Unconventional Watercolor Selfie" Portrait Workshop

We are into our 3rd week of 5 classes and all of the students are creating some remarkable portraits!

General News for the Sandy Guild Members

I have added a new page, in the right sidebar, with a list of the books we currently have in our Library.  To view the list, simply click on: "Our Library".  To check out these books, please speak to Karla.  If you have any books or DVD's you would like to donate, they would be welcomed.  Sharing knowledge is a wonderful gift.

Christmas is fast approaching and we are trying to make plans for our annual Christmas Party.  This year we are unable to secure our usual caterer, but we thought a potluck, family style meal was the next best thing.  We are ordering a Honey-Baked Ham as the main meat dish.  If you would like to bring a side dish to go with the main dish, please let Sharron Bell know what you would like to bring.  Her number is: 801 676 9904  There is plenty of time for you to decide.  I will send out another reminder next month.  Please let her know whether or not you prefer Apple Juice or Apple Cider.  (We will provide these refreshments as well).

Gift Exchange-in the past we have shared either a 5 x 7 or 8 x 10 watercolor and it is such a favorite gift, we will be doing another exchange this year at the party.

If anyone would like to volunteer to help with the party, decorations, music, table settings, etc. please contact Sharron.

Our October Meeting on the 15th is the annual Dick Blick Demo!  Mark your calendars!

Our November Meeting  on the 19th we will be making Christmas Cards with Virginia Kimball!

Our December Meeting on the 17th will be our annual festive Christmas Party!  Please plan to share the evening with good friends, delicious food, fun and laughter.

Light & Shadow- A Book Review

Did you know that the Sandy Watercolor Guild has a library? We have several dozen books available for you to check out. Karla would be the person to see about having access to the books and this book shown on the right is one of them.  I checked this out last week and while I'm not quite finished reading it, I thought I would share some information about it with you.

It is all about what the title says: Light and Shadow.  Yup-that's easy right?  Not as easy as it sounds in reality.  There are different types of light which effects the whole image. Light can make a black roof appear to be white and a white house appear to be black! Sounds crazy but it's true and we can express this drama by the way we paint and the color palette we decide to use.

If you work from photographs, as I do, you will appreciate the method William Lawrence uses.  Breaking down the image into just 2 shapes.  One shape would be the light and the 2nd shape being the shadows.  Simple?  It is if you eliminate all the fussy details at first.  Not every photo would work with this method as easily as others.  Finding a photo that is on the simplistic side would certainly help, but even those images with lots of objects can be used.  Solution would be to simply turn the photo upside down, not view them as objects you know, but only as shapes.  Changing the image to black and white, or grayscale, even better!

"It is where edges are lost that shapes are locked into a painting."  William Lawrence

Hope this gives you inspiration to check out our Guild's library!  Or your local library, which also has some fabulous books on watercolor.  Reading books on oils and acrylics can also inspire you, as all the wet media techniques can be used together or separately.  Try acrylic techniques with watercolor if you enjoy experimenting.  You never know what will happen unless you try.  Cindy