NewPerspective on Learning Watercolor Painting

I’ve been teaching Watercolor classes since 1998. I have tried to develop a teaching method that combines student’s needs, a class subject that will attract and entertain students and provide training in traditional techniques.
While at home I’ve been searching for epiphanies to pull out of this tangled web of a pandemic. What has occurred to me recently is that I’ve been going about teaching and doing watercolor the wrong way.

I’ve thought about changing how I teach so students can leave class feeling confident in their painting skills. In future classes ( hopefully the near future), I plan to teach using simpler subjects and more repetition of simp-lily painted objects. This repetition will give you both confidence and skill plus a brighter watercolor future.
So for the remainder of our staying home time, I am creating a curriculum for my new improved teaching method. It may or may not include gold stars, graduated step by step workbooks, incentives, baked goods, one on one advice, supportive comments, wine, and more.

I may need a few test pilots to try out my new program and give me feedback so I can make this new learning program fly. Let me know if you are interested in being a watercolor crash test pilot.

Another painting attempt of the view from our backyard.

Sleep Deprived Watercolor Painting

Are you having trouble sleeping through the nights these days? I am. I wake up with 1500 things on my mind, has this happened to you?
You wake up after a sleep deprived night and feel edgy and completely out of sorts. Your plans to save the world have to be put on hold because all you are capable of doing is making toast.

The silver lining is that in my sleep the deprived stupor I can sit and still paint. I’ve been wanting to do a series of paintings forever of the view from our backyard. Honestly, it used to be a landfill but the realtor who sold us our house said the building on the right was a movie studio. Anyways, now its a basketball center.
We know someday soon they will pave over our view and fill it with tract homes so it had become even more urgent to paint some scenes before its gone.

But you know what? Somehow I haven’t made painting our view a priority. Sometimes in the middle of my sleepless nights I evaluate my prior pre virus quarantine priorities and think about reordering what I do. At 3 a.m. I find it wise not to make any final decisions so instead I make toast. How are you doing?

Blue Door Watercolor Lesson

We filmed a short Youtube video to give you instructions on how to use dry brush and other techniques to create old textures for the watercolor of the Blue Door. I don’t know the history of this door but it caught my eye because of the texture created by it’s peeling paint. I saw the door several years ago when visiting a little town in the French countryside. The town is called St. Felix.

I used 3 colors of blue to paint this door. Cerulean, ultramarine and thalo blue. For the walls, I used an orange color mixed with my favorite red orange, Scarlet Lake. I also added some of my favorite yellow orange called Winsor Orange. I always start painting the foliage with Sap Gren and add yellows to lighten it and blues to darken it and either violet to make it really dark or red to dull it down.

Here is my sketch that you can print out and copy or trace

What Qualities Do You Look for in an Art Teacher

Just supposedly you were looking for an art teacher. What qualities would you look ?

Circle the qualities that you prefer in an art teacher:

A.is authoritarian B.is sophisticated C.has an air of superiority D.Is down to earth E. Not critical F. Knows everything G. emits calmness F. Exhibits strong leadership G. Has several post graduate degress in art and art history H. Acts like they know what they are talking about even when they don’t I. Is able to explain things well J. Knows how to speak pig latin . K. Encourages making mistakes L. knows everything M. Knows enough about their subject to explain it to you N. Gives you homework and scares you into doing it with the threat of a bad grade or public humiliation O . Lets you learn at your own pace P. must love dogs Q. has blond hair R.is young and cute S. Is old and cute T. Is well dressed U. Is very organized V. Is popular W. Is a good listener X. Is very neat Y .is a sportscar driver Z. is overly critical but disguises it as “constructive”.

You might be wondering why I am interested in your art teacher needs. Well, I have been at home now for over 30 days and I have reorganized my paints, cleaned my closet, vacuumed the dogs, cooked every recipe I learned from my Mom and painted several travel watercolor subjects without leaving home. Now, I think its time to work on improving my character. If I know what students are looking for and don’t have those qualities perhaps I can work toward obtaining certain character traits while under confinment. However, do not get over confident in my self improvement quest, I don’t think I can obtain more then 1 or 5 new traits.
l will be waiting to start my self improvement program until I hear from you.

Results of Repurposed Hawaiian Shirt Project

I was able to find my sewing machine, reread the operating instructions and successfully convert my husband’s shirt into a Summer blouse for myself! This project was easy to do if you have some basic sewing experience. Please tell my high school sewing class teacher I am grateful for the skills she taught me. Last night found me in my husband’s closet shopping his shirts for material for my next repurposed clothing project.

Repurpose His Thrift Shop Hawaiian Shirts

Whenever I go to a thrift shop I always pick up a Hawaiian shirt for my husband. I’ve noticed some of the more flamboyant shirts I’ve purchased are never worn.
Since my attempts at knitting were sad and who really wants a knitted beanie to wear now that the Spring weather is here. I decided to find another project to keep my mind and hands busy in between my painting projects.

I found instructions online from an old 2011 blog post. I liked the finished shirt shown on the blog so I found my sewing equipment and set to work.

This is what I’ve gotten done so far. I wonder if Rick will even notice if I am successful and “borrow” more of his least favorite Hawaiian shirts…

Venice Scene Watercolor Lesson

How are you doing out there? Going stir crazy or being inventive and finding 95 ways to polish the dog? You can guess how I am doing. Mostly fine, I am greatful I have something I can do at home like painting and drawing and cooking and dog polishing. However, today I did jump at the chance to ride along with my husband to go to the Auto Supply to get a new car battery. The change of scenery was nice.

So taking all of the above into account, I think its time to paint Venice. We need to transport ourselves via our painting to somewhere far away and very different. IMPORTANT NOTE while I know the reality of Italy is very different these days due to Corovid-19, I am talking about imaginary, perfect Venice.

Here is the painting (which I did over my shaded drawing for a change) and a value sketch. You can print out the value sketch and trace it on to your watercolor paper or if you are need of a quick painting fix, just paint over the printed out copy of the value sketch. I am not judging. The point of painting these days is to enjoy the process.

I will be posting directions on Youtube later today.

Let Your Journal Pages Just Happen

Are you journaling? Remember your pages can be a record of your thoughts and experiences and nothing more. Somehow we have get get around and over the obstacles that stand in the way of the joyful, therapeutic practice of journal keeping. I am not immune ( great timely vocabulary word) to the need to make a perfect drawing. There is way too much pressure out there to show off and post perfect artwork.
However I am really tired of looking at my artwork and measuring it and most dangerously waiting for praise and sales that rarely show up. So from now on I am posting my work with a better attitude: the purpose of showing my work is to explain concepts and encourage you to step in and start making art and nothing more.

So here is another plastic animal drawing from my collection to show you how to throw a drawing down of anything you like in your journal or sketchbook and write about why its there.

Drawing Animals-the Giraffe!

Here are top secret diagrams to explain the finer points of drawing and coloring a giraffe.

Paint in Your Own Backyard

I was going to make the next installment of my “Travel Painting Without Leaving Home” series a painting of Venice, Italy. Then I saw these nasturtiums blooming on my back patio and I had to paint them. I just didn’t feel like leaving home. Below you’ll find the line and value drawings as well as my finished painting. I’ll make a Youtube video tomorrow giving you all the steps I used to paint this scene. Sometimes you just want to stay home, hide under the bed and feel safe, but painting helps too.

Easy Watercolor Journal 1st Steps

Do you feel full of energy one day and out of gas the next day? Do you find yourself wandering around your house thinking of things you should do but don't want to?

I have been experiencing this topsy- turvy state of mind since the quarantine went into effect. I’ve posted some watercolor complete painting tutorials but from the feedback I’ve gotten I’ve decided we need simple things to do when we are exhausted from the news and anxiety provoking thoughts. This is where keeping a simple watercolor journal may help. See the example of my journal page below. Keep your artwork simple and make mistakes. As you may notice, I have the date wrong…

Free Watercolor Journaling Tutorial and Advice

Writing and drawing in a journal is a great way to relax and reduce your anxiety during this difficult period.

If you want to keep an illustrated journal, I can help, since I just taught a class for Miracosta on Watercolor Journaling. The class notes are closeby and the topic is fresh in my mind. Its easy to get started watercolor journaling since all you need is a pen or pencil, something to add color to your drawings (optional) and paper.

Keep it simple and make mistakes is the best advice I can give you. If you make things to complicated you’ll never start this journal. If you don’t let yourself make mistakes you will stop or never start. Mistakes are a big part of the learning curve, so make a lot of them.

Here is how to make a very easy journal. Lay 4-6 sheet of paper on top of one and other and fold in half to make a booklet with two sided pages. Either staple your pages in the middle or top or get out a needle and thread and sew it with a quick stitch.

1. Grab your pencil and draw a border around your page, because journal pages look better and neater with a border containing them. There are some easy border examples posted below.

2. Put a title on your page in big enough print so it stands out. You decide how big it needs to be, because you are the boss of this page, so use your style and taste. Remember your title needs to be simple, it can be TUESDAY, if its Tuesday …. also add the date including month and year . * If you have one of those date stamps around the house collecting dust, you can use it now!

3. Decide on how much writing and how much drawing you want to include on your page. Again, this is a personal choice, so if you are a “writer” you can write as much as you like and if you are not a “writer” its fine to write abbreviated thoughts, not even in full sentences, just get something down to record your feelings and or thoughts at this moment in time.

4. If you give your writing some light pencil guidelines like the guidelines we used in 1st grade, the writing will look neater and better. If you want a more professional handwriting or printing, google a font website and print out the alphabet and use this as a guide for the writing.

5. To design your page, look at the arrangements below. However, any arrangement is fine, a big drawing in the middle with writing around it, or 2 squares of drawing next to two squares of writing, etc.

6. Drawing - if you are drawing something you are looking at, the contour or semi blind contour method of drawing is easiest for beginners. Just move your pencil on your paper simultaneously as your eyes move around the object you are looking at. If you like you can look at your drawing from time to time and draw over a line you want to correct, but don’t start erasing. This method of drawing looks “wonky” but it definately records what you are seeing and improves with practice.

7. If you want to go over your pencil lines with ink and add color, go ahead. If you are using watercolor paint, make sure your ink is waterproof or add it over your dry paint.

The Sunday L.A. Times had two articles about keeping a journal during a time of crisis. The first article talked about several people currently who had started journals to record their experiences with the Corona Virus and their quarantine. The second article was in the Art and Books section and talked about a series of illustrated journals done in Mexico during the 1500’s by people who were sequestered in a convent to record the events.

Page design and a title!

Example of a free font you can use for journal titles etc.

Beginning Watercolor “How to” of Bonnard's Home

Yesterday I completed my Youtube lesson #3 of Travel Painting Without Leaving Home. Another name for these lessons could be Beginning Watercolor How to’s or lessons because these are just fun paintings anyone could learn to do.

Here’s the finished painting and the steps I took to paint it. Please let me know your questions or other subjects you want beginning watercolors lessons about.

I used an 2B pencil to add the shading.

I drew over my pencil lines in a brown ink because I like how this color looks with watercolor.

The link to my Youtube video with more details is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw2rMrFNbgw

Drawing Fun for Everyone

Before I became a travel painter, I wrote and illustrated my own children’s picture books. To practice drawing the animal characters in my books, I used plastic animals as models. This was before the internet existed and it wasn’t possible to find a google image in 2 seconds.
I have a suitcase filled with animals and others to draw from.

My suitcase of animals and others

Drawing animals is fun! I am going to teach you how by choosing a different animal for each lesson and showing you step by step what to do.

Our first lesson will be drawing a giraffe.

The giraffe is modeling for us on my desk.

Here is a sketch I did in pencil first, then I went over the lines with a thin tipped Faber Castell Pitt pen.

You can see the pencil construction lines under the ink. The construction lines are the first step to building your giraffe.

Soon, I am going to show you the steps you need to take to draw a giraffe. Grab paper, a pencil and a good eraser (not one that will smudge your lines or leave dark marks after erasing). I’ll post the steps soon plus a video on my Youtube channel later today. Happy drawing! Be sure to remember not to judge your drawing, just enjoy practicing and your work will get better with practice!

Paint Provence Details

Here is the finished painting of Provence. The colors of paints I used were:

Permanent Rose, Lemon Yellow or some type of mustard color yellow like New Gamboge, Sap Green, Cobalt Blue, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. I used the artistic principle of atmospheric perspective to create a look of depth in this painting, which means bright colorful detailed things go in the front of the painting and things get duller, darker and less detailed as they receed into the background of your painting.

If you decide to do this painting, check out the Youtube video that shows more step by step instructions and of course video. Also feel free to change the colors or anything to design the painting to suit your own taste. If you run into trouble and need help or have a question feel free to email me.

Don’t forget not to judge your painting, just enjoy the process as always.

At Home Art Project: Painted Mail Envelope

Since we are at home and need to communicate with the outside world, why not write someone a letter? Do you love finding a letter in your mailbox addressed to you by a friend or loved one? I do. Lets take this letter writing one step further. We are going to make an envelope out of any paintable paper you have around the house that will fold. I am posting the template for you to print that I traced around to make my envelope in this post.

I answered my door yesterday and found my friend Nadine on the doorstep holding a bouquet of tulips that were for me. The envelope posted here is the thank you note for her thoughtfulness that I will be mailing to her today. Note: We social distanced our doorstep chat.

After I traced the envelope template onto a page of sketchbook paper I pulled out of an old sketchbook, I folded the 4 sides into the center of the envelope. Then I taped them down with regular tape I had around. Note: don’t make this process complicated by searching for the “perfect” art supplies, just make it with what you have around or can find easily. Pre coronavirus crisis me might have spent days searching for my glue dots in the perfect size or that perfect piece of art paper, but guess what? The project never would have gotten done.

Once the envelope was together, I sketched the bouquet onto the front of the envelope. Note: My advice is again to sketch something simple and not “perfect” otherwise you won’t complete your project.

Finally add some paint to your drawing and anything else you want, fit the address in somewhere legable on the envelope, add your return address, a stamp and slip in a short, not perfect, handwritten letter, then drop it in the mail. The CDC has said they do not believe there is a danger of contracting the virus thru the mail.

Travel Painting from Home 1st Class is in Session

Here is your first step into painting Provence without leaving home. You’ll need to either copy or trace the line drawing below. It’s a sketch of the farmhouse in Provence owned by Julien and Carole, our friends in Provence. We stayed at their Farmhouse B & B many times while we were painting and exploring Provence. In my drawing I combined the farmhouse with a tree and a field of poppies I saw places nearby in the Luberon region, the clothes line comes from my imagination. (You know I love adding a clothes line every now and then.)

HOW TO PRINT OUT THE DRAWINGS - MAC INSTRUCTIONS: GO TO ‘FILE’ ON YOUR DROP DOWN MENU IN THE UPPER LEFT CORNER OF THE SCREEN AND FIND PRINT. CLICK ON PRINT AND WHEN THE PRINTING SCREEN SHOWS UP ON YOUR DEVICE, CHOOSE TO PRINT ONLY THE PAGES THE DRAWINGS ARE ON. ON MY MAC LAPTOP I PRINTED ONLY PAGES 2 AND 3 AND IT PRINTED LIKE A CHARM! WINDOWS INSTRUCTIONS: RIGHT-CLICK ON ONE OF THE DRAWINGS AND FROM THE MENU THAT APPEARS, SAVE THE IMAGE TO YOUR DESKTOP OR OTHER LOCATION ON YOUR COMPUTER. OPEN THE IMAGE FILE FROM YOUR DESKTOP OR OTHER COMPUTER LOCATION AND PRINT!

You have options on how to print out the drawing. You could print a few copies on regular copy paper or if your printer will do it, print it right out on your watercolor paper. If you want, you could also draw right onto your watercolor paper lightly and not bother to print out my drawing. Feel free to add or subtract or change anything you like in the drawing to make it more to your liking.

So now you have homework to do. Since we are stuck at home, we truly have HOMEwork. Get this drawing on your watercolor painting and do some shading on an extra copy to get familiar with where you want your dark, light and medium paint to go.

I posted a video on Youtube with more instructions. Find the video at HERE and tomorrow we will work on your painting. So, turn off the news, get out your pen and pencils and get to work. It is ok with me if you stream tv while your are painting, cause that is my favorite thing to do.

Line drawing

Drawing with shading

Travel Painting Without Leaving Home

After considering all options for taking a group of enthusiastic Anywhere Artists to Provence the beginning of May, I decided to cancel the trip. The situation in the world now surrounding the Coronavirus is too unstable. There are too many risks in traveling; you could getting sick , or being marrooned in a foreign country if a quarantine is put in place or contracting germs when traveling by air. Plus, it could be costly if you need to spend extra days in a foreign country, or cancel hotel reservations after the deadline for refunds has past. From what I have read about travel insurance, in most cases average travel insurance will not reinburse you if you cancel because of the coronavirus.

So, I emailed all 12 of the students who signed up for the trip and explained that I am not really canceling, I am rescheduling the trip until a later date when it is safe to travel. Even though I did the mature responsible thing which for me was to cancel the trip, I don’t feel very pleased. In fact I have been feeling pretty low and wallowing in an Eyore like state, only surfacing to eat cookies and cuddle the beagle..

So, I came up with some new ideas of what you and I can do to continue travel painting without anyone leaving home. Click on the link below to see the video I made on my Youtube channel to tell you about my distance learning program.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7SMAuO3Ksw

Visiting France in My Imagination

Today, I blew the cobwebs off my blog posting equipment in order to write this post for you. We are experiencing a challenging period these days. I cannot guess what is going to happen to all our travel plans in the near future. My heart goes out to all the people suffering from the Coronavirus.
So my friends I advise you to grab your pencil, brush and paint and splash some shapes onto your paper. Maybe draw somewhere you want to go or have been. This art process will take your mind off the present issues for a while, will cheer you up and air out your brain cells.

Greetings From Boston

The weather in Boston is chilly this week. 1 degree on the thermometer at 7am outside this morning!

It’s toasty warm inside Eileen’s house where Debbie and I are spending a few days. Everywhere I look I see houses with snow covered lawns that remind me of Christmas card scenes of New England towns. Then I remember we are in New England at Christmas time! The scene in the bottom right corner is the view out of Eileen’s living room window on Saturday night.
Today we visited the Isabella Steward Gardener museum which is housed in her Venetian style palazzo home. You can see the courtyard garden in the photo on the top right. Our heads are spinning now with questions about who stole the 5 paintings from the museum in 1990. I think if they ask us we might be able to give them some useful theories to follow up on.