Additional materials
Half to one-inch-wide 3M blue painter’s tape or any other masking tape that can keep out water but will not harm the watercolor paper when pulled off.
A roll or two of absorbent kitchen paper towels, and a flat kitchen sponge to help take off excess water on your brushes.
A box of HDX Original Easy Erasers (order online or I know Home Depot carries them) or a box of Mr. Clean Original Erasers (order online, and you can find them in the cleaning section of most supermarkets).
One or two rectangular kitchen sponges (it’s OK if one side is for scrubbing)
A set of about eight or more liquid chalk marker pens with white and bright colors like pink, orange, and yellow. You’ll want the ones with the rounded tips. There are a lot of different brands on the market, but aside from bright, metallic, and natural colors, they are all about the same. My fav. Brands are Edding and Arteza chalk markers. If you cannot procure any chalk markers before the workshop, do not sweat it. There is an alternative with gouache paint.
Two stencils. If you want to use the same stencils that I use in my demonstration videos, they both are from https://www.stencilgirl.com. The first stencil is called “Grand Wisteria,” and the second one is called “Soulful Scribbles.” You can also buy some cool stencils from another company called Joggles at https://www.joggles.com. I would suggest one titled “Klimt Memory” and the other titled “Ribbon Candy”. If you already have some stencils, they may work. If you can’t procure them in time for the workshop, don’t worry, as I have extra stencils that you can use. You can also watch my stencil technique and purchase your’s at a later date.
Something to hold about a quart of water. If you want to go fancy pants, I’d suggest the Mijello-brand water buckets: the ones that hold about a liter of water.
Stage 1: Print each outline drawing (that you will eventually need to trace onto watercolor paper in Stage 3) onto letterhead-size sheets of paper on your home printer. At this stage, you need not worry about the final painting size.
Stage 2: Enlarge on a plan paper copier each outline drawing so that individually they fit snuggly on 11 inch by 15-inch quarter-sheets of 140lb. professional grade (I like Fabriano Artistico extra whitewatercolor paper) cold press watercolor paper. You can go to a copier service to do this or there are even online enlargement services. If you have a digital projector or app, that may be a way to go, whereby the enlarged drawing can be projected for tracing directly onto your watercolor paper.
Stage 3: You can now take each outlined enlargement and trace them onto quarter-sheets of 140lb., cold press watercolor paper. You can use a light table (i.e.an inexpensive, light weight, and LED light table, if you don’t already have one) or simply use a window during daylight hours. During the tracing procedure, apply medium pressure on your pencil (simply use a soft office pencil) so that the resulting tracing is not too light. Any dashed lines that you see on my provided outline drawings are there to indicate areas that need to be blended during the painting process.
Stage 4: Each outline drawing has a corresponding reference photo. Print the reference photos on your home printer. You will need to look at them as you paint. These photos are in black and white, because we will be painting in expressive colors and not natural colors. Below is an example of how your outline tracings should fit snuggly onto the quarter-sheets of watercolor paper.