Back to Basics

I've been busy this week going back to basics, painting small simple watercolors.  These are practice for the demos I will be doing while teaching a beginner watercolor class at our local senior center.  So far, my ideas for lessons consist of autumn leaves-(basic wash, glazing, mingling colors), a graded value landscape (glazing, painting evergreen trees), and autumn trees (basic tree shapes, mingling colors, scumbling, painting thin lines).  I'm trying to keep it simple, teach a new concept each week, and hopefully send the students home with a successful little painting. 

Another Gold Leaf - Irises

My third in the series of small gold leaf florals.  I'm getting better at getting the gold on without having to go back in and patch.  I think I'm ready to go for a larger painting this time.  This one is 7 1/2 x 11.

Florals with Watercolor and Gold Foil

Back in March, I took a workshop with Judy Morris, who showed us some samples of her paintings that included gold foil.  I was fascinated and had to try this.  These are my first two attempts.  I had a bit of trouble getting complete coverage and had to resort to patching in a few spots.  These are 7 1/2 x 11, and I think it's time to try something a little larger.

Stamping

Not a watercolor, but I wanted to post what I've been doing the last several days.  I started one of the free Strathmore workshops, this one on stamping, and specifically making your own stamps.  These are all made of Fun Foam.  Some of them didn't stamp cleanly, which oddly enough makes the design look more interesting. 

Workshop Painting

My sister Joan and I took a workshop at Springmaid Beach a couple of weeks ago.  Our instructor was Judy Morris, and we learned how to stamp and stencil backgrounds and borders in our paintings.  I only completed one and a half paintings, because our time was spent learning a TON of techniques.  We also learned to add gold leaf to our paintings.  This was a great workshop, and I learned a lot - now I just have to put all those wonderful techniques into practice.  This is a painting of pink orchids that I completed in the workshop.

Snowy Branches

I've wanted to paint this ever since I took the photo last year.  I loved the way the snow looked on these branches.  I don't usually like masking fluid, but branches with snow on them is impossible to do in watercolor any other way.  I did the background wet-in wet, darkening it a few times to make the snow really pop.  I have a lot more photos that I took that day, references for more paintings?