Painting Some Gifts From the Sea...now 25% off!

Gifts From the Sea, a new online course at Jana's Departures Watercolor School

Places where I've walked along the sand, collecting seashells:  The white-sand beaches off the coast of Sarasota, Florida; up and down the California Coastline; small beach towns dotting the central coast; all the towns and beaches circling Monterey Bay; the rocky coast of the Oregon shoreline; the four main islands of Hawaii.

I love the meditative act of beach combing. There is a mindfulness, movement and rhythm,  a letting-go of worries and stress, and a feeling of freedom, and oneness with the ocean and the shore. No matter where your favorite or closest beach is, there is something soothing and rewarding about walking the edge of the water and waiting to see what the tide brings in and leaves behind. Shells are Mother Nature's gift to the patient beachcomber. Treasures.

This series of six beautiful projects offers a similar reward to the patient artist: Treasures. You too can enter the relaxed, meditative zone as you work with water, pigment and light to create your own hand-painted shell collection! This course contains instruction on creating textures, understanding color theory (and why certain combinations work better than others) and tried and true techniques.

Watch, then follow along as I paint a variety of seashells from my own collection, including a starfish, a clamshell, a whelk, and a scallop. The instructions are easy, narrated every step of the way, including the colors I'm using with every dip of the brush.

Techniques: Learn new techniques such as the color-flow technique for soft, watery edge; negative painting, for creating depth and bringing out lighter areas; double and triple-loading your brush for fresh combinations without stirring, and combining colors wet-on-wet for soft, natural blends.

Textures: Learn how to use salt, spattering, scraping, dotted lines and more to achieve a variety of textures. The course includes a quiz at the end of every section, leading you through a self-evaluation of your work so you can grow and improve. (Don't worry -- it's not graded!)

The course is yours to keep. You can rewatch the videos and practice again and again. I also created a generous dot card with 10 must-have colors for painting natural, lifelike shells. Once you're finished you can frame them as a set to hang on your wall, or give as gifts. Make summer last just a little while longer!

The best news of all, this course -- and all my e-courses -- are 25% off for the month of September. For less than the cost of a single private lesson, you can create five beautiful paintings! Simply use the coupon code SCHOOL here at janaparkin.com, or on my sister site at teachable.com. (Discount appears at checkout.) The dot card is sold separately, right here. Materials associated with courses are also 15% off this month. Use coupon  code SCHOOLSUPPLIES.
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