5 Watercolor Painting Hacks Perfect for Beginners

In Transit

Artist Kathryn Keller Larkins risks everything by embracing gigantic dimensions and a radically limited palette. She?s no longer a novice artist, but she still has some of the best tips for beginners to try.

Through Security by Kathryn Keller Larkins

Larkins’ work is distinguished by many things. It?s distinguished by her decision to use a highly restricted palette, to start. She uses primarily Winsor & Newton. Her paintings are dominated by grays and blacks, which she then augments sparingly with soft colors. These often serve as accents. They lift the work away from an insistent monochrome and suggest a world of color.

The effect is distancing — perhaps even alienating in some way — as though color has become little more than a memory in some sort of dystopian future. That?s why its use adds to the highly charged atmosphere of her work.

“I like how the eye begins…