Wonderful Trees!

‘In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.’

— Paulo Coelho

Arboretum first ran at the beginning of 2022 and received incredible feedback (read on to see some quotes). This course was offered again in Spring 2023 and is now available as self-paced.

Arboretum works perfectly as a deep dive follow up course to Four Seasons.

Expand your creativity and develop a stronger sense of colour, pattern and form with this alternative drawing and painting course; based on the subject of trees. It consists of fifteen projects designed to kickstart ideas and to promote original and imaginative thinking. Each project will incorporate my Creative Leap method of teaching where handwriting, numbers and symbols are used as anchor points for explorative drawings and expressive sketchbook projects.

Full course price is £287 and there’s an option to pay in two instalments of £147.

During Arboretum, I’ll demonstrate ways to create stylised and imaginary forms by developing doodles, drawings and designs into more complex tree-focussed creations. There’s an emphasis on paint techniques and colour combinations. Arboretum is an ideal way to explore watercolour and mixed media and to expand knowledge useful for all art practices.

Course Structure

Each of the three modules contains four explorative projects building up to a larger mixed media artwork assignment to conclude. Inspiration comes from trees and their natural shapes together with details, forms and patterns found in nature and our own unique styles.

We’ll also explore watercolour and mixed media techniques including the mixing of colours to create interesting tints, shades and combinations, and translucent and opaque layering.

Cost

Arboretum costs £287 with an option to pay in two instalments of £147.

Accessing The Course

After registration with your email address and chosen password, you’ll have access to my learning platform, this is where the course is delivered, you will be able to view all the course content once released.

12 Months’ Access

Once registered you’ll have access to Arboretum for twelve months from date of registration.

Previous Student Testimonials

“So grateful for your willingness to share these playful ways of exploring. I am enjoying the adventure. Simplify and not-to-precious are important re-minders. I have enjoyed Coloricombo, Arboretum, and all that you have graciously shared this year. You are a sourceress of creativity and inspiration to others. I am blessed, thank you.”

- JP

“Thanks very much, Este, for sharing all the wonderful techniques in this Aboretum course! Your demos and explanations as you work to teach are so very well done, clear and helpful! As a former elementary teacher (recently retired), I appreciate how your demo exercises build on each other and connect with earlier projects to enhance our learning as the course continues. I look forward to completing the Still Life course I signed up for next❣️💕”

- ML

“Wonderful - so inspiring - now to go practice , thank you so much, what an in-depth course.”

- PE

“When I came to the grid of reds (plus more) - I literally said "Oh my god" out loud! It was so beautiful!! Caught me off guard going from the plain grid to beautiful in just a few moments!”

- DF

Questions & Answers

Material List

I include a fairly extensive list of materials that will be used during my courses. These are all high quality and are the same as I use in my daily practice as a professional artist and designer.

• Basic sketchbook for drawing exploration. I like Pink Pig sketchbooks. A4 size of bigger. Mixed media paper like Bristol or Cartridge paper will work

• A watercolour sketchbook like Moleskine A4 OR Hahnemuhle OR ALTERNATIVELY a watercolour pad like Hahnemuhle watercolour pad 0R Arches watercolour block

• Three to five COLD PRESS watercolour paper sheets around 16”x20” for the weekend assignments. Alternative to the sheets and the watercolour pad mentioned above get one COLD PRESS Arches Aquarelle (green cover) block with 20 sheets.

• Selection of black pigment ink fineliner markers (must be not water soluble once dry), pencils and other drawing instruments of your own choice.

• One dark green aquarelle pencil (Ionian, Iron Green or similar): Derwent Inktense or Caran D’ache’s Museum Aquarelle.

• Pointed dip pen for drawing in ink and watercolour. I use William Mitchell or Speedball’s mapping set.


• Acrylic ink, black, 30ml. I use Golden High Flow acrylic paint.

• Professional Quality Watercolour set, I use the QoR Watercolour set of twelve tubes for the projects. Take note of the 12 colours in the set required if you use a different brand like Daniel Smith.

• White gouache (not acrylic based) 15ml.

• Five sheets of carbon copy paper (not graphite paper)

• Removable masking fluid with applicator (not wax based).

• Paintbrushes suitable for watercolour and acrylic paint:

  A pointed round synthetic size 8 or 10 brush can be used for most projects. I have added a list of brushes below. You do not need all of these, but these brushes are ideal for exploring a variety of textures and marks.

  • Round pointed, medium e.g. Designer brush size 8

  • Fan brush e.g. Blender Size Medium

  • Dagger or angled brush, medium size 3/8 e.g. Series 311

  • Flat, Golden Synthetic size 16

  • Comber (rigger) brush e.g. medium size 3/4” inch

  • Optional mop brush size large/number 3 e.g. Golden mop series 304

• Scissors and craft knife

• Optional painter’s travel palette or containers for mixing paint such as postal tube end caps.

• Additional materials required, regular size balloons. wax paper sheet (sandwich paper) and potatoes (or yams or carrots) for printing.

Suppliers

As an artist I have an affiliation with Jackson’s Art Supplies who ship speedily worldwide. A 10% discount applies for first time orders when you sign up to their newsletter.

Rosemary & Co offer good value and global shipping. I also use Silver Brushes and Borciani & Bonacci brushes in my courses.

Other suppliers: Ken Bromley ship abroad. Also available Art Discount or on Amazon if you can’t find elsewhere.

Please note: regular acrylic paint is not suitable for this course and it will be helpful if you have access to a home printer (black and white) and copy paper for printing out designs to use on some of the projects.