Winter Landscape Workshop

I recently attended a watercolour workshop conducted by Marion R. Anderson of Alder Creek Studio.
www.marionAnderson.ca 
 
The morning was spent learning how to mask area's with masking tape, something I had never done and applying salt to a wet wash, a technique that was popular 'back in the day' but I had never really tried.
You have ZERO control over what happens ! 

 It's a waiting game as to when you add the salt wait too long and you get nothing to early and it overpowers the field.
This was my first and only attempt I was quite happy with the result. 
Not so much with the tree's ! 
I'm going to go back in to add a few branches I think

Although the masking technique worked quite well next time I will try to avoid the straight line of the tape.


This was on Saunders Waterford 200lb Hot Press about 8x10



The afternoon was a 'practice what you learned' session which I got so carried away with I completely forgot the salt !

Oh well I was pretty happy with the resulting watercolour 

Half sheet (!) Arches 140lb cold press that is a big piece of paper for me!

This is the result:

 Again the tree's were masked with tape, cut a little more carefully this time.

The cottage and railings were a result of negative painting (something else I was trying) 

All-in-all a great day of learning with a bunch of like minded people, many of my sketchy friends attended.
Next workshop is about using 'Alcohol Inks' that should throw me way out of my comfort zone!

Alan

More Lessons learned..

A group I belong to on Facebook has a 'challenge' running, I missed January but did the February challenge.
A photo is given and everyone puts their own spin on it, there are no winners nor losers but  instead you can learn a lot from others interpretations, here is mine;

Country Lane

I am reasonably happy with it, some bits more than others :-)


I also followed a video where the artist used a credit card to scrape out rocks in a landscape. Once you get the 'dampness' right it works quite well..

Babbling Brook

Alan

Arches 140# CP paper,
W&N watercolours,
QoR Watercolour,
Signo white gel pen,
Noodlers Carbon Black,
Pilot Metropolitan Fountain Pen,
 Escoda Prado Brushes,
Escoda Reserva Kolinsky Sable Brushes,
Curry's pallete knife,

It's Never Too Late to Learn..

Yesterday I attended a watercolour workshop put on by The Urban Sketchers of KW:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/UrbanSketchersWaterlooRegion/

and presented by Hasib, one of our members:

https://www.facebook.com/Shaheedh/photos?lst=100003579202742%3A1182874175%3A1483886478

A day full of information and friendly banter, boy the time went fast!

I learned two major things ( and a great deal of smaller things!)

#1 Use more pigment !! (Professional paints by Windsor and Newton and Lukas)

#2 Loosed up by using bigger brushes !! (Escoda Synthetic and Kolinsky Sables)

Alan