Workshop sessions 6, 7 and 8

Didn't get the posts in time to let you know about our progress, and now I am posting some photos taken over 3 sessions. Session 6 took place on the 28th of November, while sessions 7 and 8 were merged into one day, and we did a long session on the 5th of December, 2015.

In session 6 we started a small composition with an accent on the autumn leaf. First did the free hand drawing in the sketchbook, then transfer it to the watercolor paper. In the next step we worked on the background and on the first glaze on the leaves and had to stop to let it dry well before starting the actual work on them. Bellow is the progress we achieved in one hour of work (I only took photos of the paintings):

We started session 7 by learning on separate papers how to glaze slowly each small part of a leaf, to mix wet-in-wet colors directly on the paper, and how to save small areas and paint around. Then moved to the actual paintings and started to work the next glazes on each leaf and the branches.

During the last session we started to work our Christmas painting, with a little Christmas tree branch and a few ornaments. I worked on the composition before, and had the line drawing ready, in order for the ladies to learn how to transfer on the watercolor paper a ready drawing, by using transfer paper. Then, we introduced a new medium used by watercolorists to save the white of the paper, the drawing gum. We saved a few highlights on the main ornament and we splashed some snow.

We must work faster this week to finish this one, to get our Christmas cards ready in time!

November 21, 2014 - 5th Workshop Session

Due to some other obligations I had, we didn't meet  on November 14, and I hope we will manage to reschedule that session before the Christmas. The most probable we will have a "double" session in one of the forthcoming Fridays.
This session (and the one to come on November 28) was dedicated to practice primary colors mixing, mostly making various greens out of yellow and blue. We used Gambodge Yellow (a medium yellow) and Cobalt Blue for the in-class works, but I encouraged the ladies to play at home with other yellows they now have on the palette (Lemon Yellow and Yellow Ochre), to check the differences in the obtained greens.
I do have a few photos from this session, although I do not have much time left during the session to take photos. Actually most of the times we finish at least 15 minutes in delay - for the next year we need to consider either smaller groups (4-5 attendants per group) or longer duration of the session and meeting only once every 2 weeks. Watercolor paper needs time to dry between color layers, and if we do not finish a piece during one session it is a bit disappointing for the attendants.
And now the photos from this session, with autumn leaf studies:

November 7, 2014 - 4th Workshop session

Another wonderful meeting at the Community Center, and Mrs. Argiro Sakellaropoulou, the Director of the 2nd Community Center, joined us for a short time and to get an idea of the progress and involvement we got so far. The ladies were very happy to show their watercolors and I think their progress is huge for such a short time.

This session we worked on gaining some basic theoretical background on primary colors and mixing them to make any other color we need. Next session we will practice primary colors mixing with some autumn leaves - they are a wonderful subject for green mixtures!

October 31, 2014 - 3rd Workshop session

Today I had some more time to look immediately after at the photos, and to share them with you. We did practice the graded washes, wet-in-wet color mixing, and a bit of dry to dry with a small little painting of a imaginary seascape. We started with a bit of practice to get a small boat shape done in the sketchbooks, and then used only Cobalt Blue and Ivory Black to do our small paintings, as you can see bellow.

This was our group today:

Practice sketching:

Adding colors:

Showing how we put a flat wash on paper:

Wonderful works from the ladies:

The Community Center president, Mr. George Kolokithas, visiting our workshop:

More progress with our paintings:

By the end of the session, I am sure you cannot say which one is done by me and which one by one of the ladies:

And the most important of all, we are having lots of fun:

Next week: primary, secondary and tertiary colors; making a color wheel; first steps towards watercolor glazing.