One of the most common things Susan is asked about her paintings is this: "Is it an oil or a watercolor painting?"

In this newly released issue (#78 April/May) of the prestigious International Artist Magazine, Susan reveals her decision making process when and how she forms her choice of painting medium for her numerous subjects. Susan paints many subjects: floral, bird, still life, portrait, figurative, interior, landscape - anything and everything that nature presents to her.

In this in-depth feature Susan shares her vast experience with the color palette and art materials she uses, the methods, techniques, hints and tips that have all been breakthroughs to her in both watercolor and oil painting. Susan discusses the all important composition and framing that make her paintings stand out. Susan's understand of color theory and the importance of warm and cool colors is a major influence on her work. Learn this and more in this 15 page article in the International Artist Magazine. This article is written for you - the artist and will help you lift your work to the next level.

Here is the International Artist website where you will be able to purchase this April/May 2011 issue : http://www.international-artist.com/splash.aspx

This magazine is also available in good bookshops in the US.

Susan highly recommends the International Artist Magazine. NOT just because they have published this feature. Susan has many features published in numerous International magazines and books. Susan buys this magazine because the quality of this publication is superb, the content is diverse, always excellent and it is an art magazine that offers help, instruction, information and inspiration for all levels of skill and expertise. Susan has subscribed to this magazine since the very first publication of it.

She hopes you enjoy her article - it is written with you all in mind.

You can see more of Susan's publications in International Artist Magazine and other Magazines by visiting her Publications/Press page on this website.

Susan's watercolor painting techniques and methods are shown and described in great detail and depth in her  Watercolor Technique DVDs. Don't forget to check the Free Art Lessons Page for more information about watercolor painting. Of course the very best way to learn is to watch over Susan's shoulder and listen to her thought processes as she paints and deliberates each step, method, technique and stroke of the brush, and mix of color.

All these things are explained in great detail on Susan's 3 DVD sets (each set has two discs).

Each set offers three + hours of tuition, ideally suited to artists of all levels. Observing how Susan uses her brushes in her unique way, how she applies her paint, the specific color mixing she uses to create paintings of naturalistic realism - and to listen to her thought processes give invaluable insight and reveal why Susan's paintings are so much in demand.

These things cannot be condensed into text. These invaluable DVD sets concentrate on 'why' each of her techniques work and this will help you to lift your painting level to reach your full potential. This is the next best thing to a one-on-one workshop with Susan.

With over 20,000 copies of Susan's DVDs sold and sent to countries all around the world, Susan now also has her DVDs manufactured and dispatched from the US. Delivery within the US usually takes two to four days. For other countries, the shipping is from NZ and delivery is usually within 3 - 7 days.

To celebrate another article in the International Artist magazine, for a short time Susan is offering free shipping anywhere in the world.

Susan's latest DVD:
Painting Watercolor My Way
In this 2 disc DVD set Susan teaches how to paint several subjects in one specifically chosen study. This study will introduce you to numerous textures and surfaces using all of Susan's methods, color mixing and techniques, color theory and magical layering to create a translucent reality that glows. Watch as the subject becomes three dimensional with her use of warm and cool hues. Understand how Susan uses hue and color temperature to mold form and create paintings with a true presence. This 2 disc DVD set will show you how to paint a beautiful, delicate rose, leaves and dewdrops, decorated porcelain, woodgrain, rich luminous backgrounds, shiny surfaces, how to create the color of gold and so much more. Most importantly Susan helps you to understand how to adapt these methods to any subject at all.

Susan's Portrait DVD
Susan Harrison- Tustain's Watercolor Portrait Workshop
Learn how to paint a portrait using natural luminous hues so real you feel as if you could touch the skin. Learn how to avoid the traps for young players. Full of all the hints and tips that will help you create portraits that glow with realism, Susan shares her skill and the essential knowledge that will help you paint portraits that speak to the viewers of your work.

Susan's Workshop DVD
Susan Harrison-Tustain's One on One Watercolor Workshop
Learn how to paint several subjects, delicate roses, lilies, leaves, a luscious apple.

Watch as Susan creates backgrounds and explains the benefits of each. Learn about line and creating form, velvet petals, shiny petals, colour mixing and so much more.

Susan is currently offering free shipping on any of her DVDs - no matter where in the world you live.

Click here to view previews and information on Susan's DVDs

Pear on wood - watercolor painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Demystifying Warm and Cool (Color Temperature)

Warm and cool is a vast subject but I have a great, simple way of teaching it:

Anything with red or yellow is basically warm. Anything with blue is basically cool.

But within the red  spectrum there are warmer or cooler reds. Just as there are warmer and cooler yellows within the yellow spectrum and it is the same for blue.

Take a look at a colour wheel. Look at a tomato red - this is a red that is leaning toward the yellow section. This is the warmest of reds. Then compare that to a red such as Alizarin Crimson. Alizarin Crimson is leaning toward the blue section. Purples are even more cool because they have more blue in them of course. You can see these 'reds' are more blue than the tomatoe red. So naturally Alizarin Crimson is a cooler red.  So now you can understand what I mean when I say "we have warm and cool within each colour section."

So naturally you can determine where - within each colour section - they fall by taking note how warm or cool they are in relation to the others either side of them.

That is what it is all about. Determining how warm or cool a color is, is about looking at it "In relation" to what else is around it. It is the same for all colour groups. Blue is thought of as being cold. Yes - it is cold when it is put up against red. But within the blue section there are warm and cool blues. The warm blues would be leaning toward red. A good example of a warm blue is Ultramarine Blue Finest.

Naturally the cool blues will be furthermost away from red. So use your colour wheel to help you determine where your colours are and whether they are warm or cool in relation to the colours you are using in your painting as well as on the colors on the color wheel.

The colour temperature of each colour you use on your painting
will be compared to the colour next to it.

Take yellow for instance: Aureolin is a cool yellow because it has a touch of blue in it. This cools it down. Compare that yellow to Indian Yellow which has some red in it. Indian Yellow is a warm yellow. So you could create a painting that is totally yellow. There will be warm and cool passages within it if you use a variation of yellows or mixes of yellows. But you can still create the impression of form because you can use warm and cool yellows to help you mould shape and substance.

The overall feeling/mood/colour temperature of the painting will be warm because you are using yellow (which gives the impression of warmth when we look at it). But you would describe your shapes and also focal planes by placing warm and cool yellows next to each other. Or if you need to give the impression of a gradual roll on a ball or petal for example - you would graduate the colours beginning with warm or cool and then as the subject rolls away into the background for instance, you would then gradually introduce a yellow of the opposite color temperature.

This is how you create form. Naturally you could also mix a tiny touch of blue or red with your yellows to alter them - but still allow the yellow colour to be dominant. This will also alter the colour temperature as you would expect. Warm your Indian yellow even further by adding a tiny touch of red. Cool another yellow down by adding a tiny touch of blue. You will see what I mean when you experiment.

It is generally true to say 'shadows are warm and sunlight is cool' when affected by natural (outside) light.  Generally when painting something affected by the natural light (outside or inside) - you would use warm colours to describe shadows. Make the shadows dance with warm transparent darks and throw in a little splash of red or orange - it makes the shadow look alive.

Conversely anything that is affected by the sky (which is generally blue - or a cool colour) - these things are cool. So the sunlit highlights are cool and the shadows are warm when outside or affected by natural light.

Inside lighting often creates a warm highlight and a cool shadow.

A good exercise is to paint a ball using warm and cool yellows. You will see how it automatically gives you form.

I hope that helps.

It is not an easy subject to grasp - but I find that once my workshop students understand there are warm and cool colours within each main colour - they can then see what I mean by looking at a colour wheel. It is a great idea to make a colour wheel of your own palette.

Learn more about my Watercolor Painting Technique in my Watercolor DVDs.

Learn more about how to paint in my Free Art Lessons.

"Voyage de Vie"
watercolor painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Techniques and methods generally mean the same thing. You can read about my watercolor techniques in my previous posts but I would also like to discuss how to use our brushes to give us different techniques.

Most artists stroke with their brushes. I most often paint into a clear water wash so I have found an incredible way of painting that is much better than stroking: Dabbing! I dab - I don't stroke! Yes it was a breakthrough for me too.

Try a little demo: In a clear water wash I would like you to take a fully laden brush (with water and paint). Now stroke your brush into the water. See how the majority of pigment is released at the end of the stroke. You have less pigment at the beginning of the stroke so your stroke gives you and uneven line.

Now I would like you to once again work into a clear water wash. Take your fully laden brush again and dab dab dab. Break the surface of the water wash each time. You do that by lifting your brush up and off the paper and out of the clear water wash. See how you can deposit so much more pigment with each dab. See how you can create a much richer and much more even wash by dabbing?

Isn't it magic!

Look at the painting at the top of this post that will show you the depths of hue you can get with this method:

The watercolor painting techniques I used for this painting are obvious because you can see the gentle transitions of hue. I have used a great deal of water to give the impression of serenity and peace and I have used light tones to give the feeling of innocence and gentleness. Watercolor painting methods and techniques can be adapted to paint any subject at all. Study my watercolor paintings in my gallery on my website and in the galleries on my DVDs. You will be amazed at the variety of subject matter you can portray with just five methods!

Have fun!

Susan

Learn how to paint skin tones in my watercolor portrait workshop DVD.
Learn more about my watercolor techniques.

'Innocence'
Watercolor Rose Painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Watercolor is a fantastic medium because it can be used to create any subject at all. I love that is immediate, clean to use and my brushes wash in water. But most of all I love the expressiveness of watercolor.

So how to paint with watercolor? Where to begin? I begin using my Priming Method to create a yellow underwash. This is like a map of my painting. Imagine a black and white photograph but instead of black white and grey - I use yellow.

Yellow gives me substance and glowing hues.

I then use my other colors and color mixes to create luminous transparent hues with the methods and painting techniques described in my previous post: my Priming Method, wet in wet, wet on dry and drybrush. I also use a new method I have recently created which I call blushing. Once again you can see these methods in action in my DVDs and you can also read about them in the free watercolor lessons on my website.

Fine tuning is always left to very last. This is the icing on the cake. This is where I pull a painting together, soften edges, adjust hues, saturation, tonal value and describe my finest details. I love this stage and it is this final stage that gives a painting life.

Take a look at my Rose painting 'Innocence'. This watercolor painting was created using all of the methods I have mentioned above but it also has a great deal of fine tuning which gives a true sense of reality.

Painting in watercolor is no where near as difficult as we first imagine. Once you have given it some time and learned my methods and painting technique you will find painting in watercolor is very fulfilling and rewarding.

Learn more about my Watercolor Painting Techniques and How to paint with watercolors in my Watercolor DVDs.

"A Rich Picking"
watercolor painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

There are many watercolor painting techniques which will help you to create amazing effects. But I find I generally use just five:

1. My Priming Method
2. Wet in Wet
3. Wet on Dry
4. Drybrush
5. Blushing

You can learn about My Priming Method, Wet in Wet, Wet on Dry and Dry brush methods in my  DVDs as they are discussed and demonstrated throughout my watercolor DVDs. You can also read more information on these watercolor techniques here on my website, in the SusanArt Forum and in the free watercolor lessons here on my website.

With these watercolor techniques and methods you can paint anything and everything!

Take the time to learn about them and their many applications. You will be amazed at the skilful work you can achieve with just five fantastic methods!

Take a look at some of my early watercolor paintings that you may not have seen previously - I am about to post a series of early paintings in the next few posts. You will see what is possible: Remember these are early paintings - but because they are early it is easier for you to see the effects I have achieved.

Detail of "A Rich Picking"
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Take a look at "Rich Pickings". I love this painting. Notice the methods I have used to create these realistic leaves? They have texture don't they? That is because I have used my priming method and then I used Wet in Wet and allowed the water to move the color for me. More about that in the next post.

Have fun exploring all the free lessons on my website. You will also find a watercolor techniques section in the menu on my website. Take a few minutes to look there too!

Susan

Hucklebeary
Watercolor Painting
© Susan Harrison-Tustain

Richard and I send you all our very best wishes for a magical Christmas and a 2011 full of inspiration. We hope you enjoy our Hucklebeary Christmas image.

After three fun workshops (3 days x 3) I am now relaxing for a day or two before painting withdrawal symptoms set in again!

Over half of the total number of students were from Australia and we also loved having Kathy from Canada aboard too! Our New Zealanders travelled from all over the country so I felt very humbled again by the demand and the response. I find artists are very like-minded and fun, kind, thoughtful people so it is always a joy to meet so many new workshop students and also welcome the return of so many friends from previous workshops.

It is rather surreal to see people using my signature brush and paint sets. They all have my signature on them so you can imagine it looked as if they all belonged to me! Just as well I had dipped the wooden end-tip of mine in nail polish before I left - or I may have picked up a few spares!!!

I saw amazing art. The students learned a huge amount about painting in watercolour as well as a great deal of information that is very generic and relates to all mediums. Color theory is and invaluable tool just as the degree of water used, tone, how to control watercolour, when to let it flow, we used all of my methods, extended them, saw how each can be applied to so many different subjects, mixing colors, lifting color, intelligent composition, observation, observation, observation and so very much more. No workshop is ever long enough is it. The subject of art is huge and I try to impart everything I know to help artists realize the huge potential of the information they receive at my workshops. I know they will now fly and I look forward to watching their journeys.

Marylka's color previewer was a great hit. Marylka took part on the first workshop so it was lovely to see her on my workshops again.

Here is Marylka's website address if you are interested in this incredibly useful tool that helps us determine what color or color mix is needed before we have to commit to a wash:

http://www.marylkaart.kwikdrawsigns.com/services.htm

I also gave a lecture to the Tauranga Art Gallery last Wednesday evening. It has been a huge week.

Thank you to all those who attended my workshops and my lecture. I do hope I was able to inspire you all reach for the stars!

Once the dust has settled and I have my home and studio back in some semblance of order - I will get back on track for my 2011 Exhibition painting. I will release a new image to the website in the next week. So do watch this space!

Susan

How do you create the impression of an opaque object when using transparent watercolor?

This is a very good question posed by one of my SusanArt Forum members on my website.

This is my reply:

I love to share what I know but as you can imagine my time is so very committed that when I do write something I know will be of great interest such as this - I want to share it with as many as possible.

Remember this information can relate to any subject matter or can be adjusted to any color. When we think ‘out of the square’ we can see the potential of such information is vast. The true magic of painting is that we are creating an illusion with our paints. If we render our subject well it takes on a life and a ‘presence’ that is almost more real than the reality itself. But – and this is what I mean by magic – the actual physical substance of the painting is just paint squeezed from a tube and applied to flat paper. I emphasise this so that you can understand how we can, quite easily, create the impression of an opaque object using transparent watercolors. It’s all in the way we let our paints describe the way light is transmitted through (for transparent) or reflected from – or absorbed into (for opaque) our subject.

I think the best way to show this is to give you examples using images:

Jonquille Pour ma Mère (detail)

Take a look at my painting of folds in fabric. You will see there are areas on the dress that are transparent because the light is shining through them. There are also areas that are opaque because the body is behind them.

Old rambling Rose (detail)

You will see the rose bud that has light shining through

some of the petals. Notice how this gives the impression they are transparent. They are alive with light aren’t  they? There are other petals where the sunlight is absorbed but can’t dance around because there is a greater density of petals are close behind which is preventing this. These appear opaque.

High Summer (detail)

Can you see how the Pansy leaves reflect the sunlight? These appear opaque. Also notice the impression of a shiny surface. How did I create that? The magic is in the colors and tone. If you give some thought to the colors I have used in the highlight areas and also think about the color temperature difference between those highlights and the local color of the leaves – then you will find the answer is there in front of you.

What do these things tell you?

Yes - that's right - transparency is all about allowing light to shine through a subject. As opposed to opaque subjects that are - of course - the opposite.
How do we create this impression? In the ‘transparent’ areas we simply keep the local color of those areas lighter or more glowing than the opaque areas. We can also allow some of the colors or cast shadows from objects behind our transparent subject to show through.

Instantly you have the impression of something transparent.

Take a good look at the folds in the dress. Can you see some areas that are transparent and others that are opaque? Can you see how I have allowed the glow of the late afternoon sunshine to help me describe the transparency of the fabric?

Can you also see how I have used different hues to describe the opaque areas?

You are now analysing what is in front of you. This is how we learn the most and also retain what we see and learn. Another subject may use different colors – but with the knowledge we are discussing here – I hope you will use these skills to evaluate, interpret and appreciate how nature has given us artists so much information to help us describe what we want to portray. It is just a matter of knowing what to look for.

Take a look at how I have also juxtaposed warm and cool colors, giving the impression of the rounded form of the folds.

What does this say to us?

It says that as something folds around, it is affected by the light and also the colors of surrounding objects. As something comes out into the area that will be affected by the sky color - it becomes cooler. When it moves away from the affect of the sky color - the fold will become warmer and more rich in hue and generally it will be affected by cast shadow as well.

Take a look at the other subjects in my gallery. You will see how I use these observations to describe virtually everything.

The trick is to learn to see what is really in front of you. Ask yourself questions.
Why does that look transparent? Why does that look opaque? What makes these things so? The answers are all in front of you. Learn to analyse and you will find your paintings will take a giant leap forward.
I hope that helps!