"Don's video is geared to beginning and intermediate painters...Seasoned painters and teachers will tell you that their big breakthrough came when they began introducing design principles into their paintings."
NOW AVAILABLE !
View, learn and work at your own pace
Stream to your computer, laptop, tablet  or phone
DESIGNING NATURE ONLINE COURSE
INSTANT LIFETIME ACCESS
$99 USD
5 years in the making
Over 35 tutorials
Easy to understand visual and verbal explanations
accompanied by finished painting demonstrations
​Over 5 hours running time
WATCH PROMO BELOW
Watch the chapter " THE RELATIONSHIP OF COLOR AND VALUE" for FREE!
​TESTIMONIALS
"I can't tell you how much I am learning and enjoying your online course, Designing Nature,
but I'd like to try.
First, the format is absolutely wonderful!! I love how you explain a  concept, show examples and then do a demo. For me, it's the perfect kind of communication.
​Second, it's not just another course on how to do wet-on-wet or how to paint a tree-
it's about how to "speak" or "sing" with watercolor paint! I love how you explain the "why"
behind the concepts, but I am especially grateful for the composition
and design concepts you are teaching.
​Third, the length of the segments make it easy to continue the course
without getting confused.  I like to watch one or two segments and let my brain 
"digest" the information. 
Perhaps the most important quality I love about this course
is your sense of humor. I love it!
Thank you for putting this together- this course is a MASTERPIECE! "
Thom
"I am really enjoying and learning from the "Designing Nature" lessons. A very helpful series that breaks things down into manageable chunks with its emphasis on simplification, value structures, experimentation and "watching the page."  "Designing Nature" is  a solid stand-alone painting package for folks who don't just want to copy a picture and fill in the colors. Certainly worth the investment and his teaching style is encouraging and often pretty funny..."
Nick
"Hi Don- bought your Design video series a couple weeks ago and am working through it as time permits. I gotta say that this is exactly what I am needing and wanting (and have been after you for a while now to release!) and I think I am already showing improvement. Spot on for helping me take my work to the next level. Very Well Done!"
Greg
" I purchased your video school "Designing Nature" and it is the best $100 I ever spent on art. I am learning more from your video's than the four rather expensive workshops I have attended."
Jerry
"Early in my painting life I struggled to copy nature as I saw it. Painting was a lot of work with little reward...WHAT WAS MISSING WAS DESIGN!
Design principles are logical, learn-able, and once you have them, they'll be evident in every painting you paint."
Introduction
  • You're a good designer, let me prove it to you
  • Don't copy, arrange nature
  • Because it was there...
 Containment in the Painting Rectangle
  • Leading the viewer's eye
  • The job of the foreground
It's All About Harmony and Contrast
  • Creating visual tension and excitement
  • What successful painters  know and do
  • The difference between art and reality
Shapes
  • Why I failed geometry
  • Oblique shapes
  • Overlapping shapes
  • Interlocking shapes
Simplifying Nature
  • Creating symbols
  • Start with a silhouette
  • From simple to complex
Counterchange
  • Make your painting easy to read and visually entertaining
"Painting problems are solved the way all problems are solved, with information. "                                                   
​Ed Whitney
Shadows
  • Shadows unify
  • Don't be honest with shadows
  • Color in the shadows
​The Power of Light
  • Control the light and you control the viewer's eye
  • Light can be better than real
  • Front light
  • Back light
  • Top light
  • Dramatic light
  • Artistic light
Build a Theme
  • Analyzing a photograph
  • Subtracting subject matter that complicates
  • Adding subject matter that enhances
Placing a Focal Point
  • Centralized and de-centralized center of attention
  • Building dominance
  • Creating visual movement
The Key
  • Design sketching
  • 60 seconds to a better design
  • Kanuga
Interlocking the Page
  • The best designs consider the entire painting
Scale
  • The multi-purpose tool
  • Developing interest and rest in your painting
  • Loving  it to death
Understanding Value
  • Identifying value problems and solutions
  • Simplifying nature's values
  • Value patterns
  • The relationship of color and value 
  • Why value sketch
  • The many uses of a Notan
​The Abstract in Nature
  • Using abstract design in your painting
  • Counterbalance
  • What Andrew Wyeth and Picasso have in common
Putting it All Together
  • And much, much more...
"I laugh at myself when I think of the miles I walked, easel in hand, searching for a painting, 
unaware that there were paintings all around me."
                                                                                                         Don