fungi botanical watercolor workshop (online)

with Mira O’Brien (Berlin Drawing Room Founding Director) Watercolor

Learn watercolor techniques while we visit the beautiful and bizarre fungi kingdom during this online workshop. As the fruiting bodies (mushrooms) of the fungi emerge in the fall taking surprising and varied forms, Mira will collect and photograph new specimens every week for the class. We will create botanical style watercolor paintings using photographic references and you will also be encouraged to collect your own specimens if you wish.

Mycology The workshop will also include contributions by professional biologist and mycologist Maria Marrow, providing insight into mushroom identification and their contribution to forest ecology. While mycology as a science won’t be the primary focus of this workshop, learning about our specimens will add depth to our observational painting. Maria Morrow is a botany professor at College of the Redwoods in California where she teaches a mushroom ID and ecology course and she is VP of the local mycology club.

What to expect:

• Learn intro and advanced watercolor techniques that can be applied to mushrooms as well as other subject matter.
• Learn how to mix the complex organic colors associated with mushrooms, while also learning some color theory.
• Learn about botanical illustration composition.
• See examples from the history of botanical and fungi illustration. Learn about some key artists.
• Learn basic mushroom anatomy and fascinating stories about mushrooms and fungi.

The drawings and painting made in this workshop are more like the field notes kept in the sketch books of Naturalists than the highly polished illustrations found in a botany textbook. These recordings are just as much about the subjective process of observation as they are about the recording of scientific data. Techniques will include line drawing with watercolor tea wash, building up layers with watercolor washes, adding detail with special watercolor effects and paying close attention to oft-overlooked subjects!

November 2 – November 23 2021 4 x Tuesdays livestreaming from 6 – 8 pm CET (6pm in Berlin, 12pm in New York, 9am in San Francisco, 5pm in London)