Quick Glance Blooming
Quick Glance Granulating
Embedded Files
Time
Time
Gridding Paper 15 minutes
Technique Painting 1 hour
First Painting 45 minutes
Beginner 101
Beginner 101
Week 1: Introduction to Watercolor
Week 1: Introduction to Watercolor
Focus is on exercises that teach us how to "collaborate" with the water rather than fighting it. These exercises are designed to help us observe the physical behavior of the medium in a low-pressure way.
Week 2: Introduction to Watercolor
Week 2: Introduction to Watercolor
Focus is on creating several paintings using what we learned in the classic wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques.
Surrender to watercolor’s unique physical nature. Fluid and alive, it moves freely across the paper, often creating unexpected colors and beautiful blooms. Like life itself, watercolor is ever-changing, inviting us to embrace water and earth-born pigments as they interact and transform. Gentle, atmospheric music sets a calming tone as we welcome the beauty of the unexpected.
Week 1: Techniques
Week 1: Techniques
Overview of materials and setup
We will explore variations in pigment saturation, brushstrokes, and by observing drying time to achieve specific marks.
Charging water using one color and different colors. Applying saturations of colors, flat wash, gravity tilt wash, wet-on-damp color washes - wait 45 seconds then add brush strokes, spraying blooms, lifting, soft edges, dry brushing
Hands on first hour: By dividing paper with masking tape we will create technique exercises.
Hands on second hour: These techniques will be applied to student's in-class spontaneous painting.
Goal: Understanding timing and drying stages. Understanding terminology used in watercolor painting. See glossary below.
Week 2: Techniques
Week 2: Techniques
First hour: Review learning from previous week. Students can bring paintings they made during the previous week. Identifying techiques in real life examples shown in class.
Hands on second hour: Painting provided photograph, practicing most of the techniques.
Photograph will be provided.
Pigments are like fish, they stop at the dry shore.
Pigments are like fish, they stop at the dry shore.
Glossary
Glossary
Blooming involves dropping clean water or a lighter paint mixture into a drying, darker, and more concentrated wash, causing the pigment to be pushed away and creating feather-edged, blossom-like patterns. It is a "happy accident" commonly used to create texture in landscapes, flowers, or snow.
Charging is a wet-on-wet watercolor technique where fresh, concentrated paint is dropped into a previously applied, still-wet wash, allowing the colors to mingle and blend on the paper rather than the palette. It is used to create soft edges, vibrant gradients, and spontaneous, textured effects while maintaining luminous, non-muddy colors.
Dry Brush is using a brush with very little water and high pigment concentration on dry paper to create rough, scratchy textures.
Glazing is laying transparent, thin, dry layers of paint over dried previous layers to deepen color or change hue.
Gradient is a wash that creates a smooth transition from dark to light (or between colors) by gradually adding more water and less pigment with each descending, horizontal stroke. Key techniques include tilting the paper, keeping a consistent wet "bead" of paint, and using a large, loaded brush to prevent streaky lines.
Granulating paints that contain large or heavy pigment particles that fail to blend smoothly, instead settling into the crevices of paper to create a textured, mottled, or speckled effect.
Lifting is the technique of removing wet or dry paint from paper to lighten a value, soften edges, correct mistakes, or create highlights. It is achieved by absorbing wet paint with a tissue/brush or re-wetting dried paint to gently scrub it away, often creating softer, more organic shapes than masking fluid.
Sgraffito/Scratch-ing is scratching into wet or dry paint with a palette knife or fingernail creating sharp, fine lines.
An Exacto blade or tooth picks are commonly used.
Wet on Dry is applying wet, paint-loaded brushes onto a completely dried layer of paint, producing crisp, hard-edged, and detailed shapes with intense color saturation. Ideal for adding final details, defined shadows, and foreground elements, usually applied after initial wet-on-wet washes have dried.
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