The last few posts have been about my watercolor paintings, and I mentioned the course I took a while ago, but fail to go into detail. Well, here it is...
In May and June I took a watercolor techniques course at Wyndham Art Supplies. It was a great class. I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn how to handle this medium, as I find it is one of the more difficult ones. With acrylic, it's quite easy to just use straight out of the tube. If you make a mistake, you can go over it (in theory).
I've always liked the idea of watercolor, but I never really knew how to use it properly. I liked that Karen provided simple instructions like: Watercolor, no matter how intense the pigment, is supposed to have the consistency of...water.
The other thing I liked about the class was that while we learned techniques, we actually made finished pieces. Which is much more satisfying that having sheets and sheets of practice.
Painting the First: Aurora Borealis.
For this painting we learned about wet on wet techniques for the sky (along with a kind of paper mounting). We also learned some dry brush techniques for the tree silhouettes.
For this painting we learned about wet on wet techniques for the sky (along with a kind of paper mounting). We also learned some dry brush techniques for the tree silhouettes.
Painting the Second: Northern Ontario Lake at Dawn
This project taught us about graded washes, wet-on-wet, dry brush and layering. I ran into a bit of a snag in that my land mass became gigantic. We created the reflection first and that was done with wet-on-wet, which you have little control over. Otherwise, it's still quite pretty.
This project taught us about graded washes, wet-on-wet, dry brush and layering. I ran into a bit of a snag in that my land mass became gigantic. We created the reflection first and that was done with wet-on-wet, which you have little control over. Otherwise, it's still quite pretty.
Painting the Third: A meadow
This is my favorite. This project was used to teach us about composition, layering and texture, salt techniques (not used in this one), perspective, clouds and grasses, color theory and effective mixing/use of greens.
This is my favorite. This project was used to teach us about composition, layering and texture, salt techniques (not used in this one), perspective, clouds and grasses, color theory and effective mixing/use of greens.
Overall, I'm quite pleased with the three paintings. The first two I gave away as gifts, the third I've got in a safe plastic sheath. I take it out from time to time to have a gander at it. I'm really glad I took and course and I look forward to other watercolor classes (that I can afford haha).
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