I’ve been thinking, talking about it, and making small steps towards the creation of this class all over the past two years, if not three. I am beyond happy to finally share it!

What is Skillshare?

Let’s start with Skillshare. Skillshare is a streaming platform for learning… skills! There are a lot of classes about art, but also all sorts of things like video editing, social media strategy or even, cooking classes! Skillshare is like a “Netflix” for learning skills.

If you want to try Skillshare, use this link for a one-month trial of Skillshare.

I’ve been using the platform myself since 2018, as a student. I’ve learned quite a lot and followed many classes from fabulous teachers. Soon to come, I will share a list of favorite classes I’ve followed.

About the class: Playful Color Swatches

A good way to understand your watercolor paints is to swatch them, meaning making a little reference card with the color painted on it so you can really see its hue as a paint, not only what is printed on the tube or pan.

That is the simplest form of swatching: the paint chip. But things can get much more interesting.

Watercolor paint properties

Watercolor paints have many properties that differ from one color to the next, depending on the pigments used and what the paint is made of, for example:

• the range of the hue,
• transparency vs opacity, 
• staining properties, 
• the ability to layer the color,
• the possibility to lift the color,
• how it behaves in water.

I will teach you what these properties mean throughout this class. 

Why learn about paint properties and swatch my colors?

If you want to explore all of your paints’ potential, color swatches can be done in a way to document all these properties. 

But technical swatching of watercolors can become tedious. And I want to show you how to approach these swatches in a playful manner.

The color swatches we will paint together

In this class, we will try many example of color swatches so you can find your favorites:

1. The simple “paintchip” swatch
2. The technical swatch
3. The color chart
4. The palette mixing swatch
5. The chaotic and playful swatch
6. The wavy pattern

In this class, I will show you that there is some space for playing and creativity while learning about your colors. 

You will learn different ways to swatch your colors AND have fun AND create little pieces of art along the way.

The project

The project from this class will be a lovely reference page of swatches for a color palette of your choosing. Like in the example below.

These are a beautiful way to document color palette, play with them and find all the colors you can make while mixing your chosen colors.

Let me know if you have any questions!

UPDATE:

I’ve added the class on Gumroad as well, where you can buy it as a standalone class, to watch whenever you feel like it! It is available on a sliding scale in which you can pay what you want above a minimum.

Je suis Kathryn’s sur instagram depuis un moment. Je crois l’avoir rencontré par son travail sur les encres naturelles à la base, et j’en ai peut-être achetées quelques unes! L’automne dernier, Kathryn a lancé une offre pour tester le concept qu’iel a baptisé “Bad Arty Parties”. J’étais très, très intriguée. Et depuis, j’ai assisté à 7 ou 8 de ces séances, rencontré de merveilleuses personnes, et dessiné, et joué, et fait des collages, et des choses auxquelles je n’aurais jamais pensé à intégrer dans mon processus créatif.

A flipthrough of my Bad Arty Party sketchbook

This winter, I dedicated a sketchbook to these sessions, as I wanted to keep all the explorations in one place and not lose any. So here is a little flipthrough of my sketchbook!

Cet hiver, j’ai dédié un cahier à mes explorations, pour les rassembler et ne pas les perdre! Alors voici un petit tour à travers ces explorations créatives.

What happens during a Bad Arty Party?

First rule of Bad Arty Party, don’t talk about the Bad Arty Party. Just kidding! During these sessions, Kathryn guides us in different quick paced creative exercises. There isn’t enough time to indulge in self-doubt… you need to create and cannot over think.

The sessions this winter/spring had elements themes, which added an interesting twist (yup, I did light my sketchbook on fire and spoiler, it smelled bad!).

La première règle des Bad Arty Party, ne pas parler des Bad Arty Party… C’est une blague!!! Dans ces sessions, Kathryn nous guide à travers divers exercices créatifs, avec un rythme soutenu. Ceci ne laisse pas de temps pour le doute, la critique intérieure. Pas le temps de trop réfléchir, il faut créer.

Les sessions d’hiver/printemps avaient de plus un thème lié aux éléments, ce qui a ajouté un twist intéressant (et oui, j’ai mis le feu à mon carnet… et oui, cela sentait mauvais!).

What the Bad Arty Party brought into my creative life

There are several ways these sessions have played a large role in my creative life these past few months. And I share some of these insights with you here.

Ces séances ont eu beaucoup d’impact dans ma vie créative au cours des derniers mois, et je vous partage ici de quelle façon.

Just enjoy the art parties

First and most important, these are art sessions and that in itself is wonderful. It means you made time for yourself, to play with art stuff, being guided by a wonderful creative soul…. just lean in to it and have fun.

D’abord et avant tout, ce sont des sessions d’art que vous avez pris le temps de mettre à l’agenda et en soi-même, c’est merveilleux. Laissez-vous guider par les instructions de Kathryn, une merveilleuse personne créative.

Realizing I can draw!

Oh these parties brought me so much. For one, I learned I could draw! Yup!!! How? Kathryn guides us into different “without looking” drawing exercises. And these are so interesting…. Even though you don’t look at your sheet, you still end up with something that vaguely ressembles the thing you were going for. And this amazed me. Somehow, it gave the impulsion to add more drawings in my work. It made me remember that with time and concentration, I can actually draw.

Ces séances m’ont apporté beaucoup. Par exemple, j’ai appris que je suis capable de dessiner! Oui! Comment? Kathryn nous guide dans des exercices de dessin “sans regarder”. C’est tout à fait intéressant….. Même si on ne regard pas la feuille, on finit avec un dessin vaguement ressemblant à notre sujet. Et cela m’a impressionné! De façon surprenant, cela m’a donnée une impulsion pour ajouter davantage de dessin dans mon travail. Je crois que ces exercices m’ont rappelé qu’avec du temps et de la concentration, je suis capable de dessiner.

Strengthening my practice of enjoying the process

The biggest take-away of these sessions is learning to enjoy the process of art making. To make some good art at some point, you need to make bad art. A lot of bad art. Good art comes out of being very much into your process, and often, accidents or explorations bring in an unexpected direction and you find something amazing.

Ce que vous retirerez de ces sessions, c’est d’apprendre à aimer le processus de faire de l’art. Pour réussir à faire de bonne réalisations, vous devez malheureusement passer par en faire de mauvaises. Et beaucoup de mauvaises. Les bonnes réalisation ressortent souvent d’explorations, voir même d’accidents qui se produisent lorsqu’on essaie des trucs, qui vont nous amener dans des directions inattendues et boum! On tombe sur un truc merveilleur.

Making bad art, while knowing it will be bad and internationally trying to make it bad really helps you focus on the process part of the art making and forget about the results. And it is easy to start focusing on the process, but then loose sight and get caught up thinking about the result.

And THIS is the magical part of Kathryn’s Bad Arty Parties. Their guidance is key. With the fast paced prompts (gently) thrown at you by Kathryn, you have no time to fall in the trap of overthinking your result. And you focus on the making.

This way, you know what truly focusing on the process feels like, and you can then bring this in your regular art practice. And then you come back for more sessions because, like anything, focusing on the process is something that needs to be practiced.

S’installer pour faire “du mauvais art”, en le faisant intentionnellement, en décidant à l’avance que le résultat sera nul, et bien c’est la recette parfaite pour se concentrer sur ce qui se passe sur le papier et oublie ce que le résultat sera. C’est super facile de s’installer avec cette intention, et puis quelque part en chemin, on oublie et on se met à penser au résultat.

Et c’est LÀ que la magie des ateliers Bad Arty Parties de Kathryn opère. En suivant Kathryn comme guide, qui nous lance (gentiment) des défis à temps limité, il n’y a justement pas le temps de trop réfléchir…. on fait. C’est ce qui prend toute la place dans ces ateliers.

Avec ces ateliers, vous saurez comment on se sent pour se concentrer sur le processus plutôt que le résultat, et vous pourrez plus facilement importer cela dans votre pratique artistique. Et puis vous reviendrez surement, parce que comme bien des choses, cette capacité à ne pas se concentrer sur le résultat doit s’entretenir.

Can/should I attend multiple parties?

The answer to this question is…. a very loud and affirmative YES!!! For one, they are a bunch or fun. And Kathryn works hard to find different angles, themes and prompts for each of their/her parties. But you know what? Even if the prompts were somewhat similar…. you always end up making something different.

La réponse en cours….. OUI!!!! Tellement oui, full enthousiasmé! D’abord, ils sont trop chouettes et on s’amuse bien. Et ensuite, Kathryn travaille très fort pour trouver différents angles, thèmes et défis pour chacun des ateliers. Mais vous savez quoi? Même si certains exercices étaient les mêmes, on finirait par faire un truc différent chaque fois.

To know more about the next sessions

Kathryn is holding next sessions pretty soon. I will most likely see you there!

Kathryn offre de nouvelles dates très bientôt pour d’autres sessions. Elles se déroulent en anglais, mais je crois que vous pourrez trouver cela intéressant si vous avez un niveau de base!

• See Kathryn’s website to see new dates for Bad Arty Parties
• And also do check out Kathryn’s shop for some amazing art pieces and inks

How it all began

In the beginning of January, I started to explore working with Chinese ink. I’ve always loved inks, but Isa Cienfuegos‘ latest Skillshare class, Lose your fear with ink, really threw me in an exploratory mode.

I have made many many pieces. They are not all completed of course… But this idea of the white pastel to strengthen the white from the paper kept coming back in my head.

So one evening, I finally pulled out an oil pastel Sennelier set I have bought used from an insta friend and experimented…. and fell in love.

Oil pastel added to an ink piece

So my first try was to add white to add contrast to the white of the paper that was left white. I wanted it to pop more. As I added the pastel though, I felt it was too thick, so I started to “smoosh it” into the paper with a piece of cloth.

Oh my…. the magnificent blends. I had read about how beautifully pastels mix together on paper, but I wasn’t exactly prepared for the beauty of it mixed into the ink…. it really makes a beautiful effect. And my test page quickly got a number of colors on it to see what would happen. The colors mix together and can even show over the black ink (tests on the bottom).

But my most favorite thing is the way you can blend the over the black ink. I will try making some galaxies of sorts on some of the pieces I have prepared, because the textures are soooo beautiful.

How to make the blends?

So the technique is pretty simple. You put a bit of the color from the oil pastel on your drawing, then you sort of rub it in the paper until you are satisfied. I love smooth blends, but you could also leave much more texture.

You can also rub the oil pastel in with a little less zeal. And then, you get more of the “oil painting” texture left on the page. It is truly amazing the range of feel you can get from these.

And then yupo and oil pastels

And then, for some inexplicable reason, I wanted to try on Yupo paper. The pieces I prepped for pastel and ink went a little weird though, I’ll have to come back to these.

So I decided to pull out a new sheet of yupo heavy and try a little “drawing”, but leaving all the marks on there and mixing a bit the colors. I was left with an abstract landscape of sorts…. It is soooo cool. And the textures. Wonderful.

Don’t these textures make you want to jump in? I really cant wait to explore these two mediums together.

Materials used in this article

I will receive a commission if you purchase these materials from these links over at Jackson’s Art Supplies, at no extra cost to you. If you are a new customer, you will receive a 10% discount on your first order at Jackson’s by using this link or any of the following.

• Set of 24 creamy oil pastels from Sennelier
• Arches hotpress watercolor paper
• Yupo heavy from the little pads (I order these often, they are such fun pads!)
• Traditional Chinese Ink Ultra Black from Yaustomo (available at Kama Pigments)
• I also made many experiments with this ink on Hahnemuhle Bamboo Mixed media paper, one of my favorite ever paper