Dusk Watercolours- Week 2 Barbican

Our final session of  Dusk Watercolours was held at the Barbican, in the seating area by the fountains, with opportunities to tackle buildings both ancient and modern. Having missed guidance for 2 sessions by  playing hookey, the tutor was determined I should experiment with techniques outside my comfort zone,  using candle wax resists and gum arabic

Not my best efforts but I enjoyed the opportunities to abstract and a new appreciation of concrete!

Lots of water to interpret - I was just about to tackle some amazing ripples and reflections when they switched some of the fountains off ( it was also quite windy) so I settled for drawing the shapes around   this round fountain . Rather overworked in the end as I struggled to balance the tones, the details look more interesting than the whole.

 

Overall I had mixed feelings about the course, nothing wrong with the tutor but having some experience already in watercolours (and being rather settled in my ways!) I didn't get as much out of it as I'd hoped. The emphasis was on colour mixing and techniques whereas I would have liked a bit more on composition as that in my opinion is what makes or breaks a work of art. I did however enjoy the challenge of urban sketching and will be looking at more courses that take me in that direction, particular the opportunities to make more abstract images.