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My Watercolour Course, Weeks 6-10

Click here for Weeks 1 to 5 of the watercolour course I am taking. Weeks 11 to 15 here

The first 5 weeks went by in a flash, and I continue my watercolour painting course with Barry Coombs. The link connects to his website, blog, and artwork, in particular it links to the page where he has posted the combined paintings of his students. I am in the Tuesday Morning Group.

I feel my progress has been rapid. Barry Coombs is a good teacher, and I want to learn.

Week 6, Wooden Spoons and Pots

Wooden Spoons Wooden tools in wood pot

This was an exercise to make the objects glow by using dark complimentary backgrounds. A difficult exercise that looks very simple.

Left is what I did in class. The right is my homework.

Week 7, Onions and Turnips

Onion, Turnip and pot watercolour Onion and pot

We were supposed to pay attention to how the objects interact with each other and to pay particular attention to the tonal relationships to each other, and to the background. Barry suggested we not worry about reflections in this exercise.

At home onions

A good example of homework not being as nice as the in class work. The funny thing is that the colours are more accurate.

The painting looks quite dead though.


Week 8, Box and Bottle

Coloured glass bottles in a wooden box watercolour painting

This week our exercise was a collection of glass bottles and a wooden box. This was placed on a striped cloth.

I worked hard on the lip of the bottles and they turned out much crisper and believable than in other paintings. I also painted the background first.

The left painting is my class work. In the bottom is my homework.

My painting is very similar to the demos Barry made in class except the Gin Bottle which I drew from life. I had a gin and tonic after!


Glass Bottles glass bottles painted in watercolour Bottles painted in watercolour course gin bottle

Week 9, Pots and Pomegranates

watercolour of pomegranatewatercolour of pomegranates and pots

There were wonderful pomegranate to paint this week.

Bold colours and simplification of objects was the emphasis.

When he critiqued the left side painting, Barry suggested that the pots had been rendered in a different style from the fruit and that detracted from the overall effect. He's right of course.


watercolour of aubergines and pomegranates

Homework was fun. I found some lovely purple aubergine to go with the pomegranates. First painting is downright garish. It was great fun to do. Below left is more subdued but works for me.


I tried again to watercolour some pomegrenates. Study sheet for watercolour painting

A few experiments in rendering.


Week 10, Apples and Wood Basket

watercolour of aubergines and pomegranates

This exercise was to help us figure out light and make objects stand out.

By keeping most of the basket in shadow against the apples, it helps make the apples show up.

Painting apples using watercolour is tricky for me. Most apples I had had green and red. In watercolour when you mix red and green you get a dirty brown. Avoiding muddy apples is the hard part.

Apples below are homework. on the left I was trying to make them look bright. The yellow background is a bit violent!

Various other studies. The last one I did in 2 minutes very quickly because I wanted to go to bed. Its surprising how interesting work becomes when I let go of trying to make a painting look good.


apples painted as homework Study experiment painting apples 3 apple experiments


 

Email me. Christine

This is the second part of my water colour course. I have progressed satisfactorily if not brilliantly.

Barry Coombs, my teacher has turned out to be a good teacher, and his exercises are well thought out and build on previous weeks skills.

Other weeks introduced wet on wet painting, grey underpainting or the effect of distance.

One week he talked about the way background influences the watercolours and the influence of tonal relationship between the objects.

As I progress I keep getting ideas and will earmark them for further exploration.

One of the nicest thing about taking a course is seeing how others have interpreted the instruction and seen the exercise. That is one of the best arguments for actually going to a class.

I've recently tried to paint my Cats's portraits. Not really easy particulrly in watercolour.


Winsor & Newton Professional Water Color Compact Set
I also have a number of DaVinci Paints and I really like them, particularly the yellow: Da Vinci Paints Watercolor Paint Quinacridone (Set of 6)
The same thing goes for paper, Cold Pressed Arches paper is what I use, cold pressed. Hot pressed is much smoother.Arches Aquarelle Watercolor Block 140 lb. cold press 9 in. x 12 in. padArches makes many other sizes: arches paper
As far as paintbrushes I'm not as fussy and I've found that many of the new synthetics work really well. Choose a round one with a good point, I also like a nice flat 3/4 inch brush. Princeton Series 4050 Synthetic Sable Watercolor Brushes 6 short handle roundThese would work for a start, or maybe slightly larger.