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Bold Shapes – Loose Marks (Online Workshop) Winter 2026 w/ Isabell Seidel
February 3 to February 17 (Tuesdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/-qQ3nPZF3gU
Workshop Description
This workshop invites you to participate in an intensive workout in honing your skills in radical simplification, rearranging shapes to strengthen compositional choices and adjust the design according to your personal vision of a subject.
Over the course of 3 weeks we will do a variety of small and mainly short exercises to explore shape, composition & marks. We will work on small pieces of paper to allow for a quick succession of studies working with different references featuring our natural and urban landscape. Frequent repetition with a limited size will give us ample opportunity to strengthen our skills in observation while gaining confidence and agility in capturing our subject’s essence on paper.
Each class will provide you with specific technical information, live demos for each exercise to watch and paint along and the opportunity to ask questions. We will use watercolour as our main medium complemented by a variety of dry media. A basic understanding of how to use watercolour is recommended. However, this course is not medium-specific and you may use your preferred wet paint if you feel comfortable to adjust on the go.
Workshop Outline
Week 1 - Introduction + Value, Composition & Design
Welcome, workshop & class content.
Introduction: workshop materials.
4 ways of documenting the process.
Elements and principles of design.
Exercises in value and composition.
Week 2 - Variety in Technique: Media & Marks
Studying the masters.
Limitation in media + colour.
Variation in mark making.
Week 3 - Integrating skills
Working from +complex references.
Integrating skills practiced in week 01 + 02.
Building stamina, flexibility and confidence.
Documenting our work.
Workshop Materials List
Collect all your small watercolour, sketching and mixed media paper scraps in a box.
I recommend light colours, ≥ 200 g/m2 and A6 (4 inches x 6 inches) or smaller in size. 1 A4/letter sized paper (8 inches x 11 inches) in mid grey and 1 in black for collage exercises
Flat brushes (I’ll be using different sizes between 4 and 25mm) - sturdy synthetics are fine
Bring different other brushes you have (for example a small pointy round one, a mop brush and a worn out bristle brush etc.)
A soft pencil (2B-4B)
2 brushpens or similar: mid grey + black
White watercolour or gouache
Professional grade watercolour: Feel free to use what you already have and are familiar with. A minimal palette of a warm and cool version of the three primary colours complemented by your favourites is fine. I recommend including Opera Rose (PR122) for its luminosity and versatility in mixes. I prefer Mijello: Bright Opera but W&N Opera Rose (488 · PR122) is a very decent alternative.
You don’t need a specific selection for this course! But this is what I’ll be using.
Schmincke Horadam: Lemon Yellow (215 · PY3), French Ultramarin (493 · PB29), Phthalo Green* (519 · PG7) Phthalo Blue (484 · PB15:1) Winsor & Newton: Winsor Orange (724 · PO62), Permanent Carmine (479 · PV19) Cobalt Turquoise light* (191 · PG50), Yellow Ochre* (744 · PY43) Daniel Smith: Pyrrol Scarlet (085 · PR255), Cobalt Blue (025 · PB28), Indanthrone Blue (043 · PB60), Lavender* (232 · PW6, PV15, PB29), Moonglow* (057 · PG18, PB29, PR177), Green Apatite Genuine (197 · Genuine Green Apatite pigment), Brown Iron Oxide* (178 · PBr6), Lunar Black (049 · PBk11).
Choose a couple of dry media from the list below or your preferred ones in corresponding colours. I recommend choosing at least one water soluble option.
Prioritise neutrals and add some saturated hues you like for accent.
Water soluble coloured pencils like Faber-Castell "Albrecht Dürer", Caran d’Ache "Museum" or similar
Oil-based coloured pencils like Faber-Castell "Polychromos", Prismacolor "Premier" or Caran d’Ache "Luminance"
Neocolor II (watersoluble)
Oil pastels (+ fixative)
Soft pastels (fixative)
Stabilo Woody
Gouache Sticks
Acrylic Marker (Posca, Amsterdam, Liquitex) - white + whatever appeals to you - again, neutrals are much easier to use and integrate into your palette + a few colours that pop like fluorescent orange, pink or similar.
Mixing palette or tray
Spray bottle
Water bucket
Sponge
Paper towels
A few blank sheets of sketching paper
Scissors + glue
optional:
A hair dryer
A plastic scraper or old credit card
Grey scale and value finder + colour wheel (The Color Wheel Company)
Tape
February 3 to February 17 (Tuesdays), 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM, Eastern Time
**All sessions are live and will be recorded, students do not have to be present. All recordings will be available to students for 3 months after the final session, after 3 months the recording will be deleted.
Please check your email spam/junk folder for your Zoom invite. Our business hours are 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. All course information and email correspondence will be sent during business hours. If students purchase a course, workshop, demo or recording outside business hours or during the weekend the course information or recording will be sent the following business day.
DEMO: https://youtu.be/-qQ3nPZF3gU
Workshop Description
This workshop invites you to participate in an intensive workout in honing your skills in radical simplification, rearranging shapes to strengthen compositional choices and adjust the design according to your personal vision of a subject.
Over the course of 3 weeks we will do a variety of small and mainly short exercises to explore shape, composition & marks. We will work on small pieces of paper to allow for a quick succession of studies working with different references featuring our natural and urban landscape. Frequent repetition with a limited size will give us ample opportunity to strengthen our skills in observation while gaining confidence and agility in capturing our subject’s essence on paper.
Each class will provide you with specific technical information, live demos for each exercise to watch and paint along and the opportunity to ask questions. We will use watercolour as our main medium complemented by a variety of dry media. A basic understanding of how to use watercolour is recommended. However, this course is not medium-specific and you may use your preferred wet paint if you feel comfortable to adjust on the go.
Workshop Outline
Week 1 - Introduction + Value, Composition & Design
Welcome, workshop & class content.
Introduction: workshop materials.
4 ways of documenting the process.
Elements and principles of design.
Exercises in value and composition.
Week 2 - Variety in Technique: Media & Marks
Studying the masters.
Limitation in media + colour.
Variation in mark making.
Week 3 - Integrating skills
Working from +complex references.
Integrating skills practiced in week 01 + 02.
Building stamina, flexibility and confidence.
Documenting our work.
Workshop Materials List
Collect all your small watercolour, sketching and mixed media paper scraps in a box.
I recommend light colours, ≥ 200 g/m2 and A6 (4 inches x 6 inches) or smaller in size. 1 A4/letter sized paper (8 inches x 11 inches) in mid grey and 1 in black for collage exercises
Flat brushes (I’ll be using different sizes between 4 and 25mm) - sturdy synthetics are fine
Bring different other brushes you have (for example a small pointy round one, a mop brush and a worn out bristle brush etc.)
A soft pencil (2B-4B)
2 brushpens or similar: mid grey + black
White watercolour or gouache
Professional grade watercolour: Feel free to use what you already have and are familiar with. A minimal palette of a warm and cool version of the three primary colours complemented by your favourites is fine. I recommend including Opera Rose (PR122) for its luminosity and versatility in mixes. I prefer Mijello: Bright Opera but W&N Opera Rose (488 · PR122) is a very decent alternative.
You don’t need a specific selection for this course! But this is what I’ll be using.
Schmincke Horadam: Lemon Yellow (215 · PY3), French Ultramarin (493 · PB29), Phthalo Green* (519 · PG7) Phthalo Blue (484 · PB15:1) Winsor & Newton: Winsor Orange (724 · PO62), Permanent Carmine (479 · PV19) Cobalt Turquoise light* (191 · PG50), Yellow Ochre* (744 · PY43) Daniel Smith: Pyrrol Scarlet (085 · PR255), Cobalt Blue (025 · PB28), Indanthrone Blue (043 · PB60), Lavender* (232 · PW6, PV15, PB29), Moonglow* (057 · PG18, PB29, PR177), Green Apatite Genuine (197 · Genuine Green Apatite pigment), Brown Iron Oxide* (178 · PBr6), Lunar Black (049 · PBk11).
Choose a couple of dry media from the list below or your preferred ones in corresponding colours. I recommend choosing at least one water soluble option.
Prioritise neutrals and add some saturated hues you like for accent.
Water soluble coloured pencils like Faber-Castell "Albrecht Dürer", Caran d’Ache "Museum" or similar
Oil-based coloured pencils like Faber-Castell "Polychromos", Prismacolor "Premier" or Caran d’Ache "Luminance"
Neocolor II (watersoluble)
Oil pastels (+ fixative)
Soft pastels (fixative)
Stabilo Woody
Gouache Sticks
Acrylic Marker (Posca, Amsterdam, Liquitex) - white + whatever appeals to you - again, neutrals are much easier to use and integrate into your palette + a few colours that pop like fluorescent orange, pink or similar.
Mixing palette or tray
Spray bottle
Water bucket
Sponge
Paper towels
A few blank sheets of sketching paper
Scissors + glue
optional:
A hair dryer
A plastic scraper or old credit card
Grey scale and value finder + colour wheel (The Color Wheel Company)
Tape