This was my first time with water colors. I found that I really like it, although it does take some getting used to.  It’s hard to control them on the mixing palette, the paint wants to keep beading up. I have been trying to add some extra water with it and that seems to be helping. Mixing colors is definitely fun! Liz is right, it’s almost like solving a puzzle. I did run into a few difficulties though. The paint set I have is an earth friendly one that does not contain gray, black, or white.  So, I have to try to work around that. Also, I have found that when on paper, some of the colors change in brightness, does anyone have any tips to anticipate that? (for the mountain photo)

                        only could download three of my images; the fourth image was the Gray Crowned Rosy Finch, I was finding that the pink would not come out the way I wanted, but close. The "Morning light over the Wasatch Mountains" I thought had colors I could work with and when working with colors I usually don't have trouble so I had to go my own route that I usually do to make colors (just go and join colors from my own mind) which I have doing since a young age. taking this course is actually helping me work with colors more and open the horizons to create colors that match.

I am using a set of 12 gouache water paints, bought a couple of years ago and not really used so they are nearly new. I used watercolour many years ago but so long ago that I don’t remember much of the technique. The gouache paints are nice, the colours are fresh, and they are smilar to watercolour. What I find most challenging is getting the right proportions when mixing hues. My observation was that there are many instances of the same or similar hue in nature but in a scene, they occur with differing saturation. The quality or intensity of the light affects the perception of hue. This might be due to differing reflectance characteristics of foliage or flowers. I do not have nearly enough different shades/tones in my palette for the range in the scene but I was uncertain exactly how to add the right kind of variation. The image of the palette page doesn’t show the hues correctly but gives an idea of what I did.

I mixed colors but and tried to keep track so I would remember my combinations. I am not having much luck painting but that will come, I hope.

This was not my first experience with watercolors but it was great to see Liz’s thought process. I have several watercolor sets so did not purchase the recommended one but think it should still be a useful process to play with what I have.  I would try to make a note of the colors used for sure.

1. Unless you count messing around with watercolors as a child, this was a new experience for me. I didn't know what to expect so it wasn't easy or difficult. 2. I was very confused about what "Then take your watercolors and nature journal outside and try them on a subject of interest" meant! From the posts, I think others were confused also. Finally, I decided to take a couple photos outside and create color palettes for them. This seemed a reasonable interpretation and a helpful experience in blending colors. I don't have any idea how to start an actual painting yet. My subjects were a wreath and phlox in the garden. I suppose I found a decent palette for both. I don't know if the shades were exact matches, but I am not sure that it matters as along as they are pleasing. 3. The phlox that I originally planted were all the same color, but they are not any more. How and why did they change into different colors?

This is my first experience with watercolor.  The paints are beading up on the palatte, and I'm having trouble making them spread out as Liz did in the demonstration.  What am I doing wrong?

Trying to apply the color mixing lesson to an actual image was challenging. I have no formal training in watercolors and had one college figure drawing class a long, long time ago. I've been fascinated to learn the techniques offered in this class for both drawing and painting. I couldn't really figure out how to get the luminous glow from the sunrise or the light on one side of the trees.  Went back over some of the painting with colored pencil, which helped sharpen up the peaks and the tips of the trees.

What a lesson for a B&W lifetime approach . More fun.

I found this beauty in the woods the other day, dead, but intact, and decided to memorialize the specimen for my watercolor exercise. It's interesting to analyze the moth next to the finished painting to see where colors were most accurate/inaccurate.

This was very challengingly, but fun!  Creating just the right color does take practice.  This is my first attempt using water colors.  Creating the proper colors for the Wasatch Mts is surprisingly difficult.  Differentiating the sky colors from mountains a challenge.

I’ve been avoiding watercolours for ages - there were attempts to get into it but I never produced something good by itself; i had to add ink or other medium to feel good-. This is my reference sheet. I experiment with the brush that mini-water-container, the regular brush, with paste watercolour and cubes water colour. Each has its own feeling. While mixing colour, I found it interesting to see the results on the sheet. I wasn’t satisfy with the tone mixing, I felt there was something wrong with the grey. However, after I left the sheet, went away, and came back I was fully satisfied with the tone and tint. Looking at the shades, I think my hesitation is visible n all of the shades, most probably I had fear of ruining the colour with the black - and so I did ruin the sheet because I brushed over it twice or more. I guess this is a very sensitive medium, if i’m to use it I have to understand all my tools’s pros and cons; that goes for the brushes, colours, sheets and the WATER - yes, I need to understand how the water interacts with the tools. I fell in love with the brush which has been recommended for the class. In fact, I bought 4 types ages ago but I never used them. This session motivated me to try them - and now I know I’ll stick with it!

1. It was my first experience with watercolors and I enjoyed them very much. I liked to experimetn the tint, tone and shade and to find different colors. By experimenting many possibilities I realised I tend to experiment with dark colors even if I would like to have more lighter colors. In the future I want to use more white and yellow to see how things work. I struggle to make violet. I truly enjoyed this exercise very much.

This was a labor that wore me out. I have never been successful at drawing and painting, primarily because I could never keep my attention focused long enough to complete a project ... ADD or whatever, but I stuck with it until I couldn't any longer. I am happy with what I accomplished, but I wanted it to be better, but I reached the point of No More so I quit. I have never followed a photograph that so clearly showed so many specific feathers and it was overwhelming. Matching colors is a beautiful mystery, so much to know and so many possibilities.  Thank you for looking.  

XX My son created this color pallet from the Mountain photo and forgot to draw the picture with it 😂

1. Taking this course is my first experience with watercolors, although before beginning working on this course I tried out the brush & just using the colors in the set as they were on a couple of drawings. I really love the brush with this set & the water in the brush instead of using the traditional brush & watercolors. This way is much easier than the other at being able to control the amounts of color applied on the brush & the fact that you don’t have to pre-wet the paper, which is always difficult for me with traditional watercolors. 2. I have created a 150 color palette 🎨 chart for my whole set of 30 colors; as is on the original palette, as tints, tones with Payne’s Gray, tones with 1/2 white & 1/2 Payne’s Gray, and shades. I haven’t done a subject yet, because I was curious to the outcome of the 30 color palette breakdown first. Not sure yet on all the colors, especially when it comes to the making of shades. That one is very tricky with adding the black. I need to work on that part still. 3. Actually while focusing on the colors for the Grey-crowned Rosy Finch (Hepburn’s) I was noticing that it was more of a tints color palette bird compared to the original colors palette. I’m seeing birds at my feeders in palettes of color based on original, tints, tones, & shades now.

I had fun doing this, but might try again now that I have seen the next lecture on the three ways to lay down watercolor.  It was fun to mix the colors.  I actually created a reference with all the colors in my box with a few of their tints, tones and shades.  It is interesting to see the color bias that comes through when adding white, gray and black.....it sure can reveal the other colors that make up the other hues.  Thanks for this lesson it was fun.

I used other references for this activity. It was my first time using watercolors and it was fun but also challenging trying to get the colors matching the photograph

This is the first time I used watercolors since middle school in the 70's.  You can tell I'm much more interested and spent more time on the bird (finch) than the landscape.  I'm actually kind of amazed on how well the Rosy Finch came out.  The Landscape was extremely challenging for me and did not come out how I would've liked.  

I figure everyone could use a laugh just now, so I will share my tale of inattentive shopping. I have retired to Monteverde, Costa Rica and signed up for this class because I finally had the time to delve into watercolor painting. When I was in the states last Christmas, I dashed to Michael's arts and craft store to buy my supplies. I was in a hurry to get my shopping done so I could break my granddaughter out of daycare early. I asked the nice clerk if they had Sakura 24 color pocket Field Sketch Box watercolor sets. He found one for me, and I quickly purchased it, an extra brush and watercolor sketchbook. Living in rural Costa Rica, I often don't have a strong enough internet signal to stream the videos for this course, so I have been making my way through this course very slowly. Imagine my surprise and consternation when I finally opened my watercolor set and realized that I had purchased a "Creative Art Colors" kit with a metallic, pearlescent and fluorescent palette! NOT what I was expecting! It will be fine for painting some of the magnificent birds and flowers here, but my color mixing adventure will be very different from yours. The biggest drawback is that my kit has no black or gray. The darkest color is bright purple. I think I can purchase a child's watercolor set the next time I go into Santa Elena for groceries and solve that problem. I need much practice, but will share my paintings along the way. (These will also give you a good laugh, I think!)

My husband and I travelled to Delaware in Nov. 2019. We stopped at Kent Island for lunch. Since this assignment involved a landscape and a bird, I decided to do this instead.

I also found the landscape to be very challenging.  The addition of black lines was particularly jarring.  I completed the course but there was not a discussion of how to use the black pen.  Any comments would be appreciated....  Love this course!  Going over the lessons a second time and just keeping at it is very helpful.

I took a water color class decades ago and haven't done anything in years. I have forgotten everything, but love color and experimenting. I think I've got to control my water better because I have lots of blobs. Looking forward to learning more techniques! Love the colors in the Wasatch Mountain picture - the trees and trying to make anything resemble the picture was hard!