Archive for March, 2010

Watercolor Portrait Workshop With Susan Harrison Tustain

Susan Harrison-Tustain recently produced this excellent watercolor portrait lesson in a two-disc DVD set.

On disc number 1, Susan goes through all the steps in great detail showing us what it takes to create a successful portrait painting in watercolor. For beginners, she has included everything needed to get started; stretching the watercolor paper, all materials required, how to tackle backgrounds, painting realistic skin tones and much more. This disc also contains a beautiful gallery of Susan's artwork which cannot fail to inspire you.

Disc 2 gets into painting hair, fabric and more on skin tones. Then it describes how to fine tune a painting to bring it to life.

Susan's style of watercolor has been called 'naturalistic realism'. In fact the style of painting she teaches goes beyond realism. She teaches us how to capture the essence of the sitter in her portrait paintings, whether painted from life or photographs.

In this video clip below, taken from the 'Watercolor Portrait Workshop' DVD, you can see the painting come to life in just half a minute.


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Watercolor Lessons.

Whether you are a complete beginner or an experienced painter wanting to try out a new medium, watercolor lessons offer a unique means of recreating the essential fragility, fluidity and dynamic of life itself, by use of watercolor paints, applied with a brush onto any substantial white painting paper.

If you intend to use watercolor paints then watercolor lessons are virtually essential in order that you should both understand the medium and obtain the best results possible. Watercolor painting is unlike any other form of painting, in that it is both precise in form yet transient in its subtlety, Classic watercolor painting is realistic in style, neither impressionistic nor abstract in form, yet it contains a certain ephemeral quality, a lightness and luster that is hard to define or to contain.

The essence of watercolor painting is in a disciplined approach to the use of specific forms, their shadows and the resultant colors, starting as if one was on the inside, looking out. There can be no hurry in the creation of a watercolor painting, and no dwelling upon specific features. The eventual creation is a many layered development of an original theme, be it a bunch of flowers in a vase, a complete landscape, seascape or an architectural frame.


Whatever is your choice of subject when developing a watercolor painting, or your choice of watercolor paints, brushes and quality of paper, some special tuition in using the medium will enhance your final result. Mistakes can easily be made by beginners using watercolor paints with no experience other than their use of the more solid types of paint, making their watercolor paintings look heavy, unbalanced or overworked. Many opportunities to enhance specific features or detail in a watercolor painting can be lost simply because the novice is not aware of particular techniques which will help to improve the textures of the painting and so enrich the quality of the eventual design.

Both beginners and experienced watercolor artists are invited to view the many examples available of watercolor paintings created by artists who are true watercolor professionals, from books, in galleries and shops. You will gain experience by seeing how other artists have developed their paintings using watercolor as a medium, enabling you to bring out the very best in your own watercolor paintings. No textbook or weekly class can entirely replace the need to source and view original watercolor paintings whenever possible, making it easier for you to understand basic principles and providing unique insights and hints to help enhance the results you obtain from your own watercolor painting.

People are attracted to painting with watercolors and to watercolor paintings because they represent something outside of our familiar solid and structured frameworks, retaining and capturing on paper something of nature in its elemental form. To enter into the world of the watercolor painting is a wonderful experience. Take lessons in watercolor painting from an expert, let them take you by the hand and teach you more about what this art form can offer.


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