Watercolor painting has a rich tradition dating back centuries, and is still enjoyed by today's artists for its unique color effects and wide range of techniques.

Throughout this intensive three-lesson course, you'll try out traditional techniques including various washes, glazes, scumbles, resists, and more, and learn how to make the techniques part of your personal painting style. The course begins with a look at the materials and how to make the most of them, and you'll explore watercolor's unique properties by creating a color grid. Your lessons wrap up with a look at prominent watercolor artists, how to shape your style and choose intriguing subjects, and how to articulate your ideas into individual paintings and painting series.

Each lesson introduces theory and techniques hands-on, which you'll further apply in several complete paintings. Accomplished watercolor artist Annika Connor guides you and provides professional critique to help develop your work.

Add Watercolor Studio to stretch your skills.

Annika Connor’s paintings depict a fascination with beauty and decadence. They present the viewer with spaces to exist in, which are both alluring and unsettling. The paintings are infused with mystery and convey a sense of unbalance. Overall, they seem to be fragments from a daydream, and portray a longing for a time of romance and pleasure. In 2002, Annika received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she studied painting and philosophy. Since then, Annika has worked professionally as a painter in New York and London and participated in numerous exhibitions in California, Chicago, Atlanta, and New York. Reviews and publication of her work have appeared in Art Papers magazine, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, Creative Loafing newspaper, C-Heads magazine, and in many other Internet and local publications. Annika Connor is Swedish-American with dual citizenship status. She currently resides in Manhattan where she maintains an active studio.

To take this course, you'll need:

• Computer with Internet connection (56.6 Kbps modem or faster is recommended).
• Watercolor paints, paper, brushes, and other art supplies are described in depth and available at a discount at the beginning of the class. Supplies may vary based on student needs and should be purchased after entering the class.
• Basic experience in drawing and painting.
• A digital camera (or ability to digitize film photos) to present your artwork digitally.

Students can expect to learn how to:

• Select appropriate materials for watercolor painting.
• Create a color grid and demonstrate watercolor's unique color properties.
• Mix colors, create an appropriate water:paint ratio, and load the brush.
• Establish control over the brush and a wide range of brush marks.
• Use drawing, blocking, and underpainting to prepare a watercolor painting.
• Apply paint using washes, glazes, scumbles, textures, resists, and other important techniques.
• Use historical influence and artist studies to shape your personal style.
• Paint representationally and choose engaging subject matter.
• Articulate your painting concepts in individual pieces and series.

Lesson 1: Essential Knowledge for Watercolor
Choosing the right materials is essential to creating watercolor art, and in this lesson you are introduced to the paints, brushes, papers, and other tools necessary. And you'll use them right away as you will also explore color's qualities and basic color mixing, and create a color grid. You'll take an introductory look at water to paint ratio and basic mark-making, then move on to the exercise where you'll practice the fundamentals with two monochromatic pieces.

Lesson 2: Special Techniques for Watercolor
Watercolor's wide range of techniques make this medium so versatile, and you'll explore many of them in this lesson, starting with mastering your brush strokes, correcting mistakes, and tips for underpainting. You'll learn to apply flat and graded washes, create interesting dry brush effects, work with wet-in-wet paintings, and use materials like tissue, plastic, and wax for infinite looks and styles. In the exercise, you'll incorporate many of these techniques in two paintings, and even try to create a technique of your own.

Lesson 3: Creating a Body of Work
The medium of watercolor is centuries old, and there is much to be learned from prominent traditional artists. While exploring many of these important figures, you'll learn to dissect their systems and apply historical influence to your work. Subject matter is explored, including why we learn representational painting and how to engage the audience with your subjects. Development of a series is also covered, and you'll apply what you've learned in the exercise, creating your own series of works.