Once again I traveled to the Heyde Center for the Arts to take another three-day Allan Servoss workshop, this time in watercolor.

His watercolor work is amazing, and I left with a better understanding of design and color as well as a creative process that feels refreshing and, well, creative.

He had five main lessons with paintings that got progressively more challenging. We moved from brushwork to shape to negative painting, the entire time discussing color choices, paper, brushes, etc.

Notice the turtle in the painting above? I couldn’t help adding it. I could see a turtle so there it is.

The painting below of the ravine ended up being the one I did quite a bit of work on when I got home, and as a result, it looks as much like a drawing as a painting. I gave in and tuned to watercolor pencils for the details that I just had to add—tree trunks and roots and more trees.

We also had a chance to try painting on a varnished, textured surface. The paint sticks in a different manner, more like Yupo. For this project, we did our own designs, and I ended up with birds and a busy background. No surprise there.

It was a great workshop, and I am once again fascinated with watercolor.