This Is Why I Started Watercoloring: My Story

Today, I’d like to share with you why I started watercoloring.

We all have a story behind why the desire comes up to try something new - even something fun like watercolors. A lot of times it appears as a simple need to be creative, but more often than not, the story is deeper than that.

While I’m still hesitant to share this here on the blog, I am doing so in hopes that it inspires you to start or keep going with your creative pursuits. You never know how it will help you and where it will take you.

Creativity & InspirationSusan ChiangJune 4, 2019 Comments

Watercolor Practice: Learning to Paint Maisa the Dog

Today, I’m sharing my attempts at painting a dog from a course I purchased on Enterclass. I’ve always admired watercolors painted in a loose and wet style and thought I would share the learning process (and progress) I’m making as I try it out!

Practice Makes Progress: What My Mistakes Look Like

In hopes of encouraging the people looking at my work and thinking “I could never do that”, I want to share my mistakes (my practice). Because we all have to make mistakes and practice before we can make something that we are proud of.

What Happened When I Took an Unexpected Creative Break

I took an unexpected 3-month long creative break. It was just what I needed and I came to a few important realizations. In today’s blog post I share what happened when I took a long creative break, the important lessons I learned, and what I painted when I returned to creating for myself.

Just Watercolor: Student Inspiration

One of the best things that has come out of starting this blog and sharing my own watercolor work is connecting with beginners and helping them along as they learn to work with the medium.

I especially enjoy hearing about why they chose to try watercolors and what kind of breakthroughs they are making just by painting and trying new things.

Ultimately that is the intent behind why I created my foundational online course, Just Watercolor. A belief that you just need to start painting.

My goal is to encourage beginners not just to paint with watercolors, but to believe in themselves and build the confidence to keep painting.

Creativity & InspirationSusan ChiangNovember 20, 2018Just Watercolor, online class Comments

How To Make Simple But Useful Watercolor Swatch Cards

I’m excited to finally be sharing this blog post all about my watercolor swatch cards. This post will walk you through you how I make them, what they tell me about the paints, and how I organize them for storing and easy reference.

At this point my swatch card collection contains 80 cards even though I don’t own 80 tubes of paint! More than 50% of the colors are from paint samples given to me by watercolor artist friends.

So I know you probably have some paints to swatch, so let’s get started!

SuppliesSusan ChiangNovember 13, 2018swatch cards, swatches Comments

This Is How I Make My Monthly Desktop Wallpapers

I don’t know about you but I always appreciate seeing how things are made so I decided to document the process of how I make my monthly desktop wallpapers for you.

Just in case you don’t already know, I make a free monthly desktop and phone wallpaper to gift to friends on my email list. I’ve been doing this since April 2017 - shortly after I started this blog!

How ToSusan ChiangOctober 30, 2018watercolor video Comments

Are You Wondering How To Start Watercoloring?

So you’ve bought watercolor supplies. You know they are good supplies and you’re excited to use them. You’ve got everything out on the table. But now what…are you wondering what to do next?

If you’re sitting there wondering how to actually *start* watercoloring, I’m going to give you a few ideas in today’s blog post.

The suggestions I give below are ways of getting started with watercolors that have worked for me. There are many ways to approach starting and learning with watercolors besides what I’m suggesting, but I hope that this gives you some ideas. The methods will vary based on your own personality and how you like to learn and explore new things.

Creativity & Inspiration, How ToSusan ChiangOctober 23, 2018watercolor beginner Comments

Behind the Scenes: Custom Ultrasound Watercolor Art

I’m still not sure if “behind the scenes” is the right term for this but in today’s blog post and video I am sharing the story behind where the idea of painting these watercolor ultrasounds came from and the process of how I paint them.

So where did this idea come from?

Well - it wasn’t an “idea” that I came up with while brainstorming one day or anything. And to be honest, I love that it didn’t originate that way.

Create With MeSusan ChiangOctober 16, 2018watercolor video Comments

You Deserve To Spend Money On Good Watercolor Supplies

Whether you consider yourself a skilled watercolor artist or a beginner, one thing is for certain: you’ve spent your fair share of time investigating watercolor supplies.

I’m also pretty sure about another thing: at some point in time you have thought to yourself, “if I just buy ‘X’ tool/supply/product, it’s going to make my art better”.

Which, if you’re a beginner, is often followed immediately by this thought: “Too bad I’m not good enough to be using ‘X’ supply yet.”

In this blog post, I’m going to share why you deserve to use better quality or professional grade supplies, even if you’re “just a beginner”.

Supplies, Creativity & InspirationSusan ChiangOctober 9, 2018Watercolor Supplies, Beginner SuppliesComment

How To Paint Ballerina Figures With Watercolor

Today, I’m sharing with you how I painted these simple, abstract ballerina figures using watercolors.

I received this question from a student in my online watercolor course, Just Watercolor and thought it would be a great one to share on the blog.

Here was her exact question:

I absolutely love your ballet girls. How did you do them? How did you keep them simple and abstract? Was it a happenstance movement of a brush that created them initially, or were you trying to create exactly that? What inspired them? How did you do them? How big are they? Did they turn out differently than you envisioned? Did you make mistakes and have to start over?

How To, Create With MeSusan ChiangOctober 2, 2018ballerina, watercolor people Comments

How To Mix Pastel Colors Using Watercolor

If you’ve ever wondered about how to make pastel colors using watercolors, I’m sharing all about it in this blog post.

You might have heard that when painting with watercolors, white is not used. So if that’s the case…how do you make pastel colors, right?

Susan ChiangSeptember 18, 2018watercolor tutorial, watercolor techniques, pastel colors Comments