week 3 of Watercolor Mastery

Paint along with Angela, using color theory and brush handling.

Listen to your heart, what is your mood telling you, what colors fit your mood...

This week was all about how to create with color, and use that color theory to add harmony into your paintings.

I loved this straightforward approach, I love studying all about color. I love learning about the different relationships colors have with other colors and the relationship between color and the viewer.

This week wasn't the most creative week for me in terms of producing works that I personally made, this week was all about painting along with Angela, which for this week was a good thing.

Winter Scene using warm and cool complimentary colors

My ahh hah moment or take away was this: Angela is fearless in her watercolor because she knows her subject well, she has painted the same scene a handful of times and by the time she is ready to teach it, she knows exactly how to paint it, and what colors, Like in so many things in life, we have to learn and experiment before we get it just right, sorta like your grandma's favorite chicken noodle recipe, she has made that at least 100 times in her life, it's the best because she has made it over and over. Same with most art that is created. Van Gogh, Monet, O'Keeffe, painted the same subjects over and over again, why? to learn! So my take away is paint something until you get it so good you want to teach it!

Today while painting and doing some warm-up exercises, I was reminded of being fearless in watercolor, and fearless with the color choices you choose. So I did, and I  found a lot of freedom in painting more how I feel with color than I did when I carefully chose what color because of the name. It was liberating!

As the next couple weeks continue, I am excited to shift from learning and painting along to going out and painting from my own reference photo's and get more of how I would like my style to be!

Autumn forest using expressive lines and bold colors.

I will say that in between painting sessions, I would feel like a fish out of water because I was using colors in ways I hadn't thought about or even wanted to try, I was always afraid of adding more than 5 colors to a painting, but introducing colors really does help add more drama to the page!

Thanks, Angela, I learned a lot and I can't wait to start painting again this week!

I am curious if your color choices are a go-to tool in your toolbox? I know want to paint all the things in vivid and beautiful color, with some neutrals I have made!