Hello dear creative friend! I am Ida Andersen Lang, professional artist and art teacher with decades of experience. In this class I will take you on a journey from the raw beginnings of the first spark of inspiration, over easily sketching your ideas in graphite, exploring in color sketches to making fully rendered paintings in mixed media on paper.

I have always been deeply inspired by myths and legends, and in this class, we will journey through the mystical lore of Avalon, the ancient isle of Healing Arts and the Goddess, exploring its vast and fascinating visual language of our natural world and the divine feminine.

All levels are welcome and no drawing skills are required. I will show you everything you need to get you from ideas to finished paintings. I have taught this process for decades and am so happy to present this to you too.

xo,

Ida

lesson 2 - THE SACRED SIGHT

In this project, you will be guided through my full process of layering watercolor, dry pastel and colored pencil for a rich and textured color expression.

Over decades of exploring, I have arrived at this unique technique of layering these three media for an amazing painting process, harvesting the best from each media.

We will create a beautiful female portrait in profile, working with the divine sight of the Lady of Avalon. You can paint the exact painting with me or venture deeper into your own image creation process with the Oracle of Avalon Deck.

No drawing skills are required and all levels are welcome!

I show you how you can work from references in a creative and free process of transferring the base image. If you are confident with drawing, then you are of course invited to add your own drawing process to this project.

lesson 3 - THE LADY OF THE LAKE

For me, the quintessential symbol of Avalon has always been The Lady of The Lake, and in this painting, we explore the deep and mystical realm of the Divine Feminine and her connection to the land and the skies.

We continue the exploration of my classical mixed media techniques, diving even deeper into the endless possibilities of layering watercolor, dry pastel and color pencil.

I work with a carefully chosen inspiration from the Avalon Oracle Deck. You can paint the exact painting with me or add your own inspirations.

No drawing skills are required and all levels are welcome!

I show you how you can work from references in a creative and free process of transferring the base image. If you are confident with drawing, then you are of course invited to add your own drawing process to this project.

This is the biggest project in our journey through Avalon and I am so excited to take you on this magical journey of drawing and painting.

Bonus lesson - COLOR MAGIC CIRCLES

All colors can be mixed to beautiful and harmonious strings of color. In this lesson, I show you a technique for exploring how different colors mix, and at the same time get a beautiful little painting. This technique starts with drawing a circle. A circle of magical and artistic exploration. This lesson can be worked within numerous variations throughout the entire class for maximum benefit, learning and exploration.

WHO IS THIS CLASS FOR?

This class is designed so anyone can benefit from it, no matter previous experience. All levels are welcome and ALL is taken care of so you will create finished artwork in this class.

I show you how to use the materials and techniques step by step, and no matter if you are a beginner, intermediate or experienced, there will be great learning in this class. Art is a journey. The techniques are universal and can be applied on all levels of skill. 

We will journey gently through the art process from blank paper to finished piece, working with the divine feminine, the natural realms animal spirits, the celestial night skies, all blended seamlessly in beautiful, symbolism-infused art making. 

Anyone who loves dreamy, symbolistic and romantic art will feel at home in this class.

What will you learn:

• How to open your visionary mind and compose endless new and unique art compositions

• How to creatively combine different sources of inspiration

• How to draw small sketches in graphite and a little color, either as stand-alone artwork or as a spring board for larger pieces

• How to layer watercolor, dry pastel and color pencil for creating stunning, color rich and detailed art work

• How to explore color mixing intuitively to gain valuable experience with different color compositions

• How to work with a larger theme in a series of art works to get a body of work that speaks in harmony

Supply List

In this list, I lay out the materials I use throughout the class. I encourage you use what you already might have, buy a few things inspired from the list and adapt. The list is NOT brand specific and there are many wonderful materials. I recommend buying artist-grade materials since they tend to be easier to work with and create more vibrant results. That said, use what you have, and have fun!

Paper

• Watercolor paper, 300 gms. We use a lot of water, so good paper is essential. I use Canson XL Watercolor 300 gms, a cellulose type paper, that lends itself well to the techniques I show. Cotton paper is also great. I will discuss this in the lessons.

• Sketching paper for graphite sketching. Any drawing paper will do. I use Fabriano Accademia spiral sketch pad A4

Substrate for mounting the watercolor paper

• I like to work on watercolor paper, mounted with painters tape on a rigid board. You can however work as you prefer, on a glued watercolor block, or similar. We do use a lot of water so mounting is helpful. So mounting board of a kind plus painters tape is great to have

 Trays for mixing watercolor

• When I paint, I do a LOT of premixing of base colors. Having some nice mixing trays is very helpful. It doesn’t matter whether they are plastic or porcelain. I use both. In the workshops, I use porcelain, mainly because it’s so beautiful.

Drawing

• Any graphite pencils you have, wooden or mechanical. Ranging from H, F, HB and one soft like 6B or more for making transfers the way I show

• Kneaded eraser. I use Faber Castell brand

• Eraser pens. I use Tombow Mono Zero round and Faber Castell Perfection pen 7058

• Cotton pad

• Ruler

• Compass

• Pencil Sharpener (remember they blunt quickly so a new one with a fresh blade is good)

Brushes

• When it comes to watercolor brushes, I am very messy. I use a happy mix of old and new brushes, synthetic and natural hair. Anything will do, so chose what is affordable for you and go for a mix of sizes between 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and some bigs, 12 or 14. All brushes get blunt with time so for fine detail, it is great to have some new ones in the small range, fx size 1 or 2

• For adding pan pastel, I also use brushes, and also makeup applicators, big and small. Try out stuff and see what works for you. PS: once you use your makeup applicators for art, don’t use them on your face again unless thoroughly cleaned.

Watercolors

• I recommend artist quality, but not any particular brand. My box is a mix of many different brands like Schmincke , Maimeri, Daniel Smith, Sennelier, Winsor & Newton etc.

• The specific colors for the class are: Cadmium Yellow Light (or any warmer yellow), Cadmium Red Light (or any warm, orangy red), Quinacridone Red, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. These however, is not necessary to produce great art. If you already have a set of watercolors, work with what you have, inspired form this palette.

Pastels

• I recommend to have some panpastels (any brand). They do get pricey very quickly, so start with only a few. In the class I use PanPastel brand, titanium white, paynes grey, burnt sienna tint (light skin tone), orange tint (light skin tone) and red iron oxide. I also experiment with using different shades of eye make up and compressed powder for substitution, plus my Jane Davenport set “Birthday Suit” (skin tones in range of values). You don’t need much, so experiment with what is reasonable. Most important is the titanium white and some dark tone.

• I also use one white dry pastel pencil. If you already have dry pastel pencils, they fit in fantastically in the process I show. But for this project, I limit my self to the white pastel pencil.

• I also use one white dry pastel pen, brand Faber Castel. To sharpen this I show you a safe process of sharpening with a hobby knife and a piece of medium grained sand paper, to get a super sharp and pointy pencil tip

Color Pencils

• I use Faber Castell waterproof “PolyChromos” and watersoluble “Albrecht Dürer”. I stick to these to not be overwhelmed by excess boxes of color pencils, but any quality brand will do.

• Please see the images below and see the swatches to get inspired for the different colors.

• I use (both waterproof and soluble): Caput Mortum Violet, Dark Indigo, Medium Flesh, Dark Sepia, Light Red Violet, Cinnamon, Rose Carmine, Sanguine, Cadmium Orange, Pompeiian Red, Nougat, Dark Indigo

• I use waterproof and water soluble pencils in a very specific way, so it is important to have both varieties.

Posca Pens

• In the class, I also use a few white Posca Pens (any size) for making white dots and patterns.

Printing out references

• In the class, I work with pocket-size printouts of the images for inspiration. If you have a printer, it is of course nice and luxurious. I print it out on a cheap and very nice photo paper called Canon Matte Photo paper. If you don’t have a printer, however, don’t let this hold you back. You can be inspired directly from your computer screen, and you can make traces of the photos on transparent paper directly from your screen fx with a thin black liner, and then use that to transfer to your watercolor paper. Only imagination is the limit here, so get creative and have fun!