TOUCAN – February patreon Painting Lesson
Good morning everyone! I have juuuuust completed the editing (at long last!) of our epic painting lesson for next month, and I am really excited about whats coming up for you in Februarys monthly Painting Lesson together over on PATREON. It is a big one. It is a colourful one. It is a fun one next month, so get your colours out and ready for the TOUCAN in watercolour deep dive lesson which will be available for you here on the 8th of Feb, 24.
Ill be away much of the coming month at my Tassie retreat, as well as the Melbourne and Gold Coast painting workshops, so its definitely a busy, creative and wonderful time for me, and for my students ahead. Ill be sharing more of those events with you in due course as we explore field work, photography, drawing and painting… all in the luxury and wildness of our incredible Tassie retreat surroundings, another bounty of inspiration.
Id like to incorporate some of the retreat adventures and subjects into the March lesson here if I can, to share a little of what we explore with you as well… We shall see what comes, but I thought thatd be lots of fun! In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying all the challenges and wonderful learning to be had in last months SEAGULL STUDY or this months beautiful SPLENDID FAIRYWREN lesson. Im really looking forward to seeing your paintings from this lesson in blue 💙
Back to our February Painting Lesson…
Its a big and exciting one, set to teach you a bunch this fabulous February! Focussed on the absolutely magical Toucan, this is a subject we all know and recognise in a heartbeat for its crazy colours, outrageous beauty and uniqueness. Its a feast for the eyes and an absolute bounty of learning for us budding bird painters this month thats for sure. I am really excited to bring this ‘extra in depth’ course to you so get your colours out and walk through the process with me to create your own wonderfully realistic Toucan study in watercolour.
A larger subject this time, the TOUCAN is a striking bird, known all around the world for its uniqueness, beauty and outrageous colour, so what better subject to capture together than this? But how do we go about painting it? All those crazy colour shifts, large areas and tiny details. Its easy to feel overwhelmed or unsure mixed in with the excitement… but thats where I come in.
I break the process down into something really manageable for you, walking you through the process end to end, taking one step at a time to show you exactly how it can be done. There are so many reasons why the Toucan an essential addition to my series of bird painting tutorials, and I am very excited to share this beautiful lesson with you here. Im sure looking forward to seeing just what you can do!
In this course we will create vibrant, precise, intense colours, with our watercolour, just as it is in life. Painting in a realistic style, we will learn about more about our materials, colour, applying large, the all important element of timing, pigment rich layers of wash, and the painting techniques and approaches needed to build, refine and achieve a realistic outcome. Its all about deconstruction then reconstruction this time, working in simple colours and steps to complete this complex outcome… Certainly youll have fun trying and learn a lot along the way trying, and thats the main goal.
This course is a longer course which includes a fair amount of complexity within the subject, but dont fear! My courses are designed for students of all levels, set to expand your learning around bird painting and watercolour even more, so dont confuse this with being ‘too hard’ at all. Its an ideal painting exercise to grow your knowledge, whilst having fun with this beautiful new bird subject so if you love the subject and want to get playing with large areas of wash, gorgeous, diverse and intense colour, rich tone and beautiful texture, this is the course for you!
So yes, if you missed the recent news… I have monthly Natural History painting lessons available for you every month now, large and small to share with you over on my Patreon Channel. Its a huge undertaking but I am excited about building a new and far more intimate learning space, a positive, creative community for us all. It is growing nicely already, thank you everyone for the support ind interest youve shown already. Of course its nothing at all without you, and Id love to have you there to join us there too, helping our community to grow into something really wonderful.
Id like to send a huge thank you on behalf of us all to Corey Raffel for generously allowing us to work from his stunning TOUCAN image. Without this gift, wed be so much poorer! Thank you so much, we love our Toucan. Please note, we are not permitted to work from his images outside of my courses, but go ahead and check out his beautiful photography from all around the world 💚