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!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

We decided to close 2016 painting the festive Poinsettia flowers, to send you all our best wishes for the celebrations of the season and for a Happy New Year!!!
Can you believe that we only started painting in watercolor 2 years ago? I feel so proud of the progress the group has made, and their continuous enthusiasm and happiness each time we meet!

My wish for the next year: I wish the group will have the chance to work with and get advice from a fine art trained tutor, as the ladies have reached a point where more advanced topics (e.g. composition, perspective) would help them grow as artists!!!

The first session for the 2016-2017 academic year!

Yes, this is our 3rd year, and the group gets bigger and bigger! I am sure we will have lots of fun with watercolor this year too! We are all grateful to the Community Center for the organization, hosting and materials, and especially to Mrs. Roula Sakellaropoulou who takes care of all the details (including the photos bellow)!

Workshop Exhibit, June 21, 2016

We are really very glad for the progress of this years - both groups, advanced and beginners, enjoyed another series of the workshop and are so happy with their works!!!
The three Community Centers of the city of Patras organize each year a small fest, to close the various activities they do during the "academic year". And they do really lots of things for the senior citizens: theater, dances, yoga, gym, and painting.
So, here are some photos with the little exhibit of this year (and the three ladies of the 2nd KAPH, who worked hard all year to organize all these activities and events):

A big thank you from my side to all the wonderful ladies, who made all my Fridays wonderful and shared their time with me!!! Congratulations!!!

Advanced Group: Working on Perspective

The advanced group was working for the last 3 sessions on the difficult topic of perspective.
We had a more theoretical session, with a short introduction about linear perspective, the vanishing points, the perspective with one and two vanishing points, and some trials to have simple shapes (cubic) drawn with perspective.
For the next session I handled them some photos with one and two vanishing points (mostly buildings which could be seen as simple shapes), to choose what they would like to paint. The first exercise was to magnify the drawing, identify the vanishing points and work out the full drawing on tracing paper.
In the last session, after transferring the drawing to the watercolor paper, the fun actually begin: colors are what we love most!!!

 

Beginners' Group: Progress on the Roses painting

In our last session we looked a bit at the drawings, correcting a few things here and there, and then moved to the first wash of the background and working on the greens. We are going to finish them next week.

Beginners' Group - working large

After many sessions working mostly on 7x5 inches paper size, and a few times on 10x7 inches, this is the first session working on a relatively large size paper: 1/4 sheet (14x10 inches). I know from my own experience that it is a bit scary, thinking on how are you going to cover all that white with paint, and what if it fails, etc.
So, after doing 2-3 small studies of roses, trying to get around with color mixing, washes for leaves, how to work one area at the time, what to do with the background, and all that helpful staff, we went for the large size.
The task is to magnify and draw by hand a given line drawing, then work first on the background after actually deciding on the entire palette (e.g. what colors to use for the background if I want to make the rose pink/orange/red?), and then go to the details on the leaves and roses.
Here are some photos from the first part (drawing):

Advanced group - session #02

This year, for this group we have a different setup of the workshop: 2 sessions x 2 hours each dedicated to one painting/subject. I usually bring a few reference photos of a certain subject and we try to get into some composition issues first - each lady has to decide about the center of interest, combine 2 or more photos, add a real-life object to the composition, remove something from the photos, etc.
The next step is dedicated to draw the major shapes/lines on transfer paper and get the drawing onto the 11x14 inches paper (we only work from this size and up with this group). The ideal would be that each attendant would also manage to get into 1-2 color studies to decide on the palette, but so far none has achieved this step yet. But we have more many sessions to come this year, and I hope I will convince them on the importance of this step by the end of the workshop.
Our first set of photos was picturing still-life of fruits and vegetables: one photo had figs on a plate, while the second one had tomatoes on a plate. The main aspect of this one was to get rid of the rather non-interesting backgrounds, and eventually make some small changes to the composition (i.e. remove some of the figs). I do not have photos of the final paintings, but only a few from our activities. I have to ask the ladies to bring all their paintings in one of our next sessions to have them photographed.

2nd Session beginners

Some of you were wondering if for any reasons our workshop has stopped, and I did realize that due to my job and other life issues I have quite some time to post anything about how we are doing.
We did not stop, we are meeting as scheduled, every Friday with the beginner group and every second Friday with the advanced group. Just that I didn't manage to take photos at every session, but I will try to catch up with the blog posts during the following days.
As the lessons are following a similar pattern as the previous year, it is not really needed to explain much about what we do, but just a very short note: monochrome color study, graded washes and value study. Our first little painting was again a seascape study. Here are a few snapshots with the ladies in action.

1st Watercolor Workshop Session, both beginners and advanced groups

Today we started the Watercolor Workshop for Seniors, both beginners and advanced groups, at the Community Center (2nd ΚΑΠΗ) of Patras city. This was our second meeting for the new "academic" year (2015-2016), as we met previous week to establish some of the administrative issues and get to know each other and our expectations. The beginners group has now already 7 attendants, although we were supposed to start only with 5. And we are waiting for one more to come next week. This makes it more difficult to come around with the materials coverage, but I am confident we will manage. As for the advanced group, I am very happy to say that all 7 ladies that followed the courses previous year joined me again this year! This makes me believe that I did something right previous year, and their excitement and joy to start again means a lot to me. In the advanced group we have one more lady, who is actually following also the beginners lessons, as she has already some drawing and acrylics experience. But she needs to catch up with the basics on watercolors.
So, what we did today?
Beginners: introduction to the watercolor media, materials needed, properties of the watercolor paints, first steps to handle the medium and the brush and paper. We did a small study of color intensity with 5 steps and a "flat wash" to get used to how the color reacts on paper. And that was pretty much what we covered within the one hour of lesson. I hope the next session, with an actual little painting (a seascape study) will be more exciting for the group.
Advanced: a fast pass through the basic watercolor techniques (color value, flat wash, graded wash, dry-on-dry, wet-on-wet, masking fluid, mixing colors on paper); a bit of composition theory and discussion about what a "reference photo" means and how we use it; selection of the photo and a pencil study on the composition; drawing on the transfer paper and transfer of the drawing to the watercolor paper. For the first painting of this year we actually had two reference photos to chose from, one with tomatoes and one with figs.
That would be the update of today, and unfortunately no photos. Next time I hope I get the camera with me.

2nd Year Workshop Announcement

I am very happy to inform you that the workshop for seniors will be held again at the Community Center (only at the 2nd ΚΑΠΗ) in Patras. The excellent news of this year workshop is that we are going to have two groups: (i) a new beginner group of 5 - 7 attendants that will follow the previous year schedule of weekly 1 hour sessions, starting with the 1st of October 2015 and until middle June of 2016, and (ii) a group of 7 advanced attendants, where we need to concentrate more hours in one session and we are going to work in bi-monthly sessions of 2-3 hours.
Furthermore, it seems that we convinced some of the responsible people with our determination and work previous year, and the Community Center managed to get involved more, and buy some of the materials needed: 2 packs of 10 sheets of Arches 90 lb CP watercolor paper, 5 sets of 3 brushes, 5 sets of 3 drawing pencils (B, 2B, 6B), 5 drawing pads, 1 set of Talens watercolor tubes (12x12 ml) and some artist paper tapes. These will mostly cover the needs of the beginners group, with some more additional materials from me. But I will need to figure out how to cover the needs of the advanced group for this year. Up to know, I only managed to buy this year a few things: the plastic folding palettes needed by the new attendants, a big roll of tracing paper (it should last for the entire year) and a set of watercolor paints (12x20ml tubes) for the advanced group. I also have a little surprise for the ladies - the Mijello sample colors (Mijello Blue and Peacock Blue) which I received from the USA this summer. I am sure they will love these new blue color additions to their palettes!
We still need more paper, especially heavier one (140 lb CP) for the advanced group and some additional materials (i.e. masking fluid, natural sponges, boards). As always, any help is welcome!

Session 23 - simple seascape revisited

At the today session we discussed a little bit about the personal interpretation that each artist gives to a certain scene, while the theme/subject is a common one. We looked a bit into the theory of personal choices for composition and color selection. The exercise was to re-do a known subject, but make it personal. The subject was our first painting exercise, a seascape scene with a boat and some land/trees, which at that time was done monochrome (with cobalt blue and black) in an attempt to learn gradient wash of single pigment. Today the aim was to sketch a new composition on the same subject (main elements: sea, sky, boat, trees/rocks/land) and then consider and test a limited palette of 3-4 colors (plus black) and try to evoke a different atmosphere with the new painting (sunset, misty morning, hot afternoon, speed, wind, storm). Today the group only managed to have the sketch done, and transferred to the watercolor paper, so I am looking forward to see how the further interpret it at home or during the next session!

No photos today, I didn't had the camera with me. I promise to get some next time!

p.s. We also looked into the April issue of Watercolor Artist Magazine to the winning paintings of the "6th Annual Watermedia Showcase". As expected, each one had another favorite painting!

Sessions #21 & #22 - the big wave!

As summer approaches we are already dreaming of the great time on the seaside. For now, just walking on the beach and enjoying the sound of the rather big waves as they are breaking and mixing with the sand. And furthermore we are having fun with trying to translate this image into watercolor paintings.
As far as technique is concerned, we are working with wet-in-wet in the sky area (yellow ochre,crimson lake and cobalt blue) , we are learning to use masking fluid to save the whites of the paper to make the waves and foam, and color mixing (viridian and cobalt blue) to get the Mediterranean sea water colors. Work in progress so far, and only a few photos this time.