Last Wednesday, Tilly and I went to a sweet arts workshop that is pretty close to where I live. Watercolour Wednesdays is run by a local artist Melisah May in her art studio located in the Hunter Street Mall. I came across this crafty workshop after Newcastle Mirage posted about it on their instagram.
I shot Mel an email and booked in for Tilly and I for the upcoming wednesday. Then we excitedly awaited the big night!
On the night, we walked in and sat down at a bunch of wooden art tables set up in front of these gorgeous white french windows. As well as me and Tilly, about 7 people showed up for the workshop.
Mel talked us through different kinds of watercolour paint, the importance of using watercolor paper as well as some basic painting techniques.
Our first activity was to choose 6 paint colours and put tiny dots into our palette. Then using a fat paintbrush dipped in water, we painted a circle onto our watercolour paper. Next we syringed little blobs of watercolour paint into the circles of water and smushed them around a bit. It was to see how the colours interacted with each other and how they blended.
All I see in this photo is my chubby cheeks.
We were then given a new sheet of watercolour paper, and our choice of stencils to trace onto the paper. I chose a Bambi shape and Tilly chose a Bunny! You could either colour on the inside or on the outside of the outline. I decided to actually paint my deer as a deer, and Tilly went with pretty colours surrounding it.
I loved using the hard watercolour paints rather than the tube ones. I'm sure if I had more practice though I might change my mind. I did pretty poorly at painting in the lines but I'm not too bothered. I did my best to pick deer like colours, and paint Bambi in an at least slightly recognisable way.
I added a nose and eyes too because it was looking very blank and 2D and I was trying to visualise the face, but it wasn't really working.
I probably should have gone lighter on the features, but hey I'm no artist here.I was actually pretty happy with how my deer turned out in the end! Especially as I've never really painted at all before.
Painting with watercolours was a lot of fun, and I would love to get some of my own, and the proper paper & paintbrushes and give watercolour painting a shot while i'm at home sometime. I would really like to paint some plants and cacti and hang them up or at least frame one or two that would be lovely!
We both had a lot of fun and it was definitely something I've never done before. I look forward to going to more crafty workshops in the future!
You can find Melisah May & her Art Studio on Facebook and on Instagram. Just like or follow to keep up to date with when she has workshops on!
