Denise Soden

Fur, Feathers, and Scales: Painting Animal Textures in Watercolors

Incredible work. The amount of control you have over the medium is inspiring. Hope to develop that level of control someday. Thanks for sharing. *edit* Oops didn't realize you were the instructor haha. I was just checking the student contributions before I commit to the course. After seeing your work up close it's a no-brainer. Can't wait to see how you'll pull those images off.

Am looking forward to this workshop. The content is very interesting. It looks challenging but one must resist being chicken. One request-you make fine art with watercolor pans. I prefer them for many practical reasons but sometimes they frustrate. Have you any suggestions on how to get the best from them e.g. mixing up large batches of color, getting the right value repeatedly etc. I checked out your other classes: you used a waterbrush for the eyes class-somenthing I have never tried and a tube in the rhino class. Any wisdom you can share would be most appreciated.

Hi there! Those are great questions. I do very strongly prefer working from pans as I work on a smaller scale most of the time. If I do decide to work on a larger piece that requires a lot of one color, I will use tube paint if that's an option. If it's not, I'd recommend using a moderately size (size 6 or 8 round or a 1/2" flat brush) *synthetic* brush to mix up all of your paint for a wash if using a pan. They are more sturdy and don't hold as much excess water and paint to get stuck in them, if that makes sense :)

Yay for synthetics, don't want creatures to suffer for  my "art". 

Pan question F/U: Aside from big washes, do you mix up concentrated puddles and then dilute?  Do you dip directly into pan to get strong inky colors like on the fox nose and snake eye?

Thank you for taking the time.  Last questions-I promise :)

Yes, concentrated puddles then dilute - you can see an example of that mid way through the flamingo tutorial :) I rarely go straight from pan to paper without putting it on my mixing area, even in strong amounts, in order to smooth out the texture of the paint.

I subscribed to skill share at Christmas because of you. I follow you on YouTube and I enjoyed to beginner class you did. I love your teaching!

Thank you so much Kristin! I hope you're enjoying your time here! There's so much great content coming out these days.

I just wanted to say...I am SO excited for this class!!!

Thank you so much Teresa!! I'm so excited that you're excited! :D

This is a must see workshop! The depth of knowledge shared is superb and Denise's teaching style makes it relaxing and fun!

This class was a LOT of work, but also a ton of fun! I really surprised myself with the fox piece in particular and hope that you all get just as much enjoyment out of it.&nbsp;
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/75bac664" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 1 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/75bac664 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/75bac664 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/e1bafbec" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 2 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/e1bafbec 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/e1bafbec 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/3dc90cc3" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 3 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/3dc90cc3 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/3dc90cc3 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
Class Exercises:
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/51501c1a" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 4 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/51501c1a 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/51501c1a 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
Close ups of my favorites from each category:
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/879adedc" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 5 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/879adedc 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/879adedc 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/00955099" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 6 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/00955099 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/00955099 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">
<img style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;" src="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/206db71b" alt="Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my! - image 7 - student project" srcset="https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=600,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/206db71b 600w, https://static.skillshare.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=80,width=1000,format=auto/uploads/project/44fa8a3023c929af77afc0421cf7e3df/206db71b 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 600px, 100vw" loading="lazy">

Fur, Feathers, and Scales - Oh my!

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