Emma Jane LeFebvre
I have been working on this series of YouTubers for several reasons. First, there are so many out there, it's hard to tell which ones will work for you. Second, I get so many requests to paint something in the style of ______ (insert artist name here). While there is a lot you can get from watching painting videos, you don't have any way of popping your head in there and saying, "Hey! I don't understand what you're saying. How do I do that?!!" And while you can't put me or any other teacher on "pause," you can pause a video. That's a plus.
I decided to begin this series on YouTubers with Emma LeFebvre. (pronounced Lefabv, with a long A)
She is a young Canadian who has been teaching on Youtube for about 4 or 5 years. A year ago she posted a Watercolor Week tutorial. There are 7 tutorials, about 28 minutes long each, well worth watching, especially if you are a beginner or not very confident. I love that she keeps her videos short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhFBybA6K4M This is day one of Watercolor Week. She discusses supplies in this one, so it is well worth watching. Others talk about wet on wet technique, color, value, brush strokes, and other beginner necessities. I watched all 7.
Emma focuses on LOOSE florals, leaves, etc., but she does other things.
For an example of florals, which emphasize brush stroke, see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTuJTnlE37U
I would call her work illustrative. They are good for times you don't have a lot of time to paint, but want to keep your brushes wet. Especially if you love florals, and making petals seem transparent. What I think you will get from her are some very solid skills, learning brush strokes, and practices for those skills. She has a lot of beginner tutorials, since this is her target audience. Things you need regardless of what subjects or styles you want to paint. As you may have experienced, many teachers never go over these basics. (I suspect it's either because they have never learned it themselves, or they don't want students to feel "bored" with basic drills)
As a teacher, she does a very good job of explaining what she is doing and why. The website says she posts every Monday, Wed, Friday.
She doesn't normally teach from a pattern or reference photo. She does try out different papers, paints, and brushes, and talks about those. She doesn't use the same paint brands that I do, but she uses good ones. I use tube paints (for my own reasons), and she uses paint in pans.
Emma LeFebvre does have a patreon channel, with levels from $2.50, $5.50, 10.50, and $16. With the lowest version you basically get all the youtube work with no commercials. And it's organized in a way that's easy to find what you want.
Today in class we painted something similar to this plum tutorial. (We did peaches). We used the same approach, using wet into wet, "charging" color, and allowing paint to "bleed" into areas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Tw3ZLsIMqo&t=666s
The most important aspect of using youtube videos is to DO IT. Watching doesn't train your hand and eyes. Try it. You might have some unexpected fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=q9YKWaY37A4 This is Emma's first book, made especially for beginners. Here she shows and reviews the book and does a demo taken from the book. Amazon and Wal-Mart have it for about $19.00. I wish her good luck!
Any thing I put in my blog is not supported by any company. If it were, Dollar Tree would owe me big time! I just put in what I've tried and love. See you next week!
