A Low-Pressure Way to Build Color Confidence

When Ep.15 guest, Debbie Miller, decided she wanted to feel more confident with color, she didn’t squeeze it into her morning painting sessions. Instead, she found a completely different pocket of time.

One of her most successful spots? In front of the television.

Here’s what she did: She pulled out her watercolors or gouache and simply mixed colors to see what happened.

No pressure. No finished pieces. Just exploration.

And while, yes, those mixes behaved a little differently than they would in acrylic, the color mixing practice still built a deep, transferable understanding of how color works.

Best of all, it didn’t feel like work.

PUT IT TO PRACTICE

Finishing paintings is an important way to build skill. But painting also comes with its own kind of stress. There are a lot of variables to juggle, and that can make learning harder than it needs to be.

If there’s a specific area where you want to improve, consider creating space for focused exploration outside of finished paintings. This lets you zoom in, observe cause and effect, and learn without the added complexity (and confusion) of a whole piece.

Then, when you return to your paintings, you bring those skills with you.