Painting For Absolute Beginners - Weeks 3 & 4

Yes indeed. It's for absolute beginners. In fact, it's moving so slowly that I've decided to combine last week and this week into just one blog. I'm not complaining. I like it, although were I to miss a week, I probably wouldn't miss anything. It's an outing. It's an opportunity to socialize.


Last week we painted apples. We made green water circles called underpainting, and filled them with paint. Yes, the paint stays in there. It was a process called wet on dry. Then later, wet on wet. We used crescent brush strokes and a flat brush, curving the strokes to make the shape of the apple. Layering is what it's all about. Mine was ugly and started to look like what could surely be described as a Timmy's shamrock donut. I don't like green apples anyhow. After about the fifth layer of colour, I figured out how to make my apple look more apple like. The skin outline looked ragged. It would be one of my produce sale rack, bargain apples, I decided.

Alas, something was missing...yes, the stem and the little fuzzy blossom part on the bottom of the apple. Surely that part has a name. Is it the calyx or stamen or both? Why can't I remember?

Perhaps we'll be taught this essential piece of info I thought, as our instructor asked us to begin again, this time to make a red apple. Woohoo...red delicious. My favourite. Something I knew something about. As the instructor promised, this one was progressing much more quickly. The class ended before I could finish my masterpiece, but oh well. Next week was to be another appley week I was sure.

Homework was to work on this and remember to bring an apple to the next class. I tried to resist being my usual wise guy and bringing a tomato. After all, isn't that the original love apple? Ah well...since we have a goodly assortment of Macs around the house, perhaps I'll take one of those. They certainly have interesting hues.

Today was class four. We observed and discussed a number of techniques and learned about light and shadows. We continued to study the importance of layering. Then we looked at our apples and underpainted the outline in grey. Mine was really difficult to see. After that, we made a darker grey shadow.

 Like I said, it was hard to see, and didn't show up in a photo so there's no point in sharing a picture. Anyhow, after determining the underlying colour, we applied more layers. I made a greenish yellow which was more yellow than green. For some reason I found this stressful. I'm not sure what happened when I tried adding my red over the dark gray shadowy side. I didn't really care for the result. The instructor asked how many layers I had and when I said six, he said paintings aren't successful until there are at least seven layers. I turned to my watercolour apple and informed it that it was not successful.

This week we have a lot of homework. The pressure's on because next week, we're painting a still life and also using acrylics...at last. We are to pick something with colour, a fruit or veggie, leaves of a houseplant or whatever with colour variation. We are to underpaint  then make curves using the furthest colour first. Then we are to attempt texture, like the bark of a tree I guess.

 I'm not particularly interested in painting fruit or landscapes. I'm more of an abstract or cartoony type of person. I was becoming quite restless with this process. Then, hubby and I attended the most magnificent of exhibits. We saw the Maurice Sendak display of original works at the Toronto Reference Library. Sendak's art from his various children's books as well as his most famous paintings from the book "Where the Wild Things Are" gave me new hope. How so? His artwork was done in watercolour, pen and ink and was magnificent.

 Perhaps I'll give this activity more time and effort after all. Maybe I'll develop my own style. After all, who wouldn't love and be proud to have something like this hanging on their wall?

Painting for Absolute Beginners - Week 2

I finally found a spot to keep my paint items set up in the house. No bathtub is involved despite the fact that it would facilitate water acquisition and cleanup.

I have put all paper and paint (not the water) on and around a t.v. tray, near....what else?...the t.v. That way, I don't have to pack up and I only need to bring a small, stable container with water when I'm ready to watch t.v...and paint. I like to multi task especially when it comes to t.v. It feels as though less time is wasted. The only occasion when this might become a problem is if I accidentally sit on the chair remote which will recline me more rapidly than I can retrieve the gizmo and thus fling my feet into a horizontal position directly in line with my painting supplies. Fortunately, I don't keep the water on the tray but on a large wicker trunk (no elephants were harmed....) next to my chair.

This week, in class, my eyes were swollen and I had major hives all over my body...an attractive look. I probably won't use that as an excuse for my painting efforts. I will use it as a reason for another blog, possibly today or tomorrow.

We received a course summary, and I soon saw that a week's Caribbean beach vacation was looking more desirable than some of the paint weeks. The fact is, I don't really care for water colours and saw no sign of acrylic usage as I had hoped in the later stages of these sessions. Ah well.

I learned more about colour theory and followed the instructions we were given to work with wet on wet, wet on dry, and dry on dry. I hope I have this all correct. Wet on wet involved wetting the paper and using thinned paint atop this. Wet on dry...hmmm...sounds like wet paint on dry paper. Finally, dry on dry wasn't quite as it seemed although the brush had minimal amounts of water and made a scritching sound on the paper.

Once finished following the instructors suggestions for trying these techniques, we all brought our work to place it on display along a wall...a gallery exhibit as it were. I immediately noted and announced "One of these things is not like the others." I got a laugh if nothing else.

Mine was different, probably wrong....was I already lagging? Am I unteachable? You know the old saying about "those who can, do and those who can't....."

Yep....that's mine, last one on the right. Not to worry, there won't be a test at the end, I thought. I've always been a bit different. Besides, I've got a terrible case of hives.

We received our homework assignment. Make shapes. Experiment with different techniques. Add paint at different times. Seemed simple enough. I'll just keep plugging away. Here are a few of the messes I made while watching the State of the Union address (listening actually).

Mucking around #1....lines, shapes, mixing colours, dry on dry...who knows? I think I even started a game of watercolour tic tac toe in the corner.

Mucking around #2....Let's try something else. I filled a whole page with colour, wet on wet, dry on whatever....just running things together. And what would happen if I put a Picassa frame around it?