I brought all my watercolors with me on our trip to see the kids and the grandchildren. I was hoping to get a chance to paint with Sidra. She’s always doing something. If it isn’t chores, it’s making stop-motion videos of her dolls or some other activity. We did have a chance to paint together today.

Painting Lesson

I asked Sidra what she wanted to paint. She said she would like to paint a sunset with blues, yellows and reds.  We picked out cerulean blue, opera rose (because she said she liked a pinkish red) and I suggested gamboge, an orangy yellow.

Sidra never tried a wet-on-wet technique before. The last time we painted together, I was using very small brushes. Today we used the 2 and 3 inch brushes. We painted side by side. I demonstrated on my paper and then Sidra painted on hers.

Here is my demo painting:

Painting Lesson
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper

I began with cerulean blue at the top followed by gamboge, finishing with the opera rose at the bottom.  I showed Sidra how one could make clouds by blotting up some of the paint with a paper towel, how splashes of water would make interesting patterns in the paint, and how drips of color interact with the colors underneath.  Sidra suggested drawing a streak of paint as a horizon that “would look like a reflection.”

Here is Sidra’s painting:

Starry Dream by Sidra
9″x12″ 140# Cold Pressed Watercolor Paper

She decided to use a different sequence of paints: cerulean blue at the top followed by opera rose below, ending up with gamboge at the bottom. She wanted her painting to look like it was in the distance, so she asked for a paper towel to blot the entire painting.  She ended by painting a star with the edge of a 3/4 inch flat brush, and pronounced the painting, “Starry Dream.”

We had fun.