LESSON PLANS SUMMER 2022 (1st half) Lesson 3 - Watercolour like Morandi!

In this lesson I'm asking my students to extrapolate the simplest of information from their subject, from the objects themselves or the in-between shapes, and then to place these shapes in a cohesive way to describe the objects they're looking at. It's quite challenging! Here are my versions...

Summer term, 1st half 2022. Lesson 3 – Still-life continued.

Essential watercolour – after the watercolours of Giorgio Morandi.

· If you need to, watch the Morandi slide show again. Look for the elements of his subject that he decides to use in his paintings. Our aim today is to extrapolate the minimum of information from our subject and create a watercolour.

· Set your objects in front of you, each one at a different level. Look at the background behind them. Is there any nice dark tone which will make a good contrast with your objects?

· Mix two colours together to make a neutral colour.

· Choose a mid or dark toned shape to paint first. It might be an in-between shape, it might be a dark area on one of your objects, it bight be the shape of a shadow.

· This shape has a relationship with every other area of your subject. Find another mid or dark toned shape and decide where it will be placed in relation to the shape you’ve already painted.

· Think about ways and reasons to ‘reveal’ the shapes of light objects.

· Allow some edges to remain crisp and soften other edges with clean water.

· Have several goes, changing the positions of your objects each time.

Next lesson: Flowers in a jam jar. We’ll make working drawings first and then work in watercolour using wet-into-wet and various other watercolour techniques. Bring sketchbooks, pencils and your watercolours & watercolour paper. Bring a small, simple bunch of flowers & foliage and a nice clean jam jar.