three to go....but who's counting?

we started the last phase of the beginning watercolor class yesterday. painting figures from old archival photos is always fun and employs a lot of the techniques and ideas we have covered to date in the class. these include saving whites, small multi-colored swatches, modeling and object, larger flat and variegated washes, connecting objects to their surroundings via escape routes and connections of like but perhaps different hued areas. they also got a chance to practice their drawing techniques. as a bonus i showed them several ways to transfer images other than tracing (although for the sake of time we did employ that time honored and much excoriated technique.....it is after all a painting class, not a drawing class......no i don't want to engage in that discussion at present). this included establishing a grid on source and painting surface and then drawing a lot of small drawings. in addition i showed how to get a decent likeness on a face by using a center line and estimating and even measuring from there if the placement of a feature was problematic.

so, here are some photos of the demo painting along with some of the students' work (and students working). i found i still don't quite have the knack of painting and talking at the same time. this is not my best work but it did serve to illustrate a way to paint this particular subject.