As the painting moves along, you’ll hear me question a new color that I feel pulled to add to this painting, Deep Sap Green. I’m not entirely sure if it’s going to work with this painting, but I take the chance and I add it anyway. And I end up loving it.

One of the things I really love about doing these mini 4.5 x 6” paintings, is that they are just very small pieces of paper so I don’t feel precious about it and like I’m wasting paper or paint. This lends itself perfectly to trying new things, learning to trust your intuition, and practicing your painting skills.

Notice how with each new color I begin with a very light value by adding lots of water to it. This is so I can see how I like it on the paper. Once I know that I like it, I begin to add bits of more saturated (darker) color in certain spots (not everywhere). This is so we have a nice beautiful contrast of values. We’ve got very light lights and very dark darks.

I take my time as I make this painting. It’s like I’m listening to the painting, waiting for it to tell me what it wants to happen next. This is where your intuition comes through. You get this feeling in your gut or in your heart. Like when I wanted to add the Deep Sap Green it was just this feeling that whispered to me, “add some deep sap green.”

Start listening to those little urges or cravings or those feelings in your gut. Listen to what those feelings are telling you and then do what that feeling tells you. It won’t always turn out and that is okay because you are learning to exercise your intuition and learning to hear and hone in on your intuition.

Notice how lightly I hold my brush and that I hold it near the end of it so that it’s looser in my hand. Also, note how I’m just very lightly touching the paper with the tip of my brush. I’m just very gently dabbing on color. And then I take a moment to watch and see what happens. I take my time to see how the watercolor is spreading and reacting and this helps me to decide what to do next.