Welcome to 'Joyful Florals', a true celebration of flowers, in all their glory.

We are working with lots of water in this class, mixing Apricots, Pinks, Violets & Rose red, and the great thing is, this class is very versatile when it comes to the medium you use! You could use all watercolour, all ink, even all Gouache, or blend them together as I did.

I'll be showing you two of my favourite brush strokes! I have used this first stroke for years when it comes to painting loose florals, and we have covered it before in my class "Rose Watercolour - Sketchbook Practise" https://skl.sh/3TRtsJB It's a versatile brush stroke and I'll be guiding you through various methods, which will allow you to adopt these techniques. The second brush stroke is one we covered in "Briar Rose: a Watercolour & Gouache Painterly Study" Briar Rose it's a very expressive, textural gesture, which creates gorgeous intuitive marks, and is great for flower buds!

We'll be covering the subjects of:

Water - when is too much?
Encouraging agility with your brush work
Practising our layer/glazing methods, to bring our florals to life
Timing
Gestural marks
Painting joyfully, silencing our inner critic.

For my disabled/Chronically ill followers: I do try to create classes which have a relaxed fun feel about them, where we can experiment together. Some of you will find smaller work easier, the same is true for larger-hand-off-the-table brush strokes... and some will have difficulty with both of these.

I wanted to bring your attention to contraption I discovered recently, after canvassing disability manufacturers and getting a 'I'm sorry, the contraption you're describing doesn't exist', I came across an advert on Instagram for a desk device which helps support your arm and can be moved in multiple directions.

I am really excited to find this, and have been trying it out, and I personally have found it helpful in supporting my right arm (the right side of my body being weaker than my left, In practically every way, even my right eye is weaker and has a different prescription to my left) Here is the link: Ergonomic Armrest Support

Another aid I've just found is grip toggles. I've not used one of these yet, but they may come in handy for those of you, (to mention just a few conditions) with Arthritis, ED, FND, Fibromyalgia, MS, ME or injury. Here is the one I've sourced which can be used time and again (There is one on the market which is a single use (?) sticky toggle to help with pulling drawers and plugs out of sockets etc) but this one seems better for holding pens/paint brushes: Grip Toggle

I am very focused and interested in trying to make my classes as accessible as possible, so if you have any feedback, I'd be very grateful to hear it. For example, I heard back from followers with limited movement that leaf printing was more accessible than painting, and that the smaller ditsies are easier for muscle weakness, as it's possible to rest the arm fully on the desk and the range of movement is small. Do you have anything to add?

This class is designed for:

Beginners wanting to go a step further
Those wanting to experiment with bright colours
Those wanting to enjoy an immersive, relaxing experience of learning
Those of you who need to carve out time for yourself, to balance out life's challenges
Those wanting to practise fundamental watercolour techniques , like a/ timing b/ layering aka 'Glazing' c/ pigment to water ratios d/gentle flows/'cauliflowers' ... and e/ flower centres.

You don't have to have exactly the same materials that I do. Just choose your fave orange/yellow, pink, red, purple and green. You will need a watercolour paper which will take a good amount of water. You can use loose, ring bound, sketchbook or blocks for this project, blocks being best, of course, to prevent buckling.

Hanhnemuhle Harmony for Practise runs
Fabriano Artistico Watercolour paper - Hot Pressed for the Class Project

Washi or masking Tape (optional)

Mop Brush or round brush - I used 3/0 Jackson's Mop, in their Raven series) and Size 10 Escoda round brush.

Small round brush - I used a size 4 Princeton round brush

Pencil (optional)

When it comes to paints, you can mix and match between watercolour ink, watercolour, gouache and Brusho:

Choose any pink, red, purple, orange, blue & green

Dr Ph Martin's Radiant Concentrate Watercolour: Slate Blue & Moss Rose,

Tom's Studio calligraphy inks: English Rose, & Sunflower,

Rose Madder - Watercolour (Daniel Smith)

Perylene red or Pyroll Red - Watercolour (Daniel Smith)

Hansa Yellow Deep - Gouache (but you could use Watercolour or ink)

Perylene Violet - Watercolour (Daniel Smith)

Green Gold - Watercolour

Olive Green - I used Brusho Pigment Powder

Moss Green - Brusho Pigment powder

I also used a little Hansa Yellow Light Dr Ph M's ink and a little Permanent Green gouache - (these are optional)

*Brusho is a pigment powder manufactured by Colour Craft an eco-friendly, family-run business Sheffield, Just over the Pennines from where I was brought up! You can order directly from Colour Craft, though I don't know about overseas shipping, or it's available via Amazon

Marieke Dekker

Artistic wanderer (not lost)

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