26 Sep Charlotte Mason Brush Drawing: Plate 3

Let’s explore Plate 3 from May Mallam’s book, Brush Drawing as Applied to Natural Forms and Common Objects. This is part of our Charlotte Mason Brush Drawing series and is our next step in our work towards watercolor painting.

Our first two lessons (or plates) were a review of brush work and brush control by painting straight and curved lines and patterns. In this lesson we move on to some natural filled forms, first with a simple box, then on to leaves, grass and flowers. We’ll incorporate the skills from Plate 1 and Plate 2.

Materials Needed

• The book, Brush Drawing as Applied to Natural Forms amd Commom Objects by May Mallam
• A quality watercolor brush, size 6 round
• Watercolor paints, pick 2 or 3 to start (the book suggests getting started with indigo or sepia), or get the set
• Watercolor paper – for practice, however, we like to use manila graph paper. It is cheaper than watercolor paper, but absorbent enough to use with watercolor paints.
• A small container of water
• A small plate or palette for mixing
• A sloping surface for the paper (to be transparent, we do not have a sloping surface)
• Napkins to blot paint, and to clean fingers and dry brushes
• Nature specimens such as leaves, flowers, feathers, pinecones, or shells
• A white screen or cardboard with a hinged stand that can hold specimens

Happy Handicrafts Video: Brush Drawing, A Charlotte Mason Homeschool Series, Plate 3

Plate 3

This lesson begins with painting the form of a square. We are instructed to paint on a sloped surface, using enough watercolor paint that the paint drips down, helping to fill the form. In all transparency, I have an easel that would probably work well for this, but an easel takes up a lot of room, and can be labor-intensive to set up each time, so I’ve decided to simply use my boring, old, flat table. Forgive me, Ms Mallam for the complete disregard for your instructions, but sometimes practicality wins.

Next, we practiced several different shapes of leaves. The instructions are clear, with guidance to avoid drawing an outline and filling it in. This is HARD! Each time, we were so tempted to draw that outline! You’ll see us do it several times in the video. However, we were able to blend the paint well enough so that there was not a hard edge.

As you can see, we painted the images in the book. When we practice between lessons, we’ll collect objects from nature and paint them, but that’s going to look very different for everyone.

I found this lesson very exciting because for the first time, I felt like I was actually painting nature in a more realistic way. I felt that the control of the brush was becoming more natural and easy. I’m excited to practice and move forward with more detailed efforts.

Come follow us on YouTube, at Happy Handicrafts, where we share videos of all of our homeschool handicrafts! Explore the different playlists for different handicraft series and find one that works for you! We would love to have you join us!