Hello my wonderful creatives!

I am so excited to share with you some of my techniques I use with watercolors.  Watching paint flow through the water, colors spreading and mixing right on the paper, these are just a couple of my favorite things about watercolors. 

In this class, we will explore many of the unique quality’s watercolor has to offer.  The simple beauty of working loosely or the details achieved by only adding salt.  We will paint animals, people and landscapes in a variety of styles.  I will show you how I add other elements to my work to create mixed media pieces.

This class is for all levels, whether you’re just beginning your watercolor journey or in need of inspiration and new techniques to explore. 

I hope you will join us.

Natalie

Warmup - Get to know your watercolors

I will show you how I practice techniques and try out new colors while creating mini works of art.

Lesson 1- Loose Strokes

We will be creating a scene with birds sitting in a tree, the branches full of beautiful blossoms.

For this lesson we will focus on creating with loose brush strokes, using only water and paint to give the impression of blossoms and minimal detail work to bring your birds to life.

Lesson 2-Expressive and Detailed

In this lesson I will show you how to use a reference photo to draw a figure and then add details to make it your own.  Using a few extra tools, we will add a lot of details while still maintaining loose and expressive aspects.  I will also show you how to add some 3D elements to your painting.

Lesson 3- Storybook Scene

For this lesson, we will use the techniques from the previous lessons and combine them with even more ways to bring your watercolor to life.  I’ll show you how to create a storybook like scene with animals, a figure and a beautiful landscape.  We will use everything from stamps, salt, wax crayon, and colored pencils to create this magical scene.

Bonus lesson- Painting on other surfaces

In this lesson, I will show you how versatile watercolors are.  We will create two projects in this lesson.  First a beautiful angel painted on wood.  Wood provides and natural and beautiful canvas to paint on.  Second, we will create a travel palette, we will also paint on the metal tin to create a unique and functional piece of art.

• How to paint with loose brushstrokes

• Various mixed media techniques

• Wet into wet and dry brushing techniques

• How to use various supplies to enhance your watercolors

• Painting on various substrates

• How to choose colors

• How to place colors throughout your painting to achieve balance

• Why and how I choose my supplies

• How to add 3D elements to your work

• How to create your own travel palette

Supply List

Please use what you have. It is not my intention to have you purchase everything on the list. There are a number of essential materials needed as noted below but many things can be substituted. Let me know if you have questions. I highly recommend buying to best quality supplies you can afford. I have found the quality of paint made the biggest difference in my work, then paper then brushes. (essential materials are marked with * in the list below). For the complete supply list. DOWNLOAD HERE

Watercolors*

• Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolor Tubes 

  • Fushite Genuine 

  • Prussian Green 

  • Imperial Purple 

  • Manganese Blue Hue 

  • Sap Green 

  • Rhodonite Genuine 

  • Moonglow 

  • New Gamboge 

  • Raw Sienna 

  • Quinophthalone Yellow 

  • Quinacridone Coral 

Winsor & Newton Professional Watercolor Tubes 

• Payne’s Gray 

• Indanthrene Blue 

• Burnt Umber 

• Paper* Arches Watercolor Blocks:

  • Cold Press - 12 x 16 and 14 x 20

  • Hot Press - 12 x 16 and 14 x 20

• Palette* - Mijello Fusion Airtight/Leakproof Palettes

• Brushes* - Da Vinci Russian Red Sable Watercolor brushes

  • I use the 8, 4 and 2 round 

• Pencil* 

  • Pentel Quicker Clicker Automatic Pencil, 0.50 mm 

  • Pentel Graph Gear 1000 Automatic Drafting Pencil, 0.3mm

• White paint pen or gel pen

  • Uni-Ball UM 153 Signo Broad Point Gel Pen – White

  • Uni Posca Extra Fine Marker, White 

• Blending stumps

• Hardboard panel 

• Mono Eraser - Tombow Mono Zero Refillable Eraser

• Kneaded Eraser 

• Jar for water* 

• Paper towels* 

• Salt 

• Ruler 

• Tape, Masking tape or Washi Tape 

DOWNLOAD SUPPLY LIST

- When choosing colors try to start with primary colors then add a brown or secondary colors. My must have colors would be a set of primaries though I don’t often use red, I prefer pinks like Rhodonite, and I also use Moonglow most often. 

- You don’t need to buy all these colors but these are the ones I used