Hi Everyone,
Thought I would share my wip pictures of my painting "Spring Bouquet".
I also have a request of all my blogger friends. I need your advice and input. I've been invited to teach my first workshop in April and I would love to get your take on workshops. If you haven't taught one you've probably attended one--
so what did you love, what did you hate--what do you want out of a workshop. Please e-mail me or leave me comments. I'm going to compile info and do a blog post (I will give credit where it is due).
Can't wait to hear what you have to say.
 |
| My drawing is laid out. I used Daniel Smith, carbazole violet, quinacridone purple, quinacridone burnt orange, Holbein lavender (a new fav color, thank you Carol Carter), DS Indigo and Sepia (mixed as my darks) and Schmincke cadmium yellow |
 |
| Starting to lay in my petals and bright green foliage. The background I used the above color palette. For the tulip I used Daniel Smith perminent alizarin crimson (only in the shadow areas), quinacridone red mixed with perinone orange for the bright saturated petals, I glazed just pernione orange on top after it was dry to get a really bright flower. For the green foliage in front the bright green is Schmnicke May Green, the shadow areas are Holbein shadow green |
 |
| For the center of the flower, I used Naples yellow and pernione orange both DS colors. I also used DS burnt umber and sepia. Holbein lavender (which works beautifully--just in the middle of being opaque and transparent and mixes wonderfully) |
 |
| Here is the finished piece "Spring Bouquet" 4.75" x 4.75" original watercolor on paper by Carrie Waller. Prints are available through ImageKind. 22% for a limited time. |
|
 |
| Here it is framed. |
|
|
 |
| Here are a couple of paintings that went to a happy home this week. |
Hope you have a fabulous week. My brain hurts now from trying to remember the colors I used in my painting:)
Carrie
Love the WIP pics Carrie! And I think it's so interesting to see your progress since it's so different from mine. I have to have all parts of the painting at the same stage (with the exception of eyes) because I need to feel like it's working as a whole you know? I get all confused if I focus on one area, my brain is not skilled enough to do that. :))
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy seeing your progress posts, Carrie and this one is no exception. Sorry I can't help with your workshop question as I have never attended one and of course never taught one either. I will be quite interested to see what others say on the subject though and look forward to your post.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the workshop, Carrie! You'll be great! Thank you for showing the WIP and the wrapped version of your work. E-YOW! Awesome. Who WOULDN'T want to open those up?
ReplyDeleteI love process! Thanks for sharing yours. This is a beautiful painting and makes me pine for Spring.
ReplyDeleteHow exciting for you to teach a workshop. I love your work and your students should be very satisfied. I have taken many workshops and the most rewarding (for me) is the mixture of demonstration, hands on and critique (yes critique). Obviously you can't teach everyone in one session to paint like you and students will most likely be at different levels. The critique part allows everyone to learn from, not only you, but everyone else.
One of the most irritating things for me is to have a supply list so huge that one couldn't possibly use all of the materials. One thing I love is to have handouts to refer to later if a unique technique is taught. If there are specific items like size of paper, it's good to bring them prepared (you or students). Maybe in summary~Focus/Freedom/Fun/Finish~!
Gosh, I didn't know I was so opinionated!
Have fun with your workshop. Hopefully it will be the beginning of something great for you.
Carrie...so love seeing how you approach your work...the method to your phenomenal outcomes. very cool...and SOOOOOooo very different than myself. Thanks for sharing! Awesome about the workshop invite...I know you will be fab and students will walk away wonderfully pleased with their experience.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the workshop offer! I'd say, a little demo, a little talking about why and how, a little color talk (your favorites and why, how you get your reds, etc.), a little time to paint (so make sure they bring photo references or things already drawn out), and some helpful hints for each one, if needed. I liked the critique sessions at Carol's workshop but some people may not like that and feel too exposed in a group of strangers who are talking about their work. You'll be great - this paintings is great - and your wrapping is great! You are sooo together!! Oh, and one thing - let your personality shine through and your workshop folks will love you!
ReplyDeleteYou're shapes and colors are so good here I love seeing the process. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteI have this feeling that you won't have any problems teaching your workshop, Carrie!! You'll be terrific! When I go to my workshop...we critique each others work...I love that part. Even though everyone has different opinions, we learn so much from each other. I love this painting and the powerful color in this flower!!
ReplyDeleteThis is SO beautiful. And I love how your knowledge of colour and glaze adds such an immense vibrancy to the painting. It really is stunning - :0)
ReplyDeleteI always find WIP posts to be so interesting. But, you cant beat seeing stage by stage for real! I went to a workshop once but was a little disappointed that once she showed us her basic technique, she didn't continue to paint, so we didn't get to see each stage progress. Time is of course the issue!
The perfect workshop for me assuming little experience would be as follows:
1) How to transfer a sketch to the paper
2) Choosing colours
3) Mixing colours but avoiding mud
4) Glazing techniques
5) Where to start and knowing when to stop
6) Talking about what not to do and common mistakes
7) Most importantly - demonstrating!
Well, that's just what I would hope for but I imagine that it must be hard to fit it all in. :0)
Your post is so informative and interesting. I love the step by step pictures. Everyone has lots of good information to help with the workshop, I think.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone loves to see a demo, then time to try out the techniques themselves. I also like getting a handout that I can refer to later. Good luck! You are trying so many new things!
I will try to keep my babbling short and well organized -- but I know I will fail: there are so much to say regarding workshops! So please, bear with me, and feel free to ignore anything that seems making no sense to you:
ReplyDelete1. The organization of a workshop: Is it a one-day, two-day, three-day or five-day workshop? Is it one that's going to be taken by mostly people who has never done or done very little watercolor before, or by people who has done watercolor for a while, and just want to learn a particular technique or method from you? Depending on the answer of these questions, the organization usually needs to be very different. For a shorter workshop (normally organized toward new, less experienced painters), it's good to give a brief recap of the techniques you normally use -- flat and graded wash, glazing over painted area, and how to do a very dark background (your signature! I'm sure everybody is eager to learn how that is done, -- I know I am!). You can give live demos or just show examples of already painted sample sheets, or do a powerpoint presentation, depending on the time. It's also helpful to bring one or two of your finished paintings, and point out which areas in the painting are painted with which technique. In longer workshops aimed at more experienced painters, it may be helpful to divide the session into different subjects -- glass and other transparent objects for one to two days, textured surface for another one, etc., and covering all the typical subjects that you do so fabulously!
For both situations, it may be helpful to do a demo. Since your method of painting would take a lot of time, and working on details can be a bit tedious to watch, it may be helpful to bring several sample paintings at different stages of finishing, and paint on each one for a little to show how you go from one stage to another, instead of trying to paint a big painting from start to finish (you may have to work on a large sheet just because it's really hard to see clearly from back rows if you are painting on a small painting).
2. Things to cover in a workshop: I find it very intriguing to learn about how a painting first approaches a subject -- a concept, a photo, etc. This is also rarely covered in the workshops I have attended. It may be helpful to bring some reference photos you have used (or powerpoint slides), and some other photos you took for the same subject and did not use, and explain why you used these but not the others, and what you are looking for when looking at a photo reference. It may also be helpful to explain what you would leave out or alter from the photo to generate the painting -- the translation process is really confusing when I just started painting. (OK, it's still confusing now... And I'm struggling with it everyday).
If you are giving workshop to less experienced painters, it may be helpful to bring the same reference photo and a line drawing for people to transfer, so that they can follow you step by step, and when their results does not match what they expect, it's easy to pin-point the problem. You can even email the line drawing's pdf file to each attendee so that if they want to do the transfer head of time, they can. If it's a workshop aimed at more advanced painters, then they may want to bring their own reference photos. However, there is almost certainly going to be one or two people in each workshop that does not bring their own reference materials, so you may need to bring a couple of your reference photos for them to choose from, together with a black-and-white enlarged version so that they can directly transfer the photo onto their watercolor paper by tracing over it. In each case, ask people to do the line drawing ahead of class so that they can concentrate on painting during the class, but expect some people to forget doing so -- someone would! It always happened for each workshop I have attended.
3. Teaching Aids -- I find power point presentations and handouts very helpful -- they can be referred to in future times when the information gets all blurred several days (or months) after the workshop.
ReplyDelete4. Materials -- You can indicate the entire materials list you use, but I find it helpful to specify what would be used to create the project you are painting specifically for the workshop. Also, some people would not want to buy the exact colors or brushes you are using, so it's helpful to point out alternatives -- You can't really use permanent rose for alizarin crimson, but Holbein carmine can be used with no problem. Also, most major brands sable would give the same effect, but sables and synthetic brushes have very different advantages when used for painting -- sable does much better for thin glazes with organic brushwork, while synthetic brushes does much better to dig up heavy consistency of color to paint wet in wet without looking wimpy.
I'm sorry if I sound too bossy -- again, feel free to ignore anything I said that does not make sense to you. Those are just things that I wish some instructors have done when I first started taking workshops. If I think of anything else, I will add to the list...
Last but not least -- Carrie, I know you will be a wonderful teacher. I know this because I read your explanations in this blog, and they appear clear, informative and succinct to me. Just explain everything like you did on the blog -- people would love it! It may be difficult to answer questions and paint in the same time -- it's like a juggling act! But, I think you will have fun... ;-)
The only workshops I hold are in Creative Writing. Not much help I guess but, nevertheless, getting new writers to take critique is often a big issue.
ReplyDeleteIt takes so little to shatter confidence that I take a great deal of care and time nursing them into the idea that constructive criticism is exactly what it says on the label.....