SESSION ADDED! Let It Glow: Finding Sunshine in Shadows with Katie Woodward

2-5pm Aug 15 - Use color and value within shadows to change the impression of light and atmosphere in our sketches, creating a sunlit glow.
About this Event

Often, artists will choose one color and value to depict all the shadows in a painting. While this may work effectively and efficiently, we can create more dynamic sketches and give the viewer more information about the quality of light and atmosphere by varying the color and value within every shadow.

The workshop, at the beautiful Bethesda Terrace in Central Park, will consist of demonstrations, exercises and individual attention. You will use a two color limited palette with a purple and a warm yellow to explore ways to add variety and create a glow effect within shadows. You will observe how light reflects off nearby surfaces to fill in shadows, and learn how to both recreate what you see and also take creative license to create a glow where one does not exist.

In the event of rain, the group will move to the interior walkway at the Bethesda Terrace Arcade.

This is the same workshop that Katie Woodward, aka , gave at the International Urban Sketchers Symposium at Toulouse, France, in July.

At the end of the workshop students should be able to:

• Understand how value and color in shadow can change the quality of light and atmosphere in a sketch, and how light moves to create variety within shadows
• Vary light/dark and warm/cool within shadows in your own sketches to create different sunlight effects
• Use a limited palette of two complementary colors, without it turning to mud.
• Use a graduated wash for a shadow or other shape
• Effectively manage the amount of water in a wash

Recommended Supplies for Students:

• Water cup and traditional brushes preferred: anyone using a water brush will have a harder time. Recommend a larger brush as well, but shape can be to the taste of the painter.
• Paper you usually use
• Palette you usually use (pans must be large enough to accommodate brush size, or have the colors from tubes squeezed out directly onto the mixing surface)
• Two watercolor paints: Daniel Smith Aussie Red Gold (PY83, PR101, PV12) and Cobalt Blue Violet (PB28) or similar.
  Katie recommends a warm, orange-leaning yellow and a cool, blue-leaning purple. Quinacridone Gold or Deep Gold would work for this, and Carbazole Violet or Imperial Purple. If you go with a blue instead of a purple, you want to go with something more orange for the yellow. It’s important that when the two colors are mixed together they make browns and grays, not green.
• Graphite/eraser
• Watercolor paper
• Rag/paper towel/sponge to help control amount of water on your brush
• A stool

Katie will be using:

• Water cup
• Traditional brush . Both a 1” flat brush and a size 12 round (not water brushes)
• Daniel Smith Cobalt Blue Violet and Aussie Red Gold
• Pencil and Eraser
• Watercolor Paper
• Sketchboard
• Stool
• Paper towel

Please Note: There will be no refunds or exchanges on this workshop.

About the instructor

Katie Woodward, aka , lives and works in New York City. She worked in theater (on and off Broadway, and regionally) for many years, painting scenery and making props. Now, she is a full time watercolor artist, painting and teaching, and her sketches and paintings can be found in personal collections around the world. Katie wrote the Urban Sketching Handbook on Understanding Light. She is the “Woodward” half of online shop Woodward and Father, making and selling sketchboards and watercolor palettes with her Dad. In her spare time, she can be found playing shuffleboard and attempting to keep her houseplants alive.

Most recently, Katie presented this exact workshop at the International Urban Sketchers Symposium in Toulouse, France.

See Katie's work at

Tickets for this event are not refundable or exchangeable.

Paper for this event is generously donated by Legion Paper. Follow them at @legionpaper

Please tag @legionpaper when you post on social media! Thanks!