Watercolor Landscape Workshop: From Start to Finish [Sold Out]
Sunday, August 30, 2026 | Estero Bay Art & Craft, Morro Bay [This Event is Sold Out]
Build a strong foundation in watercolor while creating a complete landscape painting from start to finish. In this welcoming, beginner-focused workshop, each workshop will be based on a surprise reference image featuring a local Central Coast scene or another visually interesting landscape. You’ll learn how to study the image, identify its most important elements, and turn it into a well-planned watercolor painting.
Step-by-step demonstrations by instructor Jay Stieler will introduce the essential skills used by watercolor artists, including simplifying a complex scene, creating a balanced composition, making a light preliminary sketch, and developing a clear range of light, middle, and dark values. You’ll practice mixing harmonious colors, creating clean transparent washes, layering color through glazing, and preserving the white of the paper for highlights and sparkle.
The workshop will also explore fundamental wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques, brush control, water-to-paint balance, soft and hard edges, color blending, lifting, and creating natural textures for skies, water, foliage, rocks, buildings, and other landscape features. You’ll learn how artists use atmospheric perspective, color temperature, contrast, and detail to create a sense of depth and guide the viewer’s eye toward a focal point.
Just as importantly, you’ll develop the ability to make confident decisions throughout the painting process—knowing when to add another layer, when to soften an edge, when to simplify, and when to stop. Clear instruction and plenty of personal attention will allow you to work at your own pace, ask questions, and receive guidance tailored to your painting.
No prior watercolor experience is necessary. Come ready to learn, experiment, and enjoy the process—and leave with a finished landscape painting along with practical techniques you can continue using in future watercolor projects.