Watercolor is a very challenging, dynamic media...even for most established artists.  It is the only media whose primary characteristic is movement!  This is something that students learn how to anticipate and work with.

However, the quality of watercolor that even beginning students quickly come to appreciate is it's translucency. You can see through the layers of color that you apply and can achieve diverse optical effects!




Here are two still life paintings done by beginner artists in this media.

Adult student, Sarah Keren created a very colorful representation of a still life using bottles.  Seven year old Ariel Strizhevsky used apples as her subject.

This was really a project that my students could sink their teeth into!

They were given apples and a pear and they had to draw their fruit from observation before, during and after eating it. 

The tricky part was to replace the fruit in the same position after each bite.
Student's used different media to record their efforts. Here are the first three projects that have been completed.  The first piece is an apple done in watercolor by Ayelet Kurz.  The second is a pear rendered in watercolor by Mikaela Johnson. The third is a pastel apple by Dassi Mayerfeld.

Student, Hannah Greenwald, has layered chalk pastels in various colors to create a natural, ruddy complexion on her young subjects' faces.

Also notice that she was able to capture the proportions of the children's faces...the viewer knows that the subject consists of two children, not two adults. 

She was able to do this through careful measuring/ comparing of her work with her reference photo. Great job, Hannah!