by Susan Latreille
Did you know that July was World Watercolour Month?
I didn’t know until I saw a post on Facebook by a watercolour artist whose tutorials I’d occasionally followed on YouTube.
I enjoy the teaching style of EmJ Lefebvre, a Canadian artist and tutorialist (is that a word?), as she is rather laid back and isn’t afraid to laugh at herself. Learning from her naturally feels good (even when my results aren’t good). So, when she announced, near the end of June, that she would be holding a daily tutorial challenge throughout July to celebrate World Watercolour Month, I was all in.
Every day, on Emma’s YouTube channel, there was a new short (max 15-minute) video detailing some aspect of watercolour technique. The first half of the month, each lesson had a quite particular focus – wet-on-wet, colour bleeds, flat wash, gradients, wet-on-dry, colour mixing, lifting, negative painting, light & shadow, blending, dry brush, transparency, using blooms to advantage. There was an assignment each day to practice and perfect (duh!) each technique.
In the last half of the month, we were challenged and guided to paint a subject using combinations of the techniques we had learned (or were supposed to have learned) in the previous sessions.
In addition, Emma had set up a focused FB page where ‘students’ following the challenge could post the results of their daily work. This made the whole process a lot of fun and, luckily, it turned out to be an awesome group of individuals sharing their attempts at creativity, critiquing and congratulating each other along this journey.
I feel I learned a lot from these lessons, and I loved the structure of having to paint every day. Although the tutorials were always less than 15 minutes, the practice sessions usually lasted close to two hours. What a way to spend each day!
Thank you, Susan. Great to feel your enthusiasm for learning, playing & experimenting. Folks, share your experiences expanding your comfort level & techniques: send words & images to cagac.ca@gmail.com
Collectif 
how interesting! Thank you for sharing this wonderful opportunity you have discovered – and committed to. Seeing all the different stages of your watercolors is neat and speaks volume.
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Thanks, Susan! I’ve just watched Lefebvre’s initial video in which she invites all interested (regardless of previous experience) to join her for the course. And I’ve checked to see if her tutorials are still available, and they are. I’d like follow her course but we’re almost a week into October and I’d prefer to start at the beginning of a month and go on day by day. I’ll aim to start on November 1 and finish on December 1, since November has only 30 days.
Would anyone like to join me?
Ruth
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Ruth, I’ll join you in the challenge 🙂
It was my intention to do it again as I still have so much to learn and, quite frankly, for this novice, I found some aspects super challenging. Plus I’d love to get back to that challenge of picking up a brush every day.
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Keep at it Susan! You are really progressing. I especially like Day 20, negative painting.
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Kudos to both Susan and Ruth. Showing up every day makes a big difference I think, in inspiration and execution. Love to see the results of your challenge to each other.
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