Tuesdays, January 7 – February 4, 2025, 10:00 – 12:30pm
5-Week Art Clinic with Mariana Kastrinakis
If there ever is proof that magic is real, it resides in watercolor. When in the right hands, color springs from the brush like fireworks, pigment meanders through washes like it’s alive, and accidents strangely become the most interesting part of the painting. You will learn everything you need to know from brush types, to pigments, to paper weights, so you will feel comfortable with this beautiful medium. This Art Clinic is geared toward beginning and intermediate level students and will focus on painting techniques and examination of our references. More info: mkastrin@gmail.com.
Watercolor Witchcraft Schedule of Classes:
Class 1: What is Watercolor? Sharing goals for our class and student backgrounds, both in WC and in art.. Our materials and how to use them. Demos by MK, class color exercise for “breaking the ice” of WC.
Class 2: Color discussion and demonstration. Making own color wheels and how to use them
Class 3: Painting in watercolor, value sketches, showing “form”. Reference photos and how to use them. Bring photos for next class (floral, landscapes ok, no portraits)
Class 4: Possibly painting outdoors, demo WC “sketching” techniques (indoors or outdoors). Editing paintings with other common WC-compatible materials (eg nibs, white gouache, WC pencils, acrylic or WC inks)
Class 5: Demo using wet-in-wet WC and uses. Trying out different effects and their possible uses. Assessing water “wetness” and how to use for painting. Constructing different “looks” for our paintings
Basic Supply list for all levels
–Watercolors of choice in tubes, or dry cakes. I recommend artist-quality supplies, since “student grade” often disappoint and behave unpredictably. It is BEST if you buy “single pigment colors” (if you dont know what this is, just ask me in class or before class by email) i recommend the DaVinci brand of watercolors, mostly single pigment colors, and they come in 15 ml tubes or even larger. They are not excessively expensive. See
https://davincipaints.com/shop-da-vinci-paint/watercolor-paint/15ml-watercolor-paint/, they are on sale in 2024.
Preferred colors (but all other colors welcome if you have more and want to bring them):
A basic palette is good to have, including a primary warm/cool each of yellow, cyan (or blue) and red. Best basic palette for beginners and intermediate:
-lemon yellow (cool yellow)
-new gamboge (warm yellow)
-Ultramarine blue
-cerulean blue (plus any phthalo blue IF you have it) OR cobalt blue
-Cadmium red light (or naphthol red or similar warm red)
-“permanent” alizarin crimson (or Quinacridone magenta), cool reds
-Burnt Sienna, an earth color AND
-tube of white gouache (sometimes known as “white designers gouache”)
-Other color names can also meet the requirements, feel free to ask me if you have doubts.
Please note that colors are not included in our “materials pass” for $30 dollars, every student needs their own color tubes.
“Materials Pass” : this is encouraged for most “Just Add Water” classes but is an optional fee that rents out most of the materials you would need for your Art Clinic class and provides the specific paper needed. For this session of “Just add Water” the materials pass is $35. Please see above for a few things (eg: colors brought or shared with teacher, palette, a few brushes and sketchbook with pencils), that I request you bring to the “watercolor witchcraft” class.
Please note that with Material Pass, you keep your artwork on the specialty paper but are leasing anything else you don’t bring to class yourself . If you select to pay the Materials Pass, please let Mariana know ideally ahead of class (mkastrin@gmail.com or text 301-467-2621). You can always email with any questions.
