Watercolor Academy review by Jonathan Harris

Watercolor Academy review by Jonathan Harris, Academy student

I'm very happy that so much that I'm missing can be learned in one place, Watercolor Academy

I was about 48 when I take up drawing. I challenged myself to draw portraits as for me, portraiture is the top genre in art. I thought that if I could do that, I can certainly draw anything I want. To my own surprise, these drawings turn out not too badly, and that is when I realize that may be I can draw after all, and I wanted to pursue it. I found that my drawings were flat, and I have decided that I need to find out how to make my artworks pop up. Making black and white pictures in graphite was a bit boring and I quickly mover to color medium, watercoor.

After many wasted watercolor sheets, I saw that the more I paint in watercolor, the more it becomes apparent that I know very little about this medium and I am lacking basic knowledge of painting. Thus I started my quest for some art lessons. I enrolled with a local artist to learn classical portrait drawing and have taken lessons on and off for 6 years. I really enjoyed these lessons and have learned a lot.

I want to be able to draw from imagination and having to not look at reference images. I do practice and the work that I do without references may take several days to finish. Depicting tonal values in watercolor is another skill I think I need to go over. I do know the main concepts of it but I struggle to get into very dark shadows without it looking off. Another skill I think I need to improve is colour theory. Although it may sound like a simple task, I sometimes struggle to make the foreground and background balance with each other. I also struggle with perspective, it's because of this that I mainly draw portraits of a face and not environments.

Since the last year, I have spend a lot of time on my drawing and painting. That is when I decided that I wanted to become a true artist.

I'm very happy that so much that I'm missing can be learned in one place, Watercolor Academy.

I subscribed into the online course and go from lesson to lesson in a steady pace. There is so much to learn here.

The best thing for me about this watercolor course is that every time I have a question about anything to do with painting, I get almost an instant reply from the Watercolor Academy team explaining what I need to improve and how. This support is literally priceless, not to mention that it's absolutely free of charge. Never before this course, my painting troubles were address by someone so attentively and professionally. I feel that I'm not alone in my quest and can always rely on the Watercolor Academy tutors.

I want to be able to draw from imagination and having to not look at reference images. My goal is to be able to draw and paint anything with ease. I want to perfect my classical art techniques, to expand my art horizon and to learn gesture drawing and figure painting. My long term goal is to be able to introduce myself to others as an artist, when asked what is my profession.

Jonathan

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