Watercolors by Jim Oberst Blog

We're going to take a little break from design, and talk about using an iPad (or other tablet) to manage reference photos. Shortly af...

The Lieutenancy building stands at the entrance to the Old Basin at Honfleur. It was built in the 18th century, and was the home of the G...

In our previous artist tip , we introduced the idea of simplification through using symbols .  We shall continue this discussion by introduc...

Across the Venice lagoon from St. Mark's Basilica lies a small island, San Giorgio Maggiore. It is home to a marina filled with sailb...

Mousehole (pronounced “mowzel”) is a picturesque seaside town in Cornwall, UK, with a beach and harbor ringed by stone jettys. If you...

Simplify, simplify!   Representational artists hear these words over and over again from teachers and art textbooks.  If we don’t simplify t...

In artist tip #9 , we introduced the Elements of Design - the elements we have to work with to create our paintings.  The first element we d...

The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore is a 16th century church with campanile, or bell tower, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in the Ve...

Many artists, who don't like plein air painting, or who cannot spend the time on site that it requires, use reference photos for their ...

A view across the Venice lagoon of the marina on the tip of the island San Giorgio Maggiore. The church with its campanile dominates the ...

The Center of Interest (COI) is a relatively small area that is more attractive than the rest of the painting, and serves as a focal point ...

This scene is of the walkway along the grand canal in Venice, in front of Saint Mark's square, near the vaporetto stop. The buildings...

We continue our conversation about  Design Guidelines with a discussion of how dark edges can improve our paintings.  First, let's con...

d0710: A gondolier plies his trade on one of the narrow canals in Venice. If you'd like to purchase this 11" x 15" origina...

Our last Artist Tip #17 discussed the importance of value patterns to painting design, and suggested doing one or several value sketches ...

Venice allows no land vehicles, so everything and everyone must be moved by boat. In this scene of the Grand Canal, a working boat (truck...

In previous artist tips, we covered the elements and principles of design.  Now, we'll cover some design guidelines : a number of sugges...

I just completed a 5-day watercolor workshop in Fallbrook, California, taught by Joseph Zbukvic , a modern master of watercolor.  Joseph com...