Sometimes you only see the surface of things. A book's cover or the shiny objects. When you look at Content Magazine, you see beautiful images and great interviews with South Bay locals and businesses. Their photography is gorgeous, as is the layout and typography. What you don't see is the incredible team behind the magazine. It is run by some of the nicest, most talented folks around here.
I think you don't realize how much the South Bay needed Content until you remember that we once didn't have this resource. If you look over their blog, follow Content on Instagram, follow Daniel Garcia on Instagram. The magazine highlights all things in the South Bay or up the Peninsula (aka NOT San Francisco). They also run events like ContentLAB, evenings where they combine food and drink, chefs, floral designers, artists and more.
The setup before guests arrived
That being said, ContentLAB's Color Night turned out to be a super fun and amazing night! I was really impressed with Content's setup from the lighting to the fancy food and drinks.
Guests starting to arrive. Isn't that red hair gorgeous?
Juan Sanchez from Baunfire marketing agency talking about color theory.
The palms surrounding the patio
Reena Williams, of Kwench juice in Campbell, led a really entertaining juicing demo. This woman had so much charisma, I wanted to march myself down to her shop and make myself a regular customer immediately.
Photo by Daniel Garcia
Once day turned to night, it was my time to lead the watercolor demo. The folks at Content made a mirror to hang above me so everyone could watch me work. I wore a Janet Jackson microphone headset so that everyone could hear me:)
Discussing watercolor techniques with watercolor examples in the mirror above. Photo credit: Scott MacDonald
Showing examples of my work. Photo credit: Scott MacDonald
Photo credit: Arabela Espinoza
Before I share the gorgeous work everyone made, I thought I'd share the materials we used. You can see I prepared some cards with textures and color theory ahead of time for class. This really helped demonstrate the work. The orb in the upper left corner is an example of what I wanted everyone to make: a world, an orb, a moon.
Here are the materials to make one:
- 5x7 watercolor paper (we used Canson paper)
- Winsor and Newton watercolors (Ultramarine Blue, Winsor Blue Green Shade, Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson)
- Brushes (Artist Loft brand combined with my personal collection)
- And to create textures: rubbing alcohol (applied with q-tips), salt, paper towel blotting
- Cups for water and plates for paint palettes (and you can trace the cups to make the circle shape)
Talking with a lovely and happy painter. Photo credit: Scott MacDonald
An artist at work doing a great job blending colors.
Psychedelic worlds. This artist let the colors blend in a controlled way, keeping it bright.
A gorgeous pink moon. This artist used the rubbing alcohol texture in a really beautiful way.
This one, by Pen and Paper Addict, really blew me away! The control and flow were done so beautifully, as well as the textures with salt and rubbing alcohol. It makes sense of course since she is an amazing calligrapher.
I wish I could credit all the artists for their beautiful work. If you or someone you know made one of the uncredited images, please let me know who the artist is.
And I must give a huge shoutout to Kristen and Daniel of the Content team. Working together was amazing!