One thing is certain about Rance Jones: The award-winning artist knows how to tell a story in his watercolor painting. Whether it’s a series of works depicting scenes from an Irish fishing village or vignettes of small-town Mexico, there’s a tale being told that delves beyond the surface, suggested in glances and gestures.

That was cool. I was impressed by how much of the red came up with how she did it. I’m used to thinking of watercolor as something that once it’s down, that’s what’s there.That discipline has helped me in quite a few paintings but it’s also left me with old paintings I might be able to salvage, change and improve.

Patricia Guzmán‘s watercolor portraits celebrate the indigenous people of Mexico that defy stereotype and shine a light on the displaced, disappeared and forgotten.Follow along with this step-by-step demonstration of her painting, Forgotten, below, and read more about her bold watercolor portraits in the October 2016 issue of Watercolor Artist (now available in print here and as a download here).

This article from Magazine by Robert K. Carsten first appeared in the June 2007 issue, available as a single-issue digital download or within Magazine’s 2007 Annual CD.Jimmy Wright’s vibrant and expressive sunflower paintings are in many noted collections including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The 88th Annual Exhibition of the National Watercolor Society is on view through November 1 at the Riverside Art Museum, in Riverside, California. Warren, winner of the society’s purchase prize for Feeding Time; Robbie Laird, who won the Loa Ruth Sprung Award for Tidal Triangle; and Richard Hanson, who won the Jack Richeson Co.

The practice of gesture drawing is an important part of understanding the figure and its ability to create interesting shapes from limitless motions. Jon deMartin, author of Drawing Atelier: The Figure, offers guidance on this in the following excerpt.Gesture Drawing: Finding the Gesture and Orienting Forms by Jon deMartinThe figure’s line of action is a long inner axis that describes its gesture.