🐢 Sea Turtle in Watercolor & Mixed Media

Live Online Workshop with Sophia Rodionov

🗓 September 26, 2026 (Saturday)
🕖 19:00 Jerusalem Time
⏳ Duration: ~3.5 hours (with a 15-20 minute break)
🎥 Recording — lifetime access for everyone who enrolls or subscription access (Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst while your subscription is active)

About the Workshop

Sea turtles carry something ancient in them - unhurried, drifting through light and shadow as if time moves differently around them and a lot of possibilities to play with color palette and textures.

In this workshop, we'll paint a sea turtle freely, combining watercolor with mixed media, and building a skill that reaches far beyond this one subject: how to simplify what we see, make our own decisions, and stop chasing the "correct" version of a reference.

Because a strong painting isn't about matching a photo detail for detail - it's about learning to decide:

👉 what to simplify
👉 what to keep and what to let go
👉 and how to make the whole thing your own

Workshop schedule

🐢 Part 1 - Simplifying the Subject: working with angles, pose, and multiple references

🐢 Part 2 - Composition Sketches: composition, color palette, and materials planning

☕️ Break - 15-20 min

🐢 Part 3 - The Painting: full sea turtle painting, focused on mixed media

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 EARLY BIRD ENROLLMENT: 

What We Will Explore

 🐢 Part 1 - Simplifying the Subject

Sea turtles are deceptively tricky - their shells curve in ways that are easy to misread, and their angles and poses can pull you into copying every detail instead of understanding the form underneath.

We'll work through:

• common difficulties with sea turtle angles and pose, and how to adjust them so the subject reads clearly
• how to feel free in the painting process, without getting stuck chasing the "right" pose, proportions, or colors of your reference
• how to use several references together for a single painting

In short: simplifying, and making life easier for ourselves as artists.

🐢 Part 2 - Composition Sketches

Before we touch the final paper, we make the decisions that matter most:

• a composition sketch - working out placement, focal point, and flow
• choosing our color palette
• planning our materials and mixed media approach

This is where the painting really gets decided - everything after this is carrying it out.

🐢 Part 3 - The Painting

Now we paint our sea turtle at full size, built on the composition and palette we chose in Part 2. Our main focus here is mixed media - how to combine it freely and with intention:

• what combinations work well across different media
• opacity vs. transparency, and how that balance changes a painting
• the importance of line vs. shape, and how each carries a piece differently
• comments and tips on using pencils, watercolor pencils, gouache, acrylic, acrylic markers, watercolor markers, and drawing pens - what each brings, and how they play together

What You Will Learn

• how to simplify a complex subject without losing what makes it recognizable
• how to work confidently from multiple references instead of one "correct" one
• how to plan a painting through a composition sketch and color decisions before committing
• how to combine watercolor with mixed media with intention, not by accident
• the difference between opacity and transparency, and when each serves the painting
• how line and shape each do different work in a piece
• practical, hands-on tips for pencils, watercolor pencils, gouache, acrylic, acrylic markers, watercolor markers, and drawing pens

🎨 Who This Workshop Is For

• anyone who loves painting animals but feels stuck trying to "get it right"
• anyone who loves freedom in painting and want to “loosen up”
• artists curious about combining watercolor with other media, but unsure where to start
• those who want a clearer process for composition and color decisions before painting
• beginners who want a simple, repeatable approach, and intermediate painters who want more freedom and confidence
• anyone who wants to spend an evening painting a sea turtle

Why Join Live

Painting together live creates a completely different experience — you stay focused, you move step by step, and you can ask questions in real time.

There will be a Q&A session, and I'll guide you through the process as if we are painting side by side.

And of course — if you can't join live, you will receive the full recording with lifetime access for everyone who enrolls or subscription access (Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst) while your subscription is active.

Community & Support

You'll also have the option to join our private community space, where you can:

• share your artworks
• ask questions
• receive feedback (if you want it)
• connect with other artists

Access

After the workshop, the recording will be uploaded to your Library,
where you can watch and paint at your own pace.

💎 THE FLOW ROOM INFORMATION

Before you decide — there are two paths here.

If this class speaks to you and you'd like to have it as your own — you can purchase it directly below, with lifetime access.

But if you find yourself returning to learn again and again, The Flow Room might be a more natural home for you. It's a subscription studio where this class is already included — alongside streams, workshops, and immersive learning — across three tiers: Emerald, Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst.

This very workshop belongs to Lapis Lazuli and Amethyst tiers.

Both paths lead to the same painting table. The question is how you like to travel.