I am taking a three-day workshop at the San Diego Watercolor Society on mixing luminous skin color. The studio is gorgeous with a teaching station and a separate desk area. The teaching station has a huge mirror above the teacher so the students can follow the demonstration while seated near her. The class so far involves an amazing artist modeling painting techniques and then the 15 students go to their desks and strive to replicate the demonstration. I was able to get several sketches as my stamina for following the demonstration is not adequate and at some point I became saturated and in need of sketching therapy.

This is actually a planned sketch and the results of a few thumbnail sketches. The mirror was challenging as was deciding how many students to place in the sketch so the viewer’s eyes move toward the teacher.  It tells a story and I think I captured the body language of the three students. It is ironic that the skin tones of these figures are not more luminous but the technique involves layering a wash, letting it dry, and then repeating this sequence many more times and I only had the patience for two layers on this sketch.

I used a brush pen at the workshop and watercolor later at home.