AN EXTRA CREDIT CHALLENGE

  Sometimes, I just hate to see a good unit come to an end. So, I offered an opportunity for students to do a large painting that would incorporate 5 techniques that they had learned. This could be done at home, or by coming in early or staying after school if they desired to do so.

Format could be 12"X18" or larger and at least 5 different techniques were to be employed. The demo sketches below show two alternatives.

Separations or Embedded In The Painting

In this demo, the design is divided into 5 areas, each painted in a specific watercolor technique, like:

1. Pointillism 2. Flat Wash 3. Layered Washes 4. Small Broad Stroke and 5. Wax Resist.

In this demo, the techniques are not isolated but blended into different aspects of the design such as:

1. Spatter, Wax Resist 2. Pointillism body 3. Flat Wash 4. Graded Washes 5. Wet-In-Wet Wash

Wet-In-Wet sky; Graded Washes in the clouds; Mountains with Broad Stroke; Wax Resist in the clouds and Scraping in the grass.

Wet-in-wet Mountains, sky; Pointillism on leaves and branch; Graded Wash flowers, rock and vine; Scraping ground; and Blotting the water.

Flat Washes in the sky; Grass Scraping; Wet-in-Wet sea; Graded Washes upper sky; and Wax Resist areas around the sun.

  Wax Resist daisies; Black Wash butterfly; Pointillism in white daisy; Graded Washes background; Flat Wash petal overlays.

  In all these practices and summary experiences, these were the significant goals:

1.To learn that watercolor needs to be free in applications so that the unexpected that happens can be explored.

2. Controlling watercolor applications is best effected when light to dark washes (at least for beginners) are applied in that order, permitting darker changes to modify underlying happenings not wanted.

3. Learning a variety of techniques expands how different results can be achieved. It's like building a vocabularly for better understanding and communication.

4. In the long run, as with all criteria for quality in art work, good drawing is an essential aspect that cannot be ignored. Technique cannot cover up or excuse incompetence. However, this is an unfair measure for introductory students. They need time to do it all.

Alas, as the year progress it becomes "Exam Time". I believe in offering a 2-3 day class period time for activity aspects of the exam to be accomplished. To see how this unit was to be tested please see EXAM, and of course, give it to yourself! Or, try a simple practice shape first, like the tree which invites diverse techniques.