Watercolor for Fun

Last spring I signed up for a photography class through The Torpedo Factory, located in Old Town Alexandria.  I was excited to take it but unfortunately, my morning sickness sidelined me and I backed out at the last minute.  A couple of months ago I remembered the credit that I still had with the school so I called to check on it.  I’m glad I did – I only had until July to sign up for a class or else I’d lose the $$.

So began my foray into the world of Beginning Watercolor.

During the past nine Saturdays, my sweet husband has tended our little guy so that I could attend the class from 9:30-12:30.  It has been one of the highlights of my week.

It was held in a warehouse in Old Town, Alexandria.  It’s just what you would expect of an art warehouse: large, open spaces with easels and props lying around.

We met in a bare room that allowed us plenty of space to set out all of our painting tools.

These tools included a large palette on which to mix the paint,

and an array of paintbrushes and paints.  (Btw, this stuff is quite expensive if you get the “artist” grade supplies which our teacher recommended – everything you see here cost me about $188, not including extra paper.  Those little tubes of paint are between $7 and $10 each.  I say that just in case any of you are interested in starting and don’t know what to expect.  Definitely buy online when you can as it’s much cheaper.)

Going off the assumption that none of us had previous watercolor experience (which was definitely true in my case), the teacher had us start with the basics.  We learned how to do “washes”…

and how to mix color (much harder than it looks).

Next we tried our hand at various small subjects just to get a feel for how to do them.  My trees definitely need some work.

After that, we were ready to try our hand at sceneries.  This is my first one.  It’s not Rembrandt, mind you, but it’s not bad for my first attempt – I actually kind of like it.  Even the trees look passable.

We did flowers next.  I really had fun with this one.  It took me almost the entire class time to finish it since I drew it out by hand before painting it (instead of tracing the outline that she gave us), but I really enjoyed it.

We did more landscapes during our next session, but this time we focused on painting various skies.   Again, much harder than it looks.

During the last class, we painted geese.  Canadian geese to be exact.  I’ve never really given geese much thought before.  Amazing how much more interesting I find them after studying and painting them for an hour and a half (it took so long because we used a technique that involved masking fluid which is somewhat time consuming).

After all of these classes and hours spent learning to paint, I think it’s safe to say that I have found a new hobby that I quite enjoy.  It’s also fair to say that I won’t be quitting my day job any time soon.  But there’s something so relaxing about painting – it’s very rewarding seeing your vision unfold and your paintings come to life.

I’ve enjoyed it so much that I’ve even practiced a bit at home in my spare time, which admittedly isn’t much these days.

While my paintings are nothing really frame-worthy, they’ve been fun to make and I have enjoyed it.  So much so that I’ve signed up to take a drawing class this fall.  I’m so excited!

Rembrandt… here I come!

Any other painters out there?  Drawers?  Sketchers? (artists, not the shoes…)