Skip to Content
Course

Watercolor I: Basic Techniques and Materials

ART-40625

10 WEEKS | LIVE ONLINE | SPRING & FALL QUARTERS

Watercolors are a brilliant, versatile and a fascinating medium to work with! Develop basic painting skills in transparency, washes, glazing, composition, color theory, color mixing and value along with masking techniques, and additive and subtractive methods of using paints. Each meeting will focus on developing basic skills while encouraging individual style and creativity. Class format consists of short lectures, painting demonstrations, group and individual critiques and individually supervised exercises.

What You Will Learn:

  • Knowledge of the tools and materials fundamental to the practice of watercolor painting. 

  • The basic techniques, elements, and principles applicable to the art of watercolor painting.

  • Basic terminology necessary to the practice of watercolor.

  • The technical use of the tools and materials of the watercolor medium.

  • How to handle the watercolor medium as a form of personal expression.

  • How to sharpen your sense of perception.

  • The ability to demonstrate a variety of basic watercolor techniques - their materials, methods, and suitability to subject matter.

  • To become more aesthetically minded - more sensitive to the unique character of the watercolor medium, more sensitive to the diversity of subject matter manifest in nature and all created things.

Quarters Offered: Spring, Fall | Live Online
Current Course Fee: $350
Course Length: 10 weeks
Prerequisite: Recommended prerequisite of Drawing I: Focus on Perception (ART-40166).
Note: First meeting mandatory.
Elective course for Art and the Creative Process professional certificate. 

Materials: Full list of materials will be distributed at first meeting.

Course Information

Live Online
3.00 units
$325.00

Course sessions

Add To Cart

Section ID:

196843

Class type:

Synchronous web-based class meetings that are scheduled to meet online at published times (time/date).

Textbooks:

No textbook required.

Policies:

  • No refunds after: 4/7/2026
  • Early enrollment advised

Note:

Synchronous web-based class meetings that are scheduled to meet online at published dates and times. You will have access to your online course on the published start date OR 1 business day after your enrollment is confirmed, if you enroll on or after the published start date. To login to your course, go to your MyExtension account, select My Courses, select this course and then click the link that appears under Online Provider.

Schedule:

Date Day Start End
3/31/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
4/7/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
4/14/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
4/21/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
4/28/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
5/5/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
5/12/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
5/19/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
5/26/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
6/2/2026 Tue 6:00 p.m. 9:00 p.m.
Add To Cart

Instructor: Michelle McCunney

Michelle McCunney

Michelle received a master's in visual arts from the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (UNAM) in Mexico City and bachelor's in visual arts from the University of California San Diego. She has taught painting, drawing and illustration for university programs in Mexico and the US since 1988. Michelle's art revolves mainly around the animals she observes, and their stories of habitat loss.

She teaches the following courses for the Professional Certificate in Art and the Creative Process:

Drawing I: Focus on Perception
- Drawing II: Refining Technique
Watercolor I: Basic Techniques and Materials
Intermediate Watercolor
Introduction to Painting 
- Animal Illustration

When Michelle is not teaching she enjoys playing blues and hiking with her family, always keeping an eye out for wildlife. She is working on a book about animal scientists.

Full Bio