Learn the basics of watercolor painting in this weekly online class.
- Fridays
- Virtual Event
During this weekly online class, local artist Robert Peltzer will help you practice and develop the skills and techniques necessary to enjoy and succeed at watercolor painting. New painting lessons and assignments are posted every Friday. As assignments are submitted via the internet, feedback and support is provided. This class is open to adults ages 18 and older.
For questions, please email Robert.
DECEMBER 4
Welcome everybody, hope you had an enjoyable holiday!
HOMEWORK REVIEW: There was no homework, but you were asked to send your sketch and practice paintings from Friday November 20th and you were invited to send any other work you may have had a chance to paint over the holidays. OK, let’s review the paintings that you sent: Hmm… Hmm… looks like everyone chose the same 2 paintings out of the 4 choices, I wonder why??? : )
WOW! Good work everyone!
EYE TRAINING SKETCH
A sketch from our last class that caught my eye is from Karen -she did a good job capturing the details of the eye and beak. Good Eye Karen! (clap! – clap! – clap!)
For todays eye training, I want you to look closely at the following image and tell me how many animals you can see hidden within the image. Can you name them?
(send your answers to my email address above sometime before Thursday the 10th of December)
THEORY For our theory portion today, I am going to ask you to consider developing the habit of painting for a short time (10-20 minutes) on the days that you normally don’t paint. Watch the following video by Mary Gilkerson and see if some of the benefits she talks about, might be something you are interested in pursuing. As someone who has benefited from short daily practice sessions, I’ll be glad to answer questions you might think of. This short 3 1/2 minute video is kind of fuzzy and Mary is not the most polished videographer, but her ideas are sound. Click on this link: https://youtu.be/UNejMJPva7w
PRACTICE PAINTING Today we are going to try painting a low key reed background. The pretty singing bird is incidental. The low key background is what we are concerned with this time. Feel free to not paint the bird at all, or to paint the bird loosely. STEPS:
- Pre-mix a sufficient amount of paint to cover your paper entirely with some left over. Test the color to make sure it is dark enough.
- Wet your paper and let it absorb the water. Re-wet your paper and make sure it is evenly moist (slightly shinny) before step #3.
- Apply your background color with a big wash brush, use up and down strokes. Tilt your paper so that your paint dries with out pooling in the center
- Using your left over paint, mix a stronger wash and paint your reeds one or two at a time to make sure they remain moist for step #5
- With a damp clean brush, lift off some of the paint from your reeds to achieve the lighter, softly mottled looking texture.
- Add the bird if desired.
Your objective is to paint a soft smooth low key background, with hard edges on the margins of your reeds and no hard edges on the insides of your reeds.
(send a photo of your completed practice painting to my email address above, sometime before Thursday the 10th of December)
HOMEWORK Paint one of the following scenes with all the details:
(send a photo of your completed practice painting to my email address above, sometime before Thursday the 10th of December)
Have a great week everyone and stay warm! -Robert