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Painting Pebbles with Watercolour

Workshop to be held at the Albury Wodonga Artists Society's
Paintbox Studio, Lincoln Causeway, Wodonga.

Learn how to easily use watercolour to paint a pebbly beach, road, track or pathway.

Pebbles-1

 

This workshop will be held on the
22nd of September 2024
from 9:00am to 4:00pm
with an hour break for lunch.

If you wish to attend please contact the Albury Wodonga Artists Society by either calling or emailing Judy Balfour on 0439 953 903 or emailing jybalfour@outlook.com .

Painting pebbles in watercolour requires:

  • Adding masking fluid to the watercolour paper and waiting for the masking fluid to dry before,
  • Painting a watercolour wash over the first layer of masking fluid and waiting for it to dry before,
  • Adding another layer of masking fluid to the paper and waiting for the masking fluid to dry before,
  • Repeating the above steps several times,...

Materials you will need for the workshop:

Good quality 300gsm+ Watercolour cold press paper  - Preferably A3 size,
Pre-Stretched on a base board or similar.
We'll be using a lot of masking fluid and cheaper papers tear when removing the masking fluid.  The brand and texture of the paper is not important, just the quality.

It would be ideal if you could “Pre-Stretch” you paper before the workshop as un-stretched paper will buckle and the washes will flow into the buckled areas of the paper, resulting in dark patches in your pebble painting.

To see an easy way to stretch watercolour paper, please see the video on my website about "How to Stretch Watercolour Paper”, CLICK HERE

It’s the 3rd one down.

The “Gator Board” used to mount the watercolour paper on, is available from Art Parts in David Street, Albury.

NOTE: Paper can be stretched by soaking the back of the paper and laying it on a sheet of glass, but this won’t work for painting pebbles as we need dry paper.
Extra Watercolour Paper for exercises during drying wait times. Painting pebbles requires adding masking fluid to the paper, waiting for that to dry before painting a watercolour wash, then waiting for the wash to dry before adding more masking fluid, repeating this process several times.  So, there will be a lot of drying time to fill in with other exercises.
Pebeo Drawing Gum

or a masking fluid that allows cleaning brushes with water.
GumI prefer the Pebeo Drawing Gum because it has a blue tint to it, so you can see where it is on the paper. 

But, any masking fluid will do so long as it's water soluble and you can wash your brushes with soap and water
Watercolour Brushes Use whatever watercolour brushes you have already, but you will need a large brush to do the bigger washes.

You will also need a small, finer pointed round brush, about a size "0" to paint the shadows of the pebbles.
brush
Watercolour Paints Use whatever watercolour paints you have - Pan or Tube paints are fine.

I usually cheap tube paints for my class demonstrations because, when students are starting out, don't want to invest in expensive paints. 

By using the cheaper paints, I'm demonstrating like for like and I face the same challenges they face.
Watercolour Palettes You will need a palette with a well to mix a reasonable amount of colour in.    Most pan paints have a well as a part of the lid. 

You could even use a dinner plate to mix the washes in.
Old Tooth Brush
or Rigid/Stiff-Bristle Brush.
We'll use these brushes to "Flick" small drops of masking fluid onto the paper.
old brush
OLD Watercolour Brushes Something like an old calligraphy brush with longer, soft hairs as we'll be abusing it by spreading the hairs out from the ferrule, to practice painting foliage (and hair ?) 

We also need an old, soft brush to "Splatter" the masking fluid onto the paper to create larger pebbles.
Old Credit/Debit Card cardWe'll use a plastic card to "Push" different coloured paint around to create texture in larger rocks.
Art Gum Eraser  eraserAlthough the Pebeo Drawing Gum is easy to remove with your fingers, an Art Gum eraser is ideal to remove the masking fluid, especially if you use the other brands of masking fluid.

For those who remember Desert Boots, this product is similar to the sole of a desert boot. 
Paper Towel Roll We will need paper towel to dry off the brushes we use for the masking fluid, before applying a new layer of masking fluid.

If you have any other enquiries, please contact the Albury Wodonga Artists Society using the contact details above, or you can contact me, Graham Wade by emailing grahamwadeart@gmail.com or call or text on 0447 690 004.