Project 1 – floral, wet in wet with salt and plastic food wrap

Materials

Paint: van Gogh colours: Viridian ( very strong green), Ulramarine Blue, Madder Lake deep, Lemon Yellow, Paynes Grey (available in Manor Geneva or online)

Paper: 300gms Windsor & Newton

Brushes: #14 + very small

• Draw 3 large flower shapes of different sizes 2/3 of the way up the paper (flowers should touch the edges of the painting)
• Turn painting upside-down and paint top section (not flowers) with water only
• Drop in lemon yellow blending to madder lake + ultramarine on the left sprinkle on salt in definite areas (don't sprinkle all over - it's not pizza!)
• Draw in some effects with water soluble crayon
• Turn paper right way up and paint bottom area (not flowers) with water
• Drop in blue + madder on the right and viridian on the left
• Place food wrap on one section (don't use over the whole area and place before the paint begins to dry) - think in diagonals, these will form your stems and leave shapes
• Put aside & allow to dry naturally (you can't use the hairdryer as the salt flies off!)
• When all the paint is dry remove salt and plastic food wrap
• Paint some shadows on the flowers where the petals overlap with very pale paynes grey. Try not to make all the shadows the same size and shape!
• Allow to dry
• Decide where the centres of the flowers will be (not all the same size and in a horizontal line) and paint an area larger than your centre with water
• Mix a strong paynes grey and literally drop on to the water
• Draw the lines radiating from the centres and some dots - use irregular lines try not to make them look like spiders!

Project 2 – landscape with clouds

Materials

Paint: van Gogh colours: Cerulean Blue, Ulramarine Blue, Madder Lake Deep, Raw Sienna (yellow), Sap Green (available in Manor Geneva or online)

Paper: 300gms Fabriano

Brushes: #14 + very small

• Sketch the landscape either with water soluble crayons or a soft pencil (B or 2B - NOT H)
• If your lines are very visible erase some of them (if you don't want the pencil lines to show through the paint)
• Turn the board upside down and paint the sky with water then a mixture of the 2 blues, moving the board around to mix the paint
• Paint the area just above the line of trees with a very pale raw sienna (dont worry if it goes into the tree shapes but try to keep it away from the buildings) Dry
• Leave the next shape white for the moment and paint the 3rd shape from the top with water then drop in raw sienna, cerulean + ultramarine and some madder. Paint down to a horizontal horizon. Don't forget clouds are white at the top and get darker at the bottom.
• Whilst the paint is still damp sweep over the horizontal horizon line with clean water to blend the bottom edge over the pale raw sienna (above the trees). Try to avoid a strong horizontal line here
• Paint in the trees with a strong mix of ultramarine, madder + sienna
• Whilst still wet add the foreground in sap green
• Allow everything to dry before adding some greys to the top clouds
• Then add the splatter effect with a toothbrush on the foreground (don't forget to mask out the areas that you don't want to splatter)