Jean Mackay – Birds and Words (Online); Tuesdays, February 4-25, 2025

Date: Tuesdays, February 4-25, 2025
Time: 3:00-5:00 PM Pacific Time, 6:00-8:00 PM Eastern Time, 11:00 PM-1:00 AM London Time
Level: All
Medium: Ink & Watercolor

Supply List

Try your hand at combining text with artwork to lend greater meaning to your sketchbook pages or artwork. “Catch two birds with one seed” as you learn hand-lettering techniques and practice drawing and painting birds in ink and watercolor. Each class will introduce a different approach to adding text, including large letters, poetry, and quotes. You can apply the techniques we’ll cover to many subjects, not only birds, so you’ll come away with new ideas and skills for hand lettering and watercolor painting. Each session will include an optional assignment to practice what you’ve learned and complete a piece of your own.

Week 1- Getting Started

In this foundational session, you’ll learn and practice basic letter forms and ways to embellish text for both printed and cursive writing. We’ll also cover basic bird anatomy, major feather groups, and ways to quickly capture birds on paper.

Week 2- Quote & Catbird

Put what you’ve learned in the first session into practice by visualizing and laying out a sketchbook page using a short quote, a catbird, and loose feathers.

Week 2- Big Text / Bird List

Learn to layout and paint big text and perch a songbird on the large letters. You’ll finish the rest of the page with your own bird list, adding additional birds if you wish to apply what you learned.

Week 4: Poem & Hummingbird Nest

This session builds on the others with a more complex drawing of a hummingbird in her nest paired with a short poem.