What’s your Watercolour Bible?

March 5, 2026 by eastwitching

Most artists I know are devils for getting new art technique books.

Books give us hope and inspiration and impetus!

I have bought many, many books over the years and there are a few that I would never part with as they have become sacred to me.

Below I share my 3 top go to art books; my bibles as I call them. As you will see, I go to them for slightly different reasons but they all add grist to the artistic mill and lord knows we need it at times.

Please post below about YOUR art bibles! We may discover some wonderful unknowns!

1) More Joy of Colour by David Lyle Millard The loose jewel-like vignettes of Millard throughout this book encouraged me to paint in a juicy way.

In the book David describes his 40 colour palette and I drooled over his descriptions of his exotic hard to find colours - here is the picture

I envied him sitting there amongst all that exotic fruit and reading about him spending time in the Caribbean and the East coast of the USA - I aspired to do that!

David Lyle Millard in his element

WHAT I GET from this book

Most of all his encouragement to trust your wandering line of pencil on paper - your place for creative freedom in this world. Here are some Millard inspired mini watercolours in a Super Aquabee sketchbook (that he recommends for travelling artists as I was at the time!). Alas - the book in the link above has a ne cover design and is missing the original silver impressed bee insignia - such a shame!

2) The Art Spirit by Robert Henri I bought this a couple of months before going on an art trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA in 2005. I tried to keep my hands off it as it was meant to be read once I got to that famous art colony with its desert light. I couldn’t resist, however, and so cracked it open a few days before leaving and was lifted up by Henri’s commentaries about why we are compelled to draw and paint and how to have faith in yourself.

How this book IMPROVES my LIFE

Reading this book allowed me to experience someone of a different mind-set - one that values beauty and expression and is not ashamed of that. He gave me permission to dream and I read it when I want to escape into the word of art and feelings.

3) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards This book single-handedly taught me how to see and to draw. With Betty’s clear and encouraging voice I was guided into the joys of pure contour drawing - just letting the pencil doodle along the paper without even looking to loosen you up and enjoy that feeling.

WHY I read this BOOK

I go to this book whenever I need to feel purposeful about drawing.

It’s purposeful and enlightening exercises bowl you along and you see INSTANT improvement.

Well that is it from me - I hope you may encounter these books and get something from them - bye for now

Watercolour Demo - Fly Agaric Mushrooms 2nd Part

February 13, 2026 by eastwitching

OK - for those painters of you who are sitting there with paintbrush in mid-air waiting to get at those mushrooms again here are the next steps!

(Here is Part 1 - https://eastwitching.com/2013/02/09/art-demo-watercolour-fly-agaric-mushrooms/

But first - here is how they have ended today after the work I did on them this afternoon…I popped them in a virtual frame to give them that magical space that all art needs.

Please click on the images as they will come up nice and big for you to see.

I read somewhere that the art of good painting is knowing where to stop and that a painting can be interesting at several points in its creation.

I just hope I’ve picked the right place to get off!

Art Demo - Watercolour Fly Agaric Mushrooms

February 9, 2026 by eastwitching

Now I am really hooked - been drawing more mushrooms this morning and painting their fragile, pulpy yet paper fibrous stalks - love them - so tactile and cute.
I love their random nobbliness and charm - carefree and child-like.
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Here’s how I did them.

Paper is Arches Hot Pressed 90lbs. Unstretched as you can see.
I just paint on the paper and flatten it later.

Paints Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Scarlet, Chrome Orange, Cadmium Yellow, French Ultramarine, Sap Green, Cerulean Blue. Brushes No. 3 round.

1. I drew the mushrooms roughly in pencil 3B
2. I wet the entire surface (apart from some teeny dry specks which will be the white bits later) of some heads of mushrooms and added Alizarin Crimson/Cadmium Red here and there and let it run. I added a deeper mix of this colour on shadow sides of heads to start creating form. The shadow sides I have created are all on the left of the mushrooms.
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I drew another single mushroom as a more detailed study and here you can see the wetness of the head ready to be charged with red paint.
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Let the medium do it !
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OK - back to out happy grouping…

Now I darken areas of the heads with a deeper red mix.
I also felt the painting was looking overall too cool and not appealing so I added a splash of Cadmium Yellow and Chrome Orange to the Left hand side of some of the mushroom heads and stalks to bring in some sunshine:)

Add some sap green to darken the red off.

Then I wet the entire stalks and added a thin line of grey made from French Ultramarine and Sap Green along the Right hand side and let it run into the wet part.
This creates a curved illusion on the stalks.

So this is where I am going to stop now as I need a cup of tea and the Jack Russells are getting restless!
Back to continue soon. I hope you found this interesting /useful? Any comments pop them below:)
Alison