Dates:
28th April-4th May 2019
Learning goals:
- Becoming confident with your watercolour
- Handling different techniques with ease and fluency
- Become familiar with classic techniques such as glazing and wet-on-wet
- Avoiding common pitfalls
The location:
Portugal's Algarve region is well known for its beautiful beaches, great food and sunny climate. We'll stay in two special places during this week-long workshop.
Armaçao de Pera is a fishing village along the south coast with a pristine, long sandy beach.
Aldeia de Pedralva is a restored village near Sagres on the west coast of the Algarve.
Our trip will take us to both villages and we will explore the region around each during the workshop.
The workshop:
We all know how beautiful watercolour can look, but sometimes it feels as if that beauty is out of reach. Streaky surfaces, muddy finishes and a struggle to achieve the glorious transparency we see others producing.
In this workshop, you will learn lots of simple techniques that will allow you to master watercolour in a way that is simple and easy to access, in the warmth and beauty of Portugal's Algarve region.
Accommodation and Meals:
Accommodation is included in the cost. There will be three nights at the Holiday Inn in Armaçao de Pera and three nights in the restored village of Aldeia da Pedralva. All rooms are single occupancy unless otherwise requested.
Every evening we will eat together in a convivial and warm environment, so the trip is ideal for solo travellers. Breakfast and dinners are also included but lunch is at the participants' own expense.
Each evening you will be asked to extend your day's learning by half an hour and practice the technique of the day on a bottle or glass over dinner!
Day 1:
Sketching on the first evening will include dry brush techniques, wet-on-wet and avoiding visible brushstrokes. We'll relax along the promenade and sketch the world-famous sunset using a variety of techniques to capture the sparkle of sunlight on water and a sky full of colour.
Focus on:
- The basics of watercolour
- How to avoid visible brushstrokes in a large body of colour
- How to blend using wet-on-wet
- Using masking fluid for sparkles on water
- Dry (drier) brush techniques
Day 2:
We will relax around Armaçao de Pera, sketching the boats bringing in the catch and the typical bustling Algarve village of Armaçao, including the old town.
Focus on:
- Avoiding muddy results
- How to subtly change colour through transparent washes
- Achieving a deep, rich colour
- Avoiding wishy-washy colour
- Colour popping
Day 3:
We will travel to Aldeia da Pedralva and its environs, and make a trip to the beach.
Focus on:
- Blooms – how they form, how to avoid them, when to embrace them
- The power of wet-on-wet
- Learning to let go of control
Day 4:
In the morning we will explore the power of values in watercolour, becoming familiar with blues and how they can be used to convey light and shadow. We will explore ways to add people on the beach to a sketch.
Focus on:
- Recognising values
- Getting to know your blues
- Using a limited palette
- Light and shadow
- Making subjects glow
- Adding people to a sketch in watercolour
The afternoon is for relaxing. There is a trip to the magical caves of Benagil organised for those who would like to avail of it, otherwise the afternoon is yours.
How the white of the page can make buildings glow, and how it can be used for foliage to convey light hitting the tops of trees. We will make quick studies of trees, clouds and reflections.
Focus on:
- Leaving the white of the page
- Fixing spashes and stains
- Foliage, clouds and reflections
Day 6:
Warm and cold colours: the power of a limited palette. How to avoid clashing colours.
Focus on:
- Keeping to three colours
- Harmonising colours
- Understanding warm and cold colour
- Avoiding a clash
- Translating reality into watercolour on the page
Day 7:
Our last morning in Portugal will be spent having fun with watercolour, putting into practice any of the techniques you've enjoyed over the week.
Focus on:
- Freestyling with watercolour
- Letting go of control
After that, there will be a farewell lunch in the old town of Faro for those whose schedule allows it.
Cost:
The cost of the workshop is €1850.
Details of registration and booking are available from roisincurepictures@gmail.com
Included:
Accommodation, breakfast and dinner, travel within the workshop and tuition over six days.
Not included:
Alcoholic beverages, lunch, travel to and from Portugal on the first and last day of the workshop.
Non-sketching travelling companions although they are most welcome to join us.
About the instructor:
Róisín Curé is from Galway on the west coast of Ireland. She is a teacher, urban sketcher and writer and is the author of An Urban Sketcher's Galway, to be published with Currach Press in May 2019. As well as hosting many international urban sketching workshops in Galway, Ireland and Kent, UK, Róisín taught at USk Porto in 2018 and will teach at USk Amsterdam in 2019. She is a member of the Irish Watercolour Society but her passion is for on-location drawing and the stories that go with it.
Róisín fell in love with Portugal during the Sketch Tour Portugal in which she took part and is proud to bring sketchers to this special part of Europe.
