Watermedia Creativity : Explore painting with watermedia.
Crumpled Paper
Supplies
Thin paper (drawing or watercolor or rice or masa), dark watercolors or gouache, soaking tub with water, optional board or thick paper and glue.
Instructions
Give new purpose to discarded papers. Soak a piece of thin drawing, watercolor or rice paper in water. Crumple it and wring out excess water. [...]

Claude Monet At Giverny by Sharon Himes
“I’ve made a terrible mistake in settling down so far away. I’m totally disheartened.” Claude Monet wrote to art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel in June 1883, shortly after renting the house in Giverny far from the busy art world of Paris.
Up to this time Monet’s work had not been well [...]

Imaginative Inspirations
Creative combinations of methods and medias
Stained Glass II
Supplies
Plastic sheet or folder, black paper or thick black permanent marker, paint or markers, glue, scissors or craft knife
Instructions
Cut the sheet or folder to the same size as the black paper. Using a piece of scrap paper the same size draw out your stained glass pattern, including [...]

Imaginative Inspirations
Creative combinations of methods and medias
Stained Glass I
Supplies
Wax crayons, scissors or knife, waxed paper, black paper or thick black permanent marker, iron, sheets of extra paper, dish towel or pillowcase, glue
Instructions
Scrape off pieces of wax crayons.
On a smooth flat surface place folded dish towel or pillowcase, on top of this place three layers of [...]

Three Artists Express an American Summer by Sharon Himes
In the late nineteenth century, three American artists expressed the summer season in their paintings. Although the season is the same, the intent of the artist is different in each.
Winslow Homer began his career as an illustrator for Harpers Weekly magazine. Later, as a sucessful artist, he [...]

Imaginative Inspirations
Creative combinations of methods and medias
Folded Monos
Supplies
Watercolor paper, paints, water, large spoon
Instructions
There are quite a few ways to approach this simplified version of mono printing. Easiest is to paint an image on half of the paper and wet the other half fold it together and press to get a mirror image copied onto the [...]

Monet Impressed by Nature by Sharon Himes
Monet spent his childhood on the coast of Normandy, France, and nature was his first influence. “I was born undisciplined. Never, even as a child, could I be made to obey a set rule. What little I know I learned at home. School was always like a prison to [...]

Drawing from Nature by Sharon Himes
Nature is all around us, providing abundant materials for drawing and painting. You don’t have to be an artist to draw. Drawing is a way of thinking, seeing and analyzing what we see. You don’t have to expect to make a finished drawing for it to be time well spent.

When [...]

Animal and Wildlife References for Paintings
By Stella Violano
One of the most difficult problems facing wildlife and animal artists today is obtaining reference material. If one is fortunate enough to see wildlife up close the encounter is often brief. Domestic animals are rarely willing to model for a painting and are on the move constantly. Zoos, [...]

Arranging a Still Life By Lisa Anne Misja
There are words sometimes used to describe still life paintings; ‘Not interesting, boring, no movement, still. A beautifully rendered still life is none of these things. Here is a closer look at how to set up a still life.
First, what subject matter should be chosen for the painting? [...]