This last workshop at Dillman's taught me some very important lessons to teach my students. Actually, I learned 2 very important things that every watercolorist, beginner or advance should know. listed below I will go over those 2 things. 

When I teach at a week-long workshop I spend the first 2 days teaching about the medium and how to use that medium like a professional. I feel if you don't know your medium or how to correctly use that medium all the other things I teach like composition, color, value patterns,  and drawing will fall to the wayside if you can't properly work with the medium. You can learn about the composition, drawing, colors, value pattern and the list goes on, but if you can't use your medium in the correct way those other elements can't help your incorrect use of the medium.

 

1. Learn everything there is to know about the materials you are using. Find out all things about your materials like your brushes, paper, paints. Know about your materials and how they are made and what is in your materials. Find out about your paints and all there is to know about the paints. Find out about all the different brushes and what they are all made of and used for. Learn about your papers by reading about them online.

 

Knowing this information can help you when you start practicing with those materials which is the 2nd step that I teach all my students.

2. Practice with your materials.  Artist materials don't come with instructions so you need to learn how to use them and the best way of doing that is using them by practicing with and on them. I don't mean doing a painting either, I mean taking a sheet of paper and a brush and your paint and trying it out by doodling or seeing how some effect will work on a paper, or how a brush handles.

 

If you practice with these materials on a painting then you are not thinking about how you are using your materials, you are concentrating on making a nice painting. So I say practice by doodling and practice by doing washes and brush strokes. For instance, If you want to learn how to do a gradation wash in watercolor from light to dark, take a sheet of paper and practice a bunch of washes and try different brushes and try different papers with different kinds of colors. This is practicing with your materials and it's very important to learn how your materials work.

 

Doodling is a great way to practice!

Erie Ave. and 12th Street EBCO building, SVA Art Gallery