Join Yesim for a relaxed and creative Term 4 watercolour class designed for all skill levels from beginners through to experienced painters.
We will explore a variety of watercolour techniques, including washes, colour mixing, layering, wet-into-wet, dry brush, lifting, texture, granulation, edges and creating light and atmosphere.
Each class will combine demonstrations, guided exercises and painting projects, allowing beginners to build confidence with the fundamentals while more experienced students can refine their skills and experiment with their own style.
The emphasis will be on exploration, observation and discovering what water and pigment can do, rather than simply following a step-by-step painting. Students will be encouraged to work at their own level, develop greater confidence with the medium and, most importantly, enjoy the beautiful unpredictability of watercolour.

Materials Required

Understanding your materials is essential. The materials listed below are the result of long-term research, experimentation with different quality products, and careful selection of what works best for my painting process.

Student-grade materials are often a recipe for frustration. I would much rather see students attend with limited artist-grade supplies than an abundance of student-grade paints, paper, and brushes.

I hope you’ll consider these suggestions carefully to get the maximum benefit from the classes.

Paints (5 or 14 mL tubes)

Below is a selection of hues from my own palette, with preferred brands noted.

In addition to the Lunar granulating pigments listed below, I also use a selection of professional-quality tube paints (not pans). There is no need to purchase everything listed below. But a basic set of warm and cool primaries, along with a few earthy tones are required.

• Hansa Yellow Light or Winsor Yellow (preferably Winsor & Newton = W&N)
• New Gamboge (preferably Daniel Smith)
• Raw Sienna (W&N), 
• Quinacridone Gold
• Raw Umber (preferably W&N)
• Light Red (preferably W&N)
• Burnt Sienna (preferably W&N)
• Burnt Umber (preferably W&N)
• Sepia
• Cadmium Red Light
• Permanent Rose (preferably W&N)
• Lavender (DS or Holbein)
• Cerulean Blue (PB36 or PB35) (preferably W&N)
• Cobalt Blue
• Ultramarine or French Ultramarine Blue  
• Phthalate Blue (PB15) – Winsor Blue Red Shade (either W&N or DS)
• Cobalt Turquoise Light
• Viridian (DS)

For granulation effects, I specifically use and recommend the Daniel Smith Lunar and Primatek™ series watercolours. Suggested pigments (tubes only — no pans, please) include:

If you choose to invest in one or two granulating pigments, Lunar Black and Lunar Earth are excellent choices to start the technique. These are ideal for mixing with other colours and for learning how the granulation process behaves. e.g.

• Lunar Black,
• Lunar Earth,
• Lunar Blue,

See one of the class image showing a selection of my basic cool, warm, and earthy pigments arranged on a John Pike palette. Please note that this palette is not leak-proof and therefore not suitable when traveling; however, it offers generous well sizes, and the lid doubles as a mixing area.