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Loose Style in Watercolor

ONLINE LONG-TERM COURSES:
LEARN FROM MASTER!

All programs at Studio Art Online are designed as 8-week courses, providing a balanced blend of structured learning and independent practice. Weekly three-hour sessions offer in-depth guidance while leaving you ample time to reflect, practice, and prepare for the next class.

Each course is filled with essential theoretical knowledge, empowering you to work professionally with various materials and techniques. Carefully selected reference materials are provided for each session, along with additional references for self-guided practice, allowing you to refine your skills beyond class time.

But the true advantage lies in the personalized attention from the master. Throughout the course, you can expect direct feedback, individual guidance, and an engaging learning experience tailored to your needs.

Simply select the course that interests you to explore its structure and detailed curriculum. Have questions?

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Course Description:

Master the art of Loose Style watercolor — an approach built on freedom, simplification, and expressive decision-making. This course will teach you how to move beyond careful copying and create paintings that feel spontaneous, dynamic, and personal while maintaining strong structure and visual clarity.

We’ll explore different ways to achieve looseness through tone, limited color palettes, expressive brushwork, granulation, gravity, and watercolor accidents. You’ll learn to work with large shapes, use fewer brushstrokes, suggest rather than describe, and understand when unfinished areas can make a painting more powerful.

Composition will play a central role throughout the course. We’ll work with focal points, rhythm, negative space, lost and found edges, and the hierarchy of details. You’ll also learn how to analyze, crop, simplify, and transform a reference instead of following it literally.

Through urban scenes, landscapes, and practical watercolor studies, you’ll gradually develop greater confidence and freedom. The goal is to control what matters and let go of what doesn’t — using the unique nature of watercolor to develop your own expressive visual language.

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Loose Style in Watercolor (Early Bird!)

8 Weeks, January, 7 - February 25, 2028

$399

REGISTER NOW

$349 USD

Schedule

Classes on Fridays
Date of the first class: January 7
Date of the last class: February 25
Class Timings: Fridays from 2 PM to 5 PM, Eastern Standard Time (EST or (GMT-5)
Class Duration: 3 hours
Course Duration: 8 weeks

If you are unable to attend the class during the times listed above, you will still have access to video recordings or the class lectures and will still receive personalized feedback from your instructor.

Course Outline Week 1 — Understanding Different Approaches to Loose Style * Creating a loose style through carefully selected watercolor techniques * Tone Over Detail: simplifying a scene by building a strong tonal structure * Achieving freedom and harmony through a limited color palette * Practical study: urban sketches exploring different approaches to Loose Style Week 2 — Embracing Watercolor Accidents * Fewer Strokes, More Expression: direction, rhythm, and dynamics of the brushstroke * Learning to think and paint in large shapes * Letting Go of Control: using a large brush to suggest small objects and details * Practical study: two simple landscapes built around large shapes and expressive brushwork Week 3 — Granulation & Gravity * Exploring granulating pigments and their expressive possibilities * Using gravity, water, and pigment movement to create natural textures * Guess the Shape: playing with suggestion and the viewer’s imagination * Practical exercises: building an urban landscape through abstract shapes and textures Week 4 — The Art of Simplification * Identifying what matters and eliminating unnecessary detail * Suggestion Instead of Description: lost and found edges * Learning when to stop * Practical study: Old Europe — simple watercolor scenes built around shapes, atmosphere, and suggestion Week 5 — Composition as a Tool for Expression * Defining the main idea of a painting * Creating a focal point through balance and rhythm * Using negative space as an essential part of composition * Practical study: creating a strong urban landscape composition in watercolor Week 6 — Freedom to Change the Reference * Learning how to analyze a reference rather than simply copy it * Understanding cropping and reframing * Building a painting from scratch: selecting, simplifying, and establishing a hierarchy of details * Practical study: landscapes of Spain and Italy — transforming references into personal interpretations Week 7 — Color in Loose Style * Creating a simple and expressive color palette * Understanding warm and cool relationships * Choosing colors and mixtures for a specific project * Step-by-step landscape project using a limited palette Week 8 — Final Project: Loose Style * Independently selecting and analyzing a reference * Developing the composition, tonal structure, and color scheme * Combining the techniques learned throughout the course into a complete watercolor painting * Final critique with personalized feedback and recommendations