An Outline for Success

I've been teaching for a number of years and each year I upgrade my lessons. This year I've decided to integrate those lessons and courses in to a standard curriculum that can be used in on-going weekly classes or in concentrated all-day workshops. So, without further ado, here is...

Bob Fisher's Three Course Curriculum for Teaching Wet Watercolors

Course I: Wet Techniques and Basic Color Theory
1. Applying paint in a range of Values
2. Mixing paint on wet paper and controlling Chroma
3. Loading the brush with multiple Hues
4. Contrast and Diffusion in Value, Chroma, and Hue

Course II: Design
1. Goal and Focus of Painting (representation, message, atmosphere, decoration)
2. Classical Success (Whitney’s 12 plus 1)
3. Going with the Flow (interplay of method and outcome)
4. Developing Your Own Unique Style

Course III: Symbols: Learning to See

1. Shape, Texture, and Edge Quality (eggs, light, shadow, bounce, soft, hard, rough, interlocks, and abstraction)
2. Western Symbols (sky, water, earth, critters, and chattel vs. landscape, still-life, portrait)
3. Oriental Symbols, Techniques, and Attitude
4. The Beautiful Stroke and the Beautiful Mark (life and feeling vs. precision and accuracy)