Angela Fehr’s Winter Watercolor Mini-Class

Tuesday we painted these things in Angela Fehr’s online class… it was nice doing a live class and being able to ask questions real time. Definitely not “my style” painting… (as in, not the style I am most comfortable with)… maybe that’s just because I haven’t spent enough time working on it? She uses reference photos but reminds us they are for reference only, we aren’t trying to copy them. If you haven’t seen her,you can find her website here.Β She offers a ton of online classes, and live sessions as well. I have taken other classes with her as well, and loved them!

Warm up play:

IMG_6226

The tree (only attempted once, so far):

IMG_6224

IMG_6223

Ten minute sketch:

IMG_6225

Tulips! With the help of Angela Fehr… 2/28/19

Angela Fehr has been offering a free livestream “beginning watercolor bootcamp” this week, February 27, 28, and March 1st, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday (tomorrow). It isn’t much hands on, but she shares a lot of good information. You can find the recorded sessions still on youtube, I think.

Wednesday we made a background.

IMG_7234

(Arches cotton watercolor pad, 140 lb, cold pressed… DaVinci paints… except the blue, which is EEM,Β DaVinci Casaneo brush, size 2)

(PS, these brushes are new… reviewed on youtube by Teoh Yi Chie, a popular urban artist I follow. These are synthetic round quill brushes, but you’d never guess they aren’t animal hair. They are excellent brushes, so far. They hold so much water, as much as animal hair, and keep a beautiful point, but are large enough to do a lot with. I ordered the size 2 and size 0… the 2 is about like a round 8, I’d guess. I’ve linked them on Amazon, and I get a few cents on purchases, but they keep the price the same for you. I haven’t looked anywhere but Amazon, though (I bought through Teoh’s link!) so you might want to shop around a bit and see if there’s a better price somewhere)

Today Angela added a tulip blossom and gave some suggestions about technique… but kind of left us hanging with the rest of it. (What??? I have to paint on my own?? πŸ™‚

IMG_7235

I let it dry, then came back to a bunch of water spots I hadn’t noticed, in the top left corner, so I added some splashes of color. Maybe not an improvement, and not perfect, but I like it. Painting loosely is a real challenge for me.

IMG_7236

I’m considering taking her 6 week watercolor mastery course. (This is kind of a teaser for that one) If I do, you’ll be able to follow along with my progress, and see if it’s something that might interest you next time she offers it!

Mon 2/12/18 more watercolor work on the white flowers

A lot more effort earned me a subtle improvement, but the basic bones are still wrong. Since I’m wondering anyway how many times I can rework the thing before the paper is shot, I think I’ll try one more sitting and see what I can add. Then try something different!

Saturday 02/10/18 watercolor

I don’t want you to think I haven’t done any art!! But actually, I was sick in bed Wednesday and Thursday, so didn’t. I did the other days.

I’m following an Angela Fehr online tutorial/class/workshop thing and she has us painting white hydrangeas with negative painting. So far (attempt two) I’ve gotten this far and don’t know exactly where else to go:

IMG_9155

I’ll work on it more later or start a new one. Not a terrific start but excellent practice skills.

Also, found this great thrift store palette… (you know glass, ceramic, porcelain are optimal surfaces… and wells for separation are nice…):

IMG_9156

Yep, a deviled egg tray. You can find these CHEAP at thrift stores… go find one! great for when you need a little more paint. Also, I could squeeze 12 colors out into the wells and keep them there if I wanted to.

 

Day 205 (Mon July 24) Look at me, painting a real picture!

I’m proud of this one, even if Angela Fehr had to show me the techniques. She was exploring Qor watercolors (pronounce it “core”, made by Golden) and demonstrating some of their more interesting properties. When the Qor paints touch water on the paper, the unique binder they use causes the paint to quickly feather out into the water, little tendrils of color spreading out like tiny rivers on a map. It’s very cool to experience, and even Daniel Smiths don’t react exactly that way. I received a free set of three small Qor tubes recently and had one of the colors she was using. I found adding a Qor paint to a Daniel Smith, I still get that reaction. So of course I ordered the Qor High Chroma set of paints she was demonstrating. (try the link!!) I mean, really… I kind of had to once I saw how interesting their response was.

 

FullSizeRender

You may be able to see some of the texture added on the foliage area by using plastic wrap on the first layer as it dried!

Very happy with this one.

Day 75: (thurs 3/16) watercolor iris

I’m using Angela Fehr’s tutorials and ideas. Actually, I just copied her picture. THEN saw she had a tutorial on this which would have made it better. But I still like it. She has a very loose style that is difficult for me, but I’m hoping to master it. Most of her things are very wet and free form. She offers an online class in it for $39, I just haven’t decided yet about paying for it.

IMG_4713