Watercolour workshop

BMCAC Watercolour workshop with Peter Gonzalez,  October 13th  Saturday, 10am-4pm

Watercolour seems to frighten people a lot but that is because they have not taken the time to understand this beautiful medium that can give to any artwork a transparency that cannot be achieved with other mediums.

Watercolour painting is in essence finding the right balance between the amount of water and colour, between waiting until the last layers were applied before putting on the new ones, but, above all is using the best quality materials.

I refuse to work with the Chinese art material for watercolours because it doesn’t have that “good quality” I mentioned above!

So, to start on the right foot, here is the list of the materials needed for this workshop:

PAPERS: ARCHES 300gsm, rough, in single sheets or in book form.

BOARD: Preferably varnished to make it waterproof.

MASKING TAPE: The gummed type is excellent but if not the common one is OK.

BRUSHES: They must be Sable or synthetic Sable:

ROUND No. 6, 10.

FLAT No. 6, 12

RIGGER No. 000

HAKE 1 or 2 inches

COLOURS:

Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Alizarin Crimson Red, Cadmium Red, French Ultramarine Blue, Cobalt or Cerulean Blue or both, Burnt Sienna

WATER: 2 jars to clean brushes and to dilute colours

RAGS : old cotton T-shirts (Do not use tissue or paper towels to dry excess of water from the brushes because they leave small fibres on the artwork)

PENCIL 2B

A hair dryer will be supplied by the tutor.

We are going to start the Workshop by introducing the medium and answering any questions the participants can have.  Simple samples of washes will be exhibited and a very short demo will be conducted.

Washes on dry paper and on wet paper will be done to notice the difference between the two methods.

Initially, a small painting will be produced by all but after that, each participant will choose his/her own designs after discussing it with the tutor about its viability.

The workshop will be divided in two sessions.

The first session will be the introductory one and the initial demos. It will go from 10am until 12.30pm so everybody can enjoy their lunch!

The second session will run from 1pm until 4pm

Discussions at the end of the workshops will be part of the working day.

Participants can choose for their own designs photos, magazines, books, prints, cards, etc.

Good watercolouring to all!

Peter Gonzalez