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I’m Jenna Rainey.

I'm an artist, self-taught designer, and multi-faceted creative entrepreneur who is hell-bent on teaching everyone how to find their inner creative voice.

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Art Tips

How to Build Depth in Your Art by Painting with Values

Ever wonder why your watercolor looks flat even when the colors are beautiful? This guide to painting with values walks you through the exact shifts that create depth, contrast, and focus—so your paintings finally feel alive and dimensional.

An artist in a green sweater examines bright floral watercolor paintings in a cozy studio. The artwork’s rich color transitions and tonal balance highlight painting with values, emphasizing how light and shadow shape expressive floral forms.

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Art Tips

A woman in a white suit crouches on coastal rocks at dusk, smiling as waves roll behind her. The soft pink and blue sky glows with fading light, evoking the calm, luminous atmosphere artists aim for when painting a night scene in watercolor.

My Top Tips for Painting a Night Scene Without Losing the Light

A woman sketches at a white standing desk in a sunlit studio filled with plants and art tools. Her relaxed, focused posture evokes the peaceful rhythm of watercolor beach scenes and the creative process behind ocean‑inspired art.

7 Watercolor Beach Scene Painting Mistakes (And the Fixes That Actually Work)

Close-up of a brush mixing warm orange tones on a watercolor palette surrounded by paint tubes and paper. The rich blends and limited color areas highlight the process of a painting challenge that encourages color mixing and creative exploration.

Try This Limited-Palette Painting Challenge: 3 Colors, 1 Composition, Endless Creativity

Overhead view of an artist painting loose watercolor florals surrounded by palettes and brushes. Multiple compositions show how varying size, color, and placement can create a strong focal point in art while keeping the overall design balanced and expressive.

What Is a Focal Point in Art? A Beginner’s Guide to Composition Magic

Wide shot of an artist in a white suit standing on coastal rocks overlooking the ocean and distant cliffs. The expansive landscape and soft evening light evoke the beauty and inspiration behind a plein air watercolor painting session.

Top Tips for a Successful Plein Air Watercolor Session

Artist sketching a floral composition in a notebook surrounded by brushes and a paint palette. The calm workspace sets the stage for planning a watercolor-painting-background, helping guide composition, color choices, and overall mood before painting begins.

Watercolor Painting Background for Beginners: Easy Tips That Make a Big Impact

A detailed color study display with neatly arranged watercolor swatches in gradients of greens, blues, and yellows. Small sample papers rest on jars below, alongside a brush, showcasing careful mixing, testing, and organized artistic exploration.

Try This One-Brush Art Challenge to Boost Your Watercolor Skills (And Let Go of Perfection!)

Delicate watercolor illustration of pink roses with soft gradients and leafy green stems. The petals bleed gently into the paper, creating a light, airy composition that highlights fluid brushwork and natural color transitions.

5 Common Mistakes Artists Make When Painting Shadows (And How to Fix Them)

Two small glass jars with cork lids sit on a worn tabletop, filled with earthy-toned pigment powders. Blurred jars of brushes and pens in the background create a moody studio feel, highlighting raw materials used in painting and color mixing.

Oil Painting vs Watercolor: The Real Differences

Close-up of a watercolor color study chart with neatly arranged gradient swatches in pinks, greens, and blues. Small paint samples rest on jars below, alongside a wide brush, showcasing experimentation and precision in mixing tones.

How to Make Watercolor Mother’s Day Cards (Step-by-Step for Beginners)

Close-up of bold red and pink floral watercolor with flat brush, demonstrating wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry methods from a watercolor techniques cheat sheet.

Watercolor Techniques Cheat Sheet: Wet-on-Wet, Wet-on-Dry, and More

Close-up of hand painting a detailed color chart with watercolor squares, demonstrating step-by-step color mixing for beginners and how different pigments shift in value and tone.

Color Mixing for Beginners: Understanding Consistency, Value, and Tone

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WATERCOLOR SUPPLIES

WATERCOLOR FOR BEGINNERS

WATERCOLOR TUTORIALS

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ART TIPS

HOW TO BE MORE CREATIVE

ONLINE ART SCHOOL

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Jenna Rainey smiles while working at her computer in a sunlit art studio, exploring ai art vs digital art and the intersection of traditional painting and digital creativity.

AI Art vs Digital Art: A Real Talk Breakdown for Creatives

Jenna Rainey sits at an outdoor painting station surrounded by watercolor supplies, ready to share watercolor practice ideas for building creativity and confidence.

Resources for Creatives

Watercolor Practice Ideas: What to Do When You Hate Everything You Paint

Jenna Rainey smiles while holding an open sketchbook of colorful paintings at her outdoor art table, demonstrating how watercolor mistakes are part of learning and creating art.

How to Fix Watercolor Mistakes (7 Rescue Techniques That Actually Work)

Artist sketches detailed flowers and leaves in a notebook at a table surrounded by watercolor palettes and brushes. Creating a careful pencil drawing provides a foundation for adding transparent layers with watercolor glazing.

Watercolor Tutorials

Watercolor Glazing, Wet-on-Wet, and Wet-on-Dry: Which Technique to Use and When

Artist opens a rustic glass-front cabinet filled with inks, markers, color swatches, and painting supplies, showing the variety of materials that can come into play when comparing cheap vs professional watercolor.

Watercolor Supplies

Do Supplies Make a Difference? What Cheap vs. Professional Watercolor Actually Taught Me

Artist kneels on a bed in a relaxed gray top and white shorts, smiling in a warm, wood-paneled room. A casual lifestyle portrait that brings

Resources for Creatives

An Honest Art Critique of a Beginner Watercolor: Here’s What I Found

Artist smiling at her painting table while holding a watercolor palette and a sheet of colorful swatches, demonstrating watercolor and masking fluid techniques with pink, orange, and blue washes.

Watercolor Supplies

Watercolor and Masking Fluid 101: How and When to Use It

Artist smiling while painting with a blindfold on during a blindfold challenge to build creative confidence and trust intuition.

How to Be More Creative

The Blindfold Challenge: My Favorite Exercise for Loosening Up and Trusting Your Instincts

Flat watercolor brush resting on a floral painting featuring a warm fall color palette of rich pinks, oranges, and earthy greens.

Fall Color Palette Inspiration: Earthy Tones for Autumn Watercolors

Colorful practice sheet showing flat, graded, and blended watercolor washes in a variety of bright watercolor hues.

The Beginner’s Guide to Watercolor Washes: Flat, Graded, and Variegated

Artist filming a watercolor tutorial at an outdoor table with paints and supplies, perfect inspiration for a watercolor paint night.

DIY Watercolor Paint Night at Home: The Complete Guide to Hosting a Watercolor Party

Artist walking along a reflective shoreline at sunset, capturing inspiration for painting water reflections.

Watercolor Tutorials

Painting Water Reflections in Watercolor Made Simple

My favorite posts

01

Which Watercolor Paper Should I Practice On?

02

The Ultimate Guide to Watercolor Brushes

03

3 Reasons You Haven't Found Your Artistic Style

04

5 Health Products That Changed My Life

My 40-page watercolor companion to help you find my best tips, resources and tutorials on the topic of watercolor!

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Watercolor

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Don't leave without these!

A free class on how to scan, digitize and edit your artwork. I'll walk you through the equipment you need and the tools for cleaning up your artwork!

How to Digitize Your Artwork

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(on YouTube!)

It's like binge watching Bob Ross videos on Netflix only with a slice of dry humor and an extra helping of the greatest art tips you ever did see!

Hang Out With Me

The Complete Beginner's Guide to Watercolor

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