Why are watercolors hard? Because the painter is out of sequence. I brush in the "sunlight" at the beginning, then I had the bright colors and also the beautiful colors that I see.
Then I frame these colors with darks: really black but I mix my black or use indigo from the tube. If the bird is dark then the background is light. I'm finished when the darks set off the lights!

How does a painter make something look real? Is it color? The shape? Darks and lights? Brushstrokes? Or all of the above. Lets look at these birds: what is in front of them and behind them? Nature is about things interfering with another thing and painters call this shapes and space. Brushstrokes that make a shape all at once(one sweep of the brush) is what nature does-its there! Try these tricks to make your paintings more "real".

Today I am posting the watercolor version of the Goldfinches. Yesterday I posted an oil and challenged my self to paint the intensity of the oil paints.
One great American painter, Edgar Payne,  is known to have lamented that our paints are 400 times less intense than nature.
If you don't like your painting then add more color!

This is an oil painting not watercolor! But my challenge today is to replicate this painting in watercolors.
Students come to my classes and have chosen one medium or another for all kinds of reasons- toxicity, ease of painting, ease of clean-up, beauty of the finished painting and more.
I believe painting is painting and the different qualities of each medium are not so different.
Setting a goal is a powerful incentive. Try setting a goal!