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!