Just Add SALT – Watercolor Effects

Art, watercolor, watercolor tutorials

About 12 years ago, I remember being amazed when I learned that salt can alter a watercolor painting in unique, often favorable ways. for example, when salt is added to slightly wet paper, it creates interesting distortions, but not the unwanted kind – like blossoms, which often form if too much water is added. Most commonly, salt is applied to create beautiful alterations when painting a snowy winter sky. It is also used effectively, to create interesting background washes in floral watercolor paintings. However, I almost never use salt in my paintings, but maybe I should rethink that and keep it in my painting tool belt, metaphorically speaking.

Anyway, the reason I brought this whole salt thing up is because I thought it would make an interesting painting video. I was not surprised to find that there are already many videos on YouTube, demonstrating how to use salt in watercolor paintings. So, why post another salt painting video? Well, Caitlin came up with a pretty cool idea – use 3 different types of salt to discover which of these produces the most desirable effects. We used good old table salt, sea salt, and Himalayan Pink salt.

So, you might be thinking- which salt produced the best effects? I guess you’ll have to tune in (video link below) to find out 🙂

Winter Woodland Watercolor Demo

Art, watercolor, watercolor tutorials

Enough W’s in the subject heading? Recently, I’ve been considering making watercolor videos on YouTube….again. Yes, its true – I’ve made a some painting videos before, but admittedly, the production quality wasn’t there. Most importantly, the consistency wasn’t there either, and as a result – I got crushed by the social media algorithm! Life gets in the way, you know?

This isn’t a New Year’s resolution or anything (I don’t believe in those), but I’m giving it another go. I’ve been learning how to use Adobe Premiere Rush – a free video editing app for smartphones or whichever type screen you prefer to peer into. I found it to be a great tool and easy to use. Maybe I’ll upgrade if I stick with producing video content consistently. Who knows!

Anyway, I’ve recorded, edited, and published a new video on YouTube called “Winter Landscape with White Pine Tree – Watercolor Demo”. It is a watercolor painting demonstration, which is hopefully easier and more fun to watch, than my previous videos. The entire production process took about 15+ hours….yes, 15+ hours (maybe more). There is a define learning curve here, but lots of time went into creating the painting, learning how to edit, then actually editing the video, then creating a thumbnail using Canva, and so on. YouTube gurus will tell you to outsource the editing and other tasks, which makes a lot of sense, given how labor intensive it is.

Check out the video (link below) and let me know what you think! Which improvements do you suggest? What other types of watercolor videos would you like to see? I appreciate your time and feedback!

Original painting and prints are also available on ETSY!..