#333 Watercolor Foundation: Basic Techniques and Materials, a sampler course – Watercolor can be a very rewarding technique but in order to obtain fresh and expressive paintings, one should become acquainted with its fundamentals: washes, gradations, glazes, wet on wet, wet on dry, drybrush, materials. This course is a good starting point for the artist that wants to seriously pursue watercolor.

In this online watercolor sampler course, we will paint a variety of subjects, ranging from landscapes to flowers, still life and animals, both from photographic references and master’s watercolors.

The scope of this six-2 1/2 hour sessions course, besides enjoying an evening spent painting in virtual company of fellow artists, is to develop our watercolor skills, such as color mixing, brushwork and types of brushstrokes, materials, wet on wet, wet on dry, drybrush, prepare small preliminary pencil and watercolor sketches to study composition, what color palette to use and how to approach the final work.

As you can see, this course deals with a variety of foundation watercolor topics, methods and techniques that can be applied to watercolor painting in general, but also to develop a personal technique, aesthetic sensibility and create artworks that you can enter in shows and competitions.

Open to all levels.

Materials:

• Paint: cadmium red medium, alizarine crimson, cadmium yellow lemon, cadmium yellow medium, earth red (Indian red, Venetian red or burnt Sienna), Naples yellow, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, ultramarine violet, black, burnt umber, sepia, cobalt blue, cobalt violet, sap green, Hooker’s green, and any other colors you might already have
• Paper: a pad of cold press paper 12” by 16” or so
• Brushes: #2 and #8 or 10, round. You can use synthetic or natural sables (Kolinsky or red sable), a flat, synthetic brush, about ¾ “will do.
• You can also get a small sketchpad for quick studies and sketches, just make sure that the paper of the sketchpad can withstand light watercolor washes.