Creating a successful painting by following a tutorial is one thing, but being able to replicate that success independently, drawing upon the skills and knowledge acquired from those tutorials is another.

I'm happy to share that a significant number of my students are able to achieve precisely that. In fact, I am consistently impressed and extremely proud of the artwork they produce on their own. They, too, take great pride in their achievements, and rightfully so.

We have integrated Discord with Patreon. Discord is a versatile communication platform designed for collaboration and community-building.

We use it to discuss topics related to painting and we also use it to share our every day lives with one another. We have a thriving, friendly and supportive community of artists.

Painting Challenge

Once a month we do a painting challenge on Discord.

I provide a reference photo and a simple line drawing and members of the community create a painting with no instructions from me. They are on their own. No paint colour suggestions, no demonstrations, no voiced-over instructions - nothing- zip - nada. 😬

Boy oh boy, I’m amazed at their talent! Not only do they produce some beautiful paintings but they are all so different.

In October, I provided them with a reference photo and a line drawing of a white Chrysanthemum. I thought it would challenge them. When they saw it, a chorus of exasperation filled the air.

(But man, a white flower. How are we supposed to paint that?)

They rose to the challenge though as you can see below.

Student Paintings

The students range in ability from beginners through to more experienced painters. I love seeing everyone’s style developing.

Student Comments

Here is what some of my students had to say.

That little white flower was harder than it first seemed to me. I was very happy with how my background turned out, I painted it in first. The flower itself I tackled as I think Louise would: I painted each petal individually, identifying the darker sections and gradually working towards the desired outcome. It took me a while and I began to see shadows where there were none. All in all I love these monthly challenges. They show me how much I have learned already and how much there still is to learn. They force me out of my comfort zone. And always while painting, I hear Louise's encouragement and teachings in my ear.

Kate

‘Challenge’ is certainly the right name for it but it was fun and a great learning practice. Looking for the different values for texture and shadows, using both soft and hard edges, and making sure to preserve light. So many of the lessons Louise has shown in her tutorials. On subjects like this, I always think ‘WWLD’... what would Louise do? It helps a great deal!

Nancy

This challenge was pretty challenging! But because of that, I went outside my comfort zone and I learned SO very much! I couldn't have done this without Louise, she was in my ear telling me where to soften this edge, or add more value to that petal, and most importantly, when to stop! I couldn't have painted this without the support and encouragement from everyone in this discord. You know who you are.

Only Jewell

I decided to go for ink and paint because I am not very confident to try and paint alone. Especially in a complex piece like this. You can get lost so fast in the petals, but the ink made it a bit easier.

This was really challenging, but I got to do a lot of softening of edges, which was good practice I wanted to leave the background white first, but the flower didn’t look white anymore, so I decided to make a mix of the 3 colours to get this lovely muted rose colour.

Now I need to do a tutorial of flowers before I tackle another one.

Kimberly

If you are interested in learning to paint in watercolour, I have over 170 online, voiced over watercolour tutorials for all skill levels and, you too, can meet hundreds of other students and try my monthly challenges.

Happy painting!

Louise.

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