Introduction to Watercolour Course at NSCAD Extended Studies | DAY 2

Day 2. Lesson: Understanding Colour

Sketch 1. The famous colour wheel. This exercise was about water to pigment ratio and mixing. I managed not to soak the paper and arrived at very bright colours despite the student grade pigments that I am using.
BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ARTIST AND STUDENT MATERIALS. 
​I didn't think there was a huge difference between artist grade and student grade watercolour paint and paper but there is, there is a very big difference. However, I decided to use up all my student grade materials and try to make the best out of it.

Sketch 2. STILL LIFE EXERCISE. Today we are drawing from observation objects that we brought from home. I had forgotten to bring things from home and took stuff from my office. A ball, a black clip and my iPhone sock (for texture). 
This sketch shows how student grade paper is unforgiving when it comes to water. I saturated the paper and made a big black blob under the ball. Not quite what I was going for. Colours are dull. This seems to not be working at all. It took me an additional 10 minutes, from the 15mins I had already spent, to just leave it alone. 

Sketch 3. Started over and paid more attention to the water/pigment ratio. I managed to make colours brighter. Water/pigment ratio is key!!
I made black from scratch. I used a limited colour palette for this sketch of : burnt sienna, yellow ochre, burnt umber, cobalt blue, and alizarin crimson. Couldn't believe my greens mixture came out good. I had no trouble mixing colours. My biggest challenge continues to be mastering water/pigment ratio.
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In this sketch, the water/pigment ratio was a success.

Sketch 4. Five (5) minutes to end of class. This is my 5min end of class sketch of the day. I love it. It came out very spontaneous and free. Before finishing, I was picking up my brush out of the water container and accidentally flipped it splashing paint over the sketch. It looked very cool and expressive so I intentionally added more pigment and repeated the spatter. I accidentally learned a technique called Spattering, which gives the sketch texture and expression.

​What a great end to my class.