This eight week course is two courses in one. 

The first four weeks will look at how to create and paint believable rock forms. 

The second four weeks will focus on mountain painting skills. Jason, your tutor, believes that the rock and mountain painting are strongly linked, so are ideally put together in a double-ended course. We will look at methods employed in the past as well as modern methods used by present day painters.

Jason's love of rocks and mountains was cultivated over several adventure walking trips in Morocco, France, Spain, Slovenia, Poland and of course Scotland. He has spent many years exploring which paint effects and approaches work well. On this course he will be sharing his findings with you, concentrating on the techniques that can most quickly improve your rock and mountain painting skills.

Level – This course would suit those that have a little experience of watercolour.

Why does Jason think this course would be of value to you as a watercolour painter ?

By gaining greater skills at painting rocks your mountain painting improves and visa versa. The two are linked.

Artists often lift their skill level of painting rocks when they can begin to visualise forms in three dimensions. Before they make this jump rocks are often just textured shapes. This course is intended to help you create more three dimensional rocks, with convincing shadow work and believable textures.

Painting mountains is a delight in watercolour. You can paint them to look broody and ominous or light and ethereal, highly textured or lost in the mist. It can be a playful subject to paint where you can combine a rich array of techniques - including elements of abstraction - or keep it simple and sketchy. There is no right or wrong way to paint mountains, but all are fun to explore. With your new found rock painting skills developed in the first four weeks this section of the course should be easier and more enjoyable.

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What will you do on the course ?

• Explore models of rock construction

• Shadows on round and sharp edged rocks

• Building depth in shadowed areas

• Directional mark making to help sculpt forms

• Texture making ideas

• Colour variation - where and why?

• Using stencils

• Look at wet-in-wet effects in watercolour that      work well to illustrate changing colour and tonality in mountain scenes

• Explore the value of lost and found edges to      illustrate mist and rain.

• Create a number of samples to try a variety of      textural effects to shorthand the look of rock and scree

• Examine the effects Turner employed to      illustrate mountains within his watercolours, that could prove useful

• Look at ways to structure the mountains to add      density and believability to your images

• Use pen drawing methods used by illustrators      to depict mountain terrain

• Look at the use of figures and props to help      set the scale

• Create your own artwork using some of the      ideas explored on the course

What will you need to bring ?

Please bring your usual watercolour painting kit to the first class, plus a misting water spray bottle and a kitchen J-cloth.

You will also need to bring a pen and pencil, eraser and sharpener, some drawing paper and watercolour paper to the first lesson as well as your painting kit.

Tea and coffee are provided