Canvas #1: Slowly she appears
My art class continues and so does my canvas #1. (I am also working on canvas #2 at the same time but that is a story for a different day).
I am trying to work slowly and methodically on this canvas. (Again, canvas #2 is a whole different story ... there is a frenzy of paint being splashed around there). Each layer is followed by another layer - piece by piece she is slowly appearing to gain depth and life. This is a different style of painting to what I have done before. I like the challenge ... although every part of me just wants to move more quickly.
I am not entirely sure where this style will take me and how she will finally appear. We will just have to wait and see ...
The building continues
I didn't realise how long it would take to make a tiny house. I definitely didn't realise how long it was going to take me to make SIX tiny houses. No matter. I am enjoying the chance to stop and just focus on each part of the process. Slowly, bit-by-bit the houses (or Halloween Village Manors) are coming together.
I am aiming to have them all finished by the 1st of October. I think it is going to go close. I may have to have a "building a Halloween house" extended session before September is over ...
Canvas #1 cont'd: The underpainting
It's weird. I thought working large-scale would be intimidating; such a big, blank canvas to fill. Actually, it's the opposite. At the moment anyway, I am finding working on a large scale is fantastic. You just have to be brave; there is no room for being cautious.
I started with a mixture of reds ... warm, cool, all the options. Fun.
I then used green to start to find my face. I can start to see her; African I think. That may change. I might struggle with the next part. I actually quite like her already and that's a problem. I need to be brave enough to continue and see where I get to. I know I will go through phases of liking or not the painting. Hopefully I can get to a liking stage at the end ... we'll see.
Lesson 3 ... of 50
My small painting series of lessons continues. This week the underlying lesson focused on colour mixing; using a simple landscape as the basis for the lesson.
These canvases are only 30cm x 30cm. So quite small really.
The landscape is a very basic colour blocked image. I could probably go back in and work on the painting a little but to give it more complexity. But, then again, there is something about the super-simpleness of the painting we had to do that is appealing. Maybe I like a simple painting in a complex world?
Having 50 of these paintings might prove chaotic but for the moment I am enjoying the lessons. The weather is beautiful and standing outside enjoying the moment is part of the appeal.
Bring on lesson 4 ...
Halloween houses
In prior years I have made Halloween tags ... 31 tags to celebrate each day in October. I love the project; it marks the start of one of my favourite times of the year. Ultimately though, it became a huge task because I was making 6 tags for each day (to share with family and friends). 6 x 31 tags = LOTS OF TAGS!
This year I decided to change things up. I really love the "Village" die series produced by Sizzix and Tim Holtz. So my grand plan is to make everyone on my tag list a spooky Halloween Manor house ...
I'm getting there. It is in fact quite time consuming but there is something lovely about hitting the daily grind pause button to create a tiny little haunted house ... I know. I'm crazy ;-)
Lesson 2 ... of 50
And so I continue to learn. One step after another; one painting after another. (Admittedly it is not hard to do when it is something thoroughly enjoyable!).
I have finished my second lesson from the "Learn to Paint in Acrylics" book I have started to work through. I like working is smaller sizes, it appeals to me. I can finish the painting fairly quickly and I haven't therefore got to leave all of my paints and brushes out. This is especially important as I don't have a dedicated painting studio.
Goodbye underpainting, hello finished painting
Last week I was challenged to paint a green guitar, a yellow background and an orange/red tablecloth using complementary colours ... (here is that post). This week we worked to finish that painting - using the actual colour scheme of the still life. Phew.
The idea of the exercise was to produce some "zing" when the underpainting is allowed to show through to the finished painting. Great exercise. Harder that it sounds ... or at least that is how I felt :-)
I like the finished painting. I didn't like it for a long time as I was painting it. In the end though, I think it worked OK. (I still don't think I will rush back to paint more guitars ...)!
Lesson 1 ... of 50
I have had a book in my collection for a while. I keep picking it up; thinking about using it and then getting side-tracked. The book is called "Learn to Paint in Acrylics with 50 Small Paintings". The author is Mark Daniel Nelson.
I am pleased that I have finally made the time to actually start using the book. I am planning to work my way through all 50 lessons ... right from the very beginning to the very end; one lesson per week.
The first series of lessons "getting to know acrylics" are all designed to introduced various ideas and techniques. The first lesson is just getting you familiar with basic paint application.
And so, I begin my journey of 50 paintings. One more step to improving my skills.
Pardon my underpainting
Orange is blue and green is red and somehow yellow is purple. My head is spinning.
This week we started a painting that is to be finished over two weeks. This week we painted the underpainting using complementary colours. This, in theory, make sense. This, in practice was challenging. It was surprisingly difficult to look at a green guitar and know to paint it in red. The same applies with painting a yellow background in purple.
Time flew. I love that for that moment, while I am in class, my biggest decision is whether a certain shade of purple is the exact opposite of a particular shade of yellow. Awesome.
My actual painting of the still life - a green guitar - wasn't awesome. Maybe next week when we go back and paint over the painting with the true colours I might be able to salvage my painting ...
This is the still life we were working from ...
An anodised green apple
My painting class continues. This week it was blue and green week. Well, to be technically correct, it was yellow, blue, black and white week at my painting class.
We were challenged once again to paint the still life using a limited colour palette. I enjoyed the challenge. Interestingly, I found the oranges easier to mix. Turquoise proved to be a challenging colour (for me) to mix. Deborah decided in her wisdom to give us an anodised green apple to be the focal point of our still life. Actually, I am enjoying being pushed outside of my comfort zone. I would NEVER have attempted to paint an image of an anodised green apple. Equally I would NEVER painted an image of an anodised green apple on an A2 sized page.
I am being challenged ... and I love it.
Here is the still life composition we were working from (you'll note the yellow bowl disappeared from my painting ... don't you just love creative licence!) :-)
