Description
RECORDED September 3 & 6, 2022
Instructors: Pam & Sam
Level: Beginners
Botanical Subject(s): Please bring some small botanical subjects to practice with, such as flower petals, small leaves, and cherry tomatoes (anything small and simple will do).
Workshop Description: Don’t be afraid of watercolor! In this workshop, we will work slowly through the basics of watercolor. From the amount of water used to the size of the brush, we will work step-by-step and pay close attention to the fundamental techniques involved in botanical painting with watercolor. We will practice watercolor exercises together to improve our core watercolor skills, and practice what we learn on some simple botanical subjects.
Our workshops include a set of pre-recorded videos for you to watch as you prepare for class, as well as recordings of each workshop session, delivered via email. We encourage collaboration and community, and we strive to create a safe virtual environment for everyone to draw together. We provide live demonstrations on the first day of a workshop and constructive critique of your work on the second day. ALL of the registration and video material for this workshop is delivered to you via email. Please be sure to add info@drawbotanical.com to your email contacts so that you do not miss correspondence from us!
Recommended Supplies (Art supplies available at: https://drawbotanical.com/product-category/art-supplies/ and www.dickblick.com):
- Portable Lamp of any kind you like, even a small goose neck lamp works.
- Paper: Your favorite cotton hot press watercolor paper 140lb or thicker (Legion Stonehenge Aqua Hotpress is one of our favorites). Bring a block or few sheets so you can have lots of paper for practicing.
- Graphite Pencil with H lead. We like Tombow.
- Round Watercolor brushes – please bring a variety of small round watercolor brushes. We like Interlon brand size 6, 2, 3/0 (https://drawbotanical.com/product/interlon-watercolor-brushes/). (If you are having trouble finding these, another good option is Princeton “Aqua Elite” brushes: Sizes 6, 4, 0.) Or bring your own favorite watercolor brushes.
- Flat watercolor brush – a flat watercolor brush is good for lifting out watercolor. A size 4 is nice.
- A kneaded eraser and a white plastic eraser.
- WATERCOLOR: you can bring your favorite professional grade watercolors to class. We like Faber-Castell Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils as our source of watercolor: These have the same color names as the Faber Castell Polychromos colored pencils that we use.. Colors we use are: Cadmium Yellow 107 Permanent Green Olive 167 Pale Geranium Lake 121 Middle Purple Pink 125 Purple Violet 136 Dark Sepia 175 Dark Cadmium Orange 115 Burnt Sienna 283 White 101 Light Yellow Ochre 183 Warm Gray IV 273 Earth Green 172 Ultramarine 120 (You can buy these at art supply stores, such as DickBlick and Jerryartarama) If you don’t have these Albrecht Durer watercolor color pencils, don’t worry, just bring the watercolors that you have.
- Palette: If using watercolor pencils, the Caran d’Ache Aquarelle palette is great (if you have a small white plastic cutting board, this can work as well). We also like Dura-Bright white film for watercolor pencils or traditional tube/pan watercolors. A white porcelain plate works nicely for traditional tube/pan watercolors.
- Optional: To learn some masking fluid techniques, please consider buying some masking fluid (QOR or Winsor & Newton brands are good), and a speedball hunt #512 nib (https://www.dickblick.com/items/speedball-standard-point-dip-pen-nibs-512-bowl-point-individual-nib/) & holder (https://www.dickblick.com/products/speedball-standard-pen-holders/)
Recommended Text – Only need one of these books: “The Joy of Botanical Drawing” by Wendy Hollender, “The Practice of Botanical Drawing” by Wendy Hollender, “Botanical Drawing in Color, A Basic Guide to Mastering Realistic Form and Naturalistic Color”, by Wendy Hollender
Cancellation Policy: Cancellations at least one week in advance will receive a 95% refund (5% processing fee). If you cancel less than one week up to 48 hours before the event, you will receive a 95% refund (less 5% processing fee) if we can find someone to replace your spot. Less than 48 hours cancellation, we cannot issue a refund. You will still receive all recordings from the workshop, and you can watch them at your convenience.
