I am combining two things that I love doing: calligraphy and botanicals! I have freshened up the look of a regular freehand calligraphy writing by adding up blooms and interlacing it with the petals and leaves to give a 3D effect.

In this class, we will deal with the basics of watercolor (techniques and mixtures) as well as a quick intro on freehand calligraphy. We'll illustrate and paint a simple Anemone flower and create a floral type with an inspirational word!

The topics we'll cover are:

Tools
Basic introduction to watercolor
Watercolor mixtures
Watercolor techniques
Freehand calligraphy overview
Laying out the text and illustrating flowers
Painting and Final artwork

MATERIALS USED:

1. Watercolor Paper: ideally, it should be 300 gsm so it can absorb more water. I use Arches watercolor paper in cold-press. You can use Fabriano or Strathmore (or any of your brand preferences).

2. Watercolor Paints: I use an artist-grade Mission Gold paint from Mijello. The colors are very vibrant and ideal for botanical paintings. Artist grade paints last longer than student grade ones but feel free to use any watercolor paint that is available to you.

3. Watercolor Brushes: I used round brushes for the class. Can be synthetic or real Sable. I have round brushes of Raphael and Escoda brushes in different sizes. Small round brushes (3/0 to 0) are good for painting smaller details. Bigger round brushes can cover more areas.

4. Pencil and Eraser: Stabilo Othello pencils in 4H to HB are okay for sketching. Note that you should avoid using darker leads because it's harder to remove on paper and you want to sketch as lightly as possible to avoid leaving pencil marks on your artwork. Eraser can be any as long as you lightly erase as well as erasing can destroy the surface of the watercolor paper.

5. Water containers: I prefer using two separate buckets to prevent my paints from getting muddy. One should be for rinsing the brushes when you want to change pigments. The other one is to activate the paint.

6. Paper towel or Reusable rags: Used to clean the brush or to wipe excess pigments/water from the brush.

Marina Osorio

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