Flowers Bloom in the Watercolor Class

  As artists we have the ability to take the darkest, dreariest day and with a few strokes of brilliant color bring the warmth of a summer sun into the room.

 It always amazes me how the whole class starts out with the same drawing and the same colors, but look how each person's personality comes through in their painting. As a teacher I feel the greatest success when my students take what I share and start to develop a style all their own.

This is my own  painting of tulips.

 

 Next week we are going to do a much different type of painting. Up until now I have done a detailed drawing and a rather tight painting. Little water and a lot of pigment. This time we will using a lot of water and little pigment, a much faster way of painting. Loose and quick strokes give paintings a shimmery spontanious look. We will be doing lilacs, the one scent that tells us that spring is finally come. This is the watercolor that I have done, and I will be demonstrating this technique in class.

 

The drawing is very general, just an approximation of what will be painted. I will have this pattern for the students on Tuesday.

Everyone in the portrait class is working on their finished piece, several are working in colored pencil for the finished piece. Not an easy task, many layers of color go into making a good skin tone ergo, many hours of work. As you can see the portraits are going very well. Next week I'll put on new photos so you can watch their progress.

Only two more weeks of classes, the classes fly by, but to see how everyone has grown is especially satisfying to me, not to mention meeting a lot of very cool people. Have a creative week!!