I’ve long been a fan of online art classes and Sketchbook Skool in particular so you can imagine how excited I was to sign up for their brand new watercolor class, Watercolor Rules and How to Break Them. I’ve loved adding watercolor to my drawings and sketchbook pages but I’ve often wanted to dive deeper into the whys and wherefores of the medium.
Signing up was a given.
After waiting impatiently all summer I finally started in last week with our first assignment… learning about colors and pigments by mixing and creating color wheels from the paints in our palettes.
My palette contains both a warm and a cool version of the three primaries along with a few neutrals and a surprise color or two. One evening I sat down and made my color wheels using all the combinations of those primaries… the neutrals and surprises will have to wait.
I think my favorite wheel is the cool yellow, cool red, warm blue… the one on the right in the image below. It makes slightly neutralized yet natural oranges and greens as well as bright violets.
But as you can see, there are more lovely mixes in each of these wheels.
There was also an additional but optional homework assignment to paint a still life without the safety net of an ink or pencil under-drawing… and create it using only three primary paints. I just couldn’t limit myself to those three and found myself sneaking other colors into my mixes.
I foresee pomegranate seeds on my salad now that they’ve done their modeling. Delicious!
Even with all its flaws I actually prefer the quick thumbnail portrait on the left to the more detailed portrait I did to follow. Again from a Sktchy photo.
More negative painting practice. I pulled out a teeny-tiny brush to do the darker lettering.
My ever-present studio companion. He truly is only 4 inches tall!
From another photo found on Sktchy. I had a vision of a zen monk in deep meditation.
Last day of June! Marquette grapes make darn good wine… they’re cold-hardy and they grow in Vermont!
I took my paints to an outdoor concert. Great subjects but my painting was cut short as I spilled my water! Sigh.
I have a thing about ampersands! I discovered that I should have done the shading before I painted the details. More negative painting practice again.
Painted from a Sktchy photo. Another negative painting practice and another one of my favorites.
Foxgloves. I can’t grow them but I’m glad my friend can!
Cool and refreshing sour cherry cider! Another one of my favorites. I know many artists don’t like the blooms, also known as back-runs, but I love the variation in hues and the fuzzy edges.
Two quick views across the pond. This is one of my favorites because I can see myself using this technique on vacation.
Another people spread. I’m particularly fond of the woman with dog in the upper right. Just a few brush strokes allowing us to fill in the details ourselves.
My favorite pitcher! Not only does it glug-glug-glug when it pours but with its beautiful coloration it’s a great subject.
Another fun pitcher to paint!
Dogs… I really miss my ink when I’m painting them! They move so fast… I should be painting sleeping dogs instead.
I wanted to try something that had both wide swaths of color along with fine detail. This bottle had both.
Woof! Done from a photo on Sktchy.
Lesson One from Wil Freeborn’s book Learn to Paint in Watercolor with 50 Paintings. Who knew doughnuts would be such great subjects!
Out with my plein air group… just starting to get comfortable balancing my sketchbook, paints, and water jar without getting soaked… done that before.
Lesson Fifteen from the same Wil Freeborn book. I think this technique would be great to capture the Adirondacks across Lake Champlain.
The white iris is my first attempt at negative painting.
People! Thank goodness for 
Yet more people practice… this time watching 
I have a few toys to model for me when I don’t know what else to paint or when it’s late as it was this night.
More negative and positive painting practice. I love this little jar, and yes… the jar has no e in saccharine, and no… saccharine is not better for me.
June 1st – Sktchy portrait
Poppies from my side garden, painted in plein air.
Our black kitty and her favorite spot.
Both of our cats as models.
As I wrote above… I was really missing having my pen lines to guide me. I think this marks the end of my whining and the start of me getting my brain thinking of seeing volumes instead of lines.
