Watercolor Class Wrap-Up

This morning we had our "Experimental Watermedia Techniques" wrap-up class at the Arboretum.  We all brought the pieces we've been working on since we created backgrounds a couple of weeks ago in class.  Above is my whimsical piece.  The technique was dipping cheesecloth in watercolors and then placing it on the paper to dry and create a textured background.  But as mine was drying, I kept thinking of a fishnet.  So I glued the cheesecloth to the paper, drew some little fish, and this is the result.

Below are a couple of backgrounds that I decided to try to calligraphy on.  With the rough (coldpress) watercolor paper, I'm not really pleased about my letterforms.  But I like the quotes.

And finally, this was the hardest piece to work on.  We put fresh leaves down on wet presentation board (I think that's what it's called), and then generously dabbed watercolors all over.  We put plastic wrap over the whole thing, smooshed it around a bit for effect, and let it dry.  After peeling off the plastic wrap and leaves and letting the paint dry thoroughly, it was up to us to decide how to finish.  I decided to use opaque white paint to highlight the areas around the three main leaves.  I don't think it's done yet, but this is as far as I got with it so far.

There were lots of other very creative pieces by my classmates as well.  What a fun class!