Botanical Watercolor Workshop

   In less than a week I figured it out! How to upload pictures from my phone to my laptop that is, (the last batch were done by my husband whose technical knowledge far exceeds mine in every aspect) which may sound straight forward but isn't always as intuitive to me as I would have like it to be. The photos are now available to me, however, and I am finally in a position to write about the fun workshop I had the privilege to host last weekend.


   As part of the Women's Day exhibition activities held during the month of March at Seddwell center, several workshops were organized, one of which was mine. I was originally approached about doing a botanical illustration seminar but as the idea was to do a 3 hour rather than 2 to 3-day seminar I did an introduction to botanical watercolor instead.

   I put a cap on the attendees at 12 people and we were fully booked. It was a great group of women from a variety of different countries from around the world and when I asked whether they wanted me to do the workshop in English or German they actually chose English, three cheers for them. I had actually anticipated it would be in German so it turned out to be even more relaxed than expected.

   The time was divided into three portions, of which the first was dedicated to observation and pencil sketching, the second to blocking in color as well as color gradient and basic molding of the three dimensional forms and the third to detailed finishing techniques.

Part one:

   Draw what you see not what you know. The best phrase to sum up observational drawing. I have learned so much by drawing the lines I actually see and can measure as opposed to viens in a leaf like viens should look in a leaf. As is always the case everyone started out in a hurry but they quickly slowed down and started paying attention with the result that several really lovely detailed drawings were produced.

Part two:

  This was probably the hardest part for most of the participants. The tendency is to choose the final color and lay on a wash of it. Layering with thin washes of transparent color takes a lot more patience and self-control. About half of the people did it, the others mopped up their intense colors and started over. The gradients turned out well. The time allotted to this portion was too short to really give enough time to do as much modeling as many would have needed.

Part three:

   Fifteen minutes before the end of the workshop people started adding their final details. Needless to saw we went overtime. At about a quarter past we had to give up the room to the next group. The results were really nice at this point. Several people could have had great pieces if they went home and finished them, many had lovely pieces as they were.

  This was my first Botanical watercolor workshop and I really enjoyed it. It is so rewarding seeing the high level of work produced when people slow down, really concentrate, and do their best. I definitely felt like a proud parent. I do have other pictures, but they show the faces of the participants so I am not posting them here for privacy reasons.

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