Water colour: baubles, reds and missing friends.

My palette, looking the cleanest it has for years, and a few baubles hoping to be painted...

My line drawing. 

The finished study. 

Painting Reds in water colour can be challenging. Red pigments are inclined to dry looking a bit 'streaky' - it is such a strong pigment that not only does it stain the water that we paint with, it also stains the paper. This means that it is almost impossible to remove if you have changed your mind - it's permanent. For this reason, I try not to use it for the main subject matter until students have gained a little bit of experience with this medium.  
But we can't avoid it for ever! A couple of bright Christmas baubles fitted the brief nicely, and students first task was to choose which background colour they wanted to offset the reds. Not an easy decision, as the reds themselves appear differently according to the colour around them.

A student beginning the background wash. 

After the initial line drawing, the background was painted first, to get rid of the loud noise of white paper. If we didn't do this, it would be more difficult to get the tones correct in the baubles. As always, most folks didn't get the study completed as time ran out, but excellent reds were tackledand mastered throughout!

Lovely reds on this student's study. 

David's artwork, with lovely wash strips on the side. 

Another student example, with lovely contasts beginning to show between the red and the gold.

Sara's line drawing

Sara's study - not quite finished, but showing great reds. 

Working in a class of others on a regular basis, particularly when we all share a table together, is a very bonding experience. So when we heard that Marjorie had fallen onto the concrete steps outside the local museum and broken her hip, meaning that she'd be house-bound for several weeks, we knew we'd miss her. But she's a trooper (here she is below, waving at the class, from home!) and returned last week, on crutches. Welcome back Marjorie!