On October 8th & 9th, I taught my first watercolor workshop at the Hoffman Art Center in Manzanita, Oregon. I had 6 students, and it was a workshop that I developed for beginning watercolor students. Most of my students were beginners in both watercolor and drawing, and each student was successful in learning and building their skills.
The Hoffman Art Center had a very nice facility for teaching, and they had a showing of some of my tropical watercolor paintings for the two weeks prior to my workshop.
The setup before class began.
The first day I covered composition, basic color theory, creating limited color palettes, and some basic painting techniques like wet-into-wet. The students created still life paintings from life using various fruits and vegetables, and some lovely pottery pieces that local potter, Steven Gibson, generously let us use. Here are a couple of student paintings from that first day.
The second day we worked from photographs that the students brought in. I talked about the differences when painting from photographs versus painting from life. I also talked more about value, that is, the lights and darks in a painting. I had asked the students to bring in their photos in black and white as well as color. Here are the second paintings from the same two students.
The workshop was a great success, and I enjoyed every minute of it. All of the students were wonderful to work with, and I hope that they continue to paint. I was asked to come and teach again by the students, so I am very much hoping that I can do this in 2017.