Joshua Elek

Watercolor Paintings

Category: Tutorials

  • Master Study: Michal Jasiewicz – Part 1

    Master Study: Michal Jasiewicz – Part 1

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    A user on Reddit posted this image, asking how the artist (Michal Jasiewicz) achieved the effect on the distant cliffs. I am not sure how he accomplished it exactly, but I posted this as my best guess. I don’t know how they did it, but here’s what I would try. Forgive the over explanation, I…

  • Lowrey Waterfall Study: #1

    Lowrey Waterfall Study: #1

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    I have this book “Start to Paint with Watercolours” by Arnold Lowrey. I picked it up a long time ago, and tried the first exercise in the book, with what I felt were positive results. I tried the next exercise in the book, but didn’t find the walkthrough terribly helpful. Today, I didn’t have much…

  • Zbukvic Farm: 1

    Zbukvic Farm: 1

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    Today, I decided to buck up, puff out my chest, and try a painting from Joseph Zbukvic’s Mastering Atmosphere and Mood in Watercolor: The Critical Ingredients that Turn Paintings into Art. This book is out of print, and the only used copies available for purchase cost several hundred dollars. So, I printed the book from…

  • Lowery Two Color Exercise #1

    Lowery Two Color Exercise #1

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    A while ago, I bought Arnold Lowery’s book Start to Paint with Watercolors. I read through the first forty-odd pages and tried to recreate some of what he talks about in those pages as simple drills a while ago, but didn’t take on the first painting exercise until tonight. My first reaction is that this…

  • Surowicz Abandoned: #1

    Surowicz Abandoned: #1

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    This is my finished painting from Rick Surowicz’s podia Abandoned. This podia was another very helpful course for me from Rick Surowicz. My final painting doesn’t have the same sense of disarray that Rick captured in his painting because I focused much too tightly on the house when it came time to paint it in.…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 5.2-5.5

    Surowicz Rocks: 5.2-5.5

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    This is the final version of the painting from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. I am genuinely proud of this painting, and very happy that I purchased this podia. The lessons I learned here are invaluable, and will easily apply to painting more than just this image. I seriously can’t recommend it enough. This…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.23-4.28

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.23-4.28

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    Here are my renditions of exercises 4.23-4.28 from Rick Surowicz’s podia Rocks and Water. There is a surprising amount to discuss regarding these exercises. Pedagogy I love the way Rick laid out these lessons. At first, I played with a full painting by doing value studies. Then, there’s a “wax on, wax off” moment where…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.21-4.22

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.21-4.22

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    This is exercises 4.21-4.22 from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. It strikes me as I type this up that I might need to get Rick’s permission to post these. I’m going to post this, and then ask him-he’s responsive on Facebook. My concern about that is that someone might stumble on these and decide…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.12-4.19

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.12-4.19

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    This is an exercise from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. In these exercises, the top row focuses on mixing warm and cool washes, the bottom focuses on those same color variations, but now the focus is on value. Lessons I learned: Stop Stabbing I didn’t notice until I was doing this that I have…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 4.3-4.10

    Surowicz Rocks: 4.3-4.10

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    Above are the mixing exercises from Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rocks and Water. These exercises are admittedly basic. So much so that I almost skipped them. But, I’m a student. I want to get better. And if I want to improve quickly, I should be a good student. That means I need to trust the pedagogy…

  • Surowicz Rocks: 3.4 – 3.5

    Surowicz Rocks: 3.4 – 3.5

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    After discussing a bit about composition and source selection, as well as materials, Rick Surowicz starts the lessons for this course by having you create a value study and a color study. I have never done a value study in watercolor before, I have always done them in pencil, so this was a big lesson…

  • Surowicz Rocks: #1 (Before)

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    I purchased an online workshop offered by Rick Surowicz, whose YouTube channel has been very helpful and inspirational to me as I try to learn to paint. Rick Surowicz’s Podia Rick Surowicz’s YouTube Channe Before I go through the workshop, I decided to give the painting a go, as a pre test. I want to…

  • Fog exercise 1: #1

    Fog exercise 1: #1

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    This is the next exercise in Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolor. This exercise is supposed to tech me about painting fog. Unfortunately, I don’t think I quite captured the effect. I want the wharf and the houses and boat to be more obscured by the fog – which I think could be achieved by…

  • Waterfall Exercise 2: #1

    Waterfall Exercise 2: #1

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    This is the next exercise in Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolor. The composition here kind of didn’t make much sense to me, I don’t understand the waterfall – it almost looks like a stream running down the side of a termite hill. But, I’m not about to question Ron Hazell, so I tried to…

  • Waterfall Exercise 1: #1

    Waterfall Exercise 1: #1

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    This is the next exercise from Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolor. This was supposed to be a quick sketch to get the fundamentals of his technique for painting waterfalls, and I tried to paint it that way. I didn’t do a value study first, or sketch the composition on the paper first, because I…

  • Open Ocean Exercise 1: #1

    Open Ocean Exercise 1: #1

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    This is the next exercise in Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolor. I really — really — struggled with this one. Before I go too deep, here’s what it looks like in the book, this is what I’m trying to paint. In order to paint that, Ron Hazell first provides an exercise on painting waves…

  • Rough Water Exercise 4: #1

    Rough Water Exercise 4: #1

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    Mark the calendar. Today is the first time since I started painting (seven months ago) that I am happy with the end result. There are still things I would change, but I am proud of this one. This is another exercise from Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolor, so I can’t take credit for the…

  • Water Glitter Exercise 2: #1

    Water Glitter Exercise 2: #1

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    This is another exercise from Ron Hazell’s Painting Water with Watercolors. I must say, I find myself less interested in painting water now than when I started, but I am learning so much – about everything – by working through this book that I’m definitely going to keep plugging away at it. This exercise is…

  • Knifed Rocks Exercise: #1

    Knifed Rocks Exercise: #1

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    After the exercise on painting rough water, Ron Hazell’s book provides instruction on painting rocks. He proposes two methods, one in which you glaze successively richer tones over the rocks, and a second where you knife out the highlights on the rocks. I have never found success with knifing, so I tried it here. This…

  • Rough Water Exercise 3: #1

    Rough Water Exercise 3: #1

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    I got a really bad cold for a bit there, and worked on a painting a friend asked me to make which I’ll post later. This one is a continuation through Ron Hazell’s How to Paint Water with Watercolor. This exercise is just a quick wave. I’m sure I didn’t quite capture the technique, so…