LESSON PLANS SUMMER TERM 2023 (2nd half): Flowers in loose watercolour with added line.

In this lesson I'm asking my students to begin really loosely with watercolour and then find further definintion with pen or sharp pencil - looking at a small bunch of flowers and foliage in a jam jar.

Summer term 2nd half 2023 – lesson 4: Small bunch of flowers in a jar - watercolour and pen (or sharp pencil).

This lesson is offering you the freedom to work loosely with watercolour and then to further define your painting with line – sharp pencil or fine pen.

· Half fill your jar with water and put the flowers into it. Enjoy the distortion you see at the surface of the water. See how some of the stems make a disconnect either side of the surface of the water.

· Have the colours you intend to use ready on your palette. Use a brush at least one size bigger than you think you should use.

· Using plenty of water with your colour, paint the various shapes you see (nothing precise at this stage). This is about finding the general areas of colour - you’ll allow the colours to merge together.

· If any of your flowers are white, paint around them. Paint the surrounding areas which reveal the shapes of your white flowers – again, no need to be too precise. If colours run together, allow them that freedom.

· This is your chance not to feel pressured to make a precise painting but instead to experiment with much looser painting.

· Make sure your painting is 100% dry before beginning to draw on it. Drawing on it will define your painting further and allow you to add detail in a new medium.

· Using a well sharpened pencil or a fine black pen, make a very similar kind of running line like we used last week with the foreground to distance drawings. Start in your chosen place and travel up and down and across your subject looking for the stem or the in-between space that will move you across your painting.

Next lesson: Watercolour only, bring simple solid shapes, looking for lights and darks!