Our Brand Ambassadors have delighted us this season, creating watercolor magic during our Friday LIVE Holiday-themed Paint-Alongs!

Hosted by our own John Cogley via Zoom and Facebook Live, we’ve enjoyed various presentations by our Brand Ambassadors, such as this incredible Gingerbread house snow globe by Carrie Roets-Waller from the USA!

Carrie staged and photographed her own reference photo for this luminous painting and reserved the glass globe section to paint during her short demo.

For the gingerbread of the little house, she chose 3 shades that would complement each other for the rich ochre of the walls.

“Whatever I’m painting, I always try to find three different versions of that color. It’s fun to discover new combinations!”

Carrie used these three watercolors for her chosen trio:

Mars Yellow for the gingerbread highlights.

Transparent Yellow Oxide for the mid-tones.

Perylene Maroon for the darkest areas of the gingerbread.

When asked why she chose a particular color, Carrie responds,

“I like to pick out a color I’m not familiar with just to see how it ‘plays.’ I always equate my paints to friends on the playground; some are nice to each other, some are bullies, and some don’t play well together. So when I’m doing these [presentations], I like to challenge myself. Since we have access to such wonderful colors from Daniel Smith, I try to find some new ones I haven’t used a lot just to see what’s gonna happen.”

Carrie mentioned that she makes sure to use each color in three different areas of her paintings, in a triangulation.

“It just adds to the cohesiveness of the piece. If I’m using a bright color, or even this Perylene Maroon, it’s nice to have it in a triangulation. So if I have it here and I have it there, I want to have it somewhere else that creates a triangle.”

She continues,

“The ‘Rule of Odds’ in the triangulation is something I really try to emphasize. You can really direct a viewer into your painting where you want them with those ideas. Our brain likes to pair things up so it keeps us viewing and looking for the pair, so if you have it in three places your eyes are kind of jumping around trying to figure out where the other pair is, so you’re keeping your eyes moving around your composition.”

To watch Carrie in action and as well as the other incredible holiday-themed presentations, we invite you to visit YouTube and enjoy this special LIVE session!