The Mystical Isle of Avalon

I have always been deeply inspired by myths and legends, and in this class, we will journey through the mystical lore of Avalon, the ancient isle of Healing Arts and the Goddess, exploring its vast and fascinating visual language of our natural world and the divine feminine.

All levels are welcome and no drawing skills are required. I will show you everything you need to get you from ideas to finished paintings. I have taught this process for decades and am so happy to present this to you too.

Before we begin, I want to give you a very important and loving piece of advice. In the lessons, I go very very deep into the process, to show you as much as I possibly can. Please adapt, take it light and in your own pace and level of immersion. You don´t have to spend so much time on the main pieces as I do. Just be inspired, experiment with the processes and be open and gentle with yourself. The process I show contains a certain amount of wonderfully painterly chaos, and when I start a piece, I never know how it will turn out. I never know how the finished painting will look and there are many surprises on the way. Embark on this Art Journey to Avalon with an open and inquisitive mind, and wonderful explorations are ahead.

Paper

Watercolor paper, 300 gms. We use a lot of water, so good paper is essential. I use Canson XL Watercolor 300 gms, a cellulose type paper, that lends itself well to the techniques I show. Cotton paper is also great. I will discuss this in the lessons.
Sketching paper for graphite sketching. Any drawing paper will do. I use Fabriano Accademia spiral sketch pad A4

Substrate for mounting the watercolor paper

I like to work on watercolor paper, mounted with painters tape on a rigid board. You can however work as you prefer, on a glued watercolor block, or similar. We do use a lot of water so mounting is helpful. So mounting board of a kind plus painters tape is great to have

Trays for mixing watercolor

When I paint, I do a LOT of premixing of base colors. Having some nice mixing trays is very helpful. It doesn’t matter whether they are plastic or porcelain. I use both. In the workshops, I use porcelain, mainly because it’s so beautiful.

‍Drawing

Any graphite pencils you have, wooden or mechanical. Ranging from H, F, HB and one soft like 6B or more for making transfers the way I show
Kneaded eraser. I use Faber Castell brand
Eraser pens. I use Tombow Mono Zero round and Faber Castell Perfection pen 7058
Cotton pad
Ruler
Compass
Pencil Sharpener (remember they blunt quickly so a new one with a fresh blade is good)

Brushes

When it comes to watercolor brushes, I am very messy. I use a happy mix of old and new brushes, synthetic and natural hair. Anything will do, so chose what is affordable for you and go for a mix of sizes between 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and some bigs, 12 or 14. All brushes get blunt with time so for fine detail, it is great to have some new ones in the small range, fx size 1 or 2
For adding pan pastel, I also use brushes, and also makeup applicators, big and small. Try out stuff and see what works for you. PS: once you use your makeup applicators for art, don’t use them on your face again unless thoroughly cleaned.

Watercolors

I recommend artist quality, but not any particular brand. My box is a mix of many different brands like Schmincke , Maimeri, Daniel Smith, Sennelier, Winsor & Newton etc.
The specific colors for the class are: Cadmium Yellow Light (or any warmer yellow), Cadmium Red Light (or any warm, orangy red), Quinacridone Red, Ultramarine Blue, Yellow Ochre, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. These however, is not necessary to produce great art. If you already have a set of watercolors, work with what you have, inspired form this palette.

Pastels

I recommend to have some panpastels (any brand). They do get pricey very quickly, so start with only a few. In the class I use PanPastel brand, titanium white, paynes grey, burnt sienna tint (light skin tone), orange tint (light skin tone) and red iron oxide. I also experiment with using different shades of eye make up and compressed powder for substitution, plus my Jane Davenport set “Birthday Suit” (skin tones in range of values). You don’t need much, so experiment with what is reasonable. Most important is the titanium white and some dark tone.
I also use one white dry pastel pencil. If you already have dry pastel pencils, they fit in fantastically in the process I show. But for this project, I limit my self to the white pastel pencil.
I also use one white dry pastel pen, brand Faber Castel. To sharpen this I show you a safe process of sharpening with a hobby knife and a piece of medium grained sand paper, to get a super sharp and pointy pencil tip‍

Color Pencils

I use Faber Castell waterproof “PolyChromos” and watersoluble “Albrecht Dürer”. I stick to these to not be overwhelmed by excess boxes of color pencils, but any quality brand will do.
Please see the images below and see the swatches to get inspired for the different colors.
I use (both waterproof and soluble): Caput Mortum Violet, Dark Indigo, Medium Flesh, Dark Sepia, Light Red Violet, Cinnamon, Rose Carmine, Sanguine, Cadmium Orange, Pompeiian Red, Nougat, Dark Indigo
I use waterproof and watersoluble pencils in a very specific way, so it is important to have both varieties.‍

Posca Pens

In the class, I also use a few white Posca Pens (any size) for making white dots and patterns.

‍Printing out references

In the class, I work with pocket-size printouts of the images for inspiration. If you have a printer, it is of course nice and luxurious. I print it out on a cheap and very nice photo paper called Canon Matte Photo paper. If you don’t have a printer, however, don’t let this hold you back. You can be inspired directly from your computer screen, and you can make traces of the photos on transparent paper directly from your screen fx with a thin black liner, and then use that to transfer to your watercolor paper. Only imagination is the limit here, so get creative and have fun!