I was never, ever naturally talented or gifted in art. In fact, when I was starting out I would say I was worse than most people. I could not draw at all. Painting anything was not even in the realm of my thinking. I failed and failed at art for years, and then finally gave up, thinking that I just wasn't "gifted" enough at art to do it.
Sound familiar?
After 7 years of no art, I began to think about something: Most people don't believe that you have to be "gifted at cooking" to learn how to cook. Most people don't believe that you have to be "gifted at music" to learn how to play an instrument (some people think this, but I wouldn't say most). So why do we think that you have to be "gifted" at art to learn it? The difference was that there are lots of good cookbooks. There are lots of good music teachers. But, there are very, very few good painting teachers. I realized that it wasn't me that was the problem, it was the instruction!
So at the age of 30, I decided I needed to find a good teacher. With a lot digging and effort, I finally found an uncommonly good, little-known watercolor course in the form of a CD (yes, this was in the days before streaming lessons). And lo-and-behold, I began to learn! I got better, and better, and eventually I became a professional painter.
As I learned, I had the idea that I didn't want others to give up on art like I did. So I began to almost obsessively document my learning: every mistake, every success, every frustration, and every idea about what worked for learning and what didn't.
Years later, I decided to dive in and take all of those observations and put them together in a course. I spent over a year-and-a-half on the sequence and structure of the lessons. Then the recording and creation of the course took another year.
When it was said-and-done, I finally felt I had created something truly unique: a watercolor course that could take anyone, gifted or not, from a total, complete beginner to an advanced watercolor painter, logically and without the frustration commonly found in learning watercolor. I hope you feel the same about the course!