Sunday, November 15, 2009

Celebrating the Seasons with Watercolor

As you know one of the keys of successful watercolor painting is saving the white areas to help the rest of the painting really sparkle. Sometimes easier said than done though right?

One of my favorite watercolor exercises is to show students how to save the white by using stickers (at any large craft store or online you can find every size and shape imaginable), tape, adhesive paper (such as shelf paper), etc.. Once these are down, you can then paint freely and loosely (wet in wet for example) right over them. Two tips: Don't try to pull them off until you r painting is dry, but don't leave them on too long either.

(I'd like to give a creative shout out to Denver artist Lindy Lyman for originally showing me this watermedia technique many years ago.)

This week one of my students, who is also a teacher, had the wonderful idea of representing all the four seasons in her "sticker" painting and she was kind enough to let me share it here. It reminded me that nature's rhythms in a variety of forms can a be an endless source of painting inspiration. Well done Laura!

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