Nature Journaling and Field Sketching

I'll definitely have to play around a bit to get to know the various colors - I was a little surprised that some of them had opaque characteristics. And the water brush will have a learning curve too - never tried one of those, but I can see how it would be useful for little field studies! Creating the color palette was fun. Relationships - three of my swatches shared a color - I noted the corresponding number from the pans beside each swatch.

I was unable to upload picture.  I have never used pan water colors but have minimally used tube water colors.  I had difficulty using the water brush because the paints became too diluted.  The second attempt was with a brush and I seemed to be able to get more pigment.  Color mixing is difficult for me but I want to keep learning this skill.  Thank you.

My bird picture had so many erasures on the page;I decided to put the handsome guy on a background. Hopefully In April; I will be taking a drawing class at Schlitz Audubon Center. I am trying to improve sketching. I created a color palette with 'paints gray' white, ochre, van dyke brown, and mixed in a few blues. It took awhile to getting a color that was close to some of the feathers. the feathers on the head seemed to match several of the tail feathers. the beak also blended into the feather shades. I would have liked to see the wings in an open position. the colors are some times different. Gray Crowned Rosy Finch

I have used watercolors before.  YouTube videos, Udemy classes, and Liz's classes.  More difficult because there are so many ways to use! I think I got the colors right but when you paint anything in nature the colors constantly vary.  I find it hard to see shadows because I focus on the object so much. You have to figure how detailed or your interpretation of the subject.  Mine usually end up being abstract art!

I've been working with water color for a few years, but following tutorials that guide me through color mixing. It was hard to mix on my own and try to match what I saw in my yard and I'm not sure I could create the same colors again, at least now. More practice is needed for sure.

My experience with watercolors and my knowledge of color wheel is good and have been practicing for a long time. But to transfer the same watercolor to birds and animals is very difficult. I feel I need more practice. I tried to create a color palette for Hoopoe and felt I was able to get the right colors, but the application messed up the entire process. Yes, while focussing on the tones, tints, and shades of species, nature's palette is amazing, and to recreate it without spoiling its originality needs a lot of patience and practice. Overall it's a very experimental practice for me though I have worked on watercolors.

First experience with dry watercolors! It really takes some keen observation skills to catch how each individual color contains a few other colors. For example, when I painted the crown and head, I thought gray and white; however, as I got into it, I noticed there was also just a tinge of blue. I spent a lot of time with the pink because it is so subtle, but key part of the shape and form of the Hepburn. Here are the names of my colors: Steelfrost, Burnt Velvet, Unpopped Corn, Bubble Pop, and Streak of Pink. The last two are the pinkish-tinge, but in two different locations. Great activity!

I defnitely need some work in mixing water colors.  I don't have any experience in painting so this was really fun to try.  I believe I need more patience in mixing my colors and then blending one color to another.  I feel like my image in blocky and I need to develop my skills in working in the details.  Try, Try again!  I did find this very enjoyable which is half the battle. :)  

Fun mixing colours!! I do need to get more shades though. I used water color pencils as that is what I have.

My first experience with watercolor was in middle school. I liked the whimsical flow on paper when capturing landscapes and flowers. Though initially I thought it wasn’t as forgiving as Oil painting to apply changes. The subject of my painting today was a Fuchsia ‘wind chime’ shaped flower. Initially it looked like a combination of pink , purple and green. Though I started working on painting it quickly realized that it’s a combination of shades in between. The transition from pink to the deep purple requires adding in some darker’Prussian blue’ . The lighter pink was a mix with white , or just adding more water to the rose color. Sometimes I just left a white space to give it three dimensional feel. 

I had a little experience with color theory back in junior high school - but that was ages ago. As a quilter, I have played with colors in fabric but have not done any work with watercolors or mixing my own colors. This was fun.   First I tried just working with tints, tones, and shades. Then I tried getting the colors for the finch. I struggled mostly with the nut brown color on his back. I never did get that as close to the correct color as I wanted. 

1.  This course is my first experience with water colours. Until now I have been scared of them, particularly of letting go .  They are much easier than I expected which is LOVELY. 2.  I tried 2 colour palettes outside  - a Crucifix Orchid and a Bromeliad.  The colours seemed more vibrant outside even though it wasn't sunny.  Sometimes I was almost there with a colour then went to far and had to start again.  Some were easier.  It's all a challenge! 3.  Yes - negative space, shapes, how does the orchid flower work, is that big ant thing a pollinator, is this red on the bromeliad its flower or why is it red.

Making My Own Colors I enjoyed this exercise. Prior to creating a palette based on colors in a photograph, I decided to make test swatches for each of the colors in my watercolor box. I think this step helped me to achieve better accuracy when making my own colors. It also gave a foundation for noting “recipes” for tints, tones, and and shades I can refer to when I actually paint a watercolor of the flower.

I have used watercolours before and have really enjoyed it. I'm not too good at mixing colours though, but I thought this was really fun! It's wonderful when you get the exact colour you were hoping for. The ones I did were of the two photos provided, and in especially the case of the gray-crowned rosy-finch, I was surprised how many bright colours I was able to pull out of what seemed like a drab picture. It forces you to slow down and look at the colours of something very closely, and I definitely enjoyed that. 

This was a new experience for me. It was delightful . I have felt like a fish out of water where color is concerned. I wear almost all blue clothes, my home is painted in all cream. So this exercise had me in uncharted territory and I loved it. All kinds of patterns and discoveries revealed themselves. I could have been mixing and fooling around forever, but need to stop for now. I would love to put in my images but failed at the drop and drag thing . The mountain scene was so complicated I had to break through fear to do it. The bird fell more into my comfort zone. I experimented with adding white or black to get the exact shade I was looking for. Thank you to Liz for the course and to all you participants who I also learn from. Marilyn

I studied watercolor in art school and use it frequently in my work;however I still keep learning new things every time and also when I take a course like this one. I stalled on this exercise because I really did not want to do it because it was something I had done so many times in beginning classes. I marvel at how precise everyone else made perfect circles etc to put their paint test colors in but I wanted to just "jump right in". So here it is... on to the next step.

1) I have used watercolors before. I find it very useful to mix and find the right color on a test sheet before applying it to a painting. 2) I created color palettes for the above provided landscape and bird photos. For the landscape the top tow shows the colors that appear in the sky, the second row the colors of the second plan and the third row the first plan. For the bird photograph the first row shows the three colors that appear in the beak. The second row has the pinks, purples and browns that appear on the chest, abdomen and flank. The column on the right is Payne's grey with more and less water which I found appears on the head and wings. The black appears only in a few of the darkest feathers. 3) I like the two examples that we were given because of how different they are. The first photo had me using almost the entire palette, light and dark colors, while the second was more restricted and had a narrower tone range.

1. First experience (beyond Crayola as a kid). 2. I chose the Morning Light over the Wasatch Mountains landscape. The colors are pretty close to what I wanted. I found it difficult to pull enough paint to fill the circle, and getting the right amount of water. Some of the colors were very wet. 3. Playing with complementary colors to reduce the vibrancy was key. This picture contains a lot of warm colors, so I used yellow and orange - even in the purple mountain side - to achieve a match.

My first experience with watercolors was in preschool (and of course that wasn't a memorable experience). The first time I truly started using watercolors was in elementary, and to this day it's my favorite medium. I have (like everyone) had good days and bad days with watercolor, and today wasn't my best, but it was a lot of fun. The subject I chose was a Common Kingfisher because they have such a unique color palette with the complementary colors of blue and orange. For the most part I achieved the colors I wanted, but there was a bright aqua tint which I couldn't achieve with the color range I had.

I started using watercolors about two months ago, and as we progress in lessons, I can see all the possibilities that offers us. For this exercise, I created my own palette selecting earth tones´ and other two for mixing, as the most suitable to representfossils´ focusing my attention on the left one (attached scientific names). About ¿any discovery? not sure, but draw all privilege information that fossils provide us to know about landscapes in the pass, for example, and be able to express with volumes, reliefs, shadows, etc. that watercolors offers me, it makes me feel like an enthusiastic archaeologist finding some hidden and precious treasure , thank you.

• I went outside and did a quick painting.  The outdoor temperature is 27 degrees F.  I was wondering why my paint was clumping when painting the tree trunk.  First, I thought I was lifting the paper, but then I realized that the water was freezing on the paper.  I finished indoors.  Not very happy with the result, but I did capture the squirrel’s nest.

   

I have used watercolors before.  I found them difficult to use.  Either too wet or too dry.  With Liz’s instruction I feel more confident to try watercolors again.  It is exciting when I mix just the right color!

I've used paints and mixed before. This practice encouraged me to really look at the specific colors within the picture. I found my first assumption wasn't always correct and was amazed by the nuance I can achieve when mixing colors myself. I was surprised by how detailed even the most gross areas of an subject can be.

1. I have been playing around with watercolors for a little over a year now and it just gets more fun all the time.  I really appreciated the tips from Liz on color mixing opposing colors and using tints, tones and shades.  I have had trouble getting the right muted neutral colors that I needed before.  I did get the colors that I wanted by using a very limited palette.  I was able to mix yellow and permanent rose to get the browns that I wanted by adding Payne's gray and white.  3.  I am realizing that I can get to the same color a number of different ways i.e. browns made from red and green or yellow and purple.  I love putting different colors together and seeing what comes out.  The more that I do it the better I can get at matching the colors that I want.

Very little experience with watercolors (usually work with colored pencils or pastels). I loved playing with the palette. I must say that the colors I got didn't reproduce well on screen - my orange and purple were much deeper for example.  Don't know how that happened.  This is "multi-media:" I penciled in the deciduous trees while painting the fir trees... I also tried using a wash as a background. I like the possibilities it provides for creating a mood.

The dark evergreens and the browniest brown on the finch were the most challenging. 

I have trouble coming up with the blaze orange. Nothing seems bright enough.

That was fun, just as you promised! This was the first time I've ever touched watercolors with a brush, so there was lots of learning. The main thing I struggled with was getting my colors saturated enough, and not too washed out. Also, just learning what colors the different colors in my paint set made: the way they look as dry cakes was quite different from how the look when activated.

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This was my firs texperience with watercolors.  I've mostly used colored pencils.  It was actually more difficult thanI expected.  In fact after it dried I went back in with some colored pencil,  a black gel pen and a white gel pen. I did have trouble mixing the browns in my palette.  I would get to a spot where the color wasn't quite right, but I don't know my paints well enough to know how to get to where I wanted. Yes, focussing on the colors made me notice the different shades of gray as well as the different sades of brown. I also became very aware of the patterns in the feathers and my own inexperience in capturing them.

the finch color palette

No previous watercolor experience except during the Watercolor Basics for Birds Workshop. I really enjoy attempting to use watercolors.  For me, blending seems to be somewhat difficult when trying to get the exact same colors as on photos.  I seem to be more successful with blending when painting my drawings.  Of course, that leaves a margin for slightly different tones, tints and shades. I worked on blending  colors for the bird.  Realized how many different shades of gray in that one photo and how to work with the white, gray, and black to achieve the desired colors.  The breast required much blending.

I dabbled a little bit with watercolors before but this is the first time I created a palette for a picture.  It was fun experimenting to match the color I see in the picture or of an actual subject.

This is the first time I have ever used a palette. I love the colors. It is a beautiful exercise.

I have used watercolors before. I am happy with my palettes even though some of the colors took a lot of experimenting. The palettes are for the two pictures from the lesson.

We have had torrential rain all day so I didn't go outside to practice and worked on a houseplant instead!  The colours are a bit pale as I used to much water - the red in particular should be stronger.  Hopefully this will get better over time.

I have done watercolour previously but never got the hang of it. I have trouble controlling the water.  I found these exercises very helpful in looking closely at the colours to match them - I realised that the colours weren't always what I expected eg the rocks in the Wasatch mountains have a hint of red in them, whereas I would probably have treated them as grey. As with drawing it is a matter of painting what is there.  Doing the palette adding small quantities of colour at a time and testing was helpful.  If you add to much of a strong colour it overwhelms the weaker one, especially when adding black to deepen the shades.   I also made notes of the colours I used for future reference.

I really enjoyed this exercise. I learned how to mix colors and handle the moisture issue I always have with too much water. I still can't seem to get the detail I want, but it will take a lot of practice. My columbine came out ok, but the leaves were a bit wonky--too heavy an outline rather that a thin edging of maroon. 

I have never seriously used watercolors before other than as a kid.  I've never felt like I had a good eye for color so I felt a bit intimidated getting started.  It was easier than I thought, I think because I got so involved in the process - studying my subject and then playing with the mix of colors.  I really wanted to focus on the birds that have returned to my backyard this spring.  The weather has been so terrible the last few days that they mostly disappeared, so I just looked their pictures up on the Cornell website.  I was pleased with the colors I ended up with, though I wasn't so sure about them at the time.  Knowing where to start was a challenge, that is, I wondered about which initial color to use and whether to start light or dark and go from there.  Focusing so closely on the colors made me realize that there was a relationship between the colors in the palette.  For example, I started with my brightest color and then worked on the more muted colors, and as I did this I found that I wanted to add the color I had previously created to the color I was creating as it was closer to what I needed than what was in the paint set.  Nature had a plan for these birds, I guess!

I found this to be harder than I expected. I had trouble regulating the amount of water that was going into the paint. I found the beak of the bird color to be the hardest to mix because it isn't a bright yellow, but when I would put in darker colors, it was easy to overpower the yellow and I would start over again. I can see how experience makes this easier! 

I've been painting and exploring with watercolor for a the past five years, beginner level. Watercolor is fun, but not easy to paint with. Yet, I'm learning so much through this course, I found it easy to mix and experiment. I created a color pallet for my pansies, which I bought a week ago so as to paint them.. I didn't think of creating a pallet though! Now I did. It is more fun and the colors pop out when I create a pallet. I noticed the brightness of colors, Also, I  noticed the same color has tints, tones and shade. This made it easy to paint the subject. Some colors relate  to each other. The color theory make is so visible for me. This was an amazing experience. Below the experimentation I did with colors, tint, tone and shade. The pallet of colors.    

This is my first experience with watercolours.  It's not as difficult as I thought but I find that my colours are fading a bit after they dry.  I am using my children's dollar store watercolours so perhaps I need to upgrade.

This is my first experience with water colors and am looking forward to playing with tine, tone, and shades. My biggest challenge is getting the water amount right as I seem to be putting in too much and my paint is very runny. I am impressed and overwhelmed with the pictures posted to this group.

This is not my first watercolor experience at all. I took a watercolor class during my Master's degree in drawing/(oil) painting, BUT that was 40 years ago! So, this is great review. I ran into trouble, though, because the set I ordered did not have black....but found some in a tube to use. I can see some of the colors looked good while mixing but needed some tweaking. For example, the cloud color should be a little more blue and the mountains should be more neutral. The scanning seems to be a problem for colors sometimes because the orange trees look purple-grey on the scan but look orange on my original paper. But it feels great to be doing watercolors again and I look forward to doing a watercolor bird!

Here is my attempt at a watercolor of a white-throated sparrow based on a photo.  Still too cold here to do anything outside.  I have played around with watercolors a little in the past. I do find it difficult, but I was relatively happy with the colors here.  Doing the legs and feet with watercolors was the most challenging part of this. H

This is My first time with watercolors but have taken a class in oils years ago. My biggest challenge is applying white to the eye of birds -the underneath and the reflective dot in the pupil. Oils allow you to just paint over after it has dried. Maybe I need to relax the finished product.

I decided to use watercolors with an Iceland Poppy growing in the garden. I have very little experience with watercolors. It was difficult for me to create depth and detail with watercolors (vs. line drawings). I felt I was able to get some color variation with the petals but the challenge I wasn't up for was using watercolors on the glass vase. Question: how to use watercolors with transparency.

I usually work in acrylics and have only played around with water colors - its so much harder! Mixing colors is challenging but I think just requires more practice. I found it hard to keep the water from shrinking back into a droplet rather then spreading into a larger amount, if I add more water it washes out, so it requires a lot more color from the palette than you think. The amount of brush washing is more than you think as well. You touch a color every few seconds, and you need to wash out the old before adding more of another. just a lot more steps than you would think. But overall its been fun to experiment and I think just requires more practice!

Previous image could not get the rose color right.

I’m used to using acrylic paints. I tend to over work watercolor instead of relaxing and let it flow. I will improve with practice. I hope. 

So far from perfect, but I really enjoyed this after being intimidated by it a bit haha.  I've never worked with watercolor before now.  I decided to just dive in and do a quick 10-15 minute watercolor only "sketch" of this (no pencils).  What I loved most about this is that in that short amount of time it gave me the confidence to feel comfortable trying this in the field.  The watercolor can be almost as quick as sketching it seems if I don't overthink it when I want to record what I'm seeing quickly out in the field.  I like that it's a way to quickly get colors down on the paper and add notes to id later.  I'm looking forward to experimenting more with this.

I'm really impressed with everyone's work. So far I hate watercolor. I really don't understand color theory and I can't seem to *see* color the way I can see to draw. I feel like the color mixing lesson went really quickly and I don't have enough information to move forward. I'm really frustrated. Because I'm frustrated, it's also really hard to get myself to try. Just sit down and try. It's a rough combo. Trying to push myself to work through it.

Not my first experience but haven't used them in years. In the scene I couldn't get that bright blue sky, mine was more muddy. The orange and yellow and greens are harder to copy. The greys are easier to mix as I have Payne's grey. It mixes and gave me some colours for the browns on the rosy finch. I didn't have too much trouble with the pink using grey and white and rose madder. 

Long ago I used watercolors but not much.  This class is very helpful!    I have a hard time seeing difference between Tone and Shading mixtures.

Very cool. I did have to order and ship another KOI watercolors box because my first one too did not have black, gray, or white.

Below are some of my experiments with the colours in the KOI set, I never really understood the colour wheel and mixing before!  Its definately challenging to mix colours, and add ones you wouldn't expect.  I really concentrate on what I'm seeing and notice, for example, the orange in the trees are actually orange, some are red, depending on the light and shadows etc.

Hidden Grey-green gator  🐊   in the rushes at edge of marsh. He’s between the two images on lower right — barely even visible. I had to use colors to make him at least slightly visible in my journal — best I could do with colors and still make the point.

First watercolor ever!! Pretty Exciting.....did procrastinate for a couple of weeks before tackling but was actually quite fun!

I have been painting with watercolour for a couple of years. Your instruction videos on sketching and mixing colour have been very helpful!  I did not know the theory of Tint Tone & Shade. This is going to be a great help as I continue my journey in watercolour. Thank you for offering this affordable course.

I am quite new to water color, though I have worked with water color pencils before.This was very difficult for me because I do not have a black or gray in my pallet. I am also wondering if it is ok to go back with the fine point marker to add some tree detail.

1. I’ve used watercolors before, my mom is obsessed with the result. 2. My palette actually turned out okay, but sometimes the colors were way too light. 3. My paint set has 48 colors, more than suggested, so the colors I mixed were closer than the ones shown in the video.

I tried watercolor some time ago and was not very successful.  I have trouble getting the correct amount of water on the brush.  Something I need to work on.  It was raining so did this from our lesson on the computer.  Colors were a little hard to distinguish but the suggestion of color was ok.  I would have liked to blend the colors more but wasn't really able to .  Anyway, will try some more and hopefully more successful.

I've tried watercolors before(limited).  I think that is is hard to do but a skill that can be learned with practice.  For the most part I was able to get the colors I saw, but the images on the laptop vs. desktop computers were slightly different in color.  I find its hard to paint details with the  water brush.  I'd either get too much or not enough water. Getting the detail on the wings of the bird I found particularly challenging.

still at work trying  to duplicate colors and create natural palettes

I was drawing/painting from the image on my computer screen. Then I attached my computer to a tv monitor with an HDMI cable and the colors in the images were very different. If I'm sketching/painting from an image, should I be using a printed image to get truer colors?

Going from sketching to watercolors helped create depth when I added paints. I’ve used watercolors (limited) before. I keep trying adding paint every day... Watercolor is not easy. I tried to create a palette that most resembles ruby throated hummingbirds and while not an exact match, I was satisfied with my results. I got a descent set of colors; i was happy with how the Olive mixed on paper as olive is subtle & difficult for me. The throat color was a challenge, but in such a prominent place, I decided not to overwork the colors. As I looked closely at the colors, it’s surprising how many undertones and nuances I usually miss.   I cleaned up the sketch, painting and I was pleased at my first layered/pained bird. It’s much different than using watercolor straight from tube or 1/2 pan. 

This was a great new experience for me (I have been using watercolor pencils). What I noticed was sometimes the color mixed on the palette tray did not turn out as expected on the paper, so I used it as an exercise to try and figure out what I could have added or subtracted to get closer to what I wanted. Also first experience with the water brush.

This was my first experience with watercolours and the water brush pen. Quite different to acrylics and oils! It's been great to make a start on this whole other world of painting. The brush pen took some getting used to in terms of controlling the water content in the brush but I can see that, as a painting implement, it increases the contact time with the page and allows me to get a lot of colour down quickly. The colours are fresh and surprisingly nuanced. I'm also surprised by the amount of control I can get in tint, tone and shade. The weather has been terrible in Heidelberg this last week so I've been referencing colour palettes from a book on the Amazon rainforests. The dry pigment can look a little different when wet. The white page is much more effective in conveying whiteness than the white paint. Light purples are an interesting alternative "tone-maker" to grey with a touch of warmth or coolness to them. The watercolour palette seems very flexible in that it can capture the intense oranges of a sunset as well as the soft umber hues of a bird feather. The black colour seems very strong on the page - one to use carefully!

Using white with watercolors was a new experience for me and very useful to achieve the colors that I wanted

This was not my first experience with watercolors but it was with this new palette and the new brush.  I wanted to really get to know how my palette, brush, and paper work together.  I pushed the limits but was very pleased with it all.  I first created a page of all my original colors then adding all the tints (white, gray, and black), then I mixed all the compliment with each of the types of colors.  For instance, I have 3 yellows with 1 purple, 4 oranges with 4 blues, 4 reds with 4 greens.  This provides a couple of good reference charts so I could find the closest match and what to use.  I decided to practice by paining the two pictures provided.  Then I selected a photograph I took in May of a Great Blue Heron just as it ruffled it’s feathers on top of the nesting tree.  My challenge is the detail of execution.  As a landscape painter, I do a lot of marks to indicate rather than exact markings, but with birds and such specific makings I get lost in the details.  I need to nail what causes birders to recognize what I paint.  I can however see that if I use shape for distant elements within a landscape the birds have a great shot at revealing the species.  Still think I will need to get better at defining the parts of the birds. Pat

I first used watercolors with my grandmother as a child, in college, and again in the last few years. I find greens and oranges to be challenges to keep colors vibrant with out over mixing. The play of contrasting colors draw my eye in as the viewer.

I never took a watercolor class or a color theory one, even though watercolor is my media to paint birds. Since I am self-taught, I mostly mix my colors on the paper, so this was a completely new experience.

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!

It is not my first time with watercolours, but it wouldn't be also the first time I get frustrated trying to convey something on the paper and not happening like I wanted. The bird was actually not that hard, but I was tired and lack of patience made it worse than it should be. However I'm hopeful I'll improve through the next lessons as I improved with my drawings!

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...

My references were yours sugestions. I think my palette of the bird is fairly accurate. Reserve the space for the white on the wings was the most challenging. The landscape was much more difficult to do. I see too much colours and hues that I need to expand the picture too wide, to do it well. Even so, I share some of the most common colours of the picture in the palette I created.   P.S. I noticed that under the wing of the bird colours is diferente than the one I use for the whole belly. PPS: The colours of the pictures uploaded are different from the original one's.

I have tried watercolor before.  I never felt that I could accomplish what I set out to do.   I've purchased many books and have followed instructions as closely as I could but never seemed to get the results I wanted.  I like Liz's teaching method, her demonstrations are clear, and I liked the way she showed how to mix colors and get the colors as close as possible.  Liz's explanation for tints, tones and shades was very helpful for me as well, and I've practiced by making a color wheel with primaries, secondaries, and tertiary colors. I made primary & secondary combination squares, and mixed primary & secondary colors.  This has been a great experience for me.  My bird watercolor was pretty straight forward and I was able to mix the colors that seemed to match the photo reference and added the palette to the border of the picture.  I had trouble with the landscape, the sky ended up muddy, and I didn't feel as good about it as I did with the bird.  I had so many color mixes and ran out of enough color for each section so I kept making a new mixture and finally gave up trying to put the palette down onto paper. It's such a small painting, 1/4 sheet of 9"x12" paper, how do you ever do it on a full sized page?

I drew the American Wigeon duck trying to show how sunlight coming from the right side makes the greenish color on the duck's head seem to almost glow.  I used viridian green and hansa yellow light to make the bluish green and then added payne's gray to darken the green.  I used burnt umber and burnt sienna to create the brown for the rest of the head and the top of the body.  I'll continue working on it, but it was fun to see how to make the lighter color seem to glow by adding more darks around it.  --Trudy

Have not used water colors in over 15 years, always painted indoors using a photo, what was difficult was painting in full sunlight, and focusing on just one or two flowers even though there were several there, had to also deal with the slight movement from the wind.  I was happy with some of the colors but just could not get the flowers that had already lost their color, drying out.  Loved being outside!

Definite room for improvement!  I thought I was starting with a simple, not too difficult group of colours to mix.  But I have a bit of a challenge with purples.  My pallet doesn't have a purple, so I started mixing reds and blues and there were lots of "mud" colours as a result.  I didn't notice the colour of the surf around the rocks until much later in this process, what a great discovery!

I love the water filled brushes.  I've never tried them before.

I did a medium-thick line, interpretation. I put in the sun, to practice lights.

So rusty.  Thanks to Bird Academy for getting me to get my paints out again.

This was not my first time using watercolors and the tips were great. Easier than expected. The color palette I chose was from a photo of a meijiro in cherry blossoms. The colors came out well. I dont think my lightest pink was  light enough, however. Sometimes when mixing a color I found I had to think carefully what other colors were underlying.

This was my first experience with watercolor. I've always shied away from the medium. It was easier in some ways and more difficult in others. I'm used to working with more opaque paints. The transparency of watercolor is intimidating, but I can see where it could be beneficial for some applications. Color mixing went fairly well, but I'm used to mixing colors in other mediums.

Yes, not since childhood have I used watercolors. I'm not finding it too difficult to mix the colors. For my own color palette I chose winter holly leaves, with part green, deep maroon/purple, with some brown parts. They are subtle colors, or colors with subtle differences. Olive, crimson, purple violet, and black seemed to be all I needed to work up four colors. I'm finding that my work with the color sliders in the HLS panel in Lightroom has helped me identify the colors present, especially in photographs. It's surprising sometimes to slide a slider and find no change because that color isn't present. Often it's the subtle shades of yellow that masquerade for green or red.

I really enjoyed mixing colors. I find I need better brush control.

Wow, I'm really enjoying this but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be.  I love the attention to detail and am trying to spend the time to practice the skills we've been taught.

Never have worked with watercolors before - well as a kid, but I don't think that counts!  Anyway, I am having fun with the mixing etc, but I keep finding that I end up with a washed out color.  Maybe adding too much water.  I did not try to do the whole pics - just made palettes for each picture as that seemed to be more my speed.

My water colour set has 8 colours which is forcing me to blend more and I have had to borrow some white acrylic to made the tints. Very good exercise.  The landscape was especially tough,  not only different coloured leaves but the sun on the leaves added a lot of other tones. Thanks to folks for sharing. Good to know we are all at variable levels and that it will take practise. 

I have been trying to learn how to use watercolors, but it is challenging. I worked on this finch until  I realized I had forgotten to leave the crisp white edges of the feathers unpainted. Colors are not as true as I wish, the red brown was especially hard to try to match. Still do not understand which colors to mix to create my desired color. The red-brown for example was too gray, add red? or yellow? I will keep at it!

I'm enjoying this but am a total novice--have not used water colors at all (as an adult). Even the bare mechanics are a bit of a challenge: for instance, the thread on my brush seems off and I can't screw it on tightly. Nonetheless. color is amazing and I'm enjoying stepping into it.

This was my first watercolor since second grade. I thought by restricting my effort to one tree, it would be easy to mix a few shades of green. But there are so many shades of green in this Western Red Cedar and the low angle of the sun this time of year in Seattle added even more variation. I was able to mix a light gold for the side where the sun was hitting the tree, but I never got a dark enough green on the far side; I just kept getting black rather than the dark green I wanted. As far as technique, I had trouble transferring a sufficient amount of color to the plastic palette so I could mix up the amount of color I would need--I need to work on that, too. As far as patterns of color, I should have been more methodical and gone back to the first color lesson. I should have mixed a variety of tints, tones, and shades since this is all so new to me. But, it was really enjoyable and I learned so much.

I have used watercolors before, briefly, but never really spent time learning to mix colors.  Previously, I would use a "close" color from the colors I had, but not spend the time to mix my own. I was definitely able to achieve the colors I wanted, and found that the exercises on tint, tone, and shade made a huge difference for me in getting the colors "right." Focusing on colors forced me to think about tint, tone, and shade, as well as color gradations.  Learning how to mix colors was actually quite exciting for me because I now realize that I can create virtually any color I want with a few basic colors.  It will radically reduce the size of my field drawing kit, as well!!

I will admit - this lesson was a little overwhelming. I have never tried watercolors or painting.  I did mix watercolors and was able to match a few of the colors in the sample finch. that allowed me to see the value of mixing.  The mountain scene is beautiful - but there are SO many shades and nuances in shadow and light that I didn't even really know how to start.  In the end, I decided to do a bit less mixing and play - so that I might start to learn from this raw start - how to handle a brush, what happens with this or that stroke, how does the color change as it fades and is that fading useful as a possible tool?   etc.     I have glanced now at the next lesson so I see some technique is coming and I look forward to a making gains.

Here are the fruits of my labors. I enjoyed trying different combinations of complimentary colors. They turned out really differently depending on how much of each color I used. I did a little with watercolors as a youngster, but I didn’t know much about color mixing. And handling the brush and getting the right amount of water is challenging. But the color mixing is getting easier as I get to know the colors. The Rosy-Finch was especially interesting because I used a lot of the same base colors, just in different combinations and quantities. I’m looking forward to trying this with actual objects.

This was my first experience with watercolors. It became easier as I progressed in developing the palette.

I really enjoyed this. I had to wipe tray clean and start over a few times, but I found this exercise very useful and gave a lot of thought to it.

The watercolors were easier than I thought, plus the brush was very useful when using different colors and blending it into the correct shade. I tried using my color palette at the beach, I think I got similar colors but I felt that I couldn't get the proper tone with certain colors. However, I think this was a good start in understanding how to paint with watercolors and encourages me to practice my shades. 

I'm so happy we finally got to the color. The palette making is pretty tricky when there are soo many colors to choose from. I want to squint to see what the largest areas of color are, but that doesn't really help.

I've played around with watercolors on my own with no real training. I tend to use colors right out of the pan (I have more color options) so this was very helpful to learn properties of mixing, tinting, toning, etc. I've created small palettes for the two images above and two birds see in the field today. Once I started picking out colors in the landscape I got overwhelmed with how many colors are actually there. I think I'll focus future palettes on picking out the most dominant and what best exemplifies field markings for quick studies, then go more into depth for finish pieces.

Getting depth is not easy-I have never done watercolor but I really like it. My Palette was not difficult to do. This is a great class

A little rainy day color theory practice.  Never really used water color before much, I like these brushes, but waiting for the paint to dry is tough.  On to the palettes this week.

This was difficult - took me days to complete.  I think it was premature to ask for a complicated watercolor at this stage after only a lesson on mixing colors.  There is so much more to painting this bird than just mixing colors.  I won’t even attempt the landscape at this point.

There are so many variations of the 'same' color! That is one challenge, and another is creating the perception of texture. I've discovered details need to wait until the base color is dry :)

I have taken a water color class before, but still find it a medium that challenges me! I appreciate the lesson progression, and had fun creating the palette.

I may have ‘played with’ watercolors as a kid, but this is definitely a first understanding tint, tone, shade, and getting into the depth of mixing to create just the color I was trying to achieve. It took time for some, others I felt worked quickly. As with my original goals for this course, I’m applying patience and as much time as needed to achieve the desired effect. If I haven’t said it before, THANK YOU, Liz, for putting together this course in conjunction with my favorite hobby, birding.

I used watercolour before, but it was difficult for me. I worked on both palettes, the landscape palette was more complex because it has a huge variety of colours, like all the colours you could think.  I am not sure i have them all. The bird´s palette was shorter, it was great to do this exercise, I enjoyed this more. The landscape was a challenge, because first I focused so much on the brighter colours and  when I though I had finished, then I realized all the colours from the sky were left. Mixing the colours was great.