If a watercolor painting becomes too dark, use a bristle brush to scrub out the paint. Be sure to use lots of water and light pressure to prevent abrasions on the surface of the paper. After scrubbing, blot the excess moisture with paper towels.

• Watercolor Essentials
• Watercolor Secrets DVD
• Watercolor in Bloom

Ordinary masking tape may be used to keep small areas white, mask horizon lines when painting juicy skies or produce a strong directional edge. First, place tape over the area to be protected. Using a sharp X-Acto knife, cut through the tape only to the paper's surface. Gently pull off the outside shape of tape, being careful not to tear the surface of your paper. Paint over the tape and allow the wash to dry before removing the remaining tape.

• Creating Textures in Watercolor
• Creating Nature in Watercolor
• Watercolor Essentials

The eyes are the most crucial element, so I develop them almost fully before painting the rest of the portrait. If they're not right, the entire painting won't be right.

• Art of Portrait Drawing DVD
• Drawing a Portrait from Life DVD
• Expressive Portraits

When mixing your oils, keep in mind that you're not painting color, but light and its effects. For example, you wouldn't paint the illusion of a red chair the same way that you'd paint a chair red. Instead, you paint the chair as light affects it—in shadow areas, it may become violet, and the highlights may appear more orange.

• Dramatic Light
• Brilliant Color
• Capturing the Essence of Landscapes in Oils

The outdoor sketcher's best friend just might be a fisherman's vest. This multi-pocketed garment will hold pens, pencils, brushes, a small box of watercolors, oils, acrylics or pastels and even a small canteen. The fancier models boast a zip-on pouch that will hold an 8x10-inch pad. Best of all, a vest will leave your hands free; you literally wear your sketching gear.

• Artist's Sketchbook CD
• Sketching Landscapes in Pen and Pencil
• Plein-air painting books

The idea the warm colors advance and cool colors recede is central to creating believable space. To use this principle effectively, I choose a warm and cool variation of each color on my oil palette. Instead of mixing, you can use ivory black for a warm dark and Payne's gray for a cool one.

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The best papers are 100-percent rag, meaning they're made from cotton or linen rather than wood. They last indefinitely without becoming brittle the way wood-pulp papers do.

• Watercolor A to Z
• Acrylic Revolution
• Drawing from Within

To break away from painting or drawing the outlines of objects, I concentrate on breaking the entire composition into tones and shapes. This way, the foreground and background participate in the overall value pattern.

• Splash 10: Passionate Brushstrokes
• Drawing for the Absolute Beginner
• Artist Trading Card Workshop

Instead of making numerous compositional sketches, simply draw your subject once, then make several photocopies. Then cut out the individual elements, place them on a sheet that's the same size as your working surface will be, and move them around until you find a composition you like.

• Mastering Composition
• A Painter's Guide to Design and Composition
• Simple Secret to Better Painting

No matter how dark a color is, if it's in direct sunlight, it always stays in the light value range. Because of this—and in spite of the face that it defies logic—the shadowed part of a white object will appear to be darker than the sunlit plane of a black object.

• Painting Outdoor Shadows in Pastel
• Splash 7: Celebration of Light
• Painting Light with Colored Pencil

The easiest and safest way to transport a very large watercolor when you're having it framed or photographed is to leave it stapled to the support on which it was stretched, and then to cover it with several layers of heavy-duty plastic and/or brown paper.

• Shipping Pastels (A Fragile Matter)
• Treating Bumps and Bruises

To paint like J.M.W. Turner, emphasize the rhythmic movements within your subject to create a dramatic effect. Eliminate all whites from your paper by tinting it first with diluted, pure colors. But remember to restrict yourself to a range of very light to middle values. Create the effect of luminosity by contrasting clean colors against slightly darker, more neutral colors.

• Splash 10: Passionate Brushstrokes
• "J.M.W. Turner Combined the Real and Romantic"
• Exploring Watercolor

When you're painting a sunset on location, you have to move and think fast. To make sure I get all the information I need to create a good painting, I do pencil sketches and make color notes, then supplement this information by taking a few slides. Back in the studio, my combined references allow me to re-create the scene's glorious colors with ease.

• Artist's Digital Photo Reference: Landscapes
• Paint Along With Jerry Yarnell, Volume 8: Capturing Color
• The Artist's Magazine 2008 Issues On CD

Make a one-color still life painting. Gather an assortment of objects that are the same color and compose a still life on the same-colored background. Then use it to explore all the nuances of color, shadow and form.

• Oil Painting: The Workshop Experience
• Brilliant Color: Painting Vibrant Outdoor Scenes
• Confident Color: An Artist's Guide to Harmony, Contrast and Unity

To liven up your work experiment with bright, unrealistic colors, such as an orange sky.

• Confident Color by Nita Leland
• Brilliant Color by Julie Gilbert Pollard
• Creating Confident Color DVD

Don't be discouraged by show rejections. No artist is accepted to every juried show. As in any other aspect of life, there are trends in art that you shouldn't care to follow, but jurors are human. What looks passe may look fresh and exciting a few years down the road. So hang in there.

Before I work with a painting knife, I usually set the mood and work out my composition and color with a brush. Then I use the knife to make clean, clear strokes where a brush would disturb or remove the underlying paint.

• "The Importance of Planning" by Joyce Pike
• Oil Painting Basics
• "A Look Back: Joyce Pike"