Watercolor Escape Artists

It's so great to be back for our Spring 2010 semester. We "lost" some but have gained some...three new students (not to mention the three new continents we'll be going on assignment to). NOTE: students' names are below their paintings. This first illustration ("Many Boats") is a scene of a busy harbor in Vietnam and contained a couple of challenges for all of the students. 1) First is the opportunity to try rough-press watercolor paper; a surface that a certain long-time watercolorist had never even worked on previously. It proved a little difficult to transfer our drawings onto, so once I found the window-as-light-table made that a whole lot easier several students were able to finish up their preparations with less frustration (directly tracing on the rough stuff in ink, instead of pencil transfer and overdrawing in ink). 2) The second challenge was to leave all those white (rope) lines. This turned the background seawater into a varigated blue jigsaw ...

Master N. Davis. Feel like your looking at a movie-still and things are about to get a little scary? Well, stay tuned (by that I mean look at the next version, below - you were right...) Master D. Harwell. A mysterious sort of scene. (Or is it just me?) Miss N. Buckingham Is it just me (again) or does this have a 'futuristic look' to it? I know, paying attention to too many movies like "Aeon Flux"... Master J. Wolters Great colors. Notice the detailing on the Empire State's upper tower. Master B. Davis Great 'depth-of-field' by not only using various 'shades' for the layers of buildings, but changing up the colors, too. Works perfectly to capture this 'superhero moment.' Miss A. Escue Dreamy. Miss R. Fadler Exceptionally beautiful color-transitions in this sky. Miss M. Wolfe D R A M A T I C. You know those evenings when the sun seems to set the entire sky on fire and then it just GOES BLACK... Miss K. Breeding She missed star...

Tuesday AM Update : a commenter notes that there are some paintings "among the missing" (and I now count only 8 on display out of 12 total - what was I thinking?) and she's right. My bad. Must go back to my other computer in a little bit in order to post them. Sorry. Master J. Wolters Miss M. Wolfe Miss C. Lee Miss R. Fadler ...................................................................................................................... Here's the good news: all my students did a great job on the assignment. The "bad news"? They did it without me...Boo-hoo-hoo. There, now that I got that out of my system have a look at their paintings. Master N. Davis Miss N. Buckingham Miss K. Breeding Miss H. Ridge Master D. Harwell (unfinished: missed class first week on project) D.H.'s picture (as it might appear when finished - Photoshopped by Mrs. L.) Master B. Davis Miss A. Escue Miss A. Cole