Watercolour Painting for Beginners with Tanya Baily

Go back to basics or start from scratch to refresh your skills and learn the fundamentals of painting with watercolours. This course will cover the full range of watercolour techniques from the past and contemporary with loads of practical exercises and a solid understanding of different papers and watercolour materials. There will be practice with sketching and working plein air, and you will learn how to make longer finished studio watercolours.

Perfect for beginners and great for more experienced artists wanting a rigorous comprehensive recap in this most beautiful of drawing and painting mediums.  

What to expect

• Through the course you will learn about the different types of watercolour paper, how to stretch paper, which brushes to use, and how to make sense of all the different brands of paint and colours. 
• Through structured exercises students will learn to mix colours in the pan and on the page, using glazing on dry as well as working in wet.
• Tanya will spend time troubleshooting common problems with watercolour, such as how to maintain transparency, how to manage tonal value, how to keep dark colours beautiful and how to simplify the world we see into a manageable palette.

What you will learn

• how to mix colours with confidence and ways to maintain the vibrancy of your watercolour paintings. 
• to understand the relevance of complementary colours and how to capture light and paint the colours of shadows. 
• ways to explore and how to render textures, working in wet and dry, and apply your skills to a full range of subject matter and styles. 
• how to plan a colour composition and to organise a palette and will work from simple still lives in the studio, or from images of their own.

Is this course right for me?

All levels of artists will benefit from this course, from beginners to more experienced artists. Perfect for anyone wanting to refresh their skills or start from the beginning.

Recommended Material List

Watercolour Paints:

A basic palette of warm and cool reds, yellows and blues, for instance:

Lemon yellow, Indian yellow, Cadmium red, Permanent rose, Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo blue

Students are welcome to bring whatever watercolour paints you already have as well. Your tutor recommends brands like Winsor and Newton, Schminke, Daniel Smith (or equivalent quality). Student quality watercolour paints are cheaper but are made with inks and synthetic dyes, not pigments. They don’t last as long or work as well and the colour quality is not good.

Paper:   

1x large sheet 56x76cm 100% cotton 300gsm Watercolour paper  Cold pressed

1x large sheet 56x76cm 100% cotton 300gsm Watercolour paper  Hot Pressed

100% Cotton watercolour paper is the most expensive. Common brnbds are Arches, Fabriano, Waterford. Baohong is a relatively new brand, very good and more economical. Students will not be able to complete many of the colour exercises without a 100% cotton paper

Brushes

3x round soft watercolour brushes sizes 4, 8 12

Other items

Palette: One 6-8 pan palette (deeper pan watercolour palettes are recommended)

Pencil, rubber, sharpener

2 x water jars

1 Roll kitchen paper or rag/towel

About studio classes

Our class sizes are small, ensuring you receive the individual tuition you need. We have a maximum of 12 students per class.

Unless otherwise noted, prices *exclude* art materials. Click here to see a list of local art supply retailers.

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