Sketching Week 4. Gnomes & Homes. . |

A very cheerful couple of gnomes with their gardening tools graced our tables this week. Observing their chunky little shapes and chipmunk cheeks proved trickier than one thought.

This was the first watercolour week for some. Keep your colours clean. Each colour into the palette. No pre-mixing. Here was a great chance to really feel what the colours can do, and to correct old habits.

With some test swatches in our books it was round the corner to a decorative pink house (in the rain it was the house on the corner from under the verandah) Flat perspective is what we call it. Simple shapes and no worries about eye level and vanishing points. That’s coming!!

Everyone seemed excited to be playing with paint. One student said he felt like he was in kindergarten again. Giving it a go is where you start. If you don’t put it down you don’t know what it can do.

Showbox was for coffee, lunch and colour. We need to remember that this is not watercolour painting. We are applying colour to our sketches. Not filling it in.

Some fab results considering lots of people had never picked up a brush before.

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 24 ’15