I am super excited to share that I am gonna teach a weekend workshop in Berlin on 10-11th of August in collaboration with Drink & Draw Berlin ✨
About the workshop
The aim of the workshop is to learn how to capture the view by using watercolor and gouache technique. The important part is that we are gonna use the setup that allows you to paint literally everywhere - with as minimum materials as you can allow yourself to carry (especially while traveling).
We are gonna learn to sketch not only a subject (like a building or a tree) but the whole scenery, including for- mid- and background and capturing specific to that time and place color and light situation. It will be important to analyze what you see before putting any brushstrokes on the paper. We will also learn how to mix accurate colors so they look natural keeping in mind the correct values.
By practicing painting from life, you will not only register the places you’ve visited but you will also improve your sense of color & light which is very useful in any painting or illustration you might work on later (be it digital or traditional). This type of practice is often used by professionals already working in the game or animation industry (including studios such as Disney, Dreamworks or Sony Pictures Animation) but still improving their skills of observation.
Why add gouache to watercolor? Painting using watercolor only brings many limitations and
requires a lot of planning ahead and there is no turning back (or it’s very hard to fix) after you lay down the dark strokes. By adding gouache you can work with opaque paint, put layers on top of each other, receiving not only a nice paint texture but also correcting your mistakes (especially being able to brighten things up) as well as get a whole range of values which are easier to control.
Materials you'll need
- watercolor case with space for mixing colors
- brushes (recommended flat up to 1,5 cm width)
- sketchbook or paper with grammage at least 120g/m but recommended more
- gouache tubes of: titanium white, optional: yellow ochre, cadmium (primary) yellow
- watercolor tube of burnt umber (not necessary but helpful)
- warm color pencil (orange/red) - optional
- water cup
- tissues
- masking tape (not necessary but helpful)
- something to sit on (pleinair chair, sitting mat, scarf etc)
The two workshop days can be booked as separate day or as a bundle.
Single day: 95,00 Euro
Saturday + Sunday bundle: 170,00€
Schedule
Saturday August 10th:
Location: Drink&Draw Berlin
During the first day of the workshop we are gonna focus more on the technique and the theory/fundamentals of landscape painting
11:00 - Introduction + lecture + Q&A
12:30 (1,5h) - Exercise 1 - painting from the photo reference
14:30 - 15:30 - lunch break
15:30 - 17:30 - Exercise 2
17:30 - 18:00 - Summary
Why are we gonna paint first from the photo?
As much as I am an absolute fan of capturing a scene from life, painting from a photo allows you to focus solely on the technique without a need to think about the composition and complex interpretation of the reality that you’re in.
Painting from life can get challenging - with various conditions - changes of the light, being outside - we will get into that during the second day!
Sunday August 11th
Location: Museum Island / Volkspark Friedrichshein
On the second day we will focus on putting the technique and theory knowledge we gained during the first day into the practice on location - visiting beautiful sites of Berlin - Museum Island and Volkspark. Attendees will be working on their own sketches during the 2 sessions getting individual feedback at each of the steps.
11-12:30 - Demonstration on location showing technique and use of materials + Q&A
12:30 - 14:00 - Pleinair painting session 1 (Museum Island)
14:15 - 15:45 - lunch break and change of the location (possible dinner all together)
16 - 18:00 - Pleinair painting session 2 (Volkspark)
18 - 18:30 - Summary and feedback
I've been doing these type of sketches/paintings for over 10 years now and I cannot wait to share my knowledge with you!
The spots are limited so make sure to grab your entry before they sell out. You can buy your tickets here.
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