Saint Louis Watercolor Society

Painting the Portrait in Watercolor

Class fee: $275 for three days

Dates: Thursday through Saturday, March 5-7, 2020

Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm each day

Where: Green Door Art Gallery, 21 N. Gore Ave., Webster Groves, Missouri

In this three-day workshop, you will discover my process for painting fresh watercolor portraits filled with color, personality, and feeling. You will receive daily group instruction, step-by-step demonstrations, and plenty of painting time with an emphasis on slowing down and enjoying the process.

You will learn and practice important concepts such as choosing a subject, interpreting your photo, planning your composition, considering value and color, understanding edges, managing the ratio of water and pigment on your brush, and so much more! In addition, this relaxed, small group setting will provide ample time for one-on-one instruction.

* Some experience in watercolor is recommended. * Class size is limited to eight students, with a minimum of four students needed to hold the class.

NEGATIVE PAINTING for Watercolorists, SIMPLIFIED

Class fee: $200 for two days

Dates: Thursday and Friday, July 9-10, 2020

Time: 9 am – 3:30 pm each day

Where: Green Door Art Gallery, 21 N. Gore Ave., Webster Groves, Missouri

If you’ve been painting for awhile and still have trouble grasping the concept of negative painting, this watercolor workshop is for you! You will not be painting flowers and leaves or any “thing”, instead you will learn to paint the space around the flowers and leaves, creating glowing blooms, foliage and layers of depth through multiple glazes. As you develop the skill of negative painting, you will practice seeing “shapes” instead of “things”, learn to save your whites and lights without using masking fluid, and be able to create a full range of values in your paintings without “muddy” darks.

DAY 1
Negative painting is a difficult concept to master in that it is contrary to the way we naturally see things. You will learn exactly what negative painting is (and why it’s a good skill to have) through explanations, examples, demonstrations, group exercises and practice.

DAY 2
The emphasis will be on skill development with more demonstrations and lots of painting practice with one-on-one assistance. Negative painting is a layered technique which requires drying time between glazes, so you may work on two or more paintings at once if desired. Paper will be provided.

*Some experience in watercolor is required.
*Class size limited to 10 students, with a minimum of 5 students needed to hold the class.

NEGATIVE PAINTING/POSITIVE RESULTS

Class fee: $100

Date: Saturday, July 18, 2020

Time: 9 am – 4 pm

Where: Green Door Art Gallery, 21 N. Gore Ave., Webster Groves, Missouri

In this advanced**, all-day watercolor workshop, you will learn my process of planning and preparing an underpainting before painting your subject, moving into negative painting, and then adding finishing touches with positive shapes.

Techniques covered will include composition, using and combining your own photographs, glazing, color harmony, avoiding “mud,” lost and found/hard and soft edges, and of course, positive and negative painting, with an emphasis on the latter.

*Class size limited to 10 students, with a minimum of 5 students needed to hold the class.
**NEGATIVE PAINTING for Watercolorists, SIMPLIFIED is a prerequisite for this class.

Click here to register.