Sketches and Notes from the Workshops: Colors

I chose Symposium workshops to conquer my weak spots: sketching buildings and using colors effectively. A big "thank you" goes out to all the instructors and staff who made it happen - I learned a lot and had lots of fun! I jotted down some notes on what I learned, mostly as reminders for myself but hopefully you can get something out of it, too.

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Second up: colors! (Well - I was painting buildings, so this is a continuation of lessons from architecture workshops.)

I took Tea, Milk, Honey workshop with Marc Taro Holmes (great notes on the workshop by Marc is here) at Ruinas de San Francisco, which is a remains of Franciscan monastery built around 15-16th century. "Tea, milk and honey" refers to three consistencies of watercolor (and having food-related names makes it easy to remember!): 1) pour on the tea (light wash), 2) stir in the milk (semi-opaque details), and 3) sweeten with honey (opaque, dark areas). I am learning to really mix in a lot of pigment for "honey" stage - in this practice painting, Marc added a touch of honey/dark areas for me:

I also happened to grab a cyan blue Slicci pen from Pentel (one of the sponsors) - it glides smoothly and this color pops in a fun way when painted over, so I'm glad I had it on hand to experiment. Here is another painting. Some paint splotches got on the paper, so I splattered some more to give it a more lively feel. I also saw a chicken walking across the ruins as I was finishing the painting, so I put down its silhouette in the corner really quickly - being spontaneous is part of the fun of sketching!

• Use a mister (or small hair spray bottle filled with water) to wet the paint in your watercolor kit to loosen up pigment before you start.
• Mix a "tea" wash with more than one color.
• Human eye has the capacity to perceive green the most out of all colors so try not repeat the same greens in your painting. One example mix Marc made was with hunter green + burnt sienna.

I then took Straight to Colors markers class with Eduardo Bajzek at Parque Duarte. There was a church that we could retreat to when quick tropical showers happened during the workshop. The idea of the workshop is to lay down the colors without using lines. I struggled a lot since I haven't used markers in ages and the permanence of colors made me afraid of making mistakes, but I'm pleased with how this practice sketch of a doorway came out. The colors I used are in the notes - the light blue color that didn't quite scan is pale indigo. All colors are from Letraset except for blue green and violet light from Chartpak.

• Never leave the marker open for more than 5 seconds if you're not drawing with it.
• Look for mass of shapes rather than outlines.
• Get the values right first (we practiced with only the gray markers on the first round).
• Use markers like watercolors: build in layers from light colors to dark.
• Regular sketchbook paper absorbs more colors than marker paper, so it gives sketches a softer look. Sometimes backs of the paper where marker colors seep through turns out more interesting than the front.

It was interesting to learn that both Marc and Eduardo have lavender in their sketching kits - Holbein lilac watercolor for Marc, Chartpak violet light marker for Eduardo. Now I want to try using lavender - and go sketching some more in general, of course!

Bronze Sponsor: Pentel.

More boxes are starting to arrive to Santo Domingo, this time from Pentel, who is also one of our Symposium Sponsors. Thank you Pentel for your support. (Did you know that Pentel invented the "roller ball" technology? Aha! Read here for more curiosities.)

Website: http://www.pentel.com