Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners!

On Friday, May 30th, I led a Nature in Watercolor Workshop for Beginners for the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  We met at Raccoon Creek State Park, and began the day with an introduction to what watercolors do -- how they flow and spread on paper.

We tested out our brushes, paints and paper.

We shared our favorite supplies.

We explored how to mix greens to match the world outside.

The best way to learn how to paint with watercolors is to experiment with them -- mixing colors, splashing down water & paint, and testing the effects of different brushes.

I loved the way everyone was supportive of each other.

We went outdoors to find subjects to paint and sketch.

What a wonderful feeling to sit in the peace of nature and create!

Everyone found their quiet nook to sketch in.

We returned to the Recreation Hall to share our sketches.

Everyone encouraged their classmates.

  Seeing others' artwork inspired the rest of us.

After lunch, we talked about simplifying the landscape, then played with our paints some more.

I demonstrated how to clean watercolor brushes,

 and we had a final sharing session to admire each others' work.

Many thanks to -- 

the ladies who took part in the session, 

Osher for organizing the class, &

David for his help setting up, schlepping stuff, and being our photographer!

If this looks interesting to you, I hope you'll join me for an art class in the future.

In July, I'm teaching a Monday night Nature Journaling class at the Community College of Beaver County starting July 7th.  You can register and find out more here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/category/arts

Scroll down to Nature Journaling or click here:

https://ccbc.coursestorm.com/course/nature-journaling-washington-county2

Happy Creating!

Light in the Forest

Out on a hike with David, the beauty of the afternoon sunlight streaming through the forest caught my eye, and I snapped this photo with my phone.

Back at home, I sketched the tree trunks and the road lightly in pencil, and began painting this 5" x 8" piece.

I used a mixture of phthalo blue & quinachridone gold for the deeper, cooler greens, and Winsor lemon & French ultramarine blue for the lemony yellows.  

The gravel road, the shadows and the tree trunks were painted with varying mixtures of French ultramarine blue & burnt sienna, which makes a beautiful array of colors from blue grays to dark, earthy browns.

I love how, as the artists, we get to choose the details within a scene to paint.  Select your own favorite parts of any landscape scene, and focus your attention on them, allowing the rest to be abstract shapes.

I hope you get to paint, draw or create in some other way this week.

Happy Creating!

The World is Full of Greens!

This is the time of year when you might feel inspired to go outdoors to paint.  Once outside, you may wonder, "How do I make all of those greens?!"

Consider creating your own library of greens like the one above.

I have a small palette for outdoor painting adventures.  It contains:

Ultramarine Blue (warm) & Phthalo Blue (cool).

Azo Yellow (warm) & Winsor Lemon Yellow (cool).

Yellow Ochre & Burnt Sienna (warm earth tones).

Look at the wide array of greens above I can make with those colors!

I paired each of my blues with each of my yellows.  I painted a swatch of the blue at one end, and painted the rest of the band in yellow.  Then I made a puddle of the yellow in my mixing tray, and began adding dabs of blue.  After each dab of blue, I swatched the green onto the spectrum, so the greens get progressively more blue going to the right.

I also mixed Phthalo Blue with Burnt Sienna to create a rich, pine green.

Give this a try! You'll end up with a great reference sheet of greens you can mix to paint your next sketch or painting.

Out on Raccoon Creek State Park Lake, painting the morning sun shining through the trees, my experience mixing colors came in handy.

Happy Creating!

If at First You Don't Succeed, Try, Try Again!

It's the season of Plein Air painting, or painting outdoors in the fresh air.

Inspired by this scene on my farm, I set up my watercolor paints & pochade box.

I started with a sketch in pencil, added India ink, and then layered in washes.  

But when the painting was done, I didn't like it! Too many details competed with each other to attract your eye!  The background trees were so detailed, the whole thing looked like camouflage.  I tried to simplify the background by laying in a darker wash, but the result was cartoonish.

Of course, there are parts I love, like the little greenhouse and the dead tree, but as a composition, it just doesn't work.

As hard as that is to accept, there is power in looking critically at your own artwork.  When you see precisely what you don't like -- too many details -- you can create another painting and fix that problem.

Here's the second version of this scene.

I worked quickly, sketching in only the greenhouse angles lightly with pencil.  I abstracted the background trees into light and dark patches, and took out the dead tree because it competed with the greenhouse. 

When you're painting with watercolor, having a plan going in helps tremendously!  And when painting landscapes, the first step is to abstract all of those details, and pick what is most important to you -- what draws your artist's eye?

Allowing yourself several paintings to develop your ideas is freeing.  

Harsh self judgement is a lead weight on our creativity, but looking at our artwork with a discerning eye for what we love and what isn't successful gives us the power to improve.

Remember: Every painting teaches you something.

Do you have a painting that didn't work?  Why not make a plan for how you'd like to fix it? Hard won success feels uplifting and leads to more discoveries.

Happy Creating!

Baltimore Orioles & Mixing Greens in My Nature Journal

A hike down to the state park lake on a quiet Monday afternoon felt magical with the sunlight streaming through the new leaves.  Birdsong everywhere brightened my spirits.

Reaching the lake, I immersed myself in sketching the bushes on the far side of the lake.  The late afternoon sun lit their foliage, picking them out from the shadowy hillside background.

I first drew with a permanent Faber Castell Pitt pen.  When the ink had dried, I painted in washes of sap green and a cooler green made from Hooker's green and French ultramarine blue.  I mixed up a few different greens:

• Yellow Ochre added to the blue green mixture dulled it a bit.
• Winsor lemon mixed with sap green brightened it for the weeds along the shoreline on the right.
• Phthalo blue mixed with burnt Sienna created the deep forest green in the hillside behind the bushes
• I occasionally added some sap green to the phthalo blue-burnt Sienna mix to alter the hue in the background
• The ripples in the water were made with the phthalo blue & burnt Sienna mixture. I used more burnt Sienna to make brown-green lake water.  

After I had finished painting the lake scene, I noticed a male Baltimore Oriole perched in a sapling just 12 feet away! I sketched him in pen as he sat in different positions.

His plumage was so intensely orange, I used a technique called glazing to recreate the glowing orange color of his feathers in the sunshine.  With glazing, you layer in a bright, often light color underneath another wash.  Painting in layers and letting each layer dry, creates a bolder effect than simply mixing all the colors together at once. 

Here, I painted a wash of warm azo yellow and let it dry.  Then I brushed in a mix of azo yellow and warm Pyrrol red. Yellow is often the color I use in glazing beneath other layers for bright leaves, bold birds, or colorful flowers. Yellow adds a sunny effect, and the finished painting seems to glow.

I hope you take some time to play with your art supplies this week and try out these techniques!

Happy Creating!

Spring Sassafras Leaves in Watercolor

Out on a walk around my farm, I was stopped in my tracks by the beauty of sunlight pouring through these sassafras leaves lighting them up like stained glass windows.

Back in my studio, I sketched the leaves in ink, then added color with watercolors. 

 Isn't it beautiful how each of us is attracted to something different to draw or paint out in the world?

What do you love to look at?  That's the thing to draw or paint!

Happy Creating!

Watercolor Sketching in the Flower Garden

The season has begun when we can sit outside by a flower garden and make watercolor sketches. 

The pages above were in my garden at home, and below were from Highland Park in Pittsburgh.

Pick your favorite medium, whatever feels best in your hand, and get outside to explore what nature is doing in the garden!

Remember, you can do anything in a sketchbook.  Have no expectations of making "perfect pictures." You're an explorer, and your pencil, pen or brush is your tool for making discoveries.  

If you decide that a sketch didn't work out, turn the page!  

If you don't have a few pages that look like a total mess, you're not trying hard enough.

Here are a few of my recent messy pages that I chalk up to experience.

Each of these were practice and taught me something. The one above taught me that rainy days can make for low-contrast, dull paintings.

The sketch below reminded me that when I'm in a rush and very excited to see a wild turkey in my yard, I'm not at my best as a sketch artist.

The rest of these are just warm-up practice.

It's a normal part of sketching to make some inelegant drawings.

I find it freeing to accept these messy pages as part of the process and move on.

Happy Creating!