I had such a fun day at Bynd Artisan, Holland Village!
Bynd Artisan is a beautiful place. It is primarily an artisanal leather goods company with a rich heritage in book-binding, and you can find a lot of cool stuff at Bynd Artisan, including unique handpainted leather goods (made in collaboration with local artists) and on-the-spot customisation services done by craftsmen painstakingly trained in-house.
Bynd Artisan also holds various workshops at its space (right across from Holland Village), including a botanical painting workshop taught by local fine arts artist and part-time lecturer Erwin Lian.
Evonne organised a special watercolor workshop for us with Erwin (IG @cherngzhi) during which Erwin taught us the basics of watercolors and botanical painting.
As you know I used to study design lah so I do have some experience painting before, like maybe ten years ago..?! But I never did much traditional media since I used to be a digital artist and didn’t work much with traditional media!
Swatches done by our teacher, Erwin.
We started off real simple with doing color swatches, flat washes, graduated washes and variegated washes, and it definitely is way harder than it looks because Erwin did it so effortlessly but we all struggled with it so bad!
The trick is to let the medium of water do the job of blending and not to be overly OCD about it and end up over-painting and destroying the artwork. (Which also sounds easier than it actually is)
Here’s Erwin demonstrating something to the class: I can’t remember what though :S
That little sketchbook I’m holding is a book of Erwin’s watercolor sketches and they are so good!
This bunch of flowers were for our painting reference and we had a huge bunch of roses and other blooms to choose from!
Apparently, roses are rather tricky and Erwin’s classes usually do something simpler like orchids (which is what Evonne did previously) but this Evonne requested for us to do roses because I guess she just thinks roses are all romantic and pretty LOL.
Apart from getting our very own watercolor paper sketchbook that we painted in, Bynd Artisan also very generously made us our very own customized notebooks!!
Ain’t it gorgeous? I picked a blue wooden grain hard cover coupled with brass fixtures and a fuchsia leatherette clasp! My name is embossed/hot-stamped in rose gold at the bottom.
Love it!!!
Our class of aspiring watercolorists! Trisha, Evonne, Tricia, Min, Reenie, Jess, Ying and Jeneen!
This is my serious drawing mode on hahaha!
Step 1. Draw a rough pencil outline
Step 2. Do a light flat wash
Step 3. Figure out the tonal values (shadows and light areas)
Step 4. Fill in the details!
My first attempt and also some of the practice washes we did!
It took me four practice paintings to get one that looks half-way decent, but I think I kind of got the hang of it and this rose was a pretty good attempt!
Another attempt that I didn’t have time to finish.. Class started at 12noon and I sat there all the way until 7pm! It was so therapeutic. I’ve nearly forgotten how I can get lost in painting for hours and hours!
It was a really good session and I got completely absorbed in painting, loved it!! You get your very own leather bound sketchbook to paint in and bring home!! Also had a mini tea break with light refreshments and beverages.
Erwin X Bynd Artisan‘s next Botanical Painting Workshop sessions are on 8th October and 29th October, 2-6pm. 4 hour class, $30 off $180 with special code “friendsofbynd”!
Don’t worry if you have no experience in painting at all, this class is catered for beginners and all materials are provided so it’s really fuss-free. and fun! The max class size is 8 pax so it’s cozy and not too crowded.
Sign up for the Botanical Painting Workshop or you can check out other workshops that Bynd Artisan also conducts, they’ve got some cool stuff like calligraphy painting and leather binding! I would love to go back for more workshops soon!
Disclaimer: Not a sponsored or paid post, I loved it so much I had to share 😉
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