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Category: beginning watercolor workshop

10 Tips in 10 Days – Art Online

10 Tips in 10 Days – Art Online

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO ALL YOU WONDERFUL MOTHERS!
Here is an upcoming chance for you to paint right along with me online!  Once a year I teach a watercolor workshop with Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat.  This year I am offering a mix of subjects dear and near to my heart!  Did you know that before I became an artist, I went to college to get a degree in Botany?  Yes, I am a naturalist, botanist, bird watcher, wildlife gardener, flora and fauna expert!  Now I am so thrilled to offer you a mix of my two loves:  watercolor and nature!  This year for the 2017 Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat I am teaching a workshop – A NATURALIST’S WATERCOLOR JOURNAL.


10 Tips in 10 Days – Watercolor, Sodalite

10 Tips in 10 Days – Watercolor, Sodalite

Here is another great color that I have added to my palette:  Sodalite by Daniel Smith

Sodalite, with a distinctive deep blue color is one of the components of Lapis Lazuli and very rare. DANIEL SMITH Sodalite is the finest quality and deepest blue that comes from Greenland and the flanks of Italy’s Mt. Vesuvius. In watercolor, the inky color of this semi precious stone granulates as it dries, layering a blue-black textural surface on a smooth blue-gray undertone. 

Here is an example of how I add it to greens to get a rich, dark shadow:

Creating a Color-Filled Day!

Creating a Color-Filled Day!

My All About Color class has just started in my Tumalo Art Studio.  We are learning how to use the colors on our watercolor palettes and the color wheel to create harmonious paintings.  Since I am a color artist this is always one of my favorite classes to teach!
I would like to share with you some ideas over the next few weeks on how you can learn to get to know the colors on your palette and use the more effectively.
Here is my first suggestion – Make a painted color swatch of each of the colors on your palette.  Label them with the manufacturer’s name, the pigment number and the light fastness.  Color charts are fun and relaxing to do!
1.  For the manufacture’s name, I use abbreviations such as DS for Daniel Smith and WN for Winsor Newton.
2.  The pigment number can be found on the tube and also can be found on art supply web sites.  For Winsor Green, Blue Shade, the pigment color is PG37.  I love to collect this information because as it turns out, Winsor Green, Blue Shade is the same pigment as Daniel Smith’s Phthalo Green, Blue Shade.  I don’t need them both on my palette.
3.  Light Fastness.  This will tell you how permanent the pigment color is and it’s resistance to fade or change over time.
Here are some photos of our class working on their color charts.

Online Classes – Watercolor Toolbox Two

Online Classes – Watercolor Toolbox Two

Online classes are starting soon with the Artful Gathering Online Workshop.  I am teaching a follow up to last year’s beginners class – Watercolor Toolbox.

Watercolor Toolbox Two is the perfect way to help you improve your beginning watercolor painting skills.  You will learn how to do a contour drawing, make a color mixing chart, and how to get volume and depth in your paintings.  I will share my easy drawing techniques that will make drawing fun and easy.  This online class is the perfect complement to Watercolor Toolbox, now available as a DVD!

Session One Starts on June 6, 201!

Session One Starts on June 6, 201!

My online workshop, Watercolor Toolbox, starts June 6th!  This workshop is especially for beginner watercolor artists.  Here are some of the things that are covered in this workshop:  how to correctly set up your watercolor palette, which brushes and paper to use, watercolor basics such as how to do a wet-into-wet wash, how to glaze, using value in your paintings.  The final project will be a fun, easy watercolor painting.
This workshop is available online for six weeks so register today with Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat to get the full advantage!