The Dance of Watercolor: Beginners and Beyond

____THE GOOD:____When I first started painting watercolor, I scoured Youtube and my library for videos and books to help me get started. I found a lot of useful information, but they still did not adequately address the number one thing that (in hindsight) was causing me frustration with my paintings. That is, my lack of understanding of the relationship between the wetnesses of the paint, paper and brush. I kept getting backruns and blooms where I didn't want them, and I'd end up with muddy messes.When I saw this DVD, it was like an "a ha!" moment for me.This is the best and most thorough breakdown of the relationship of paint, paper, and brush wetness that I've come across. Other videos or explanations will say "get a nice paint consistency," but they don't specify how thick it should be, or how wet your paper and brush should be. My paintings took an instant leap once I realized what was going on.Ms. Cohn speaks in a clear, easy to follow manner. The DVD's picture quality is excellent, and she also has very helpful visuals that unambiguously illustrate her concepts of paper and paint wetness.She also shows how to correct common mistakes like blooms or uneven paint application, and even has a small section on basic color theory.____THE NOT SO GOOD:____While Ms. Cohn does spend some time explaining how to choose your materials, her treatment feels cursory, especially for brushes. She doesn't adequately explain the difference between synthetic and natural hair brushes, and why some brushes are so much more expensive than others.As another reviewer pointed out, where the DVD really lacks is that she does not explain how to care for your tools. She doesn't mention that she squeezes the brush gently, and worse, she omits mentioning the two biggest mistakes that people, regardless of age or maturity level, make--leaving brushes sitting in the bowl of water, and then having them dry hairs up. Over time, this will ruin the brush.She also doesn't mention how to stretch watercolor paper, which seems like a major oversight to me. Watercolor paper will often buckle if you use a lot of water, so many artists will immerse the paper in water and stretch it first to help avoid this problem.Other topics she skipped include: masking fluid (preserves the white of the paper), using white gouache as accents, use of salt and plastic wrap for special effects.While there is only one walkthrough of a finished painting included, I feel that she illustrated her concepts so well throughout the rest of the DVD, that this is not a major detraction.And finally, I realize I may be flamed for this, but I found her singing to be distracting. She has a brief, unannounced interlude of singing right in the middle of the DVD before she gets into color theory. It is a nice song, but I personally feel that it is better placed at the end, as it is in her followup DVD, "The Dance of Watercolor: Luminosity, Luster, Iridescence."____OVERALL:____Despite its significant drawbacks, I liked this DVD so much that after I borrowed it from the library, I purchased my own copy. I highly recommend it to any beginning watercolorist, with the caveat that they might want to use another watercolor book to supplement for more step-by-step painting examples, additional techniques, and for more detailed explanations of key subjects like caring for brushes. (Gordon MacKenzie's 'The Watercolorist's Essential Notebook,' and Marilyn Scott's 'Watercolor Artist's Bible' come to mind as excellent options.)4.5 stars/5Thanks for reading my review, and I hope it was helpful to you!

This is a curious DVD. I ordered it for two reasons. 1. Living in France would an American dvd work for me (the english ones do, no problem). STNC(hope that is the in the right order) all regions, works in France, its usually Pal 2 here. 2. Some years ago I bought Ewa Karpinska's book Aquarelle, la lumiére de l'eau. with many different colour charts a more sophisticated version of puddle, dot, dash pile but called miroir, brillante, mat ( categories), it is a abeautiful book but I never really got to terms with the painting process, so Julie's dvd promised to present a clear & simple demonstration of the flow of water and pigment, I learn better by watching than by reading. When I went back to Ewa's book after seeing Julies dvd, it all made sense. I have been watercolour painting for 20 years and have collected many superb dvds, starting with Alwyn Crawshaw, who paints the picture and generously shares his knowledge with you along the way, also Tony Crouch 'Mountain, streams, etc', E John Robinson for the sea, Karen Simmonds for flowers, and the two super stars Charles Reid and Shirley Trevenna. etc; etc; No one better than Helen v an Wyke for oils!!Julie's dvd is I suppose more modern, not so cosy as what I consider my dear friends, but when I tried to analyse it, puddle, dot, dash, works. I looked at Turner's book of watercolours in Venice and found PDDW repeated time & time again. I would like to put in a word about the Arches bloc recommended. We usually leave the clean sheet in place on the bloc, easy to take into the garden or countryside with your paints, no paper flapping around, you can put as much water on it as you like, it stays stretched and will dry quite flat ready to be then taken off the bloc as demonstrated by Julie. Once again, thank you Amazon for giving one these opportunities plus speedy delivery.

This video is a relaxed version of instruction that could complement a more advanced beginner's watercolor experience. Obviously a very talented watercolorist and instructor, Julie Cohn provides wonderfully calming examples and demonstrates accurate techniques. However, care of brushes and accurate terminology are necessary in preparatory instruction. Both are not obvious enough in this video, and would require a teacher's interruption of the video to give clarification and terminology emphasis. For example, one should never squeeze and pull on the bristles of the brush to remove water; instead, squeeze and dab the brush gently, which she does, but does not mention. The gentle rubbing to remove the water or to flatten the bristles needs clarification to ward off students' pulling out the bristles. Also, the terms glazed, layered/overlapped, opaque, transparent, and semitransparent, blended and graded, wash, hatch, stipple, and dry-brush would be on my students' "sampler" charts, along with her terms of moisture content: puddle, dot, dash, and pile. Julie Cohn's emphasis on achieving effective application using moisture control makes this relaxing video useful to an educator on a personal talent improvement level, and provides diversion from the stilted, but required discipline of the classroom: possibly a good application review prior to first painting. I will definitely use her beneficial idea of dancing with watercolor.