Watercolour Workshop 3 - Another Wet-on-wet

“I've learned that everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.”
- Unknown


Art Class wet-on-wet 31/03/2010 15" x 11"

For the third workshop I attended with Angela Eidelman last week Wednesday, we had to stretch and prepare our paper at home beforehand and this week's practice was wet-in-wet again. We had to draw the outlines of the scene we were going to paint, from pictures Angela supplied, with Cerulean blue and then, paint it wet-on-wet, keeping in mind our composition, light source, focal point, etc., with Angela constantly peeping over our shoulders, giving encouragement and advice. Thoroughly enjoyed this exercise! This is the painting I completed during the workshop.

Exploring Tonal value

As artists, we must learn to be self nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them – to restock the trout pond, so to speak.
- Julia Cameron


Beach and trees - tonal value exercise

My watercolour workshops with Angela Eidelman are two weeks apart - every second Wednesday - and probably just as well - after three hours of watching, listening, planning, and actual sketching exercises, I find myself totally exhausted afterwards, and I'm telling myself it's NOT an age thing! My younger counter-parts like Cathy Gatland (read her workshop up-dates with Hazel Soan here) and Debbie Schiff (read Debbie's posts about her art class with Hazel Soan here) have both complained about the same thing. It's hard and exhausting work setting up your work station, trying to take in everything and anxiously trying not to make a complete botch-up of your exercises, right there where everybody is witness to the whole thing!

So for two weeks until my next class, I've got plenty of time to practice all the basics. At first I've been trying to do everything all in one painting - the planning, good composition, focal point, light source, tonal value, and where the most detail or the least detail is. I've given that up as a bad job and am spending a day or two on each point - the exercise above is mostly about tonal value, but it also gave me a chance to explore the source of where my light is coming from and making sure I don't have shadows running in all sorts of directions!

Watercolour Workshop 2 - Wet-on-Wet

We all have time to paint. We have time to paint the minute we are willing to paint badly, to chase a dead end, to scribble a few words, to paint for the hell of it instead of for the perfect and polished result.
- Julia Cameron


Art class wet-on-wet 17/03/2010 on Bockingford 300gsm - Maree

This past Wednesday was my second watercolour workshop with Angela Eidelman, Honorary Chairman of the W.S.S.A. (Watercolour Society of South Africa), and this week we covered wet-in-wet, that loose, elusive style that so many artists strive for.

A new concept of painting for me - having to keep in mind good composition, focal point, light source, tonal value, and where the most detail or the least detail is. I usually just go with my gut feeling of what feels or looks good to my (untrained!) eye. So for the next two weeks it's the three big P's - practice, practice and practice!