I always start thinking about the new year in early December as I know that if I don’t, the busyness of the holiday season can overtake me. And so I’m already seriously gearing up for my next SketchingNow Group Event in January.

I’m excited to be offering a Live Version of my Watercolour course starting on Wednesday 10 January 2024. Anyone who purchases the course in the coming week (or has purchased the course previously) will be able to join the Live Version without any additional cost.

We’ll be working through the existing Watercolour course as a group over 7 weeks. Each week we’ll work through the scheduled section of the course together which includes high-quality on-demand video lessons, text lessons, examples from my work and specifically designed exercises that will help you apply the concepts to your own sketching.

You’ll be able to share your work and interact with others in the group inside the custom-made SketchingNow classroom.

In addition each week I’ll host a bonus weekly livestream where I’ll recap concepts, do some new demos, review selected work from the community and answer all your questions in real-time.

The community that forms during a Live Version is incredible – super inspiring and encouraging sketchers from around the world who will cheer you on every step of the way.

When you begin sketching with watercolour it’s common to create sketches with murky washes, flat colours and areas that are overworked. Gaining a solid understanding of how pigment suspended in water behaves is the secret to producing lively watercolour washes.

In this course, you’ll learn a few specific strategies for using watercolour in a quick and spontaneous way that makes the most of its unique properties.

The more you understand about watercolour the more you can work with it rather than fight against it!

This will liberate your sketching and you’ll find that watercolour will start performing magic on your page.

In the Watercolour course you will learn how to:

• increase your control of water – whether using a precise style or working looser and taking risks
• decide when to layer/glaze and when to work wet-in-wet
• create vibrant colours with a limited palette
• be more confident with your use of colour
• apply all these techniques to sketching on location
• develop your own style for watercolour sketching.

You can use these techniques for any subject matter, for a variety of different sketching styles and for any level of experience. You don’t need to be producing ‘masterpiece’ sketches to create some watercolour magic!

Find out more about Watercolour

Free Watercolour Intro Lessons

I have some free Watercolour Intro Lessons to help you get your materials ready for the course. In these video lessons, you’ll learn how to set up your own palette and choose a good brush and sketchbook.

I’ll be sharing some more watercolour tips via email to everyone who signs up for these free intro lessons.

Sign up for free intro lessons

If you want to improve your watercolour sketching in 2024, this Live Version of Watercolour will be the perfect way to start the year strong! So I hope you will consider joining us – find out more here (including lesson schedule and livestream dates).