When watching this I imagine the sounds of a crowd watching fireworks, going "ÖOooooh, Aaaaaahhhhhh"

I love to do spontaneous landscapes. They're a nice break and a great way of learning new things

After watching your spontaneous landscape tutorials I've begun to experiment with doing them myself. Really enjoying it and learning new techniques. Thank you.

Try using a small bit of webbing used in Halloween decor. Apply paint over it on paper, let it dry, then pull it off for some interesting texture.

Try gauz or lace from your first aid kit. Use one layer and stretch it then laying on your paper and add paint. Let it dry. Most of the paint is absorbed by the fabric and stains the paper that way. Very interesting for landscapes.

This is a fantastic piece, Steve. For texture, I like to add watercolor pencil shavings. I sharpen the pencil and remove the wood bits and sprinkle the pigment into a wet area. Interesting results, give it a go. 😃

I recently discovered this series and have fallen in love with this technique. I love how these paintings make your mind work and how no two people would see the same forms. To me..thats 'art'😊. I like to use salt water as a granulating medium..it gives some interesting effects. Hope to see more of your videos..very enjoyable.

I think your inner child came out to play today! Your spontaneous paintings are so educational and entertaining. Always gives me more and different ways to play with watercolor. Thank you for sharing.

Hi! I am a watercolor artist and have watched a few of your “spontaneous landscapes”and I finally tried it. Loved it. I used splatter masking as well. After posting my finished painting, which only took me around 3 hours, I had over 200 likes in less then a couple hours. Shocked! People loved it.

After searching on "extended point" I also found another similar brush to the Lebenzon brush. Rosemary & Co Series 336. Extended Needle Point Posara - the body of the brush is made from a squirrel/synthetic sable blend, while the needle point is synthetic - and a great price. Then I realized I actually have one of these; so now I have to try it out like you have done here. Love your spontaneous landscapes. I got brave enough to try it by following one of yours... turned out absolutely nothing like the model, but it was a good painting though.

I have used sea sponges to create texture including using a dry sponge to lift out foreground details.

I finally tried doing this painting style you showed and have something pretty interesting. I had to trust the process and keep going!

Ann Blockley has a splendid mind for rediscovering the wonders of watercolor.

My texture experiments: - salt, both fine and coarse, various results depending on paper, water quantity, salt type and pigment type - granulation, by selecting granulating pigments, and I actually prefer the effect it has on textured paper as it offers small pools for the pigments to settle into - spatter: always a nice thing! - plastic film: interesting, I only used it once to create a surreal tutu for a dancer illustration - working into wet non stop from paper completelly soaked into water up until it dries, as you can get a nice gradient from very fuzzy to crisp

Thank you for introducing Ann Blockley to me I love looking at her photos of her work and wondering... how on earth? It was great watching you - fantastic!

I absolutely love your spontaneous videos. Please make more. I am definitely going to get white ink. That just made the picture pop!

Thank you for the demo with real time commentary. I am preparing to introduce creating texture effects to a watercolor painting class and this has been perfect. Very instructive and satisfying.

Oh, yes!!! The sparkling path bekons me into the mysterious forest and I must go...

I LOVE this painting. I have played around with a few texture techniques. One I have fun with is a straw to blow on puddles to create branches and such.

Wow! Thank you. Watched this over and over and wrote so many notes. Now to experiment with granulation!

I could watch you do these all day. Thank you.

I have most of Ann Blockley’s books. I was a huge fan of her late father, John Blockley, so I also have a number of his books, too.

I think I’ve watched this one three different times now. It’s one of my favorites. 😊

I just imagine the white drops as a water lilies as they spread nicely around and you’ve smudge them. 😂😂 Steve, thank you for taking me out my comfort zone, even when watching. And perhaps I can finally write you one gratitude comment after all these years here. Thank you for sharing all your tips and techniques. It’s always my pleasure to learn with you and experiment. I wish you a beautiful day and I hope you are doing well 🤗💞 Thank you once again.

Love to watch Mr. Mitchell paint! It inspires and teaches at the same time.

I could watch these videos all day long. I especially enjoy them when you get excited by something that happens you didn’t expect. Great way to show the fun of experimenting with watercolor. I have used salts and water spritz… timing is everything! I haven’t used the ink before but I will now. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

Interesting techniques that i would like to try.....enjoyed video.....im putting hot press paper on my xmas list...🎨👩‍🎨✍

Just beautiful… love the white ink and the risk taking 💛

I prefer hearing your thought process as you go. After all, it is called The "Mind" of Watercolor. It started looking like a wooded island with reflection in the water. Final product is awesome!

Really nice. I like to use salt and spattering, scrunched cling film is good too. I'm going to try this 👍

I found myself so relaxed watching you paint. I am new to watercolor painting so I'll be trying these textures on my own masterpieces. Thank you for your instructions, well worth watching.

Thanks so much for your demonstration. I’ve used salt and stick work but never used a pipeette. I’m definitely going to try and will watch more of your tutorials.

That was perfect! I was driving home just before sunset last week and the sky and trees had that exact quality! Brings back some great sense memories of a beautiful summer day.

Wow that’s a great variety of techniques and textures you have used to achieve another beautiful spontaneous landscape. For my textures, I have used splattering, back runs/cauliflowers, scratching/embossing, white gel pens, oil pastel underneath watercolor, & white wax crayon. Have not try salt, ink, or gouache for texture yet. Thanks for sharing this wonderful video with us.

As a devoted subscriber of your videos for years, your mastery of spontaneous landscapes is astounding!

You are having too much fun........in the past I have been a every feather type of artist , I love the loose and spontaneous art you show us........i remember in school we scribbled and then tried to pick out an object...... I lost that, I'm giving this a go! Thank you so much!

I have a couple of John Blockley books (her Dad) and I also love her techniques. He broke the rules to create dramatic watercolours with accurate buildings and contrasting, abstract landscape combined. A lovely technique I'll be exploring.

The first three minutes I was like, “Oh that looks doable”! 😂 Getting that water control is the big rub. I got a sense of a medieval forest as you progressed. Very nice!!

I so enjoyed the real time commentary in this video. I love doing spontaneous landscapes. I have used salt, spatters, saran wrap, tooth picks, garden sticks, store cards, water spatters and Dr. PH Martin Bleed-proof white for spattering….. In Landscapes and Florals and intuitive watercolor paintings. I like salt as backgrounds for birds and animals. Wherever I am guided, I add texture. I love texture! Steve, you are certainly a Master of the Spontaneous landscapes. I’ve learned so much from you. I just can’t get enough! Thank you so much.❤️

beautiful job. i am a sucker for black ink pen for highlights. i know i should not ......but i do.

This is one of my favorite spontaneous paintings I've watched you do! I've never heard of granulating liquid and I'm inspired to try it! Thank you.

I love when you play it by ear ~ fun and educational! Thank you, Steve💁🏼‍♀️👍

I love these spontaneous paintings, thank you so much.

Another magical opportunity to watch you create your spontaneous art. I am always amazed at the beauty you bring out. I haven't tried salt yet, but I will. I have used white gouache and white ink pens with good results. Being a birch trees lover, white comes in handy in a distant forest. Love you. ❤️

I really enjoy doing your technique of spraying droplets on the paper then painting in small washes and letting the paint do it's thing, especially for foliage. I've used the salt technique as well. That works well for rock textures for me along with spatter from a brush or tooth brush. Using plastic wrap and cheese cloth is fun. I've laid string down in wet paint. I am going to have to try a spontaneous landscape!

It looks like sunrise over swampy waters. The white ink was a very nice surprise.

Love the effects when the paint works itself !

Thank you so much for sharing your talent. You're inspirational!

Howdy Steve, I think I would have done a golden sienna glaze over the white ink or mixed the ink with a warm colour first. Here is a real tale of terror. Two weeks ago in a workshop in Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, over 3 days , 8 class mates. The course was "fungi botanical scientific" (the week before, same place, two days, I did plein air workshop and ended up in large semi abstract watercolours..) lol) I spoke to my teacher about having a dark background, and liking a style that was dark and botanical. So just before lunch, 15 mins, I mixed about 7 darks together, (DS dried tube on palette, Quin rose, phthalo green, for the dark black mix, then into it went undersea green, green apatite, undersea green, and perylene green, maybe a few more, and colour corrected to warm brown black with more rose.) I made a lot of it, cream consistency. I wanted a dark, warm, brown black with a huge amount of granulation. I was scared, but I went for it, to put it all on in one go. (If I had of brought my masking fluid it would have worked) But no, I decided I would put all the dark background on all in one go, leaving the fungi drawing scaled at 5:1. My first problem was I had to use size 2 brush around the edges of the fungi, and was rushing and shaking so much, that I lost the thickness of the stipe (stem) which is thicker at the top, near the cap in this particular fungi. I didn't dare try to lift it along a vertical line, and with the phthalo component in the mix, ....I buggered it properly with impatience. I came into eat with my class mates, told them, and a woman said "if in doubt spray the edges". So I ran back to my work to spray it good and proper. Heavily. It was so much fun. Then more spray. It ran the downward slope and it made "little finger shaped marks and took the granulation along with it" over the hot pressed Fabriano Artistico A3 paper block. ( A bit like your work Steve on bottom right) I ate my lunch, dried my work with my heat tool, and "slopped on the yellow underside, vermillion orange cap and red to violet in shadows, on the fungi, very quickly" as the fungi looked. My teacher came around and said "too much water." lol. I said looking up at her, "Well I wrecked it, so I decided to wreck it properly" (really was to save face) My palette full of dark thick high water, and her with tiny pea spot dry mixes with a gentle touch from nearly no pigment with small brushes. My class mates commented on my lovely dark warm heavily granulating sprayed thing. I can barely look at the work, now, let alone fix it. A few women in our class said, "oh you can save these mushrooms!" To me, loosing the critical thickness of the stipe with a shaky hand was enough for me. What came out of this serendipitous moment is this kind of immense learning factor! 1) One can mix many colours together, if most pigments are on one side of the colour wheel. 2) Hot pressed paper when sprayed, has the "miniature fingers and granulation channels" ,you also had Steve, on the lower bottom right of your picture, which in my case looked like it could have been painted as "lichen fungi which looked like I took hours to paint it, instead of seconds." 3) One can do a very dark, thick, high, creamy consistency layer all at once (with masking fluid) 4) I will make this mix again! (It separated better when sprayed, more than any other granulating pigment I have ever used) 5) Despite the name of a workshop class, and an extremely patient, scientific, professional tutor, who's demos "looked like a photography process where the paper is developed and the image is ghostly and comes up from the back slowly", with her 000 brushes no glasses no light, and me holding my breath, and looking at little red mushrooms that I could barely see with my glasses on, a light and a magnifying glass...." and 6) sometimes we are adversely impatient at the wrong time, and it isn't because we deny the process...or hate the teacher's approach (but can appear that way) 7) My dad said "to embarrass yourself daily, as it was good for us". Dad, I made you proud this time round...I can hear him laughing and saying, "oh well...if you don't laugh, you cry." and "You can say anything you like as long as you are smiling...... In kindred spirit, Eliza Most Beautiful Day is Today! Sunday 5th of June 2022; 12:27pm Sydney Australia xx PS I challenge you Steve, 😂😊, to make" a live stream, seemingly crazy, many pigment, dark granulating, staining mix background, put it on all at once, spray heavily" with masking fluid as the block, and heat tool dry it!

Triangles are sacred and very appealing in my opinion . I love your spontaneous compositions and have learned so much watching you paint

Love it !

It looks like water and rocks flowing down! Just beautiful!

I love watching your process.The finished painting is really soft and peaceful .I really love this one 🥰

I don't usually like these spontaneous paintings but you got me on this one it is lovely and I even think it was just as lovely half way through.

Brilliant and thought provoking. Thank you so much

I do love Ann Blockley's work.

It is a pleasure watching you create. Thanks for sharing.

This was a great treat. Thank you for sharing your experiments. It was so fun to watch.

This was so fun to watch!

What you called a "tree" was to me water like a creek with rocks. I love seeing art in progress in real time. Thankyou for sharing, I am going to my desk right now and try it! I like salt water (mixtur 2:1 or 3:1; makes a crusti edge litle bit shiny) to creat texture but I also work with wachs and I tapp a lot (foil, paper, cardstock, yarn).

Beautiful. Inspirational. Thank you.

I LOVE SOOO MUCH YOUR WORK AND LESSONS. IT IS THE BEST TIME FOR ME TO WATCH YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH

I love this, so gorgeous!!!!

Yes I'm watching this Spontaneous painting again something about this I like lot. Thank you!!!!!

Love the different textures!!!! I will try some of them!!!! Thanks sooo much !!

Lovely!

This painting is marvelous !

I really enjoyed this as usual! You introduced me to Ray Hendershot’s work and using his very fine spatter technique has improved my landscapes a lot. So thank you Steve!

This is SO helpful for me! thank you for letting me watch your process! I have used ink - but have been a bit timid. I want to try the granulation medium next, and to get one of those brushes! ☺

Thank you, very informative and beautiful!

Thanks for introducing me to Ann’s book. Her style is one that I wish were mine. I do try to create textures a lot, using salt, water droplets and spattering opaque paints like jaune brilliant or lavender into a dark wet area and letting that run. I have white ink, walnut ink and granulation fluid but I haven’t played with them enough. Your process and the finished painting were fun and a huge success.😊

Great tips on different watercolour techniques. Thank you for sharing

Loved this video Steve, I would love to see more based off of Ann's books ,it's fun seeing you surprised while you paint....

I love this, ordering some supplies will try them as soon as they get here. Thanks so much

I love textures so this was great. I’ve tried salt with some interesting results but only after I had stepped away for a coffee break and came back to some interesting texture. A favourite of mine is doing smooth rocks with cellophane crumpled up and placed over the first wash and go for another coffee and really let it dry. The next day I’ll build up a few washes to create shadow allowing the texture from the cellophane to show through. I’m going to try the same effect on creating the look of water. It should be amazing or terrible but that’s the fun part.

This turned out amazing Steve ! I was in a hypnotic state watching it take shape. Your work is beautiful ! Thank you for sharing it.

Amazing work! thank you for sharing your talent!

Adding a wash over was crayon-always a thrill!

Love your style and technique… beautiful painting! Painting 🎨🖼

You're an excellent teacher, sir. Thank you for sharing your time, expertise, & talent.

I like playing with texture. I do crazy things likemaprinkling sawdust or even wheat bran on parts then sweeping them off when it’s, dry. Baby powder does interesting things sprinkled on a dark spot. The gum Arabic can bind it to the surface or you can sweep it. I have used an underlayer of India ink...waterproof when dry, then some masking spatter then a watercolor over paint to create a kind of depth to a spot. Texture is a lot, of fun, but you have to be mentally prepared for it, not to work.

Fabulous! Thank you

Wonderfull !!! You are the best!

So beautiful!! Thanks for sharing your talent, loved watching your painting process. Keep it up ❤️

Thank you very much! I've done some experimenting, it's fun.

I loved watching this and will definitely e watching more of your vids as I am reacquainting myself with watercolor paintings . It’s been many years since I’ve painted anything let alone with watercolor paints . I’m feeling excited to paint again !

After watching your video I experimented with gouache and watercolour. I think I’ll try aging to do it and see if I could add granulated watercolour tint to it. Thank you for sharing your beautiful process.

This is an interesting and fun demo. I've never thought of hot press as being able to give such granulation since the paper is so smooth - amazing how the pigments reveal that on the hot press. Thanks

I like the white paint look. Definitely gonna use that one.

Wow, that is cool. Beautiful

Thank you for sharing, always learn a lot from your videos

Wow, learned so much in this video….off to make tea and play. Thank you very much

I really enjoyed watching you design this panting. Perspective, is fantastic. 🙏🏻❤️

Fabulous. Thanks for the tutorial, I'm looking forward to seeing what I can do too.

That turned out great! I love the colors you chose. I've never tried granulation medium, but now I want to give it a go. Thanks for a great video, Steve!

Beautiful work.

Great painting.

Just goes to show the importance of strong composition, which gives you the space for your texture experiments where us mere mortals would get a messy blob. I was particularly enthusiastic about the white and gold vertical lines of spatter, they made for a very dynamic picture. I've tried granulation medium, salt, painting with sea water, scrubbing with a bristle brush or credit card. My favourite technique is spattering with clean water, it's softer than salt. I use white ink for highlights but now will try spattering it. Thank you for this!

Magnificent demonstration. I've hoped to learn this from you someday. You have such a gift for teaching. Thank you so much. I'm going to watch this and practice often. I am new to all the techniques here. I would consider this style of layout....a Vignette.

Love this! These spontaneous watercolors you do always have such an ethereal dream-like quality about them. I really like using the spray bottle as I have been learning how to do some of these. Salt has been fun too when I use it sparingly.