Friday 6 July 2012

Thursday watercolour group work

This week was about establishing the major values to the wonderfully accurate drawings we made previously on location at the big house near Comberton church.
I would have loved to have taken learners back on location, but the weather said heavy thunder and lightening! So sadly I had my learners paint from photocopies, from photo's taken on site, and either emailed by me to learners, so they could print their own out, or copies I brought in from my own printer.

Copies are always second best to being there, and as it turned out, we could have gone there after all, as it was wonderfully warm and still, and not a spot of rain in sight! Haaarrruuummmppphhh!!


Any how, we proceeded to start blocking in our major values as a base to build on, and added colour inventively to enhance the painting, this involves adding in colour that we can't necessarily see, for example, knowing that greens, purples and burnt sienna look good together, and skies look good with variations of blues added, the aim of this was to add unmixed colour from the pallet, and try not to mix it up too much on the paper, just allowing a fluid consistency of pigment to water to travel into each each other on it's own.
I did a quick demonstration to illustrate application, and pigment choice.


Learners work below




Part of establishing our major values was to consider the composition, which in this case meant framing the house, and making sure that the overall balance wasn't placed in one area alone, for example, making the tree on the right, the focal point, by it being the darkest element in the picture, and the point of highest contrast. 
We had a lively group discussion exploring how to spot in-balance by  turning the picture upside down, and, or squinting.


Learners are encouraged to move around the room to discuss each other work and explain what went well, and compare notes, this is done in a spirit of encouragement and mutual support, and is of benefit to all, and a joy for me to witness : )


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