In the three weeks, I painted two watercolours - the first time I have used watercolours in more complicated paintings, it was frustrating but in the end it was satisfactory but not perfect.
The first one is mainly using blue, we had to have a headland and a boat. I added a little bit of red at the end on the instruction of the art teacher. The watercolour paints smell disgusting and you have to dive right down to the bottom of the pot for the dark blue of the headland.
The second painting had to have water, mountains and a person. I painted the hills perfectly the first time but didn't paint far enough down so I had to repaint them, and to put it nicely they came out differently. The sky took a lot of effort, possibly too much effort. The paper stretched and crinkled after too much painting but that is hard to avoid, possibly the only way is getting it right the first time.
The balloon was an on the spot idea for the people and you can just see them looking out across the water from the basket.
I like it but I wish I hadn't spent so much time trying to make it perfect.
The last painting was using acrylic paints. I didn't have enough time to finish mine unfortunately, so it has been cut down. It would have been good to spend more time filling in the gaps but the thick paint and clumsy paintbrushes made that hard. On an afterthought I should have started on the outside and painted each square of the edge of the last, no white gaps but hard to plan out...
It was nice experiencing art lessons in another country and the different way they teach. In Australia we have
done a lot more drawing so it was nice to have a change.
