Watercolor Foundations with Roberto Osti At the Philadelphia Sketch Club

• July 8, 15, 22, 29, 2025,
• 9:00 am-12:00 pm;
• SIGN UPS ARE CLOSED! THANK YOU

Watercolor can be a very rewarding technique but in order to obtain fresh and expressive paintings, one should become acquainted with its fundamentals: washes, gradations, glazes, wet on wet, wet on dry, drybrush, materials. This course is a good starting point for the artist that wants to pursue watercolor.

During the four, 3 hour sessions of this in person watercolor course, held indoor, at the venerable Philadelphia Sketch Club, we will paint a variety of subjects, such as landscapes, flowers, still lives and animals, from life, from photographic references or master’s watercolors. The scope of this six-three hour sessions course, besides enjoying spending time painting with fellow artists, is to develop our watercolor skills, such as color mixing, color theory, brushwork and types of brushstrokes, materials, wet on wet, wet on dry, drybrush, how to create textures, even washes and gradations, prepare small preliminary pencil and watercolor sketches to study composition, what color palette to use and how to approach the final work.

This course deals with a variety of foundation watercolor topics, methods and techniques that can be applied to watercolor painting in general, but also to develop a personal technique, aesthetic sensibility and create artworks that you can enter in shows and competitions.

Material List

• • Watercolor paper pad, Arches, Fabriano, Winsor & Newton or similar, Cold Press, size 10 by 14 or similar.
  • Watercolor paint (tube or pan): cadmium red, alizarine crimson, cadmium yellow medium and cadmium yellow lemon or pale, yellow ochre, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, ultramarine violet, dioxazine purple or Winsor violet, sap green, Hooker’s green emerald or viridian green, raw sienna, burnt sienna, sepia, Black. You can start the course with the colors you have and we can discuss if what you already have can substitute some of the colors in this list.
  • Brushes: the classic watercolor brush is a #8, round, Kolinsky sable brush, but this brush can be very expensive. Winsor and Newton series 7 Kolinsky sable in size 8 can cost $200. Cheaper brands yet very good quality Kolinsky sable brushes are Raphael and Eskoda. You can also use a round, synthetic watercolor brush in size 10 or 12 for a fraction of the price and be perfectly happy. You will also need a #2 round, kolinsky sable or synthetic and a 3/8” flat, synthetic watercolor brush.
  • Pencils in gradation HB and 2B, kneaded eraser, pencil sharpener.