’re real fancy, or in academia-thankfully I am neither) a Curriculum Vitae or CV.