My friend Cheryl mentioned that she wanted to paint a mural in her home. She and her husband Andy have visited Africa and on one visit, they found a pretty little Hornbill. She wants that to be in her mural, however she doesn’t feel confident enough to paint it. I assured her that she could with a little practise.
I went round to her house, armed with watercolours, paper, paintbrushes and a few other bits and pieces, to try to teach her how to paint.
I started with a tonal exercise, asking her to make a series of tones, using one colour. We started with red. When she had achieved that, I provided various white objects to use as tonal studies. Also on her dining table, where we worked, she has a darling little set of egg-shaped condiment vessels, including a pepper pot, which we used in this exercise.
Then Cheryl moved on to trying out her new learned technique to paint from her photo of the Hornbill.
This is her first attempt. We then had a lovely lunch break and returned to work, this time using watercolour paper, with mind to making a better and more thorough version of the picture.
Beautiful isn’t it! Considering that Cheryl hadn’t painted before, the progress she made in just one day was just brilliant! I am so proud! and when we put her first and second attempt together, the improvement was obvious!!
yummycheffarley 