Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Watercolor workshop

This last weekend I had the opportunity to teach a workshop to the Watercolor Society of Grand Forks, ND. They were the most experienced group I've ever taught, which was intimidating at first, but turned out to be lots of fun! It was two days long, and on the first days we did florals. We all did the same lily in the morning and a floral of their choice in the afternoon. My demo mostly showed how I paint my flowers wet-into-wet but just wetting a petal at a time and dropping in lots of bold, strong color. I add layers where needed, but try to get the strength of color in all at once so that I don't end up covering up the cool effects that the paint makes on it's own. Love letting watercolor be watercolor!
The second day we painted a landscape and then spent the remaining time touching up the three paintings we'd started. In my demo on landscapes I showed how I try to paint shapes that are similar value areas. Something that a lot of my students commented on was the small white line I often leave between my areas to keep them from bleeding together when I don't want to wait for them to dry fully. One student mentioned how this could be useful in plein air painting. I hadn't thought of that! Glad she found a use for a technique I use. Here's the demo I did that day:
Overall it was a great experience that forced me outside my comfort zone and helped me learn more how to explain what I'm doing and why, which made me think about both in the first place!