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Category: watercolor classes

Using Black Gesso

Using Black Gesso

I wrote an article for Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine a while back about creating a very interesting journal page using black gesso.  It is a favorite technique of mine and love the look of it in my journals!

Jeannine Stein blogged about it at the Cloth, Paper, Scissors blog.
Here is a little of what she had to say:
In the article “Black-and-White Journal Pages” in the same issue of Pages, Jacqueline Newbold has a fantastic technique for prepping art journal pages and turning them into paper art. Start by painting a watercolor border on all sides of the paper. The beauty of this technique is that even if you’re not that familiar with watercolor, you really can’t go wrong. I sprinkled table salt on some areas of the wet paint to get a textured effect. 

Finding Inspiration to Paint, Part 4

Finding Inspiration to Paint, Part 4

Here is another idea to get you going…. watch a YouTube video.  There are lots of free ones by lots of artists.  I have to tell you though, some of them are really boring and the end result is not what I aspire to.  So what I do is to fast forward to see the final painting and then invest the time to watch the video if I think the painting is good.  Here are a couple of YouTube videos that are demos of how to paint…

Fast video of how I paint a field of flowers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ttywat9RQDs

How to paint palm trees

Here is one where I show what supplies are needed to get started with watercolor painting.
If you find a video you like, look to the right side of the YouTube page and you will see recommendations of other similar videos to watch.  Warning!  Watch a couple then go paint!  I know that I could spend all day watching other people paint but this is to inspire you to paint!

Wonderful Students!

Wonderful Students!

I adore my students! They keep me motivated and inquisitive.  I know that as I am getting ready to teach at the new Seattle CREATE Art Retreat, I will be meeting new students as well as many that have taken classes from me before.  I want to offer new and exciting ways to draw, paint, add to journals, create and explore.  As I am organizing and packing my boxes of art supplies I can’t help to try new things.  It makes the preparation for my class take longer but it is so fun to offer new and creative ways to do the art that I like to do!