Color

This weeks class was all about color another one of the elements of design.   I encourage my students to make color studies and make a color plan for their paintings.  We used the color wheel to pick our colors.  I forgot to take photos so check back next week for class photos.  Here are some photos of my color studies for paintings that I am working on:

The Elements of Design

One of my favorite classes to teach is how to use the Elements of Design.  The are the building blocks that make up your painting.  The ones that I like to work with are: Value, Color, Shape, Line, Texture, and Pattern.  In each class we focus on one of the elements and emphasis that element.
Value is a good one the start with.  Value is simply the lightness or darkness of colors.  Using value pens we make small value sketches of our subject.  Here is an example of a value sketch.  Notice that it is just a simple sketch using white, grays and black.  This shows me where I want to emphasis the values in my painting.
Next we paint our painting using one color and just focus on getting lights and darks with that one color.

Here are some photos from our fun value class.

The Treasure Hunt Continues

The Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat Treasure Hunt continues.  Every week you can collect new words from the teachers blogs.  Grand Prize = one free tuition!  One lucky winner will win my book!

NOTE:  You will have to be registered to have access to the site.  The registration fee is $5 and will give you access to preview all the classes.

A Treasure Hunt!

Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat is hosting a blog hop treasure hunt starting today, April 2, 2014!  Today is the first day of the treasure hunt and my blog has one of the secret words you will need to solve the final puzzle.  There are many prizes to win and the grand prize is a free workshop of your choice!  

To learn how the treasure hunt works and to see the prizes please visit Artful Gathering Online Art Retreat.  If you would like to sign up for the NEWSLETTER, you will get weekly updates on where to find the next treasure hunt words.  

This is my second year teaching watercolor classes with this unique online workshop.  You will paint along with me in the comfort of your own home with my personalized videos. 

This year I am teaching two workshops:  Watercolor Toolbox and Watercolor Fun.  Watercolor Toolbox is perfect for someone that wants to start watercolor painting.  Watercolor Fun will take your watercolor painting skills to the next level.So start your treasure hunt here on my blog page.  Look for the secret word.  I hope you have fun and will keep my fingers crossed that you win the free workshop grand prize!