Painting Autumn Leaves in watercolours

During the latest session we enjoyed the colours and the beauty of Autumn Leaves. Everyone very much enjoyed painting them, as you can see in the results: 

 
The truly fabulous leaf painted by Charlie. It looks simple yet has great detail, the endings, the nerves. Well done!


Corinne painted a series of dancing autumn leaves, it is a happy bunch, and true to nature, they are from the same tree but all completely different...

 
Martin's leaves are so delicate and full of detail. The composition reminds me of a Japanese painting. 

Very well executed with that one-hair-brush!

 
Roxane has great plans with this watercolour, you can't see it on the picture but it is very big. The background will be done in Anna-Karin style (is the plan) so, carefully wet the paper where the background will be and then add loads of pigment and move the painting until everything has colour. Can't wait to see the result!

 
Renée, who left for Africa 10 years ago, has returned. Time flies, really, she hasn't changed one bit. She had kind of forgotten how to work with watercolours - but it definitely came back slowly during this session and the leaf is not only technically correct, but also original and wild. Looking forward to see next stages!

 
I also painted a quick one. The time saving  'trick' I used was the back of my brush, that i pushed in the wet paint to draw the nerve-lines. You can use that for everything that needs to be sharp and thin. But know that it can't be erased.

In the meantime... 

 
Judith started 2 new projects! The top one is kind-of inspired by the autumn leaves and looks very interesting to me, lots of new ideas and colour combinations. And below another take on the usual soft veil-like brush strokes, a bit more geometric. To be continued...

 
Sandra continued with her fabulous Whitney - and the resemblance is striking, the expression sooo good and the colours outstanding. And it is not even finished! But not far from it..

Laura also worked on a couple of autumn leaves but wanted to work on her place-mat too. Watch this space for her developments and projects in the coming weeks!

And  by the way, on the side we are working on Christmas cards - no results to report yet, but watch this space for ideas in the coming weeks...

Old Weathered Wooden Doors in Watercolours

After six sessions about the ins and outs of portraits we were ready for something a bit more abstract. So the last watercolour session we started with painting Old Weathered Doors, a very interesting subject, observing patterns, texture and light, shadow and contrast. It is still holiday time so the group was not very big, but I can show you four excellent results, plus some other interesting stuff, new and last but not least, in-progress work from Judith... Enjoy!

 
The shadows on Corinne's door are amazing, and the green just gives it that extra old glow.
 

An even more abstract old wood painting by Martin, I especially like the peeling paint and the overall colourfulness 

 
Charlie's old blue door looks great (the broken bottom!) and she added a Halloween (which was celebrated last Friday) detail. A floating pumpkin on autumn leaves.


WIP by Olga, who took a very difficult angle for her door, but it looks like that will work out. It is going to have a fabulous glow...


Beth is a new Aquarellista, who has no experience, but a lot of enthusiasm and talent by the look of it! Above her second exercise, that starts with doodling in pencil, then fill it with colour, then wash off as much colour as possible under the tap with a sponge (to see that this is possible). After it has dried, give the separate parts volume with patterns, highlights and shadow...
She followed this up with the 'Layers' exercise, first a dark sky with stars to experience the difficulty of leaving (the stars) white with a dark colour. Then orange on the rest of the painting,leaving out a couple of white dots as reflections of the stars. Next, the buildings, leaving out some windows (or, in Beths' case a lot of  them, what a skyline!) and finally, the water; Awesome job!

 

Corinne finished her portrait of the 'determined' girl, she looks so wise and friendly and at the same time quite innocent with her good-girl blouse 



Laura's WIP on what I think will be another place-mat. This is a view on Monaco Marina. Super! 

Judith is back! well, for once or maybe two times but we were all happy to see her and she worked on 3 paintings in the slow transparent un-forced way that we all love and admire so much. The paintings are large, and done with a thick brush, holding a lot of paint. After every stroke, Judith lets it dry and works on something else, and then, depending on the composition, her mood and the universe, she ads another layer. Until it is finished. I love it!

WIP 1

WIP 2

Finished! 

 

Portraits in Watercolours PART 6b: the details

In our last session about portraits - 6 weeks was kind of enough we felt, so next series will be next year. We discussed some important details, the differences between a female and a male face, other proportions of children and hair, teeth and glasses... 

And then we brought this new knowledge (that everyone knows of course but it is good to make it conscious) into practice by painting portraits of men, women and children, loosely using example pictures...

 

This beautiful and determined girl, with dark blond braids and beautiful shiny hair was painted by Corinne


What a beautiful, quietly knowing smile this girl has. WIP by Martin

 
Laura painted the 'dragon lady' in her softer appearance - so well done with the hair!

 
A great Robert Redford, with a bit of a Paul Newman nose we thought. Wonderful expression! Painted by Charlie

 
Denise worked on two portraits, both people with a lot of character!! I absolutely adore the woman below. What a power! She's a total bitch at first sight, but underneath there is a great sadness. Well done!

And in the meantime...

 
Laura finished her 'Madame X' version. I love it! The addition of the title 'Vogue' and the blue velvety shine makes it very strong. Super and original!

 
Anna Karin finished her poppies. The painting is now balanced and very strong actually. She also experimented with a bloc of very rough Hahnemüle paper, that somehow absorbs enormously! All the colours were so very dark when applied, yet the remaining colours are very light! How interesting - and knowing Anna Karin she will use that knowledge to create new and exciting things on just that paper...

And that was it, next week we are going for something more 'abstract'. We need that!

Portraits in Watercolours PART 6a: Ah - we just skipped it

Two die-hard Aquarellistas were present last Tursday and we just chatted and worked on WIP! It was excellent actually. Next week most will have recovered, although then the childrens' school holidays  have started, so the parents and grandparents may be occupied. But still, we'll have some portraits to show...

Last week, Sandra worked on hers and it is getting shape! It is very well done and original and not at all finished, look forward to next stage. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see the intricate details...

 
Sue finished her little village house with wisteria, a present for the person who actually lives there. 
Then she started a painting of a big autumn flower that is just a drawing still. 
And while in Greece she did a lot of sketching and I particularly liked this one! 

that was is for today 😁More next post!

Portraits in Watercolours PART 5: More 'En Profil'

Last session we continued with the 'en Profil' Portrait project. We worked mainly on 'Our own version' of that fabulous painting by John Singer Sargent, 'Madame X'

 
The original portrait of Mme X by John Singer Sargent

 
Bev created such a good version (Still WIP!), that at first sight doesn't look very different from the original. But do you notice the shoulder strap? (Originally the actual painting was like that too, but at the time it was 'censured', as too sexy. )


Here's the version by Brenda, Mme X in a stunning purple dress!

 

And Roxane's varietion wears a red dress - and a couple of profiles (or ghosts) in the background!

Corinne painted just the profile and she did that in around half an hour, that woman is so fast! Luckily there was another challenge for her (see below)


As there were not so many people who needed my attention, I painted a modern version of Mme X with a crew cut and colourful earrings 😊

 

And next to that

Corinne painted a 3/4 portrait, of Ian McKellen (or Gandalf) Beautiful light and shadows and good work on the bags under his eyes (part of next week's challenges...)

These two happy beautiful faces are WIP by Roxane. She decided to finish them in pencil. I am looking forward to the result (in 2 weeks)

Lastly, the poppies by Anna Karin are almost done now. They are so subtle and there is so much mysterious nature, it is amazing. 

 

Portraits in Watercolours PART 4: 'En Profil'

 The session of last week, we discussed the next perspective for a portrait - defined by the French term 'en profil'. 

Next to the ones that are derived from the full face logic, there is one rule of thumb for a profile and that is the vertical line you can draw along the start of the ear. It divides the skull in 2 halves that have the same width - measured from the top of the nose to the ear = same length as ear to back of skull. Or just look at the drawing below 😃

  

The theme of the day was 'create your ow version of the (unusual en-profil) portrait of 'Madame X' by John Singer Sargent. And to hget there we did exercises, drawing each others' profiles with one eye closed and without looking at the paper. A great way to draw, after a bit of practise you are almost 'tracing' the face. Enjoy the fabulous and very interesting and different  results:

Anna Karin really liked this method and played with it in true signature style! She also went on with the beautiful poppy (see below).

Martine's version of Madame X. It is such a gorgeous portrait and it makes me happy to look at.

Fantastic version by Laura! so well done - and there is one detail still missing, but she will add that: The letters VOGUE on top - half of them. Such a cool idea!

And who knows what Brenda will come up with! This WIP is very promising...

I also had great fun painting my version, I so like this feisty girl, still thinking of a name. Any suggestions?
And I have been bragging about the portrait of my daughter in that same pose but couldn't find a photo. So here it is! 

And in the meantime

Brenda refined the portrait of Susannah. Sje added shadows and more contrast and made the background darker. Small changes, that make all the difference!

 
And here is Sandra's latest project in the series 'Famous performers'. It is an interesting development that you will love seeing progress...

Anna Karin worked further on the poppy that she started 4 months ago. It wasn't easy to exactly remember how she created the colours, and the paper buckled so she will stretch the paper and come back later.