It was a full house at the Donna Morrison 2 day workshop at the Historic Hopper Academy, in Sanford.
Day 1 – We started with a beautiful landscape of palms, in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Preserve, just before sunset.
Our paintings were done on 300# watercolor paper. Donna prefers to work on Fabriano Artistico 300 lb cold press paper (or Cheap Joes Kilimanjaro if you have that). But some artists chose other papers. Her method involves layers of colors so the heavy weight paper does not buckle from all the moisture.
Using a large mop brush, we wet the paper. We painted a soft, pale Aureolin yellow in the calm water and mid part of the sky. Using a wet into wet technique we turned the painting upside down and painted a soft pale Opera into the horizon area. For the blue sky we used Cerulean and Cobalt blues.
Day 2 – We started painting the white egret, in the pond, by masking around the bird and some water highlights.
In the top third of the painting … wet around the bird and use a light yellow wash like Bumblebee or lemon yellow in the foliage and grass. Then drop in greens, salmon (red and yellow ochre) and Cobalt for the water above the bird.
Donna like Apatite green for foliage. She mixes her own black from Indigo, browns, Payne’s grey and dark violets because it’s more friendly to nature.
Wet from the vegetation down and build up the pink, green and cerulean colors in the bird, light. Add a pale wash of Cobalt blue in the water.
Build darker areas at the top and behind the bird. She likes to keep corners dark to push people back into the painting. At the bottom wet around the base of the bird fill in with a lighter version of the colors from above. The bird reflection is not masked, just paint around the shape and make sure you soften the edges.
Thank you Donna for a wonderful class. We learned so much! Thank you for sharing your tips and techniques.
For more information on Donna Morrison and see images of her beautiful paintings, click on the link: