Art2love -Watercolor by Jean

I have a new series of classes starting in two weeks. I have been playing around with other techniques so as to have something new. I'm always looking for ways to pull another rabbit out of my hat. but first I have to make sure there are rabbits in there.

The first is a background that I had done a while ago. Just touches of red and green. I soaked the paper and crumbled it up to make creases that opened up the surface sizing. and then flattened it and dried it with a hairdryer. When it was completely dry. I saw the splotches of red as roses and began to define them. I added leaves and some blue to define them.



The next on is a landscape study. I wanted to try different methods to give the rocks and boulders texture and shadow. I sandpapered a watercolor pencil into the wet of the paper.

It's been a while since I last posted, but that's only because it has been busy! I have already had two classes in the second series of watercolor classes. Four of the students from the last class signed up again and I got four new people. This time is was a little more complicated as I found everyone was at a different level. I did have the students who were true beginners do the color wheel and everyone worked on the mixing of complementary colors, both on their palettes and on the watercolor paper itself. I think it is always an eye opener when you mix directly on the paper itself and watch the different color paints and water mix right before your eyes. You hold up the paper and turn it in different directions and watch the paint and water do it's tricks. It's just like wanting have another turn at a game, because you know you can do it even better the next time. To me that is what makes watercolor so exciting to do.

I did have some of the more experienced students work on a still life and had a bouquet of daffodils (silk, not real) that I put out for some to paint. I always feel as though I have to paint whatever I assign, so I went home and did some daffodils myself. This is that painting.



The second class we worked on textures. I demonstrated every texture method I could think of on one piece of paper. Students went and tried some of these textures on a painting of their own. This is always fun because you do the background with full brushes of paint first, apply the textures with more water, salt, plastic wrap, doilies, etc. When it's dry you look for pictures in your textures and paint them in more clearly. I showed them an easy way to negative paint, to bring out the birds or flowers they saw in the textures. It's always fun doing this and you really learn how to handle your brushes, mixing of paints, and how it all works with the watercolor paint.

I did take home the sample I made of all the different textures and tried to make it into a painting. When I was finished it really looked better as two paintings, so I divided it and finished them off.

This is the first one...



And this is the second...



Now I must plan for the third class.