Splash Dynamic-Bold Watercolor Painting I-A
Tim Saternow

Thursday, Friday, Saturday
March 3-5, 10:00-4:00

Splash Dynamic will help you see the real power of watercolor and how to paint with strength and boldness. You’ll develop strong watercolor paintings by seeing and using bold value arrangements, powerful lights and darks, correct linear perspective, and attention to focal points in large-scale architectural landscape paintings.

Are you often disappointed by your paintings looking too pale and too soft? Did you learn: “Start pale and progressively build up from there?” While this is a good, time-tested approach to classic watercolor painting, too many painters stop before achieving their desired boldness.

My technique will have you turn around your ideas of approaching a painting. You will start with the darkest darks (while saving the white paper), and then begin to build a painting by observing the power of light and shadow – its value patterns.

I teach a grisaille technique where you start with a monochromatic under-painting to establish all the lights and darks. You will learn to see ‘light shapes’ and ‘shadow shapes’ not simply objects.

We begin with small value sketches in pencil that identifies those shapes.

Then we’ll get to the ‘splash dynamic’ part: after completing the grisaille layers we’ll experiment with breaking up the surface by literally splashing water and paint on top — splatters, spray bottles, runs and blooms. This step begins to unify and embolden the feeling of design along with the unpredictable beauty of watercolor. From here we further build up the darks, add local color, and complete a very powerful painting.

With daily demonstrations, close individual instruction, and fun critiques, Splash Dynamic will give students the skills to successfully make a research photo a painting (not just a duplication of the photo) that becomes a very personal vision of the artist.

$425 ACM Members
$475 Future Members

Notes & Supply List