More work required

I painted this Robin on Tuesday at my watercolour class. Ards and North Down Council runs a lot of different classes for its ‘citizens’ and they are priced very reasonably. This set works out at about £7 for a two-hour session, which is really good!

The numbers are limited to about twelve people and some classes sell out quickly. I tried to enrol on a calligraphy course for this term but it sold out within fifteen minutes of going on offer! I’ll have to be quicker off the mark next time.

My Robin has a bit of a nebulous belly; it’s not clear where the Robin ends and the background begins. I maybe need to create a darker background to indicate the negative space? Anyhoo, the techniques we were encouraged to use here are ones I definitely wouldn’t use at home, where I tend to work more quickly. In this case there was a lot of layering of increasingly darker tones, from pale blue to a darker blue-grey. I’d have painted a brown Robin, left to my own devices! I guess it’s good to take more time and be more mindful about it all.

As it was I left the session a good twenty minutes before everyone else. I need to learn patience!