Watercolor Painting - Understanding Tone

Name: Watercolor Painting - Understanding Tone
Rating: 4.7 (101 reviews)

I believe this course will assist you in judging tone and improve your painting skills.

Created byArie Swanepoel

Last updated 3/2026

English

What you'll learn

What tone is.
How to judge tone to improve your own painting skill.
How light and shadows effect tone.
How to use edges in your paintings.
You will do two valuable exercises to improve your skills and understanding of tone.
You will do a project: Paint with me - a monochrome painting of two old boots.
You will do a second project: Paint with me - Seeing color as tone with a painting of a scavenger bird.

Course content

5 sections • 12 lectures • 46m total length

Introduction2:31
This is an introduction to the course. I’m going to introduce to you to one of the basic concept that make up a good painting. If your paintings look weak, chances are that it is not due to a lack of color contrast but rather a lack of tonal contrast.

Judging Tonal Value3:00
How Do We Judge Tone? In this lesson you will learn how to judge tone and do an exercise to paint your own value scale that you can use in your paintings.
Light And Shadow4:30
In this lesson we will use this exercise to explain how light reflects of a subject to create the illusion of three dimensional. You will paint a monochrome apple.
Expression with Edges2:26
How do we use edges in our paintings? In this lesson you will learn how edges fit in our creation of three dimensional illusion.
The way we control edges is a vital tool in our design and expression in a painting.

Do a Line Drawing for Our Monochrome Painting of a Pair of Old Boots - Part 13:54
In this lesson we will prepare the line drawing for our monochrome painting of a pair of boots.
The First Wash of Our Monochrome Painting of a Pair of Old Boots - Part 2.3:35
As the color is removed the artist must focus on the tonal values as well as technique.
Finalising Our Monochrome Painting of a Pair of Old Boots - Part33:40
To produce a believable sense of 3 dimensional space and light you must be able to faithfully reproduce the values of a subject.

Seeing Colour As Tone: The Scavenger Project - Part 12:55
This is part 1 an introduction to our painting project in four parts painting a bird of prey called “ Scavenger”.
Seeing Colour As Tone: The Scavenger Project - Part 23:55
In this lesson we start the painting process.
Seeing Colour As Tone: The Scavenger Project - Part36:09
In this lesson we continue our painting process and you compare your painting to evaluate your tonal values.
Seeing Colour As Tone: The Scavenger Part 46:15
In this lesson we finalise our painting and do a final evaluation of our painting.

Requirements

No previous experience needed but an open mind to loosen up.
A specific list of the supplies required is available in the “Supply List” PDF.

Description

Understanding tone can be one of the most difficult concepts to understand when painting in watercolours.

But it is also the most rewarding skill to learn to produce high quality art.

If you are one of those artists who’s artwork sometimes appears to be faded and you have always wander how you could improve your painting skills, this course is for you.

I’ve invested years in learning the fundamentals behind watercolour art. When you learn and paint with me, you’ll become a better artist and improve your own signature style.

So I made it a point in this course to really concentrate on tonal values and how to judge tone.

Who this course is for:

This course is for beginners and intermediate level artists seeking to understand tone in watercolour painting.
Any artist who want to understand tone fully in watercolour painting should take this course

Watercolor Painting - Understanding Tone

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction1 lecture • 3min

Animating With Tone3 lectures • 10min

Paint With Me: A Monochrome Painting in Three Parts.3 lectures • 11min

Paint With Me: Seeing Color As Tone. A Scavenger Project in Four Parts.4 lectures • 19min

NEW: Advance Techniques (2026 Update)1 lecture • 3min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: