Learn Loose Watercolors: Coastal Landscapes

Painting loosely is a fun and liberating way to approach your watercolors. It allows you to freely express yourself and portray your landscape in a unique way. In this class, you'll learn how to paint a scene of London, Dubrovnik (Croatia), Istanbul, coastal France, and Venice.

By the end of this class, you'll have the skills and confidence to be able to paint loose architectural landscapes, water, boats, and figures from a reference photo. And of course, you'll have some beautiful paintings to show off to your friends and family.

We'll be covering some of these topics:

• How to Draw and Compose your painting - these lessons are placed at the beginning of each demonstration to show you how I sketch in basic details. I will show you how to place the horizon line, and how to quickly and accurately sketch in the reference photo. I will also talk about how I use my sketch to plan out the steps of my watercolor painting afterward.
• How to paint skies, water, boats, buildings, and figures in a soft and loose manner, using a combination of wet-in-wet and wet-in-dry techniques. I'll talk about how and when to wet your watercolor paper to obtain particular results such as the appearance of soft clouds, and when to paint in more rigid and accurate shapes once the paper has dried.
• The importance of timing in watercolors and when to use different brushes.

I'm excited to get started, so join me in this class and let's have some fun painting!

Original royalty-free photographic references, scans of original paintings, and bonus stencils for tracing/drawing are included under the 'Materials Required' lecture.

For the course project, refer to each demonstration video and sketch 2 or more of the featured landscapes in pencil. You can also refer to the drawing templates which simplify the details to basic lines and elements, which you can also trace. Practicing drawing is an important step in improving your painting skills. This provides you with an opportunity to compose and plan your painting. Following along to the demonstrations, use the steps and processes explained to complete your painting.

If you've finished the 6 landscapes featured in this course, pick a royalty-free photograph or perhaps one of your own landscape photographs. Using the processes and techniques described, create your own unique painting.

Finally, upload your painting(s)! If you have questions or would like feedback on your work, let me know and I will get back to you.