Hello everyone! Today I want to share a few things with you. The weather is just gorgeous here in Tennessee, too beautiful to pass up an outdoor sketching trip, so I thought I’d share some pics from that. I’ve been working on improving my watercolor skills and have a whole list of free online courses you can take if you’re also interested in watercolor. And finally, I’m happy to say that the basement remodel project is finished, and while I’m not going to show any studio pictures today, I wanted to share a few old sketchbooks that I uncovered while unpacking. So, lots to share, I hope you find something useful!
En Plein Air
Yesterday and today has been wonderfully spring-like in my neck of the woods. Beautiful clear skies, slight breezes and temperatures in the comfortable range just made me want to stay outside. Friday I watched Steve Mitchell’s latest video in which he took his sketchbook outside for the first time this season and did some watercolors of trees. Beautiful work, by the way – if you like watercolors, check out his YouTube channel The Mind of Watercolor for great tips and inspiration. So I made up my mind to do the same.
And it was great! I decided to go for a walk on one of our local nature trails first, otherwise I was afraid I’d spend the entire couple of hours drawing and procrastinate on the exercise. As I hiked through the trees I kept my eyes open for something interesting to draw. Here are some of the photos I took with my camera phone on the walk.
Back at the parking lot, I had to make a decision. My gut said to pick one thing – a rock, a tree, a flower — just one thing to draw. I didn’t want to be overwhelmed by the incredible quantity of stuff involved in drawing a landscape. Ultimately, however, I chose the bridge entrance to draw because I thought it looked so inviting. So I got out my folding stool, sketchbook, and a bag of pens and pencils and went to work.
Right away I thought I’d bit off more than I could chew. I’ve never been a landscape artist, even back in school I never attempted to do something on that kind of scale. I’m aware of some of the little tips and tricks used by urban sketchers, such as determining the limits of your composition BEFORE you put anything on paper. But I’ve never practiced any of it.
I honestly had to spend a few minutes looking at the scene in front of me and taking some meditative breaths before I could pick up a pencil. I told myself “hey, this isn’t any different from sitting in the studio other than you’re sitting outside!”. Only then did I feel like I had any confidence to start drawing.
Get the big shapes in first. Then, starting at the focal point, correct the shapes, spreading outward to keep forms in relative space and perspective. Then add details.
By this time I decided I didn’t want to stick with graphite and picked up the Micron brush pen. All the while I was thinking “I can do this, I can do this…”
Before I knew it, I was done.
I’d brought some Graphitint pencils and a Pentel water brush, but decided I would go home and see what else (if anything) I’d do with the sketch instead. I ended up throwing a few watercolor washes on it for splashes of color. And voila!
My advice? GO OUTSIDE! You can do it. And you know what? Even if your drawing isn’t what you expect, you’ll still have fun.
Watercolor Practice
Like I said, I’m no expert at landscapes, but I absolutely love some of the watercolor landscapes I see online. I would really like to try painting places we’ve been to, like the Mendocino Coast and Kansai Peninsula and the Caribbean. I have hundreds of photos that would make great paintings. If only I knew how to paint!
One thing that’s been helpful is my 100 Days Project. I’ve been working on postcards from Middle Earth, and so far most of them have been landscapes. What’s fun is that they are only 4 x 6 inches. It’s hard to screw up something that small, really! It’s too small for detailed work, so just plopping in mountains and trees and a few things that look like rocks or old buildings is pretty easy.
However, when I tried doing it on something big – 8 x 10 inches – it came out looking like, well, like a beginner’s work. Yes, I suppose that’s natural, right? But how do I improve?
I started searching for online courses, particularly FREE online courses, because I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for a course only to find out I didn’t like the way the instructor taught or that their style didn’t interest me. And I found a bunch of really useful websites. So I thought I’d share them with you, just in case you might also be looking for free tutorials. Keep in mind that these are mostly professional-artist type tutorials, not craft-related tutorials. No lettering or bullet journal flowers or other watercolor applications that can be done in a matter of a few minutes.
These aren’t in any particular order, by the way.
Deb Watson https://www.debwatson.org/
Deb Watson is a self-taught watercolorist who’s painted landscapes, portraits, animals, flowers….just about everything! She offers classes on her website and now has a Patreon page as well. On her website, you can sign up for 10 Free Watercolor Lessons from Beginner to Advanced, where she teaches you how to paint flowers, trees, clouds, landscapes, and even a snowman! She also has a free tutorial on painting a pine cone. A big variety of subjects and styles will give you a good rounded intro to watercolor. I think this is going to be my next choice!
Anna Mason https://www.annamasonart.com/free-classes/
Anna does GORGEOUS botanicals, very detailed, and has won awards for her work. She has an online school that you can join for a monthly or annual fee, and offers two free classes so you can see if you like her style. The first class is a pear and the second is a flower. After trying the pear, I personally found her teaching style wonderful for people like me who want to break the work down into steps that make sense. I also loved listening to her accent as I worked through the videos! She doesn’t appear to do landscapes, so she’s not at the top of my list at the moment. But her approach and attention to detail make me want to come back and take her classes in the future. Here is the pear that I did from her free lesson. Right next to it are two colored pencil pears that I did in April 2018 and summer of 2019. It appears that I have some subconscious desire to paint a pear every year! (or maybe it’s just karma)
Udemy
Udemy has two free watercolor tutorials, Creative Watercolors Beginners (https://www.udemy.com/course/creative-watercolours-beginners/) and How to Paint a Realistic Robin Bird in Watercolor ( https://www.udemy.com/course/how-to-paint-a-realistic-robin-bird-in-watercolour/ ) . I haven’t taken these yet, but I’ve taken other classes on Udemy. They’re generally well organized, and the classes I’ve taken have had forums in which you can contact the instructor directly for feedback.
Colin Bradley https://www.watercolourmadeeasy.com/all-courses
Colin has a series of pastel and watercolor classes on line at his website ( https://www.colinbradleyart.com/home/ ). The watercolor-only classes are at Watercolor Made Easy. He has two classes you can try for free, both which are landscape. I’m currently working on the one called Hambledon Mill. He’s easy to follow, but what’s really nice is that he doesn’t insist you have a particular paint brand or paper brand. He uses Winsor & Newton Cotman, which is a student grade line of watercolors, making it very affordable and easy to find if you want to do the same. The only thing I’m not liking about the free tutorial that I’m doing is the video quality. I’m not sure how old the video is, but the lighting is not bright enough to show the color he is using, at least not on my monitor. So I have to keep the reference up for comparison constantly. I really like that he’s not using techniques that a beginner like me would find difficult. I simply watch what he does, then pause the video and do the same thing on my paper. Easy, peasy!
Strathmore Artist Papers https://www.strathmoreartist.com/blog-reader/realistic-watercolor-for-beginners-free-online-workshop.html
Strathmore has a series of four free watercolor workshops: a spring tree, a bubblegum still life, practicing facial features and a limited palette portrait. If you’ve taken any of their other free tutorials, you know that the lessons are taught by different instructors who have different approaches to their work. I haven’t taken any of the watercolor workshops, but I’ve taken other Strathmore workshops and found them to be well organized and thorough.
Rebecca Rhodes https://rebeccarhodes.teachable.com/courses
Rebecca has a free class showing how to paint a dog’s eye in watercolor. What attracts me about her work is the detail she puts into her paintings of pets and wildlife. This is definitely on my list for future attention, as I really would like to paint owls and other birds in great detail some day. Take a look at this tutorial for a tabby cat face: https://rebeccarhodes.teachable.com/p/how-to-paint-tabby-cat-eyes-face-watercolor . She sells them individually but you can get a monthly or annual subscription and spend all the time you want learning how to paint animals!
Geoff Kersey https://watercolourlandscapes.co.uk/
This is the guy I’d like to imitate if I had the skill. I love his landscapes, but I think that my skills just aren’t at the level where his tutorials start. So if you have some watercolor experience and want to learn how to do landscapes, check out his site first. He doesn’t have a free lesson but he offers an introductory subscription during which you can get a refund before your first 30 days if you don’t like the classes. And he has previews of his classes for free, meaning you can sign up and watch samples of his lessons online. I’m going to give myself a couple of weeks of practice first, but I’m definitely planning on being a future subscriber.
Birgett O’Connor https://birgitoconnorwatercolors.teachable.com/
Birgett has 3 free classes: NWWS Rhododendron Bud Demonstration, Barns & Ranches, and a Watercolor for Kids and Young at Heart Introduction. So, first off, she does offer a course on landscape painting. It’s a loose-style of painting that you may prefer over the detailed type work of some of the others listed here. But her florals are what she excels at and what really caught my eye. They’re bright, bold, colorful and absolutely beautiful. Definitely on my list for that future time when I’m ready to attempt botanicals. She also has kids classes.
Tracy Lizotte https://tracylizottestudios.com/courses
Tracy has an online art academy focused on watercolor and drawing, and has a chickadee lesson that you can try for free.
Jerry’s Artarama https://www.jerrysartarama.com/free-art-instruction-videos/medium/watercolors
Surprised? Jerry’s has loads of free tutorials for watercolor painting. Check them out if you’re looking for something specific, such as how to paint waterfalls, or advice for mark making.
Steve Mitchell https://mindofwatercolor.com/
I’ve saved the best for last, not because I’ve forgotten him, but because I kind of figured just mentioning him right at the top of the blog put him first! Steve is a retired illustrator who now shares his watercolor expertise for free on YouTube. If you have any interest in watercolor at all, you really need to subscribe to his videos. It’s like having a friend to paint with. I really can’t recommend him enough. Go. Now. Check it out! (well, you can read the rest of my post first, if you want)
Basement UPdate
My basement is finally finished. Finally. We practically had to kick the contractors out, they were taking so long. It had nothing to do with the COVID-19 situation, nothing to do with anything other than incompetence. Theirs, not ours. But I’m not going to talk about that. My husband and I ended up spending nearly the entire month of April laying plank on the floor and fixing all the contractors mistakes, including re-installing the toilet that was never attached to the floor.
That’s right. The toilet wasn’t attached to the floor. And that wasn’t the worst of it. So excuse me for not wanting to dredge up bitter memories.
Here’s a picture of my finished studio space before I moved all my junk in. Some day when I finish putting in storage and get it all set up I”ll share a real studio picture.
And here’s what I really wanted to share. While I was unboxing a bunch of old stuff that I’ve had in storage for years, I came across a couple of old sketchbooks. They aren’t much, but I keep them for sentimental reasons. My parents didn’t save any of the artwork that I did as a young person, and when I left home to join the military I couldn’t take much with me. So the oldest thing I have is a portrait that was tucked away in an old Star Trek The Motion Picture program from 1980. I was 14 when I drew this:
Fortunately, my drawing has improved a little since then. But here’s another one, this time from 1986. I’ve no idea what I copied it from, maybe a book cover? But it’s proof that I’ve been interested in scifi an fantasy for a very long time.
How about this one? From my “horse” period. I remember doing some oil paintings of horses at about the same time.
So I think I did this one in Seattle? We had a few hours to kill and I bought a sketchbook and some pencils at an offce store downtown. Not long after this we had our first child and my sketching days were…well, you know what happens when you have kids.
And I had to appreciate this. A Pentalic sketchbook bought on base circa 1986 cost $2.85.
I hope that you found something useful in this long post today. As usual, feel free to leave a comment below if
you’re so inclined. Thank you for reading!
originally posted at annettezimmerman.com
