Carol Sue Witt

                                                                                     Steppin' Out in Austin... is available as a notecard in my Etsy store,                                                                       Watergirl Art Etsy is a very popular site for those who have small businesses. During Covid, it has become even more popular. The word "etsy" has no particular meaning but in Greek it is "just because" which might be all the reason you need. For me, I find my expenses could use a little help as this is an expensive craft. There's always something new I want to buy, shows I want to enter, custom framing or a class I want to take.  I fought the idea of it for several years because I thought it would be too technical, too time consuming and too costly. I really just want to paint. In January 2020, I made the decision to open my own store, Watergirl Art, and have been pleased with the ease in all of these areas. It is relatively inexpensive

 Water is the most mesmerizing subject to capture! It is emotional,as it can be ominous and brooding as a storm approaches, or, peaceful and quiet on a sunny day at the beach. And watercolor is the perfect medium , in my opinion, to attempt to paint it. It is reflective, often moving in several directions, has foam and tiny particles in it and changes color with every ripple. So for my March class I decided to start with a giant ocean wave as it reached its peak. I suggested using transparent watercolors so that the colors could be seen as glazes were added and I painted on a 15"x22" piece of paper to honor it's size. So....how do we recreate a massive force of nature with all of its elements on a flat piece of paper? Here's how we attempted it: 1. Using a reference photo which was copied in color and also black and white ( easy value study), I sketched a transferrable image. Some did their own but I usually provide the sketch.                                        

Notice: Waterloo Watercolor Group has rescheduled my live demo of this process that was to be aired   on Thursday evening Feb 18th due to severe utility outages in the Austin Texas area  . I will post the new date as soon as it’s available.    Jump In...... If you haven’t tried creating an underpainting for your paintings you may be missing an opportunity to enrich your colors , loosen up and/or get out of a slump. This method is not new but it escapes some beginners as well as advanced watercolorists because a) it’s scary b) you do give up some control and c) it’s not the way you usually start your paintings. Guess what? Those are all good reasons to try it. How else will you grow? It literally jump starts your creative processes whether you had already sketched a scene or you were not sure what to paint. I was first introduced to a 3 color underpainting at a workshop given by Lian Quan Zheng in 2018. We actually painted this entire painting with just these 3 colors: Napthol Red, Han

 First of all, my apologies...I  dropped off posting after September as the last months of 2020 took me in several very busy new directions , despite Covid. We left Texas in the over 100 degree heat that blankets this area in summer to spend time with our California family. They have a home in Pacific Grove with temps reaching a pleasant 70 degrees in the summer. As always, the experience and travel taught me how to look at literally everything with a new appreciation of the beauty all around me.  I want to start 2021 with a renewed examination of reflections...are you interested?   I want to share the sequence of techniques and colors I used to create reflection in my current start of the year painting titled " Mirror, Mirror". Reflections are a mirrored image of the object they reflect and they create a wonderful opportunity to showcase what some may take for granted....light. I chose crystal because it is prismatic with sharp tiny slivers of changing color and value.  I st