What happens when you bring together watercolor artists from different parts of the world, give them a subject to explore, and invite everyone to paint along?

You get a wonderful mix of color discoveries, creative techniques, unexpected surprises, and plenty of inspiration!

Since September, DANIEL SMITH Thursday LIVE with John Cogley has introduced a fresh Paint Along format, bringing our Brand Ambassadors together to explore a different subject each week.

The idea is simple: one subject, multiple artistic approaches, and endless possibilities with color.

Whether you’re just beginning your watercolor journey or have been painting for years, there’s always something new to discover when you see how another artist approaches a familiar subject.  And that’s where the fun begins!

Our September Paint Along sessions began with subjects that invited artists to look more closely at the colors around them.

Besnik’s Mix for skintone with Phthalo Yellow Green and Opera Pink.

Besnik’s video clip on skintone mix

Painting skin tones is a wonderful exercise in understanding color relationships. Rather than relying on a single ready-made color, artists can explore warm and cool mixtures, subtle undertones, and the beautiful variations that bring portraits to life.

It’s a reminder that skin tones are as diverse and expressive as the people we paint.

Who says shadows have to be gray or black?

With Brand Ambassadors Stella Canfield, Jane Blundell, Sabine Dreher,  and Carrie Roets Waller, our exploration of shadows opened up possibilities for mixing colorful darks, understanding temperature, and creating depth.

A shadow might lean blue, violet, green, or warm brown, depending on the light, surrounding colors, and artistic interpretation.

The takeaway? Shadows aren’t simply darker areas of a painting. They’re opportunities to make color more interesting!

Few subjects invite color experimentation quite like a sunset.

Joining us were Brand Ambassadors Angela Barbi, Buffy Kaufman, Patricia Vargas, and Erkin Yilmaz, each sharing their own approaches to capturing the atmosphere and changing colors of the sky.

From warm, glowing hues to cooler transitions and dramatic darks, the session explored transparent watercolors, granulating pigments, and the possibilities of mixing with the DANIEL SMITH Essentials Set.

One of the most exciting things about sunset painting is discovering how a limited selection of colors can produce a surprisingly wide range of moods.

A small adjustment to a mixture can change the entire feeling of a sky.

And sometimes, the most beautiful effects happen when we allow water and pigment to do a little of the work for us!

Green is everywhere in nature, but take a closer look and you’ll discover that no two greens are exactly alike.

With Gonzalo Cid, Kathleen McElwein, Silvia Trad, and Tom Shepherd, our Paint Along explored the many possibilities of painting trees and bushes.

From sunlit foliage to deeper woodland greens, artists can experiment with warm and cool mixtures, earthy neutrals, and expressive brushwork to create variety.

The beauty of mixing your own greens is that you can adjust them to suit the landscape, the light, and the mood you want to capture.

Who says color mixing has to be serious?

Sometimes the best way to learn is to paint something playful, familiar, and delicious!

Our Donuts Paint Along brought together Brand Ambassadors Letizia Monacelli, Silvia Trad, Sandy Allnock, and Besnik Xhemaili for a fun exploration of color, texture, and creative interpretation.

Think golden pastry tones, colorful icing, rich shadows, and those tempting little details that make a donut look good enough to eat.

Even a simple subject like a donut offers opportunities to practice color mixing, build dimension, explore highlights, and discover how different artists interpret the same object.

And perhaps that’s one of the biggest lessons from Thursday LIVE: inspiration can come from just about anything!

Every color mix is an opportunity to discover something new! Sometimes the results are exactly what we imagined, and other times, they surprise us. That’s all part of the fun of exploring watercolor!

So grab your DANIEL SMITH tubes or dot cards, experiment with your favorite colors, and see where your creativity takes you!

And don’t forget to join John Cogley and our DANIEL SMITH Brand Ambassadors every Thursday LIVE at 2:00 PM Seattle Time, where our global watercolor community comes together to learn about colors, explore exciting mixes, share inspiration, and have fun painting together!

Because Thursday LIVE is more than just a color exploration. It’s where our DANIEL SMITH community paints together!  Join here.

Keep exploring. Keep mixing. Keep painting!