I found the landscape harder than the birds. This is my first introduction to watercolours and I really love how the colours can bring the sketches alive. This is a combination of watercolour pencils and watercolours. When I initially bought the paint set for this course, I accidentally got the irridescent sparkly paint set but I've found a good subject to test out those sparkly watercolours!

I have taken a one day workshop in watercolor to expose people to the basics before they commit to a full class.  I enjoyed the workshop and did some practicing at home. I really liked the tutorial and found it very helpful . Mixing colors is difficult for me.  The practice palettes was a very helpful exercise.  I found it easier to "play " with mixing colors when it was an exercise as opposed to an actual painting.  I was a bit easier for me to try various color combinations and began to see the colors more .

My first water color attempt.  Many errors, but at least it is a start. I usually paint in acrylics, so this was quite a challenge.  I will try again later.  Practice makes it better, I hope.

Besides childhood, I have only played with watercolors twice. It didn't go well. I feel I add too much water? I feel like it was what I remember. I do like the water brush, it is my first time using that. I find that I have trouble with like my brush lines. I am not sure how to show layers and textures. I am happy to learn and happy to try out again. Can't wait to get more tips in the next lessons. I did the photos provided. I do notice I am looking at the placement of the colors more. On the bird I didn't notice all the pink at first. Great way of learning field markers. 

I tried to duplicate the two sample watercolors. I had to wait for the watercolors to come because I was coloring with pastels and colored pencils. I have not done a watercolor in over 50 years. Here are my uploads.  I had difficulty with the landscape as I realize I do not know how to make brush strokes to achieve the affect you want.    Carol

This was a challenging and rather intimidation exercise. I haven’t tried watercolor for years — I am very rusty and stiff. I nerd to loosen up. There’s not way I can paint in the field the way I was trying to do for this painting — no way I will be able to see the details as one scan when studying a still picture. I need to practice gestures, quicker color notes. Built I did discover last of patterns and nuances that I would never have appreciated without being forced to translate what I saw to the page.

I found it easier to work with the muted colors than the saturated colors.

I love the water filled brush.  Never used them before.  I haven’t painted a water color in 25-30 years.  Rediscovering the fun during this pandemic is an amazing experience.  Thank you so much!

I need to work on actually painting, but I love making colors. I used to spend a lot of time color matching paint colors to the photographs I took of landscapes. This reminded me of a time in my childhood when I took time out to paint. I'm enjoying this part of the course so far!

This was my first experience with watercolors since childhood, many decades ago..it was more difficult than I thought it would be, but it was an enjoyable process. I actually dove into some practice lessons before I attempted this exercise from some other resources in order to gain some confidence using the brush and playing with palettes. I chose a fern for my subject, and learned from another course that sometimes mixing many colors together can actually mimic colors in nature pretty well. I’m struggling with shading and getting my sketches to look polished, but I had fun playing with colors and I was pretty happy with the results for this exercise.

This was my first experience with watercolours so the tips and demonstrations were particularly helpful. The first thing I did was to make colour swatches of the paints so I would have some idea of what they looked like. When it came to mixing the grays it was hard to decide whether blue or purple should be added and which one. The pink was also a challenge but drawing the surrounding colours into the pink helped to blend it in. It was a fun experience and I look forward to tackling the crocuses which are now appearing in our yard. The mountain picture is pretty daunting but I will start its pallet and see how it goes.

1.  This the first water color painting I ever made. I should frame it so that I can later smile to it, remembering how clumsy my start was. I expected it to be difficult and I got immediate confirmation. Water color painting is much more intolerant to errors than drawing. No eraser to save you! 2. I went for the Rosy finch. Making the right colors was more based upon observation and  gut feeling than on  logic's, but in general, I could approximate the color quite quickly. I can’t remember exactly how I made them.   So , I should make more notes and a sort a personal color recipe book for future. I also noted that the colors change when transferring from the palette to paper and there is also a difference between different   paper types . In addition, the darkening of the color after drying is not only dependent from the color type, but also from the dilution of the paint on the palette. So I have to mix  a more than sufficient amount of paint on the palette, because it is difficult to make exactly the same dilution for a second time. 3. It is also difficult to make smooth transitions between colors and shades. I cheated a bit with overlaying the water color painting with pencil patterns. The wing feathers are a disaster. I have no clue how you can make these delicate stripe patterns.  How do you male fine white or pale patterns on a dark background? I tried with a white pencil, but it is still too transparent..

This wasn't my first experience before, but I haven't really done anything like this activity that I just did. My color palette was for a Steller's Jay, and it consisted of many blue, black, grey, brown, and white shades. I think that I was able to get the colors that I desired, but it was challenging to put the right amount of the color I wanted to use to make the color needed for my palette. When I was focusing on the colors, I noticed that the Steller's Jay that I was drawing didn't just have a black head, the head was black, brown, grew, and white, which I never really noticed before. Overall, I thought this was quite fun!

This actually was the first time I have used watercolors, at least that I can remember.  I *must* have used them back in grade school, but all I can remember using then was tempera.  The palette for the painting below was made up of browns (for the chest and shoulder feathers), grays (for the head, wings, tail, legs and the tree stump), pinks (for the belly and the top of the wing) and a light golden yellow (for the bill).  I came pretty close to the colors that I saw, I think, particularly for the belly, head and beak, at least.  This is going to take a *lot* more practice, I see!

A cool and cloudy day today, perfect for staying in the house and painting the exercise.  Thanks to the participant who wrote about a muddy sky I managed to restrain myself sufficiently to avoid that .  The shadow  of the mountain still eludes me.  It was a fun exercise.  I look forward to getting more proficient with this medium.  I had posted another painting I did yesterday.  i thought it was in this lesson but who knows where it ended up.  Sigh!  Computers.

Here is my attempt at the sunrise mountain drawing.  Mixing the colors was wild and so much fun.  Never drew anything like this before. Great thinking about sunrise and new day in this difficult time. -- Trudy  

I painted a light green background square and then did the watercolor of the gray-crowned rosy finch.  I mixed the watercolors to get the browns and grays.  It is true that you notice so much more of the bird or subject when you draw it.  I noticed feather patterns and head shape and beak, etc in a way that I never would have by just taking a photo.  I am enjoying this class so much and wish there would be a second part to it.  --Trudy

I had to try to paint my favorite bird.  They have just changed color from winter to summer bright yellow.

I am truly amazed at how much better I am - looking and seeing so that I can draw.  Painting with watercolors will be a challenge - I can see that by playing with shades and mixing colors.  Too much water on my brush - not enough of one color and making sure I clean the brush after using every color.  More water - lighter shade.  To help me remember what the colors look like I made a painting palate in my book.

Is it reasonable to expect you would do all of your work with the one brush that comes with the kit or are there many different tips for the water brushes that you might buy?

My first ever watercolor effort. His eye looks a bit evil :(

I imagine, if you were doing a formal picture, you might have to make a seperate key for yourself to remember how to go back and remix the colors to continue at a later date? Otherwise, it's fun just to experiment.

I tried drawing a red-breasted merganser, often seen near my home on Lake Ontario, coloring it in with colored pencils.  Yes, I know we're supposed to be practicing watercolor techniques, but my nature journal is made of drawing paper, not watercolor or mixed media paper.  I'm really happy with this result.  I'll try it again on watercolor paper, and maybe glue it into my journal...