In this class, Casey Saccomanno takes you through her process of inspiration and demonstrates how she paints beautiful nature inspired watercolor illustrations frequently used in her bohemian textile prints.

Using these introductory skills you will be able to make your own bohemian art pieces including a beautiful color palette swatch, textured moon and detailed feathers. Each technique/chapter will have a small project assigned.

Course guide:
- 1. Inspiration process and color palette creation
- 2. Paint a moon
- 3. Paint feathers
- 4. Play with Masking fluid
- 5. Upload all your projects for feedback from the class!

This class is not just for textile designers, the class is geared towards anyone with an interest in new watercolor painting techniques, no prior knowledge is required. Just a love for creativity, color, & nature! All levels welcome.

Stay tuned for a future intermediate class focused on the painting process and how to use photoshop to create a repeating pattern that can be applied to products of your choice.

Supply/Materials

All of the supplies below are just suggestions, you may work with whichever brands you are most comfortable with. Almost all the supplies below can be found at Dick Blick and I included some links to the products in the descriptions for you.

Paper Options:

Strathmore watercolor cold press paper *140lb. Weight or higher to avoid your paper from curling. You can choose whichever size you want- I usually work on 11x15in pad for small illustrations.

Watercolor Options:

PAN SET (you have many options to choose from): St. Petersburg White Nights Watercolour: 36 Pan Set is my favorite, but Winstor & Newton makes smaller pan sets as well.
Ph. Martins Radiant Concentrated Watercolor are great for bright colors, but they run about $6 per bottle. My favorite colors are persimmon and ice pink :)
Watercolor tubes: any quality that is in your price range is acceptable for my class, I rarely use watercolor tubes, but one color that is great to invest in is Holbein’s Artist’s Watercolor- Lavender… this color is just tricky to custom mix up!

Masking Fluid:

Schmincke blue masking fluid is the best option because of the narrow tip, but Winsor & Newton masking fluid can work as well, just don’t use with a nice brush and try to buy the slightly yellow option if possible.

Brushes:

I love Grumbacher Round Synthetic Watercolor brushes, but you can use whichever brand/price range you prefer. I recommend having a few sizes. Round 0, Round 2 or 3, Round 5 or 6, and a Round 8 or 10 will be perfect for my class.

White Paint:

I love Copic optic white paint but white gouache (any brand) can work as well.

Gold Paint:

Winsor Newton Metallic gold ink is my favorite.

Other Supplies:

2H graphite pencil, eraser, sharpener
Metallic drawing pens
Paint palette
Sea salt
Paper towels
India Ink- Black, any brand works!
Black water resistant pens- Staedtler and Micron are my favs.

Inspiration resources!

You can refer to my Pinterest page for inspiration if you do not have you own pages: https://www.pinterest.com/caseyleas/
I have created some specific inspiration pages to guide you through the class:
COLOR INSPIRATION
UNIVERSE & MOON INSPIRATION
MYSTICAL FEATHERS INSPIRATION

My friend Erin has a great instagram for feather inspiration, Check it out here: Erinlightfeather

Filming and Editing of this class by Bryan Kirkwood.

Silvia Muchwitsch

Watercolor & Gouache

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