Wednesday, September 26, 2012

NEGATIVE PAINTING: BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO OF WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP - DAY 3



On Day 3, we tackled a negative painting project, with beautiful results . . . 





music is "The Gathering of Spirits"
by Carrie Newcomer & Allison Krause









Monday, September 24, 2012

PAINTING SUNFLOWERS: BEHIND-THE-SCENES of WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP

What we learned on Day 2:


1 - Contour drawing from life, and designing the painting as you go, and then adding a frame within a frame, where the petals and leaves spill out over the frame.  Then, adding a wet-in-wet mingling of different yellows within those shapes . . .









2 - Using salt for texture, in the center of the sunflowers, and painting the stems and leaves with cool and warm greens. . .











3 - Creating form within yellow flowers -- & what colors to use to darken yellow (quinacridone gold, 
burnt orange, and even magenta . . . 







4 -- Mixing and painting a transparent dark in the background . . . 











What a fun day -- with 14 beautiful paintings to show for it!










Thursday, September 20, 2012

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: DAY ONE of WATERCOLOR WORKSHOP in DURANGO

What a great start to our 7th Annual Watercolor Workshop in Durango!


On the first day, nine ladies (mostly beginners) painted a "sampler" of 9 squares, where they learned the following drawing and watercolor techniques:  wet-in-wet underpainting, contour drawing of veins in leaves, negative painting of shapes, layering, and edge shading.


We did stop in the middle of the day for a fabulous lunch, prepared for us by Sue -- and, at the end of the day, we enjoyed a glass of wine and shared our paintings.  It was so fun to work with these enthusiastic beginning artists!


Here's a slideshow of the day --



music is "Happiness" by Goldfrapp