"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
"I just ordered your new online video series, so great! It's changing how I approach all my subjects!  Thank you so much for a timely product as we are all stuck at home and who wouldn't 
love to take lessons and paint this way!
Robyn
"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
"Don, we can’t tell you how wonderful "Designing Nature" is!!!!   We loved the way you showed the beauty of the places you traveled and painted – just perfect the way you showed what you saw and lived – and breathed!  - and how you related all this to the design of painting.  I have always not wanted to study “design” – (thought it was “boring”) – YOU HAVE MADE IT VERY EXCITING!!!! "
​Janet and Steve

" Don, your "Designing Nature" course reminds me of those slide-rule days when I studied
engineering.  You've created a "slide-rule" for every artist to carry, thank you so much!"
Fred

​"I wanted to thank you for putting together the Designing Nature series of videos. I have watched them through once and am on my second, and in some cases third go-around. They are so inspiring to me and I am trying to absorb everything I can from them. My sister, Judy, lives two hours away; we paint most nights and then share photos of our paintings via text for critique. We will watch one of your videos together, talk about what we've observed and learned and then try to apply the concept in our paintings that night.
The videos are awesome and I'm so glad that you took the time to put them together and share them via Teachable."
Joel
​
" I'm spending time with you on your video, Designing Nature...It's wonderful to have you visit me in panoramic, watercoloristic, super sonic dimensions and at such a fearsome time, your design course is joyful, helpful and fun!"
Claribel
"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