Friday Watercolors 01/25/2013

This week we worked from one of my photographs. I took this of the church across the street from the studio. The sun just peeked out and shined the light on the church for just a moment. Lucky me I had my camera and snapped this shot. My demo this week was really about creating texture for trees with sponges or paper towels in my case.The students were intimidated when they first try drawing the church. But after awhile they really came around and did great work. I kept the painting demo this week because this little sketch is close to my heart as this church has become a visual element in my everyday life, allowing me to capture it in such great lighting conditions.

A Few Watercolor Demo's

These are a few watercolors that I created in my watercolor class as demonstrations for the class
to watch. I do these small studies every week and gift them to a lucky student or a first timer.

Watercolor Fridays

               Iris 7.5 x 10.5 inch Watercolor and  White Gouache on Arches 300 pound hot press

     This watercolor was painted in a live demonstration in my Friday morning watercolor class. I will be posting my demo each week as well as some things from my figure drawing sessions and other upcoming events or classes.
     We worked from photograph to create this image this week. The lesson in today's painting class was focused on contrast on value between dark and light. Using a full range of value on over 25 percent of the composition. I often give these demos away to my students as a extra bonus for attending my classes. I will usually provide the rough sketch and photo reference of what we work on week to week. This is this weeks photo if you want to try to paint this one at home.

I also gave an artist reference this week. Her name is Arena Shawn and she paints in watercolor and focuses on flowers. Her work has huge dark areas and strong contrast. You can view her work, just click on her name.