We Went To A Watercolour Workshop And It Wasn't As Stressful As We Thought It'd Be
We did pretty good for people who haven't touched a paintbrush since our Pendidikan Seni days!
By Samantha Khor — 29 Jul 2016, 02:18 PM
Having left behind our paintbrushes since we last had Pendidikan Seni lessons, we - the ladies of SAYS - spent most of a Friday afternoon relearning how to skillfully flood paper with our favourite colours again
Writer's note: I can't speak for the rest, but I'm pretty anxious about going for a watercolour workshop because I'm not even good at Pendidikan Seni in the first place. Heh.
Hoping for a therapeutic pick-me-up, we attended a beginner's level watercolour workshop hosted by Black Milk Project at their Subang Jaya studio
Upon arrival, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that we have been assigned our personal seats, complete with personalised name placards and flowers with our names on them (yes, we got to take our flowers home)!
Our hosts have also hung several gorgeous watercolour paintings, most featuring floral and feather wreaths, on the windows. For someone who is not particularly artsy (a.k.a. me), they look kinda intimidating. :p
We didn't have to worry about bringing our own art and painting supplies either, as they all were provided by Black Milk Project. Even better, light refreshments were also prepared so we could munch on cupcakes as we paint!
Besides the usual materials you'll need for watercolour painting (e.g. paper, pencils, paintbrushes, coloured oil paints, and palette), we were also provided with an apron to protect our clothing as well as a painting "cheat sheet"
An ample amount of sandwiches, fruit tarts, and to-die-for red velvet cupcakes (seriously, they were SO GOOD) for when we get peckish with Earl Grey Tea to wash it down!
Wei Tieng - watercolour artist and our art teacher for the day - got right down to business, briefing us on the right watercolour techniques as well as demonstrating some nifty painting tips and tricks
According to Wei Tieng, the secret to watercolour painting is knowing how to "feel the water", meaning you're supposed to guide watered down paint instead of directly putting them on paper. That's where the palette comes in:
Have you ever wondered what the little triangle-shaped nooks are for? Contrary to what we always do (placing paint onto the bigger sections), you are actually supposed to put a small dollop of paint in the triangle-shaped nook first!
Then, you drip a few drops of water onto an immediate bigger section and gradually darken the water puddle by adding in the coloured paint with your paintbrush.
Wei Tieng demonstrates the gradient of red paint according to its water content:
Before moving on to floral wreaths, we practiced our brush strokes and how to control our "water" by drawing colour gradient boxes and different types of leaves
After a few hours of calmly filling in our hand-drawn flower wreaths and a lot of help from Wei Tieng and her assistants, we're finally done!
We even got to have our masterpieces printed on cute little pillows or tote bags, complete with our names nicely written on them. And yep, we got to take them home with us!
All in all, a fun and slightly stressful yet therapeutic experience for the SAYS team. Thanks for hosting us, Black Milk Project!
Fancy giving watercolour painting a try? Black Milk Project organises these workshops pretty regularly, and you can even choose between floral or feather hoops workshops and even learn brush calligraphy!
Head over to Black Milk Project's website or Facebook page for more details and registration info. You can also check out their Instagram to see photos from their previous workshops.