Comparison

I was trying to think of something I could paint with a little free time I had and could not come up with a single idea.  Talk about uninspired!  So, I was leafing through my earlier attempts and hit on the idea of redoing one of them.

I liked my first beach scene and so it was easy to decide to see how much I have learned since I did that first one.

Still a long ways to go but it is better than the first attempt.

Summer Garden

My instructor had us do a flower garden.   It is fitting that in the dull grayness of winter something bright and cheerful is called for!

Actually, the exercise was on the various techniques of masking.  The fence was done with masking tape, which was then lifted and I filled in some shadow and painted vines to make it look a little more normal.

The bird house was done with maskoid which is then lifted with a rubber crepe and then painted.

The sky I played with various colors to see how the paint would move - wet on wet, wet on dry, wet on damp, etc.  Ha-Ha, so horrible but it is a learning experience after-all.

Cardinal

Another wintery scene, but then again it is winter time, so to be expected.

I took a special one day painting class to learn about washes and layering of color in order to do this bird.  Would you believe that there are 15 layers of red paints in this bird - each just a little darker?

The effect this makes is hardly shown in this scan but it is quite an intriguing effect in person.

But, I was to learn about the concept of glazing and ponder how to apply this to my painting attempts.

Fence Line

Another wintery painting this time of a fence line.  Just a chance to practice working with some trees, snow and perspective on the fence.

Important for me to learn was that nothing is "perfect" in nature. So fences are not straight, posts are not spaced evenly. And I threw in a broken segment just to accentuate this.

Simple but I liked this one, mostly for its sky.

Another future Christmas Card.

Cabin In The Snow

I like the approach this new instructor takes.  She has us do a project in every class and we can "customize" the picture as much as we want.

Here, I finally learned how to do a tree!  I was so excited!  To bad I had already finished with the Creede picture.  Oh well.

I used this one as a Christmas card I liked it so much.

Creede 23 - Nelson Tunnel Ore Bin

So, it only took me 23 attempts across the weekend to be able to come up with a mountain I liked and the background mining scene as it is in real life.  Hence, I went forward with the Nelson Tunnel Ore Bin structure.

I was very happy with the over all effect, however, there were a few whoopsies along the way, so I covered them up with my best attempt at trees.

I like everything, except the trees!

Oh well, at least I am proud of this one.

Under The Sea

This was an interesting class project, paint a background, cover it with crinkled Saran Wrap, weight the wrap down and let the painting dry. Then go back into the painting and make a scene out of it!

I just randomly chose blue and green.  The effect made remember diving in the Caribbean.

This one just cried out for there to be some fishes in shallow water.  Throw in some kelp and viola!

It was fun because I had no clue what we were doing, where it was going, nor what I would end up with!

Happiness.

Fall Foliage

From another calendar photo, this time of fall foliage up in the Yukon.  The brush there is beautiful in fall but short in height.  I thought it would make a nice picture. And, actually this is a decent representation of what the photo was.

However, it is really boring rather than interesting.

The instructor pointed out that everything is the same height.   Yes, even though it is that way in the photo and nature - it needs to have variety in height to make an interesting composition. Hmmmmmm.

So, thus began the quest to understand composition ...

Creede Attempt Number 11

Still continuing to work on my painting of the Nelson Tunnel, above Creede, Colorado.

I am starting now to like the mountain more and just playing with the rest of the details. Trees still continue to taunt me - but it is the mountain that is giving me the most misery at the moment!

Nelson Tunnel - Attempt 1

Outside of Creede, Colorado is one of the most picturesque spots I know of in the world.  Since I was feeling cocky, I decided to attempt to paint this scene of the Nelson Tunnel.

Ha-Ha-Ha!  It was pretty horrible.

However, I learned a great by doing this (like what I need to learn!).

Chicago Peace Rose

Casting about for something different to paint, I spotted this beauty in the garden and settled down to paint it.

This is where I learned about the granulating colors. Yes, attack of the Ultramarine. It separated all over the place and made quite a mess of my picture.  And there is just no recovering from that one!

Oh well, live and learn - the endless cycle of watercolor!  So frustrating, so challenging, so satisfying when you win one!

Calendar Picture

I had this picture from a calendar of places in Chile.  I loved all of the blues, so thought I would try it since I had done one seascape already. Too bad it failed miserably.

However, what I did learn was about granulation of watercolor paints and how the concept of transparency works.  So it might have failed as a painting but it was a tremendous learning experience.  I can not say I have it all worked out yet - but I am not making these kinds of mistakes anymore!

So, I built a data base of all paints current on the market and their attributes.  New doubt what any IT tech will do when frustrated ...

:)

Sponging A Tree

Since the round brush did not do anything for me in making a tree look like a tree, I went to the sponge to see how that would work.

 Well, sort of an interesting effect but not really what I was looking for ...

Doing better with washes though.

Attempt At A Tree

I think the last two posts demonstrated that I really needed to learn how to do a tree!  So, I began playing around with different ways I could make a tree shaped object.

These were done using a round brush. Not very believable ...

But, then again, better than what I had done before!

Learning About A Wash

The next class with my great new instructor was about doing a wash for a sky, a first attempt at doing a resist for the sun and then she wanted trees added in the foreground.

Of course, my wash failed utterly and I had no clue how to do a tree - so I defaulted to burned twigs against an orange sky, thinking of the big Yellowstone fire I saw many decades ago.

North Beaver Creek Falls

I was so excited by what I learned that first night with my new instructor - I went home and painted this view of North Beaver Creek Falls sort of near Creede, Colorado.

Still an awful lot to learn but it was such a blast finally doing something that looked like something!

You have no idea how excited I was!

A New Instructor

I have found a new art instructor through a craft shop and this is the result of our first class together.

For once I am learning about composition, proportion and how watercolor paint actually behaves! I am thrilled!

The project was to do some sky, the water and sand dunes. But, I was so excited I added some vegetation and land on the horizon as well.

Crude and basic but I liked being able to finally learn something!

Something I Finally Liked

Well, for 12 weeks I have labored under the watchful eye of the psycho art instructor and for our final week he allowed us to paint anything we were interested in.

I love history and I love Scotland, so painting a Coragle (an ancient form of boat) seemed to be the perfect subject.

Yes it is crude, badly proportioned and composed - but it is the first thing I have done, I have liked!

Someday, I hope to gain the skill to redo this one and make it much better ...

I sent out copies of this to my family and close friends in a letter and I started getting back all of these responses at how I must be incredibly depressed to paint something like this!  Well, I am not depressed, except with how little my family and friends seem to know me ...

Art Instructor Rant

I hate my art instructor! Sorry, but this guy is a complete fruit-loop.

Since our first class, we have tangled over what is art. He believes that art is using old wall paper and blobbing paint all over it.  Amazingly, he sells this recycled "stuff" (to whom?!?!?!?).  Honestly, I have seen three year olds do better on their parents walls!

Conversely, I think that art should express a feeling or a moment or communicate something about our environment and/or culture.  The teacher feels this definition traps me in a world where I will never become an artist because I am too rigid in my approach.

We both agree we should have been Monet, won the French national lotto and painted whatever we liked for the rest of our lives!  So, we do see somethings the same ...

Up until this painting we had been limited to one color, supposedly to discover "tones" and shading. Then after weeks of torture, we finally were allowed to use three colors and had to paint something from memory.  So, I did a Roman aqueduct I remembered from my youth I saw in Spain.  However, it was really boring so I tried to toss in some lavender growing on the hillside.

I hate it, my instructor loves the colors but feels that it looks too much like "something".

Go figure.