Gouache Painting course!

Painting with Gouache
8 Lessons – Starts June 28 – Enrollment Limited
LIFETIME ACCESS $85

It’s thick and creamy. It can look just like acrylics… or just like watercolor. It’s beautifully opaque, so you can easily paint over mistakes. Originally developed for illustration, gouache (pronounced “gwash”) is versatile and easy to use — and in this course, we’ll explore several very different techniques that show the wide range of effects it can produce:

Lesson 1. Skill builder: Night Garden (color mixing, layering light on dark). Create a vibrant garden of moths and night-blooming flowers.

Lesson 2. Project: Fantasy Fox Forest (pattern, plant forms). Paint a stylized forest and foxes inspired by Medieval tapestry.

Lesson 3. Skill builder: Botanist’s Notebook (using thinned gouache). Create a Victorian-inspired page with botanical or insect specimens and text.

Lesson 4. Project: Ancient Oak. Combine a soft ink sketch with both diluted and opaque layers of gouache to create a gentle glow.

Lesson 5. Skill builder: Beautiful in Black and White (dry brush, painting texture). Create modern dry brush studies of creatures with black and white fur or feathers.

Lesson 6. Project: Pileated Woodpecker (dry brush, toned paper). Paint a realistic portrait of this striking bird.

Lesson 7. Skill builder: Farmer’s Market (combining gouache and line). Create a splashy, playful, colorful collection of heirloom veggies, fruits and herbs.

Lesson 8. Project: A Forgotten Artist (combining pencil and gouache). Make an elegant Edwardian-style study of white flowers using a lovely technique inspired by a forgotten botanical artist.

gouache-supplies-1Download

It’s giveaway time

I’m giving away an artisan sketchbook created from a repurposed vintage 1960 book of animal tales. It contains a selection of original pages (and beautiful illustrations) plus 40 sheets of heavyweight Bristol vellum from a heritage mill.

Follow Bindweed Sketchbooks on Instagram or Facebook to be entered automatically. Winner chosen randomly on Saturday, May 7. Good luck, everyone!

Go to Bindweed Sketchbooks on Instagram

Go to Bindweed Sketchbooks on Facebook

May printable calendar page!

If you are collecting my free monthly calendar pages, I have good (slightly late) news. May is ready! Get it here:

https://artclass.typepad.com/2022_calendar/

In case you missed it…

THANK YOU to everyone who helped make my Lesson Collections successful. I appreciate every signup, every share on social media and every kind comment. You are wonderful!

If you missed the original announcements, here are quick links to all four Lesson Collections. Click the collection title to see more photos and a complete list of projects. All are lifetime video access.

Springtime Watercolor Lesson Collection
6 complete video tutorials + Bonus lesson
28 printable pdf pages

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Ink Drawing Lesson Collection
7 complete video tutorials + 2 bonus lessons
35 printable pdf pages

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Colored Pencil Lesson Collection
8 Video Lessons + Bonus Lesson
36 Printables

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Draw & Paint Wild Creatures
10 Lessons – 18 videos
30 Printables

Draw & Paint Wild Creatures

My biggest lesson collection yet!
10 Lessons – 18 videos – 30 printables
LIFETIME ACCESS $50

Selected from the archives of my Journey Through the Natural Year, these 10 lessons cover pencil, colored pencil, watercolor and ink techniques for 13 different complete projects. (One project is a special watercolor lettering technique you can combine with other projects.) Work at your own pace with permanent video access. Topics include:

• Understanding animal proportion
• Drawing and painting a variety of fur types and textures
• Layering watercolor and colored pencil for rich, detailed colors and patterns
• Seeing and sketching basic body forms
• Mixing watercolor for natural-looking fur and feathers

Step-by-step projects are demonstrated in full-length video lessons. Here’s a list of our creatures:

• Owls in moonlight (watercolor + ink)
• Lynx/bobcat in colored pencil
• Koi fish in wet-on-wet watercolor
• Mourning cloak butterfly in watercolor + colored pencil
• Red fox in colored pencil
• Egyptian geese painted in ancient style
• Field mice, moles and voles in pencil
• Field mice and moles in watercolor
• Chipmunk on tree in pen and ink
• Watercolor Brush Lettering

Congratulations…

…to @forestpapr, winner of this month’s sketchbook giveaway! Heartfelt thanks to all who entered and please come back for next month’s giveaway, which begins May 1!

My monthly giveaway

In addition to drawing and teaching, I make artisan sketchbooks from repurposed vintage books. My online shop hosts a monthly giveaway, and this month you can choose ANY sketchbook from about 70 that are available right now. I use a velvety heavyweight Bristol vellum (70% recycled and acid free!) made by a heritage mill founded in 1908. You will love drawing on it!

To enter, just visit Bindweed Sketchbooks and choose your favorite sketchbook. Then come back here and comment with the name of your choice. On Tuesday, one winner will be randomly selected to win their sketchbook!

Flash Sale – Buy One Course, Get One Free

Two times each year, I host a Flash Sale on regular courses. (There are 21 of them to choose from now!) This weekend, from now through Sunday, you can choose any course and get a second course free. All courses are lifetime access. You are welcome to give your second course to someone else, if you wish.

The lessons within each course include full video demos and lots of beautifully illustrated printable pages. Classes include:

• Best Nest: Eggs & Nests in Colored Pencil
• 5 Little Songbirds: A Simple Painting Technique
• Birds and Words, a Joyful Course in Ink and Watercolor
• Watercolor Garden Cottage: Inspired by Beatrix Potter
• Vintage Postcard Birds and Butterflies (antique postcards provided)
• Drawn & Decorated Watercolor Lettering
• Birds in Watercolor and Beyond
• Birds in Colored Pencil
• Draw Dogs and Cats
• Draw Owls: Designed for the Dark
• Draw Horses and Ponies
• Drawing Children
• Eight Flowers Eight Ways
• The Heirloom Garden in Colored Pencil
• Botanical Sketchbook Painting
• Gentle Garden: Carbon Pencil Botanicals
• Draw and Paint Six Culinary Herbs
• Butterflies in Colored Pencil
• Draw and Paint Fairies in Nature
• Fairies II: Draw and Paint the Enchanted World
• Christmas Birds Mini-Course

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS, COMPLETE COURSE DESCRIPTIONS AND SUPPLY INFO

Colored Pencil Lesson Collection

8 Full-length lessons + Bonus lesson
12 total videos, 36 beautiful printable pages

Limited time offer
LIFETIME ACCESS $50

With step-by-step instruction, learn to create beautiful textures and elegant shading with colored pencil. All levels of art experience welcome! Drawn from my popular Journey Through the Natural Year, this collection includes practice exercises and a full pencil drawing lesson to get you started… then 8 projects ranging from botanicals to kittens. Each project uses a different colored pencil technique. You will be amazed with your results. 🙂

This is a lifetime access course, but signups will only be available for a limited time.

Lesson topics include:

• Classic broad stroke pencil drawing
• Pelican in black and white colored pencil
• Wild budgies in colored pencil (feather pattern and texture)
• Early wildflowers (how to create yellow shadows)
• A spotted pig (techniques for straw/wood/hide textures)
• A glossy spotted horse (techniques for a reflective, shiny coat)
• Junonia framed butterfly specimen in colored pencil
• Sgraffito screech owl (unique method for creating fine feathers)
• Domestic kitten (drawing soft fur and yarn)

cp-supply-list-1Download

Draw in Ink: 7 lessons + 2 bonus

There is magic in the slender black line made by your ink pen. That simple line can become the feathers of a woodpecker in flight, the soft flesh of a cactus, the foliage of a shade tree… and so much more. From the archives of my Journey Through the Natural Year, I’ve put together seven of my favorite watercolor projects (plus two bonus landscape sketching lessons!) from that course and they are now posted together on a private website as an Ink Drawing Lesson Collection.

Ink Drawing Lesson Collection
7 complete video tutorials + 2 bonus lessons
35 printable pdf pages

LIFETIME ACCESS $50

Explore the magic of ink, step-by-step, while drawing birds and botanicals. Learn a range of drawing styles and techniques. Two bonus lessons on sketching landscapes. Topics include:

Drawing Succulents (and Lettering a Label)

Shaded Ballpoint Botanical (with Beetles!)

Simple Cottage Garden in Ink

Sketch Crows and Ravens

Use Crosshatch to Create a Pileated Woodpecker

Draw a Rooster with Iridescent Feathers

Use “Messy Ink” Style to Draw a Harpy Eagle

Learn to See and Draw the Textures in Nature

Sketch Trees, Foliage and Outdoor Scenes

The supply list is simple and flexible. See it here:

springtime-watercolor-supplies-1Download