This 12 week course is two courses in one. The first six weeks will look at how to create and paint believable rock forms. The second six weeks will focus on mountain painting skills. Jason, your tutor, believes that the rock and mountain painting are strongly linked, so are ideally put together in a double ended course.

We will look at methods employed in the past as seen below in this Turner copy work, as well as modern methods used by present day painters.

Jasons love of rocks and mountains was cultivated over several adventure walking trips in Morroco, France, Spain, Slovenia, Poland and of course Scotland. He has spent many years exploring which paint effects and approaches work well. On this course he will be sharing his findings with you, concentrating on the techniques that can most quickly improve your rock and mountain painting skills.

Medium

Watercolour

Level

This course would suit a painter who has a little experience of watercolour

Day, location and time

Fridays from 10:15 to 12:15 at Newcastle Arts Centre

Duration

12 weeks – see calendar

Cost – £180

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Why does Jason think this course would be of value to you as a painter ?

By gaining greater skills at painting rocks your mountain painting improves and visa versa. The two are linked.

Artists often lift their skill level of painting rocks when they can begin to visualise forms in three dimentions. Before they make this jump rocks are often just textured shapes. This course is intended to help you create more three dimentional rocks, with convincing shadow work and believable textures.

Painting mountains is a delight in watercolour. You can paint them to look broody and ominous or light and etherial, highly textured or lost in the mist. It can be a playful subject to paint where you can combine a rich array of techniques including elements of abstraction or keep it simple and sketchy. There is no right or wrong way to paint mountains, but all are fun to explore.With your new found rock painting skills developed in the first six weeks this section of the course should be easier and more enjoyable.

What will you do on the course ?

• Explore models of rock construction
• Shadows on round and sharp edged rocks
• Building depth in shadowed areas
• Directional mark making to help sculpt forms
• Texture making ideas
• Colour variation – where and why?
• Using stencils
• Look at wet-in-wet effects in watercolour that work well to illustrate changing colour and tonality in mountain scenes
• Explore the value of lost and found edges to illustrate mist and rain.
• Create a number of samples to try a variety of textural effects to shorthand the look of rock and scree
• Examine the effects Turner employed to illustrate mountains within his watercolours, that could prove useful
• Look at ways to structure the mountains to add density and believability to your images
• Use pen drawing methods used by illustrators to depict mountain terrain
• Look at the use of figures and props to help set the scale
• Create your own artwork using some of the ideas explored on the course

What do you need to bring ?

Please bring your usual watercolour painting kit to the first class, plus a misting water spray bottle and a kitchen J-cloth.

You will also need to bring a pen and pencil, eraser and sharpener, some drawing paper and watercolour paper to the first lesson as well as your painting kit.

If you are unable to purchase the course online then please send a cheque for £180 –

– made payable to; Painting with Skill to:

Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis. To avoid disappointment – book early.