Category Archives: Art Tips

Watercolor process demo

Posted on May 26, 2020 by Jo Myers-Walker

Check out my painting demonstration on YouTube! I recorded myself working at home, and media consultant Devin Walker (my son) gave me technical advice and edited the video into its final form. As I’m painting I describe the process of … Continue reading →

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A sketchy start

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Jo Myers-Walker

By the time a painting is finished, I’ve done a scene three times. I start with a sketch, moving and overlapping shapes using tracing paper to plan the composition. Here I’m experimenting with the arrangement and gestures of a family … Continue reading →

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West Des Moines workshop

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Jo Myers-Walker

My watercolor workshop at Artisan Gallery 218 focused on the figures that bring a painting to life. We painted flowers as a warmup, plenty of little chickens to practice with colors, and animated figures the rest of the time. The … Continue reading →

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Spring showers

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Jo Myers-Walker

Quality watercolor paper is made from cotton, and cotton shrinks. If it does that while you’re working on a painting, the paper will ripple and the paint will go into puddles and change the image. To keep that from happening, … Continue reading →

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A road map for painting

Posted on February 10, 2019 by Jo Myers-Walker

People bring in a photo to class of what they want to paint, and it can be scary to look at and try to figure out where to begin. Often a photo is way too busy. Select what’s important — … Continue reading →

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Linn Street progression

Posted on February 19, 2018 by Jo Myers-Walker

I am repeating the Linn Street scene with a different composition and more people going to school with their morning coffee. I sit and watch what is going on with my neighbors, draw them to get a story in that … Continue reading →

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More samples from The Center

Posted on March 21, 2016 by Jo Myers-Walker
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Las Golondrinas

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Jo Myers-Walker

During my stay in Santa Fe for Charles Reid’s workshop we visited and painted at El Rancho de las Golondrinas (“The Ranch of the Swallows”), a historic ranch dating from the early 1700s. It’s now a living history museum “dedicated … Continue reading →

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Cool and warm

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Jo Myers-Walker

To hold a painting together visually, we choose 2 cool colors (blues, purples, greens) and 1 warm color (yellows, reds, oranges) for cool color dominance, or 2 warm and 1 cool for warm color dominance. Echoing the colors pulls the … Continue reading →

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Paper dolls

Posted on October 25, 2013 by Jo Myers-Walker

For a lesson at The Center, I showed the class how I cut out paper figures and put them on a painting to see where I want to place people and begin the story. The painting below left will show … Continue reading →

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