Drawing

Okay, so it's not watercolor. I just had to share this one. A good drawing is the foundation for a good watercolor. I was not happy with my drawing skills, so when I saw an online drawing class starting on WetCanvas, (www.wetcanvas.com) I decided to try it. Our first assignment was to draw something that we felt was too difficult for us. We are now up to lesson #26, and in this lesson we re-visited our first drawing and did it again. This is the drawing I did today of my grandson, Matthew, at about a year and a half old. Forgive me if I don't post the "before" picture. I learned a lot in these 26 lessons about being patient, really looking, and starting very lightly and progressing until I was happy with the drawing, and then pushing the darks. I'm quite happy with this one and discovered that I like pencil drawing not just as a preparation for watercolor, but as a medium of its own.

Camden Workshop

I recently attended an outdoor workshop in Camden, Maine. We learned to paint harbors, schooners, sailboats, fog (lots of fog), and lighthouses. I also learned that I need to consolidate my painting gear more as it was tough lugging it all around to the various painting destinations. I highly recommend an outdoor workshop to anyone who wants to paint landscapes/seascapes in watercolor. Here are some photos from the workshop. The workshop was given by Joel Popadics (www.watercolorpop.com), shown giving a demo at left. That's my painting of a schooner in the second photo, and that's me in the red shirt in the middle one, painting sailboats with Mt. Battie in the distance. During the 5 day workshop I started 10 paintings, which I will try to finish at home from notes and photos. I will post some of them here when they are completed.