Time flies -- when you're having fun!



Lee prepares to transfer his drawing to the watercolor paper.





Joyce and Peggy sketch the barn for their paintings.





















  



I can't believe next Monday is the last session of "Beginning Watercolor: Give It a Try."



Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma have accomplished so much in a short time. And in preparing for the classes, I have learned a lot along the way. (The flat wash prepared as an example for class No. 2 was my best ever!)

Take a look at the work produced in this first two sessions of "Beginning Watercolor."



by Jo Davis



by Joyce Stumpf






by Lee Collins

  Getting the feel of the paint, paper and water

by Peggy Myers

We spent most of the first class discovering the different ways to apply paint to paper, how much water is needed for different effects, the differences between mixing colors on the palette and on the paper. In class, students divided a watercolor sheet into geometric shapes and painted in the sections using various techniques and colors -- all mixed from the triad of permanent rose, cobalt blue and winsor yellow. Their homework was to draw a single object such as a cup, pitcher, vase, etc., and then draw a big loopy line through the painting to create numerous sections. Then, each artist experimented with different ways to apply the paint to the paper.





by Joyce Stumpf



by Peggy Myers



Limiting yourself to one color

by Lee Collins

The second class opened with practicing flat washes, graded washes and dry brush before moving into a demonstration of how values create the illusion of three dimensions. Students did 5-value charts of either permanent rose or cobalt blue.Each artist then examined the black-and-white photocopies of the single object they had selected, matching the light and dark areas to the five values on the chart they had just painted. Their homework was to finish the painting, using only the one-color. Everyone credited the value chart as the key to success. We all agree with whoever said, "Value does all the work; color gets all the credit."



by Jo Davis



 

Painting a picture



Yesterday we ventured into color by first painting a color wheel of the three primaries we've been working with and then starting a barn painting. The color wheel included primary, mixed secondary and mixed neutral colors, so everyone had an idea of how to achieve the various colors in the barn picture. We drew a rough outline of the picture on sketch paper and then used graphite paper to transfer it to watercolor paper. We got the sky and barn started, and I demonstrated how to approach the other parts of the picture.



Come back next week to see the gallery of barns Joyce, Lee, Peggy and Wilma create.