Landscape Style Bundle

Free yourself of color inhibitions. Watch Carl take a flat street scene and turn it into a colorful, energetic, environment using lush color and active brush work. Carl Dalio explains the different types of light and where to anticipate areas perfect for adding vibrancy.

Carl gives a brief explanation of perspective, explains the strengths of his limited palette and executes a quick sketch directly on his watercolor paper. He paints the scene in a logical yet free manner including simple figures. You learn how to keep your colors clean and vibrant as you make your own painting full of life and energy.

Carl Dalio was trained as an architect but lives and works as as fine artist. His painting spans these two approaches to visualization. Carl combines a disciplined drafting technique with a watercolorist's vision and bold approach to color. In this workshop, he transforms a flat street scene into an energetic environment using lush color and active brushwork. Carl begins with a short lesson on perspective.

He sketches his scene, paying constant attention to line relationships that guide the eye. He encourages the use of artistic license as he edits and removes elements from his photo reference. He draws directly onto his watercolor paper and allows his construction lines to become part of his final painting.

With his sketch in place, Carl charges his subject with layer upon layer of brilliant purples, rich earth tones, and warm greens. He enhances depth and contrast by controlling color temperature, and he builds relationships with repeated hues. He varies the thickness and balance of his color mixes as he fills in large shapes. Even before he adds windows and roof lines, his walls glow with eye-catching gradients and texture.

Carl works with a large, round brush for most of the workshop. He enjoys the freedom and flexibility of combining controlled tip strokes with loose washes that use the length of the brush. He switches effortlessly between bathing a building in a rose-colored wash and adding tiny legs to a figure on a sidewalk. Throughout the workshop, Carl gives advice on managing your palette, paper, and water to keep your colors luminous and clean. You'll learn to simplify your palette and to avoid dull grays.

The video is two hours plus a mini workshop on how and where to look for reflected color and light.

Carl's constant attention to design and color management results in a scene that radiates energy. To learn a freeing and exciting method for working with watercolor, join us for Carl Dalio on Color Power: The Path to Visualizing Energetic Color. 

Ratindra Das in Painting a Personal Reality in Watercolor

Ratindra Das AWS, NWS TWSA has one overriding rule: Don't make a boring painting.

By permitting himself to adhere to his own aesthetic, Das gives us a wonderful example of how to shake off old habits and listen to our muse. He begins with a value/shape drawing already much changed from his reference photo, then proceeds to design the painting as a whole. His strong design sense and willingness to question common expectations permit new freedom and individuality in watercolor. Das uses unconventional flat shapes, manipulates the visual path and mixes vibrant colors directly on the watercolor paper to recreate his visceral experience of a bustling harbor scene. The result is fresh, vibrant, energetic, unique and certainly not boring!

In this watercolor workshop, Das gives you permission to shake off old habits and listen to your own muse. He distills a cluttered street scene to his visceral experience of the place, fusing bold shapes and fresh color into an exotic, engaging landscape.

With unpredictable mixing on the paper and constant movement across the composition, he makes the process as entertaining as the final result. You'll take full advantage of artistic license as you select elements for a value sketch, wash over a radiant sky and find pockets of brilliant color to dot your landscape.

Ratindra also imparts his strong design sense, searching for consistency in his edges and easy passage through his light shapes. To find the fun and beauty in your reference photos, join Ratindra Das in Painting a Personal Reality in Watercolor.

The Language of Landscape in Watercolor with Dale Laitinen

Learn to paint landscapes that make a statement. Follow watercolor expert Dale Laitinen on a quest to capture a sense of the monumental.

In this video workshop, you use bold color to create drama as you paint the great granite cliffs of Yosemite. Learn to see the landscape like an artist. You learn to take photos that maximize the glory of the mountains and modify your sketch to highlight features in the granite. You balance stable horizontal planes with energetic diagonals, and translate the lines into strong shapes in your watercolor.

Dale describes painting as a battle of the edges. You contrast hard and soft lines for variety, and learn techniques for creating lost-and-found edges that keep viewers curious. Dale teaches you to inject emotion with daring color choices and maintain transparency as you layer. As you move from broad strokes on the cliff to points of light in the trees, you learn to make each element say exactly what you feel.