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"When in doubt, leave it white." says American Art Director Gene Allen. I say why wait for the doubt?

This is an introductory class on how to paint negative space letters with watercolor. Discover here how you can take your hand lettering and watercolour skills to the next level using negative painting and layering techniques that you cannot achieve with any other medium.

In this class you will learn:

What is negative painting and how to achieve it?
What is negative space and it's significance in art and design?
Brush control techniques to master painting around shapes and inside tight spaces
Basic differences between the Wet-On-Wet and Wet-On-Dry techniques of watercolour painting
Colour blending techniques with watercolours
The significance of picking colors that work well together
Tips to discover hand lettering through the faux calligraphy technique.
How to plan your lettering piece taking advantage of negative painting techniques
Tips for sketching out a great composition
Negative space lettering with watercolours using two class project pieces.

Who is this class for?

This class is aimed at beginner and intermediate skill levels but artists at any level are welcome to join and give these projects a go. Traditional lettering artists can even use this class to explore a new dimension. We will not be diving deep into the basics of hand lettering or using watercolours. But you will find all information and guidelines you will need to try out the class project successfully here in this class. So if you don't consider yourself an artist, you can still achieve some great great results through this class. All experts were once beginners, after all.

Why negative lettering?

Artwork that involves clever use of negative spaces is always exciting. Search for images of negative space logos. Aren’t they super cool?
The effect of creating letters using negative space rather than positive can be easily achieved using various digital drawing, painting and design tools. However the breathtaking results of achieving this effect through analog methods is oddly satisfying and particularly charming.
White paint in any watercolor set mostly remains unused as watercolor paintings almost always make use of the white of the paper for white areas. These white areas stand out the most in a watercolor painting. So why not use this to our advantage for lettering so that our letters stand out in the best possible ways?

What will you need?

The materials you will require are:

Watercolour paints
300 gsm watercolour paper
Paint brushes (approximately size 2 For larger areas and size 1, 0 and 4/0 for tight spaces and detailing)
Pencil, ruler and eraser
Masking tape
Jar of water
Tissue paper

More specifics regarding materials I use will be detailed in the class. Please do not be disheartened if you do not have the exact materials available. You can always start with what you have. Just basic printer paper, some paints and brushes are enough to get you started.

Bhishma Desai

Calligraphy Enthusiast

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