ANDY EVANSEN
WE'RE VERY EXCITED TO SHARE WITH YOU
"A SENSE OF LIGHT IN WATERCOLOR"
WHAT YOU'LL LEARN
How to look at a busy, complicated scene and find the simple, beautiful painting inside it — without losing accuracy or authenticity
The power of connecting shapes across your painting — a design principle that instantly makes your work feel more cohesive and intentional
Painting the illusion of light across several different scenes, including a nocturne — because once you understand light, every subject becomes more paintable
How to apply watercolor working light to dark in both value and temperature, so your paintings stay clean and luminous instead of muddy
How to paint people, water, structures, and cars in a way that feels alive and natural — even with just a few confident brushstrokes
A straightforward look at Andy's preferred materials, brushes, and surfaces — no expensive or hard-to-find supplies required
Andy Evansen has spent decades finding beauty in the everyday — the quiet street corner, the crowded train platform, the breezy afternoon beach scene that most people walk right past. As a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, and the Plein Air Painters of America, he is recognized as one of the finest watercolorists working today. But what his students love most isn't his résumé — it's his teaching. Patient, clear, and deeply encouraging, Andy has a gift for showing painters exactly how to see a scene differently and translate that vision onto paper with confidence.
In this watercolor instructional video series, A Sense of Light, we're honored to have captured that gift on film. Across three complete, full-length demonstrations, Andy walks you through his whole approach to painting the illusion of light — from how he reads a scene before touching his brush, to the decisions he makes at every stage of a painting. The tools, the thinking, and the encouragement are all here. And because Andy's method is built on principles rather than formulas, everything you learn applies to any subject you love — painted from life or from a photograph. This is your invitation to pull up a chair and paint alongside Andy at his easel.
instructional videos
Every video is downloadable and yours to keep forever, plus lifetime online access to watch anytime — on your desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Start right away, work at your own pace, and improve on your own time schedule.
Master Package
Includes
SPRING IN VERMILLION
120 MINUTES
Awaiting the Holiday Train
120 MINUTES
Afternoon Surfers
120 MINUTES
The Master Package includes three full-length demonstrations · 360 minutes · Lifetime access.
Each subject is uniquely challenging, but Andy will show you the key steps needed to finish each one with the illusion of light, temperature & color.
Spring Day in Vermillion — Street scenes are one of the most rewarding subjects in watercolor, and one of the most intimidating. Buildings, windows, cars, power lines, shadows — there's so much visual information it's hard to know where to start. Andy shows you how to tame all of it by finding the bold, simple shapes underneath the complexity. You'll learn why your shadow patterns carry more weight than any single detail, and how thoughtful negative shapes create the feeling of depth and real sunlight.
Awaiting the Holiday Train — Nocturnes feel impossible to most watercolorists because the entire approach is reversed. Instead of working from light to dark the way you would in a daytime scene, you have to think about where the light is and protect it from the start. Andy walks you through his process for creating glowing, high-contrast night scenes — and shares his techniques for painting gestural figures in a crowd so they feel alive and natural, not stiff or overworked.
Afternoon Surfers — This is where Andy's "more with less" philosophy is at its most beautiful. Warm coastal light, figures on the beach, sparkling water, open sky. You'll see how a few confident, well-placed strokes can say more than a hundred careful ones. Andy also addresses one of the most important mindset shifts in watercolor: knowing exactly when to stop relying on your reference photo and start trusting what you know.
Together, these three paintings cover the full range of Andy's approach — light and shadow, atmosphere, figures, water, architecture, day and night. Whatever subjects you love to paint, you'll find techniques that you can apply directly.
WHY ANDY'S APPROACH IS DIFFERENT
He Teaches the Thinking, Not Just the Brushstrokes
Most watercolor instruction shows you what to do. Andy shows you why — the reasoning behind every decision, so you can apply it to your own paintings long after the video ends.
His philosophy is built on one foundational idea: great watercolors start before the first stroke. Understanding the large shapes, the light and dark values, and the essential structure of a scene before you mix a single color — that's what separates paintings that feel effortless from ones that feel overworked.
Andy calls it painting with intention. And once you understand it, you'll never approach a blank sheet of paper the same way again.
His students describe his teaching as patient, clear, and encouraging — the feeling of painting alongside a trusted friend who happens to be one of the finest watercolorists in America.