We love how our “Chief Watercolor Officer” Max Romey has brought so much color to our world at KEEN.
And now in true Max fashion, he is sharing how to create all that color with the world – in a 12-part watercolor tutorial series that we’re offering free to KEEN fans!
(Or in this case, footprints.) The tutorial series is based on Max’s short film, Footprints on Katmai, which was featured at the 2024 Mountainfilm Festival in Telluride and premiered worldwide at KEEN HQ in Portland, OR. In the film, Max is inspired by his late grandmother’s sketches and retraces her travels to the remote beaches of Katmai, Alaska. There he joins a group of marine debris experts and discovers that a lot of people are making footprints on Katmai without ever visiting.
It was his grandmother who first inspired him to paint. After being diagnosed with dyslexia as a child, Max discovered that it was a powerful way to share ideas without struggling with how to spell them. Today, he says it also gives him a reason to stay in a beautiful place a little bit longer.
We hope it will inspire more unplugged time in nature for you, too, which is why we are giving KEEN fans free access to the tutorial series – 12 sessions that are each about 20 minutes long. Follow along with Max at trailboundsketches.com as he shares personal experiences documenting the impact of unintended footprints on remote habitats in Alaska. By the end of the series, you will have 12 individual paintings that come together like a puzzle to form one big picture at the end. (And, hopefully, a new perspective on how to reduce your own footprint on the planet and a new hobby/reason to spend more quiet time in nature.)
Max designed his tutorials for all skill levels, from “never held a paintbrush” to professional. And we can vouch for that. All of us at KEEN headquarters in Portland, Oregon, got an in-person tutorial from Max while he was here for the premiere of Footprints on Katmai. It was great to see so many KEENers who had never tried watercoloring before having so much fun with it.
“There is no right or wrong way to do this,” Max says, adding that mistakes are A-OK. In fact, he says most of his favorite pieces involve a mistake that opened up a different way to look at things.
Ready to get started?! Max recommends having the following supplies on hand:
• Pencil
• Waterproof black ink pen
• Watercolor paper
• Masking tape
• Brushes (recommended sizes 4, 6 and 8)
• Watercolor paints
Then grab your code for free access to Max’s tutorial here.
