Workshop inspiration, materials and techniques
The inspiration for this workshop derived from the phenomenon of the Northern Lights. I partly chose this subject because I also wanted to introduce the medium and basic techniques of water colour to the clients. I thought that these two would work very well together while also allowing for the potential to art work in a more abstract and open way.
Some of the techniques that I briefly introduced to the clients:
Watercolour techniques
Key tip: focus on the ‘water’ of watercolour. The more water you use the more you can do with it.
There are two main ways of working with watercolour:
–firstly wet wet on wet: this means that you paint with your colour onto a pre wet page – good for when you want to work more freely and with abstract imagery.
-Secondly wet on dry: this means that you paint with your colour directly onto a dry page – good for when you want control and to work on a detailed piece.
A simple extra:
Especially if I am doing a sea scape for example is that I add a sprinkle of salt to the sea area after I have worked on that area and it is still somewhat wet. The salt will suck up some of the colour in spots and created an interesting effect. The finer salt will act differently to the courser grained one.
Colour mixing for watercolours is the same as for all paints –
blue and yellow make green
red and yellow make orange
some reds and blues make purple
The most important thing with colour is the more you load your brush with colour the darker the colour (you can also mix with a dark blue or black (I don’t recommend) to darken the colour) See the outside colours on the colour wheel image>
If you keep adding water to the colour on the brush the colour will get lighter (you can also alter the colour by adding white but it shouldn’t be your first option. See the inner rings on the colour wheel above. As water is added to the colour becomes fainter.
Workshops kindly funded by the Adelaide Health Foundation, Community Health Initiative Scheme 2019
Supported by The Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland. Special thanks to Alan Carrick, Mary Mooney, Silva Schwer and all the staff, clients and friends of Rose Cottage.
Art and Dementia projects 