I have discovered a new watercolor instructor! Paul Clark was mentioned by many in a request for favorite teachers on the Watercolor Cards Facebook Group I’m a member of. I decided to check him out and found a great artist who has made hundreds of easy-to-follow videos, available on YouTube (link below). He even has downloadable template drawings for most of the tutorials that one can print out and transfer onto watercolor paper (also linked below).
I’m really enjoying his loose style, combined with sharp details in the focus area. It’s a style I’m trying to emulate, though it’s surprisingly challenging. You sure have to know your paper, how it responds to water, your paints, and the timing of when to add pigment to a wet area… that together with learning the discipline of no fiddling and practicing the patience of letting the painting dry before going in again with more paint.
Here are a couple of projects I’ve painted along with Paul Clark.
Art by Paul Clark YouTube channel.
Paul Clark’s Drawing Templates (to go along with the videos).
Paul Clark Art also has a Facebook Group where painters share their efforts. A feature of that is the Saturday challenge by Paul’s partner Margot. She provides the weekly subject along with many reference photos.
Last week’s challenge was “Bridges.” Using my own references I painted a couple.
As I thought of bridges, I also remembered a poem I wrote some years ago—a little ditty with yet another angle on a bridge.
Bridge
The dentist has been drilling
deep inside my mouth
readying the pier holes
for a bridge from north to south.My blissful gum’s been sleeping
through the whining and the fuss
but my thoughts are asking, Will it be
a bridge of beam or truss?Maybe it will be a drawbridge
with spans that raise and lower.
Or a bridge that gives my chewing help
because it’s double decker?Or suspension rope creation?
Cantilever or pontoon?
Will my mouth be full of cables?
Will I look like a cartoon?
- Violet Nesdoly, first published on my poetry blog, © 2015.
Violet Nesdoly 