Marion Chapman’s Watercolour course 2

Liquid Amber leaf

Objective: to paint a detailed leaf
Colours: Raw Sienna, with a touch of Dark Umber, Alizarin Red, Ultramarine blue
Techniques: Wet on dry wash, glaze a second wash and finish by adding details
Watercolour on 185gsm Arches rough.
Note to self: Everyone else in the class did better than me, I messed this up. Instead of gently glazing a 2nd wash with 1 pass of the brush I worked the surface and disturbed the base wash. This created textures and muddy colours I didn’t want.

6 textures

Objective: Create interesting textures by adding foreign materials to a wet on wet wash.
Colours & Techniques:
top left: wash, Burnt Umber + rock salt crystals
top centre: wash, Burnt Umber + Urea pellets (gardening product)
top right: wash, Raw Sienna Natural Deep (Art Spectrum PBr7) + rice grains
bottom left: wash, Raw Sienna Natural Deep, Ultramarine Blue + crumpled wax paper
bottom centre: wash, Raw Sienna Natural Deep, Ultramarine Blue +crumpled wax paper over Urea pellets
bottom right: wash, Raw Sienna Natural Deep, Ultramarine Blue +table salt

Making watercolour paint in class
We created the Burnt Umber used in 2 of the above washes
Burnt Umber dry pigment powder + 1 dash of glycerine + 2 dashes of gum arabic.
The paint could be further improved if we had ground the pigment in a pestle and mortar to make a finer powder to start with.

I am enjoying Marion Chapman’s 6 week watercolour courses at Oatley 101 Society of artists. if you live in the southern suburbs of Sydney checkout both their websites.