Dear Friend,
What do you think of when you think of watercolor?
I tend to think of water and color spreading wildly across the paper, all with a mind of its own!
If you want to learn to create REALISTIC, almost photorealistic, paintings, do what others do … turn to this man.
Here’s the story:
A few years ago, I had the pleasure to meet a man the world’s top watercolor artists consider one of their forerunners.
He has participated in some of the top watercolor events in the world and has been responsible for a vast cooperative effort in bringing American watercolor artists to China, India, and other places.
When I saw his work, I didn’t believe it was watercolor. The work had a photorealism feel, and it blew me away.
Artistic and painterly, yet it felt like the real objects. That may be why his work was just featured in Gun & Garden magazine and why his paintings sell for big bucks.
I made a point to meet this artist, Laurin McCracken, and discovered he was more than a painter — he’s a man with a brilliant marketing mind and an in-demand celebrity artist.
In fact, in China, which has one of the world's largest watercolor movements, he is a very popular and honored watercolorist. Chances are you’d see people waiting in line for his autograph and a chance to buy his demo.
Frankly, using watercolor to create objects that look real is a very special craft, and Laurin spent years creating a special system so his processes can be used by other artists.
This is exactly why we had to invite Laurin to come into our studio and record an instructional art video showcasing watercolor realism.
When you see work like his, you’ll immediately see that it takes patience and planning, but after a brief lesson showing his techniques during our recent virtual watercolor conference, I saw his impact.
People were doing it and producing beautiful work. I was blown away that he was such a great teacher and that people were producing high-quality work after only a brief lesson.
The first thing I thought was, “If they are doing work that good with only a brief lesson, imagine the quality work they’ll be doing after a full instructional course.”