Announcing “Luminous Colour for Sketchers” — a new online course!
Posted: March 18, 2021 Filed under: Uncategorized 13 CommentsI’ve been wanting to create a course about colour for a long time, so I’m especially excited today to launch “Luminous Colour for Sketchers.” This course is loaded with content, including three full-length demos, each using a different limited palette, plus lots of practice exercises.
A bit about my new course
I’ve been working in watercolour for…well, more decades than I care to count. In that time, I’ve definitely had more failures than successes. But one thing has always kept me going: the sense of satisfaction from trying something new and getting fresh, transparent results.
That’s what makes watercolour so exciting. That you can learn something new every time you pick up a brush. That you can’t ever predict what will happen when paint and water mix on your paper. As for failures, they never get me down. I use the backs of all of those watercolour disasters for more practice.
As an urban sketcher, watercolour is my medium of choice. It’s light, portable and fast-drying. But there’s so much to think about on location that it’s also easy to overwork your sketch and wind up with muddy colour.
So think of this course as strength and resilience training for watercolour:
- We’ll do lots of practice exercises so you can get a feel for brush wetness, pigment saturation and when the wetness of your paper is just right.
- We’ll paint three scenes using limited palettes of colour. (Plus, I’ll give you ideas for plenty more triads!)
- By the end of our workout, you’ll have gained confidence to paint boldly, using lots of fresh paint on a fully-loaded brush.
For a preview of “Luminous Colour for Sketchers“, have a look at the trailer.
And as a thank you for being a loyal blog reader, here’s a 20% OFF coupon for this new course: LOVECOLOUR20USD (if you’re paying in US dollars) or LOVECOLOUR20CDN (if you’re paying in Canadian dollars).
Enter the coupon code at checkout. This coupon is valid until midnight, March 26, 2021.
Hope to see your sketches on my school website!
Shari Blaukopf's Sketchbook 
I just signed up for your course as I have all of your courses and copied down the 20% discount to put it in, but there was no place to put it. It said, enroll, pay and the next thing I knew I had a bill of $32. Can you please tell me how I can get the discount for this class even though it already charged my card? Thank you. Jeanne
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HI Jeanne,
I responded to you by email. Hope that worked out!
Shari
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Hi Shari,
I have enjoyed several of your on-line courses and I already own your Urban Sketching Handbook on Working with Color. I am interested in this latest offering but concerned about the rather “ecumenical” watercolour brand selection in your palette. I have mostly Daniel Smith and the occasional Schmincke watercolour pigments. Can you share your materials list requirements for this course? Alternatively, it would be great if you could identify Daniel Smith equivalent paints for this course? I just can’t afford to go out and buy a completely different set of colours just for one course.
I also know that the same pigment in different brands can look and behave very differently so it’s virtually impossible to figure out equivalent paint selections between brands without actually having access to the different brands of paints to compare (a real catch 22)!!!
Thanks you for your consideration, Paul Savoie
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HI Paul,
Thanks so much for emailing.
By “ecumenical” I guess you mean I use many different brands, right?
Indeed, that is what I do. If you’ve followed my courses, you know that I am mostly not brand loyal but there are a few pigments that I will only use from Winsor & Newton. Mainly Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine Blue and Cerulean Blue. These colours (with those names) are completely different from Daniel Smith. DS does have a Cerulean Blue Chromium, but it’s not the same. Their Burnt Sienna is too brown for me although they do have colours that are close to WN Burnt Sienna.
There is nothing wrong with DS, but I am used to WN because I have been using those pigments for years and I know how they behave. I am also a fan of Holbein, Schminke, Sennelier and M. Graham.
Here are the colours I am using to paint the three full scenes:
• Burnt Sienna (Winsor & Newton)
• Prussian Blue (Holbein)
• Raw Sienna (Winsor & Newton)
• Perm. Alizarin Crimson (Winsor & Newton)
• Ultramarine Blue, Green Shade (Winsor & Newton)
• Yellow Ochre (Daniel Smith)
• Cerulean Blue (Winsor & Newton)
• Cadmium Red Medium Hue (Daniel Smith)
I also use these colours to demonstrate colour mixing, so these are not as important:
• Hansa Yellow (M. Graham)
• Transparent Orange (Schminke)
• Phthalo Green, Yellow Shade (Daniel Smith)
• Carbazole Violet (Daniel Smith)
My suggestion: use the colours you have! Do not buy anything new for this course. I always encourage people to use what they have and get to know their pigments well. If, at the end of the course, you feel you must have what I have because it is completely different from you have, then buy it after!!
As for identifying alternates from Daniel Smith, a great place to go would be https://www.janeblundellart.com
Jane has painted out all the swatches from every brand, so you can compare pigment numbers from what I am using to what you have. Then you will know exactly what to use.
Does that help?
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Thank you kindly for your timely and thorough response. I will dive into this course with the paints I have and reassess my palette choices afterwards.
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hi Shari,
The course looks great. In case anyone else has trouble using the coupon I had to enter it a few times before it worked.
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Thanks Jeff. A number of people had that issue, but it eventually resolves itself. Not sure why, but glad it worked.
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Hi Shari,
I am so excited about this course! This is a great topic for me, and it will be fun to use your limited palette suggestions. Your demo about paper types was very helpful as well. Can’t wait to get going.
Just a note for others: I use DS French Ultramarine. Looks like it’s the same pigment as the WN Ultramarine you use (PB 29). As you suggest, I’m just going to see how my brand of colors behave and go from there.
Thank you for the course, and thank you for the discount!
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Good advice Ginny. I always like it when people use what they have instead of buying new colours for each class! Hope you enjoy the class!
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Hi Shari, I’m trying to enter the coupon code at check out but it keeps saying that it’s invalid. Have you had a problem on the site? Is there a way to fix this? Thanks, Marian
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HI Marian,
Make sure the coupon code and the currency you select match. That is likely the problem.
If you are paying in Canadian dollars and you’ve selected that option on the main page for the course, make sure you enter the coupon code for Canadians.
If that still doesn’t work, because it has been a bit problematic, email me at info@shariblaukopf.com and I will tell you what to do next.
Thanks!
Shari
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Shari,
Somehow I missed seeing a place where I could enter the discount code for your new color class. Is there a link that you can send me so I can still apply this discount? If it’s a huge hassle, I will just forget it, because I know your class will be well worth whatever I pay!
Claire Russell.
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Hi Shari,
I am trying to buy your new course but it says the coupon doesn’t apply.
Can u pls clarify.
Thanks
Jane
I got vaccinated yesterday too! How exciting, isn’t it…
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