Watercolor Painting A Happy Place
What outdoor place brings you joy? How can that feeling be captured with paint?
Painting studio students pondered these questions and were inspired by master watercolorist Charles Burchfiedls as well as several contemporary artists such as Jane Betteridge, known for her watercolor experimentation. Students learned classic watercolor painting techniques e.g., how to apply washes, paint layers, blend colors, and use a variety of brushes, masks, and tools such as dry brushes, sponges, cotton and fabric to achieve different effects. They also explored contemporary watercolor painting processes on small paper samples including pouring salt or rubbing alcohol in paint, creating texture with plastic wrap or cheesecloth, splattering color with toothbrushes, or purposefully dripping watercolor paint. The class then reviewed the rules of perspective to compose a realistic landscape painting that would include a background, middle ground and foreground. Lastly, the students discussed how color affects emotion. Students selected photos from their personal collections of places that make them happy, used the photos as reference material, and drew and painted the following landscape compositions in watercolors.
Painting studio students pondered these questions and were inspired by master watercolorist Charles Burchfiedls as well as several contemporary artists such as Jane Betteridge, known for her watercolor experimentation. Students learned classic watercolor painting techniques e.g., how to apply washes, paint layers, blend colors, and use a variety of brushes, masks, and tools such as dry brushes, sponges, cotton and fabric to achieve different effects. They also explored contemporary watercolor painting processes on small paper samples including pouring salt or rubbing alcohol in paint, creating texture with plastic wrap or cheesecloth, splattering color with toothbrushes, or purposefully dripping watercolor paint. The class then reviewed the rules of perspective to compose a realistic landscape painting that would include a background, middle ground and foreground. Lastly, the students discussed how color affects emotion. Students selected photos from their personal collections of places that make them happy, used the photos as reference material, and drew and painted the following landscape compositions in watercolors.