Watercolor Crafternoons
"How come watercolor was never this fun when we were kids?"
I mused this as soon as our teacher for the day, Alessa Lanot of Life After Breakfast started demonstrating the different strokes one can do on 300 gsm paper and various-shaped watercolor brushes.
It was a Sunday afternoon and while the rest of Manila was in siesta, my friends and I were happily stowed away at the fourth floor of Fully Booked at BGC {where, incidentally, my photo was on display already YAY!}, tinkering with water, color and drawing and doodling away.
Naturally, I asked everyone NOT to judge my artwork when we're done {queue huge guffaw} as my only background in art are my super *kick ass* Photoshop skillz :P As it turned out, most of us in the class had no background and were looking to make more sense of our Sunday afternoons, doing something productive with our hands.
The first part of the afternoon was all about learning the various strokes {wet on wet, thin and thick, dry, flat}. When Alessa was demonstrating and we, obedient students, I was amazed at how things worked out. My strokes looked normal! Artsy, even!
It was a refreshing experience, to test the capability of my fingers, rather than relying on accuracy to maintain my strokes. As compared to my Photoshop skills, watercolor drawing was far more challenging. There was no Command + Z to click when you pick the wrong color, stroke beyond the lines or spill water on your paper.
It was almost like I was back to kindergarten --- there was no expert, there was no competition, and everyone had sloppy drawings =P In the middle of the drawing frenzy, we were fed yummy chocolate chip cookies and healthy taro chips.
The next half of the class was focused on the sort of challenging activity that is to draw our name using shapes, what we had for breakfast and our initial prettified with flowers.
My 'classmates' show their work of watercolor art
And just like in kindergarten, you make some friends with your seatmates. Hello, Angela!
And of course take a class photo =)
I could've been the most enthusiastic of the class. I came out of the class giddy with happiness --- maybe because it's too fun doodling and choosing colors and splashing your work with color. And for someone who tips and taps on a MacBook and an iPad most of the time --- it was so nice to do something new with my fingers.
Hmmm, now which one of her other classes to attend to next? Details on Alessa's classes can be found on her blog, Life After Breakfast.