Sarah Bell | Watercolour Workshops

The following Watercolour Workshops courses are available:

Beginners and Refreshers

Whether you have never picked up a brush before, or have often painted but been frustrated by the results, the Beginners Day will be a godsend for you!

This workshop covers the absolute basics in watercolour: advice on what sort of brushes, palettes and paper to use and how to mix beautiful, fresh colours from just three tubes. Great for those painters who always seem to end up with greys and browns, or insipid colours. We experiment with making transparent, pure colours and create a colour chart for future reference. Time is spent looking at brush technique, and the wet in wet technique. The afternoon is spent in putting all this information and experimentation into practice, making small studies of fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers, and just enjoying loosening up with lovely, juicy paint. The emphasis on this day is to familiarise yourself with simple techniques, to lose inhibitions and possible unhelpful habits with watercolour, and not on producing a finished painting. It's all about enjoying painting and building confidence. It's not unlikely though, that one of those little studies may be lovely enough to make you want to have it framed! A Beginner's workshop DVD is also available.

Improvers

Following on from the Beginner's Day, this workshop covers slightly more advanced colour mixing, and advice on colour palettes for specific subjects. We'll look at how to create atmosphere by using both harmonious and complementary colour schemes: thinking about colour the way artists do. A mini workshop on looking at light and shadow is included, along with specific such as glazing and wet in wet techniques on painting shadows on both flat and curved surfaces. Tuition is given on painting flat and graduated washes, useful for backgrounds. There will be lots of advice on composition, and how to create lots of different paintings from the same subject matter. Sarah will be circulating to give help, encouragement, and administer watercolour first aid for any little mishaps! Go for it with all those new techniques to create your own still life watercolour.

Landscapes

Ever got stuck when trying to paint a landscape? This is the workshop for you! We will cover how to use flat and graduated washes to paint calm skies, several techniques on painting convincing clouds, and how to create the illusion of space by

using "aerial perspective", (don’t worry: it's nothing to do with those complicated converging lines!). We'll also experiment with mixing beautiful, natural greens for landscapes. First thing in the morning you will be given a pre-drawn landscape on watercolour paper, and we will stretch the paper ready for the afternoon session. After lunch, Sarah will demonstrate step-by-step how to paint this landscape, starting with the sky, then distant hills, trees and foreground. After each little demo you will then complete that step, so there's no need to panic about having to do everything immediately. By the end of the afternoon you will have created your

own watercolour landscape painting, along with many little studies of various aspects of landscapes, and a set of step by step notes to refresh your memory at home. This may be the start of a whole new way of painting confident landscapes for you!

Fashion illustration

If you have seen Sarah's fashion diva paintings you'll know how exciting fashion illustration can be! You'll learn simple and easy techniques to make sketches of women in the correct fashion proportions (even if you can't draw at all I've got some fool proof methods for you, so don't worry!). We'll look at how to mix colours, and convincing flesh tones, how to paint special effects to portray fabrics such as satin and marabou feathers, and how to create simple, stylish hairstyles. This will be a great, fun workshop for a special day for mothers (or fathers) and daughters!

Chickens and Ducks

One of Sarah's favourite subjects, and there are lots of fantastic models scratching around in the paddock outside the studio, just waiting to be painted! The morning is spent in the studio learning ways to simplify the shapes of birds when drawing them to gain confidence, and then experimenting with appropriate colour mixing, and how to tackle painting light and shade on rounded forms. In the afternoon we'll be out in the paddock painting from our fantastic collection of rare breeds of chickens, ducks and geese, weather permitting. In the event of poor weather, we'll work in the studio from Sarah's extensive collection of photos. This workshop is always great fun!

Buildings

Another of Sarah's big loves is architecture, and in this workshop we look at how to paint various aspects of buildings: tricks and techniques on how to reduce buildings down to simple forms, how to treat doorways and windows, a little bit on simple perspective, advice on painting shadows, and the colours of shadows, and how to use buildings in landscape painting to create a sense of scale.

Painting Farm Animals

Sarah's own collection of farm animal watercolours has recently been decimated since the local Westaways Sausage Company bought every pig painting she had and commissioned more for their board room! Following on from last term's hugely successful

"Chickens and Ducks" workshop, and inspired by our students' reactions one Saturday during the "Sampsons Farm morning rush hour" when the cows plod past the farm for milking down at Manor Farm, we decided that a workshop on painting farm animals would be very useful as well as fun. The morning is spent in the studio (with little forays outside), learning how to simplify the shapes of farm animals when drawing them to gain confidence, and then experimenting with appropriate colour mixing, and how to tackle painting light and shade on rounded forms, as well as how to create a super simple but effective background. In the afternoon we'll be out in the paddock and fields, painting from some 'live models', weather permitting. In the event of poor weather, we'll work in the studio from Sarah's extensive collection of photos. Sarah can't wait for this workshop! Models will definitely be cows, probably sheep, and possibly a few goats too, depending on the generosity of local farmers... (incidentally, if you have any sheep or goats you'd like to bring along, Sarah will give you a demonstration painting of them as a thank you!)

NEW! Painting Simple Figures

Have you ever seen a painting let down by a figure in it with a huge head, a body as stiff as an ironing-board? Painting figures can be really tough: the trick is to paint them as loosely and simply as possible. But how?!! This workshop will give help and practical assistance on painting different kinds of figures, whether a single figure, or groups within a landscape. You'll learn how to use light and shadow to model a figure and give it substance; how to simplify figures and get rid of fussy detail to make them more credible; a little on proportion and foreshortening, and also how to paint "shorthand" figures in the distance of a landscape to give your painting a sense of scale and life. A really useful workshop!

NEW! Exciting Paintings from Photographs

Sarah tries to paint in situ as much as possible, but when in the studio it is often necessary to use photos: but sometimes our photos aren't that great to start off with. This workshop will teach you how to take more effective photos to use as reference; how to crop them to aid composition, how to manipulate and even invent the light and dark in your painting from a photograph to add drama; to create your own colour scheme to create atmosphere, and how to combine photos and sketches to create really interesting paintings. This will be a real power packed workshop, and essential for anyone interested in painting.

NEW! Draw What You See! Drawing for Beginners

By special request from students, this workshop is designed to give you confidence and build your drawing skills. Concentrating on simple techniques for accurate drawing (later in the year we may do another workshop focussing on expressive drawing techniques) we will look at proportions, light and shadows, simple perspective and foreshortening. We'll use varied media, such a brush and ink; pencil, and even a pen on Perspex to get you nice and relaxed and drawing well. Not scary at all: you'll have lots of fun with Sarah and the group trying out some easy ways to really see what's in front of you, rather than what your brain is telling you is there! So if you’ve ever wished to be able to draw better, this workshop could be a great investment for the future!

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