Fun with Watercolor!

In the last 8 months or so I have been doing a surprising number of private and corporate commissions that call for original art as opposed to digital. While I can hem and haw my way through a painting like that reasonably well, it has been so long since I did a lot of traditional art jobs I felt like I needed a refresher course in working in watercolor. So, I looked up a former instructor from my art college days who I knew lived in my area, and asked if he was interested in spending a couple of hours working with me on my watercolor technique. The piece above was the result of our several hours together yesterday. Sepia ink and watercolor on illustration board.

The instructor’s name is Fred Dingler (he doesn’t have much of a web presence, sorry), and like most of the teachers at my now defunct alma mater The School of Associated Arts, he only taught part time. Almost all the teachers at that school were full time working professionals in their field. Fred worked in advertising illustration, fine art painting, product illustration, you name it, for 60 plus years.

Fred is an amazing painter in oil, acrylic and especially watercolor. I learned a lot of stuff I’d forgotten and a lot of stuff I never knew about working in watercolor yesterday. I’d also forgotten how much fun it can be to unplug and get your paint on. I’m going to try and do more of it.