Hello
Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #206 Learning a lesson the hard way.
It's so good to be back home, even after an incredible workshop and even though the day I got back it was snowing. There is something so rewarding, refreshing and comfortable after coming home from a long time away. I am so ready to get back to a normal schedule and get back to my regularly scheduled program.
The France workshop was amazing and I think I captured somewhere around 2500 photos. The students were wonderful and I do believe everyone wants to go back someday. I will be heading back to France in 2022 or 2023, but until then you can find more of my workshops right here in the good US of A, see a list below.
I keep on mentioning my next workshop at Dillman's in June because this is going to be one amazing workshop and I don't think anybody gets how great this new workshop will be. My lesson plans are almost done for this workshop and I am really getting excited about teaching this new class. This is really going to be a workshop you need to take... I have so many wonderful new exercises planned that I can't wait to show my students at Dillman's. Sign up ASAP at Dillman's. Remember at this workshop you don't need to bring any supplies which makes this workshop a one-time unbelievable deal, Reserve a spot HERE
Yes To Class at the Civic Center in Libertyville, Thursday, May 2nd 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm
Yes To Class at the BeckerArt Gallery in McHenry, Saturday, May 4th 9:00 am to 11:30 am
Learning a Lesson the Hard Way
|
While I was teaching in France I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and it triggered a revelation moment where I realized how important learning a lesson the hard way, turns out to be the best way to learn a lesson. Let me explain...you may think that as a teacher I should know everything there is to know about watercolor but I too am always learning about how to teach my students watercolor. These last 2 weeks I learned a lot of lessons the hard way about teaching a plein-air
class, which is a class I don't teach very often. From this point on when I teach a plein-air class, I will have a lot of lessons, I can now teach a student because of my new experiences that were not as good as they could have been. I hadn't learned those hard lessons because of my lack of teaching many plein-air classes. I feel my workshop in France was a success but I too am always learning and will do better now that I know it is best to learn my lessons the hard way.
Many years ago when I was teaching my watercolor classes I could never get across to students how to apply their watercolor correctly and I was never getting my point across to them correctly, nothing I was saying was getting them to properly apply the pigment to the paper. After years of trying different ways of teaching my students, it was at a Dillman's workshop where I was really getting frustrated with myself and I could see one of my students was also getting
frustrated with how I was teaching them. It was at that moment I said to that one student, "float your pigment into the puddle of water on your paper in a way where you can see the pigment actually floating and then control the amount of pigment to either let it dissolve with a little amount pigment or use a large amount of pigment to control an edge" It took years of teaching and learning the hard way that Those 3 words Float-Your-Pigment made her totally understand what I
was trying to say to my students to correctly teach them how to control their watercolor. In that class after I told that one student to float her pigment, everyone in the class had heard it and they all were starting to understand what I was teaching. It was one of those revelation moments where I learned how to teach students to control their watercolors.
Learning the hard way is true not only with learning about painting in watercolor but with most everything one tries to learn. For instance, the one non-artists thing I learned the hard way from this trip to France is to not use a service like Expedia or Travelocity to book flights to Europe, instead, use a good travel agent or book your flight directly with an airline. I learned the hard way and had the worst flights the last 2 times I have flown using those online travel websites.
Many of my students used the travel agent I suggested for the France trip and if they had a problem the travel agent helped them when something went wrong. When something goes wrong with travel and you try to resolve things with services like Expedia, take it from me, they are no help. Learned my lesson the hard way, but I now will always use a travel agent, lesson learned!
When painting plain-air I learned the hard way that you should try a new plein-air tripod setup before you go to the workshop, this way you know what and what won't work when setting up in the field the first time. I didn't set up my tripod before the trip and I soon realized on my France workshop that I had no place for a water container for my setup, which is a really important item when painting plein-air in watercolor, water being the main ingredient.
Now when I hear students complain about their work it will bring joy to me because I now know they are learning a lesson, it may be learning a lesson the hard way but I know they are learning something. It is great to do a painting that is beautiful where there is nothing wrong with it, but if you are in a class or workshop and you are there to learn, making mistakes and trying new things is the best way of learning. When I teach a class and I see everyone doing a great job I am now torn
between I am good at teaching students to become good at painting but at other times I feel like they did a great job but now I am not teaching them anything. To my veteran students, I say this, every now and then try new things and make mistakes on a few paintings, it will make me feel like I am still teaching you something:).
I love to teach!
David
|
The lesson I learned the hard way in the picture above is
never put a small bottle of masking fluid in a plastic bag with your brushes and fly 8 hours on a plane back from France to Chicago. The pressure in the plane made the bottle leak out all the masking fluid into the plastic bag and it got on everything. You can see in the photo that it ruined all my brushes. Lesson learned!
WORKSHOPS and DEMOS in 2019
NEW! Dillman's Acrylic WORKSHOP, Lac du Flambeau, WI, June 3rd - 6th
For Information Click Here
Dillman's Festival of Artists DEMO, Hibbing Minnesota June 7th
For info Click Here
Morris Watercolor Guild CLASS, Liberty ARTS Festival, Morris, IL. July 20th
For information Click Here
Vermont Art Event WORKSHOP Classes, VT, July 29th - August 2nd,
Information to come
Cheap Joes WORKSHOP, Boone NC, Sept. 9th - 13th
For Information Click Here
Dillman's Watercolor WORKSHOP, Lac du Flambeau, WI, Sept. 23d - 26th
For Information Click Here
Questioned Asked: I'm new to watercolor and I was told that I shouldn't wash my watercolor brushes with soap... is this true and why not?
My Answer: I never wash my watercolor brushes with soap, I just rinse them with fresh water and lay them flat in a brush holder. Make sure that nothing touches or bends the hairs while the brush dries, this could bend the hairs after the brush is dry and it is hard to get the brush to go back to normal. I don't use soap because many soaps can be too harsh on a watercolor brush and a good simple rinse with clean water is enough to get the brush
clean.
When it comes to acrylic brushes and watercolor brushes that you use with acrylics, there is a soap that is made by the General Pencil company that is called The Masters Brush Cleaner
and Preserver that I hear is really good to use for cleaning and preserving your acrylic used brushes.
|
Inna Tsukakhina is a Russian artist that I spotted on one of my friends pages on Facebook and after checking out her work on the web it blew me away.
I think a lot of her work is watercolor but also looks like she also uses acrylics. This style is a lot like I will be teaching in my class at Dillman's this spring. I hope more of you can make my workshop at Dillman's this spring... we will definitely be doing a lot of work like you see here in this artists work.
|
|
|
For any other info please email me at david@davidrbecker.com |
|
|