June 17th, 2026

Spring Workshop Series Recap

From value studies to curved perspective, see art from this year’s Spring Workshop Series!

By The Art Toolkit Team

A watercolor illustration featuring various botanical elements. On the left, a drawing of Nootka rose flowers with a label, alongside strawberries on green leaves. On the right, a tall lupine plant with detailed leaves and a flower spike, accompanied by a palette of vibrant colors. — Maria Coryell-Martin’s sketch of flora from her workshop, Adventure Art.

We want to thank our wonderful instructors, Ohn Mar Win, Kate Rutter, Jenny Jing Zhang, and Maria Coryell-Martin for leading workshops this spring! Read on to view the instructors’ art from the workshop to get a glimpse at the content that they taught. Stay tuned to our newsletter and Workshops page for the next series announcement this fall, and browse our archive of workshop recordings for more offerings at your own pace.

Understanding Value: Add Depth to Your Art with Ohn Mar Win

In Ohn Mar’s workshop, Understanding Value, we learned observational skills to create still life paintings from start to finish. As Ohn Mar points out, often on social media we see the finished work without seeing the preparatory steps that laid the groundwork for understanding the subject.

A watercolor illustration featuring a variety of art supplies including colored pencils, markers, a paintbrush, an eraser, a pair of scissors, and a tube of paint, arranged neatly on a tan background. — Color painting of art supplies by Ohn Mar Win.

This workshop introduced different techniques to understand value, shape, and color through sketching art supplies. We began with a warm up to push the contrast and paint the highlights and shadows with a Pentel Brush Pen and white gouache, moved to an exercise in painting mid-tones with Payne’s Gray or Indigo, and closed with a final painting in color in a toned sketchbook.

Various art supplies, including a paintbrush, tubes of paint, a pen, and a pencil, are arranged on a soft beige background. The items are rendered in watercolor, showcasing subtle shades and details. The date "5/3/26" is signed in the bottom right corner. — Value study by Cole Morreale of their art supplies on toned paper.

A flat lay of several items including an Altoids tin, a decorative keychain labeled "KEYS to the Cabin," two silver keys, a small wooden item with a floral design, and a tube of lip balm, all set against a light yellow background. — Color sketch of art supplies by Lisa Work.

If this topic or approach grabs your interest, register for Recorded Access to Understanding Value, and visit Ohn Mar’s website to see more of her art and other offerings.

Object Art: Capture One Subject Nine Ways with Kate Rutter

In Object Studies, artist Kate Rutter led us through different ways of observing an object beyond making a basic sketch, by tracing form and contour, dipping into shadows and air space, and framing and composition.

A colorful sketch featuring various stylized objects labeled with their characteristics. Highlights include a spiky, fish-like form describing sensations and textures. Annotations detail specific features like smoothness, layers, and measurements. The design integrates artistic elements with playful notes about a beach and poetry. — Kate Rutter’s final art from the workshop, studies of a fish bone.

We loved the personalized aspect of this workshop, and how we left with a deeper understanding and appreciation for our objects of choice. We can’t wait to try these techniques in our nature journaling practice!

A hand-drawn sketch showcasing a 20-sided die with various elements. The die displays numbers in purple on a pink background, accompanied by notes about matte color and calligraphy. There are also smaller images showing the die turned to show different faces, a color palette with shades, and a brief story about its discovery in Bellingham, WA, during summer. — Cole Morreale’s object studies of their die.

We are excited to offer Recorded Access to all workshops, so if this topic or approach grabs your interest, head to our website to register for Object Studies, and visit Kate’s website to see her artwork, workshops, and other creative offerings.

Bending Perspective: Explore Dynamic and Expressive Cityscapes with Jenny Jing Zhang

In Jenny’s workshop, Bending Perspective, we let loose and let go of our attachment to drawing straight vertical lines. Leading with a warm up of creating textures with mixed media, Jenny then showed us her technique of fanning urban landscapes.

A watercolor illustration depicting a street scene with two figures walking in the foreground, surrounded by buildings and trees. The architecture features various styles, with soft colors and dynamic brush strokes, capturing a lively urban atmosphere. — Jenny’s finished workshop sketch of a city street.

Jenny shared valuable tips and techniques, such as her color-first, line-second strategy, where we learned that starting with watercolor can ease our way into an urban sketch. She also taught us to let our lines breathe by leaving white space between color and line.

A colorful watercolor illustration of a cozy storefront with a curved entrance, adorned with plants and flowers. The background features a palette of watercolor paints, suggesting an artistic setting. — Adriana Ceballos’ sketch applying techniques from the workshop.

A watercolor sketch depicting two people walking down a street lined with buildings. The scene features a mix of architectural styles, soft pastel colors, and abstract splashes in the background. — Laura Moore’s urban sketch from the workshop.

Register for Recorded Access to Bending Perspective, and visit Jenny’s website to see her artwork, workshops, and other creative offerings.

Adventure Art: Sketch the World Around You with Maria Coryell-Martin

In Maria’s workshop, Adventure Art, we built a toolkit of techniques to enhance our travel and outdoor sketching adventures! We began with contour sketches of local flora and moved on to gesture sketches of birds and value studies of landscapes.

A watercolor illustration depicting four different sketches of kingfishers in various poses, including one in flight. Each sketch is labeled with a time notation: 10 seconds, 30 seconds, and 2 minutes. The background features a soft blue sky. — Kingfishers by Maria Coryell-Martin.

One highlight of the workshop was a timed sketching exercise, where we sketched kingfishers in durations of 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute and 2minutes—building our ability to capture details quickly in the moment!

A sketchbook page featuring two sections: the left side contains gesture sketches of birds labeled "Belted Kingfisher" with annotations about the drawing process. The right side displays thumbnails of landscape scenes with watercolor wash, including mountains and a river, along with color swatches and notes on techniques. — Nancy Patterson’s sketches from the workshop.

Sketches featuring a kingfisher in various poses, with watercolor illustrations and ink details. Notes describe its features and include a small mountain scene. — Tammy Xiao’s sketches from the workshop.

If this topic or approach grabs your interest, register for Recorded Access to Adventure Art, and visit Expeditionary Art to see more of Maria’s art. Recorded Access to Maria’s other workshops, including Palette of Place, Cloudscapes and Watercolor Fundamentals, are also available for purchase.

Live Demos from Our Workshop Instructors

Recorded Access: Art Toolkit Workshops

Register for workshops and learn at your own pace! All of the workshops above are available via Recorded Access. Learn more on our Workshops page. If you are looking for free resource, we invite you to browse our archive of live demos for creative inspiration this season.

We always love to see what you make during our workshops, so tag us on socials @ArtToolkit! Thank you, and happy painting!