September 26, 2015
I’ve gone back to my old ways … not always a bad thing. Starting a workshop class with a demo of applying the techniques and principles of color and design may be more effective than intermittent demos of specific techniques throughout a class. The challenge for me is to demonstrate a way of painting that is not necessarily the way I paint.
When painting in this manner, I do not paint quickly, making it difficult to complete a painting in 45 minutes. Talking, thinking and painting simultaneously is difficult. The demos I did for classes many years ago were not problem-solving demos. I was not teaching color and design, I was teaching how to create lovely paintings to hang on your wall. Now I am attempting to merge teaching problem solving, color and design as well as how to create lovely paintings. I’m rusty at painting this sort of demo … and looking forward to improving with each class.
Street Scene – Rue des Solitaires, Belleville, Paris, France – 14″ x 11″ Watercolor
This is as far as I got after the demo and working on it a bit during the workshop as the artists were working on their own, getting themselves in and out of trouble.
Street Scene – Rue des Solitaires, Belleville, Paris, France – watercolor
I worked on it for about an hour back in my studio after the class. The goal of the demo was to illustrate a watercolor built upon a value sketch and temperature sketch inspired by a photograph, focusing on the design of the values (choosing hues for their attributes of local value) and alternating warms and cools to create movement and space.
The painting was done using a limited palette: Joe’s Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Alizarin Crimson, Cadmium Red Light, Ultramarine Blue and Joe’s Blue.
Thank you, Anita Adelman for taking the photos while I was doing the demo!
Click here to register for upcoming workshops. (After October 1st you will be able to register online for the Nov 7th Color and Design workshop at Essex Watercolor Club in Livingston NJ. EWCC members may register now by contacting Noreen.)