Tracing for drawing and painting a dog portrait how to trace

For 35 years I have been painting commemorative sports paintings, portraits and landscapes.

Based in Stockport near Manchester,my work was aimed at the local North West UK. market.

I was invited to do many live watercolor demos around the area which helped me develop my free and easy painting style.

When my family and I relocated to North Wales in 2015 I embarked on a project to paint a collection based on the local area in watercolors.

While I was painting this collection it dawned on me that I could simplify my painting techniques and make tutorials to teach people how to paint their own watercolors.

So I made my first tutorial which was my watercolor foundation course,the course picture for this tutorial is a watercolor landscape of the view from my studio looking towards Abergele and the mountains in the distance.

Taking the idea further I started to paint my local watercolor landscapes live on Facebook and then turn these live sessions into tutorials,in these tutorials you get to see the good with the bad, (because the sessions are live I can't stop mid way because there are hundreds of people watching),they are great fun though.

Eventually I needed to have my tutorials hosted online and I teamed up with Udemy,the best online University there is.

I have made other courses such as "How to paint like JMW Turner" and Christmas scenes in watercolor,check them out  below and if you fancy improving or simply starting off in watercolors I will see you in the first lessons.

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.