Online wattercolor class

I hadn’t done much painting this year, since all the art classes had been canceled due to the pandemic.  No trips to John C. Campbell Folk School or weekend workshops at Spruill, or classes at OCAF or Lyndon House.   I really needed the push to paint that a class provides.  We meet once a week for four weeks online, and uploaded our finished work to a shared space were we could comment and discuss the paintings.  

The class focus was on using water to controlling how the paint moves on the paper.  We practiced adding very wet paint to dry and wet paper.  Adding dry paint to wet paper.  Using a dry brush to remove water and paint from the paper.

Then we painted a landscape from a photo.  I roughly sketched in the buildings and edges of the field.  I wet the sky and painted a morning sky with red and yellow.  I painted in the field where the light was reflecting off the wet grass.  I painted the buildings where the rising sun was casting long shadows.

I painted the dark tree line and used a dry brush to pick up pigment from the tree tops.  

I painted the grasses in the foreground, leaving  some areas white for the flowers.  Finally, I added more shadows.

Next we painted a white dogwood flower.  The only thing defining the white flower are the shadows.  They are soft, but need to be dark enough to give the petals shape.  

For the center we practiced negative painting.  Painting the dark spaces between the yellow pistils.  

Finally we used dark paint for the background letting the colors mix.  The darker the background the more the flower shows up.  Too dark or the wrong mix of colors creates a muddy background.

For the third painting we painted a humming bird.    These birds have distinctive color patterns and shape.  The position of the head, placement of the bill and eye all need to be correct.

The tips of the wings are indistinct and a trail follows the wings to suggest movement. The pose of the bird suggests reaching up, so I added an orange trumpet vine flower.

The background was painted wet on wet, allowing the colors to mix.  The darker shades around the flower and bird help define their shapes.

For my final painting I selected a photo of a pink azalea.  I used one red and one blue pigment for the flower.  

The lighter pink shades are made by mixing more water with the red paint.  

The shadows are made by mixing blue into the red paint. 

The background was painted wet on wet and has indistinct green leaves and additional pinkish flowers.  

Hearts to thank frontline community workers

This spring the John C Campbell Folk School asked for donations of heart shaped crafts for their new Hearts at Work project.  Almost 3,000 hearts were sent from students, staff and instructors who have attended the school.  The school presented the hearts to essential workers in the local county.

Heart shaped books are not new, and there is an online tutorial based on the traditional heart shaped book.  However, I remembered seeing a unique small heart shaped book pattern in one of the books I have.  Books and Journals, by Constance E. Richards included instructions for making a heart book necklace.  I adapted her design to make my little books.  

Each book is made up of origami folded pages cut to form a heart.  The pages are glued together so that the can open.  Heart shaped card stock is used for the covers, and a ribbon is used to tie it shut.  I was happy with how these little origami fold books turned out.

Upcycled container books

I have been experimenting with using recycled material for book covers.  It all started with the vegetable containers we received with our Hello Fresh meals.  The images on the boxes were so retro and pop art.  They made lovely little books.  

Since the containers are all different sizes, I have to determine the amount of pages and dimensions; then create spine and signature stitching cards.