Painting George - A Large Scale Watercolour of an Animal

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In this watercolour workshop, I will guide you through how to paint a large (scaled up) animal portrait in watercolour using gridding in the initial stages in order to get an accurately proportioned end result without having to learn major drawing skills. To demonstrate I use a photo of my favourite furry boy, George, my chocolate labrador. You can also paint George along with me, (he would be flattered!) or you can choose a photo of your own pet or favourite animal to grid up and paint. You can even apply the method to human portraits.

Many professional artists going back thousands of years used gridding as a pragmatic way to scale up their carefully planned drawings into huge scale! Indeed, it's still the go-to method for many mural makers. Lets just smash the myth that you cannot use tools to achieve your end goals because its not 'pure'. Many fine artists/draftspersons who might draw perfect and detailed sketches in their sketch book will use a grid or a projector to transfer it to a large scale canvas because it simply takes too much time to redraw from scratch, and is almost impossible due to our inability to retain perspective in large scale.

So together let's stop the pretending and mystery around how to do it and roll up our sleeves and get it done easily with step by step instructions so that we can move on to create a powerful and simple portrait of your favourite animal.

And that is the end goal - to get to the painting process in a state of high confidence about our underlying drawing. We will then use flowing and free big brush watercolour in a way that smashes all the ideas of it being a ‘conservative and boring’ medium. You will be surprised at how a strong foundation can give you so much freedom when you start to paint.

This workshop is suitable for any level - from professional to beginner as most of my workshops are. I believe as a long time artist I can learn and grow from other artists all the time despite my thirty years in the industry, therefore so can you if you are an established artist. If you are a beginner, you will love this workshop because quite simply you will be able to do it!

My style of teaching is casual but directed at your maximum learning, therefore I do not hold back on anything as I go. The way I paint includes understanding ‘the nature of paint’ and when you do, you know that it has its own mind therefore that is part of how I teach, with this understanding. To be creative in my view is to 'be creative' and to stay open to what comes along as we go. We ‘go with the flow’ literally and there are always great rewards. For those who like a more regimented approach you will find that the steps are all very clear as well!

Come on and join me and let's see if you can knock the socks off of your family or doubting relatives with a stunning portrait of your animal. 😄

Overview of the Workshop

We begin with a quick run down of the materials you will be using so you have a better understanding of why I used certain things in this workshop. Then we move onto the more technical part of gridding up. I have provided very detailed instruction for you in the videos and a downloadable sheet. We will then draw up the subject. Then its time to load up our palettes so we can begin the fun!

I will take you through every step of the painting process I use, including how to capture beautiful detail in the eyes. You will learn how to be loose and at the same time create a crisp focal point where it matters. As always the idea of my teaching is to enable you with a real skill in an area of painting so you can then head off and experiment later on and create your own unique artworks.

In this workshop I have created two versions of the same workshop so you can work with the one that most suits your learning style. One version is narrated by myself so you can keep abreast of what is going through my head as I paint, and the other contains captions with key points only, and is backed with music (no talking! - please top smiling) 😆 so you can ‘turn me off’ if you wish!