Thank you for your participation!

Seven days in Barcelona, three days for the Symposium, it was amazing!
The first four days were full working: I was waiting my first workshop since six months, at five o'clock it was raining! I couldn't believe it...Thank you to all participants: everyone was fine and happy despite rain.

The second workshop was perfect: in the shade of the Palau de Mar, everyone worked hard with colors trying capturing space. Thank you, your works was wonderful for three hours.

For the last morning, we changed the location because we were looking for shade, of course. We receveided the visit from Lapin, thank you Lapin! Thank you participants for your beautiful works!

A last big thank you for Isaac, my translator. You was perfect and I liked be with you for my first symposium.
And thank you very much all organisation (Barcelona and Usk), it was incredible.
See you next time I hope!

A test for my Workshop Capturing Space through Form and Color.

Hello from Paris, France - I am Marion Rivolier. Only three weeks before the Symposium, I can't wait to meet all the participants! For a couple of weeks, I have been working on my workshop and a kind of booklet I want give to the participants.

So last Saturday, we made a test for my workshop « Capturing Space through Form and Color ».

I invited 7 volunteers to meet in front of the Fontaine aux Lions de Nubie in the Parc de la Villette. This is a large place with a lot of choices of nice points of view.

I wanted test the continuity of my exercises and time the session.
I wanted to do this test in English to practice and all the participants played the game! It was very funny and a little stressful for me!

The rules of the day were: bring a box of watercolors with some basic colors, a big brush and a watercolor sketchbook in the landscape format, NO PEN, NO PENCIL, NO BLACK.
Thank you so much Kim, Flo, Fleur, Laureen, Krytzia, Fabienne and Sébastien for your participation, your great work, your good mood and your comments on my workshop. It was very interesting for me.

Fleur made the panoramic pictures. Thank you Fleur!
You can see some watercolors from Flo, Fleur, Fabienne and Laureen, thank you girls!

I am very happy to be meeting you in Barcelona and painting with you!
See you soon.

Meet the Instructor: Marion Rivolier (Paris, FRANCE)

 

Marion Rivolier
Paris, FRANCE

Marion Rivolier is a scenographer and fine artist living and working in Paris, France. She is the head of the sketching program for second-year students at the École d'architecture de la ville et des territoires à Marne-la-Vallée. Her work includes public and private exhibition and theater design.

For ten years now, she has also been drawing and painting watercolors outdoors, notably during her travels to places that include Russia, Berlin and New York. This work is complemented in the studio, where she is currently focusing on the human figure and color. Marion received her degree in scenography in 2000 from the Ecole Nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. She is an active contributor to the Urban Sketchers Paris blog.

Blog: http://marionrivolier.blogspot.fr/
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/marion1975/

Workshop T: Capturing Space Through Form and Color

Capturing Space Through Form and Color (Workshop T)

Instructor: Marion Rivolier (Paris)
Location: Palau de Mar

This workshop will focus on space and color. After a quick analysis of the building or place, we will explore ways to create volume and space using watercolors and painting "directly" — no preliminary sketching in pencil or pen. We will work with brushes throughout the workshop, and stick to a limited palette, mixing our colors (green, ochre, red, blue, yellow etc.) without using black. Our aim will be to capture the essence of the place as quickly as possible.

Relying on color is a sensitive approach that works through experiment. How do certain colors vibrate when placed next to one another? What is it that makes these vibrations and relationships create volume and space?

The three-hour workshop will be divided into 3 parts:

A- For the first 30 minutes we will sketch the space as quickly as possible, working with masses and focusing on the contrast of light and dark. What are the colors that make up the shadows and lights? These sketches will help us to understand the space we are in and to see beyond "black and white." Special attention will be made to reserving areas of the page, using the white of the paper as well to position light and contribute to the composition of the space.

B- For the next 45 minutes we will work with color contrasts, exploring different means for conveying a feeling of the space using ranges of colors and playing with temperature (warm/cool). Setting aside the lights and darks for a while, we will work on freeing ourselves up to feel the richness and variety of the colors we see (for example, grass is not green but a lot of colors: brown, blue, yellow, ochre etc.)

C- After the quick sketches described above, the remaining 1 hour and 45 minutes will be spent on longer sketches using the two forms of contrast weÕve explored earlier: light and color. By working from dense masses to lighter ones, foregrounds, middle-grounds and backgrounds can be created. If we try to keep our colors luminous and intense, weÕll see how they can do the work for us of creating volume and space. Later on, lines can be added little by little where needed (using only a brush). These lines will also be inÉ color!

Learning goals

• to perceive a complex place and describe it through colored masses.
• to step outside of the "coloring book" approach of drawing and filling in lines, and to gain confidence in painting directly.
• to feel free with colors and able to interpret reality.
• to free the hand and let it draw "without the mind". To practice focusing on the subject with less thought on the actual drawing (letting go of the idea of creating a "pretty picture"). To discover how this freedom can allow the feeling of a space to come through.

Supply list

• Watercolor sketchbook (Bring two if possible to save waiting for things to dry. A4 (8 1/2" x 11") or larger are recommended for beginners.)
• Watercolors: limited palette (primary yellow, Naples yellow, orange, vermilion, cadmium red, cerulean blue, cobalt blue or ultramarine, Prussian blue, green, ochre, no black)
• Three paintbrushes (small, medium and large)

Other sample sketches