When I started painting watercolours 35 years ago I was given a HAKE brush for Christmas and it was the best present I ever had!

Why?

Because, with it being such a big brush you can't mess about making too much detail,you have to be free and you have to simplify your work.

This course is based on all the techniques I which I have developed using my HAKE and one or two other brushes and just my 7 color palette.

There is a section at the end of the course dedicated to my 7 color palette and also a full half hour video on the HAKE brush,you can check out all these videos in the free preview section of this course before you buy.

Painting flowers is a superb way to learn how to use watercolors,their delicacy is made for it.Using 3 paintings which I painted a few years ago,I take you through freehand wet in wet painting in the poppies section,then for the tulips there is a very small amount of sketching and masking work,in the final daisies part there is a bit more drawing and more involved techniques but nothing a complete beginner cannot tackle.

"I always worked better when I thought my painting would be a gift for someone special"

All 3 of these paintings will make superb gifts for friends and family,use this goal when starting the course as your motivation to keep trying!

see you soon David

Art is such a beautiful way to express yourself and as a watercolor artist for over 30 years I can not urge you enough to give painting in watercolors a try,I never get bored with the effects of the colors on my paper,I still learn new techniques in my work every time I paint something,it is such a free and easy medium and it is well worth the time and effort you may invest.

To paint a watercolor picture is to escape into your own little world where nothing else matters and all your problems and worries can be forgotten, at least for a little while.

To give your own watercolor painting as a gift could not be more rewarding,I never get bored with the expression on the face of a friend or family member when I present them with an original watercolor painting which I have painted specially for them.

The medium of watercolor, for me, is the ultimate medium because even as a complete beginner you can achieve many effects using techniques which sometimes you are taught and sometimes you learn by complete accident which we call "happy accidents",such as when one color runs into another color and creates water marks or bleached paper,this is why sometimes I sit and watch the painting paint itself in front of my very eyes.

Of course now and then it does not work out as I wanted it to but all I have lost is a little bit of paint pigment,a piece of watercolor paper and a little time so I put that piece of paper to one side and start again!

Too many people have a go at painting with watercolors and think that they have to produce a perfect painting every time and they overwork the piece,desperate to get a finished painting to hang on their wall and of course they end up with a mess,get dispirited and give up announcing that they will never be an artist and so never paint again.

I would like to show these people the hundreds of watercolor paintings that didn't work out for me because without making mistakes you can't improve.I keep all my paintings good and bad and I look at the failures quite often,in these failed paintings there is quite often a part of the painting that I really like and I try to remember which technique,which colors I used,which brush made a particular mark on the paper so I can use these same techniques in my future watercolor paintings.

If I was stranded on a desert island,my watercolor kit would be the first thing I would wish for.