Painting in Watercolor

Outer Space, watercolor technique lesson

 This lesson explores many watercolor surface techniques at once, and is guaranteed to be successful for students of all levels.  The planet and moon shapes are traced from circular objects with crayon, then colored in with a thick layer of crayon wax. Afterward, the entire paper surface is brushed with clear water, and liquid watercolor is applied. Salt is sprinkled on for effect

Janie, 14 years old

Janie, 14 years old

Megan, Adult student

John, Adult student

Watercolor Brush Technique and Surface Exercise

Using a simple plant shape, such as a rain lily, practice line quality with a soft-hair paintbrush in small thumbnail paintings.  Practice pulling, lifting, and pressing the brush to achieve desired line quality. Try masking techniques such as frisket and crayon resist. Try washes, graded washes, dry-brush, color planting, wet-on-wet, salt, and thirsty-brush techniques.

The beauty of this lesson is that it makes students practice a brush technique without being labor intensive or overly intellectual. 

Rain lily thumbnail paintings, 4"x3.5"

Ship in a Storm watercolor technique lesson

Ship in a Storm is a wonderful lesson that employs many watercolor surface techniques at once!  It begins with storytelling about exciting sea adventures (i.e., pirates and sunken treasure, explorers sailing around the Horn, etc.) Students are led to imagine the sights and sounds, the fierce winds, the terrible lightning and thunder, the waves tossing the ship around, the slippery deck.  Then, the teacher demonstrates quickly how to draw a simple ship shape and the swooping, rolling motion of waves.  After this initial quick sketch, the teacher brushes the entire paper surface with water and demonstrates how to apply the watercolor in blues and greens for the sea water, black for the sky.  Salt is sprinkled in, and when the painting has dried, white chalk for rain and lightning can be applied for effect.  The chaos of the scene allows for for "mistakes" to become useful.

Graded Wash with Silhouette

Watercolor wash overlaid with black tempera