Spring mood - two sessions dedicated to poppies

In March we dedicated two sessions to capture the delicacy and beauty of red poppies. In the first sessions we worked on small papers on individual blooms, while in the second session we tried larger paintings with poppies in the field or in a vase. Wonderful works from all ladies!

Session 24 - Making foliage with a sponge

For today we moved on to a new technique, involving the use of a natural sea sponge to make the foliage of a cherry tree in bloom. The ladies at the workshop were so impressed about how easy is to make the foliage look so natural and so beautiful at the same time with the right colors and just a few movements. Of course, it takes some time and quite a few experiments to learn to handle the sponge, and there are also some variations in the sponges which gives different results. We are still experimenting, and I am looking forward for the finished works, as we only managed to get the first few layers of paint done during the workshop after demonstrating the technique and a few experiments on a trial paper.

Workshop Session 11 - Thinking of Spring!

Yes, although here is quite cold this time of the year, we are getting ready for Spring time!!! We have started to work on roses - as you understand we are all ladies and all in love with roses any time of the year!

For today I prepared two small sketches of roses to start with and work during the following 3-4 sessions. We are going to start with the free hand transfer of our sketches, first with the little bud that is just starting to open, on a small size paper (5x7 inches) and then we will move to the more complex composition to a rather large size painting of 10x14 inches (it will be the first time we will work that big).
Although it is not easy to get the drawing right, after a few trials on our sketchpads we all manage to do it. Next session color will come!

Here are a few photos from this session: