Watercolour for Beginners

Here is one of the watercolours I did at Shari Blaukopf's workshop last week in Montebello. On this particular day, heavy rain fell in the morning as we huddled under big canopies for the morning demo. Once the rain cleared, I chose this spot to sketch, not realizing that within a half-hour it would become the busiest thoroughfare on the site. I wasn't able to complete the sketch until a few days later because I just ran out of time.

Here's the guest cottage where I stayed during the three-day workshop. Perhaps a little texture on the roof could be put in with pen.  One of Shari's insights was that my colour tends to be very flat, as though I'm laying down a piece of coloured cloth instead of watercolour.

This sketch was done on Day Three, when we chose a street scene in the town of Montebello. Shari suggested that we focus on a single building or part of a building, as we had only limited time. Again, perhaps some texture could be inked onto the roofs.

A few days later I went on a retreat to Dianne's cottage. We six members of text'art try to do this every summer. In earlier years we would often choose an activity to do as a group, like deconstructed screen printing or playing with decolorant or dyeing or carving our own rubber stamps or doing batik with soy wax. This year we each pursued our own projects. I found it a great opportunity to continue playing with watercolour. For the sketch above, I should have used a straight edge to ensure that the planks of siding were continuous from left to right.

And finally, this little sketch of potted begonias could have used more inked-in texture to suggest the wicker stand. Also, I wasn't happy with the way the lower edge of the planter is unresolved.

I look forward to a little watercolour sketching from time to time, especially when traveling. Will be sure to post the results here for your amusement!