Comments about Watercolor Quick & Easy: Crystal & Glass DVD:

I recently bought this dvd because I am interested in learning more about watercolor painting and I also ordered it because of the painting's subject which was transparent/colored and cut glass.

So far I am about 1/3 of the way through the painting, however I did watch almost all of the dvd. What I like about it is that so far I was able to gain some insight into what the author calls "glazing" which is a process of using paints of different values and gives the colored glass it's "transparent" look. I also like that she gives some instruction in regards to what colors she uses and how to get different effects by the use of a variety of colors.
What I am disappointed in is that I bought the materials that Dick Blick suggested for this project and I was sent stretcher bars and 140lb. cold pressed paper. I was not sent any other instructions in how to "stretch" this paper with the stretcher bars (I had to do numerous google searches). Actually the author has an instructional on google on how to stretch the paper on the bars, it would have been nice if she could have mentioned that in her DVD.
#2)Neither in the materials list nor any inclusion to the DVD is there a hard copy of the still life photo subject that is crucial to doing the project. Again, I had to google search this and luckily found a photo saved in acrobat reader which I had to convert to a JPG so I could bring down to Office Max to have a large copy made.
#3) The way the author suggests transfering the image onto the watercolor paper is unrealistic for the average person. She suggests taking the subject photo, blowing it up to the size of the stretched canvas (which is 20"X28"), taking the copy to a light table and tracing it onto the watercolor paper. What I had to end up doing was using my projector but it was very imperfect and I had to do the majority of the drawing.
#4) The DVD goes in step by step parts, which I LOVE! However the thing I most despise about any art instructional DVDs or videos is when the teaching artist moves onto the next step and you look at the painting and see much more detail and steps that were added off camera. There were much more details added on the "face" of the ruby she didn't share in the lesson that really makes a big difference into the overall polished look of the painting. I am going to have to wing that part just like I had to transfer the image (by freehand drawing most of it) on to the watercolor paper.