Day 4 of painting (01/24/12)

Today's painting session was much more encouraging. Margee continued to demonstrate shading and highlighting techniques, always starting from dark to light. We worked primarily on the teapot today, but I was also able to get caught up in other areas as well. Margee suggested squinting our eyes so that we don't focus too much on everything we see in a particular part of the painting. She also demonstrated how to hold the paintbrush in different ways to accurately shade or highlight an area. For someone who is not in the class and therefore has no idea about the steps shading and highlighting requires, the current status of my painting may look confusing. However, I left today's class feeling much more accomplished and confident about the future of my painting.

At the beginning of class, my painting looked like this:

After doing a bit more shading, highlighting and filling in of color, I left the painting like this:

Day 3 of painting (01/19/12)

Thursday proved to be (for me) the most challenging day of painting, yet. I am still behind all of my peers, and I have to say that I was feeling very frustrated and slightly discouraged. Thursday began the introduction to shading and highlights- my biggest obstacle. Even though I know that Margee is a seasoned painter, I couldn't help but feel defeated as I compared her painting to my own. I know that I would feel a little better if I was up to speed with the rest of the class, but I guess I just work at a slower pace.

I learned that the rule of thumb for shading and highlighting is the same as the rule of thumb for everything else: Dark to light; Thin to thick. I have always found shading and highlighting difficult. I seem to have trouble "blending" the paint, and it just ends up looking rough and unrealistic. I'm not giving up, though! Margee is very helpful and has been reassuring me that I'm on the right track.

Thursday's painting began with this:

After doing a bit of shading and enhancing some colors, the painting was left looking like this:

Class will begin in two hours, so I am going to log off for now and return later with an update. Happy painting!

Day 2 of painting (01/17/12)

Day 2:


Today, Margee taught us the "blocking-in" technique. I think it is safe to say that this phase of the painting has been the most challenging yet. I found myself getting frustrated at my inability to paint the correct angles, but ultimately finished the day somewhat content.

At the beginning of class, my painting looked like this:

After Margee demonstrated "blocking-in," my painting changed a little bit:

By the end of the class period, my painting started to come together:

Keeping in mind that today was only the second day of painting, I am beginning to get excited about the finished product. Even through the frustration, I am having a very good time.

Day 1 of painting (1/10/12)

The first day of painting went rather well. We all positioned ourselves around the room to where we could  see the still-life. From my angle, the still-life looked like this:

We started out our paintings with a wash of "burnt sienna" and roughly sketched out the placement of the objects in the still-life.

The next step was to sketch the outside edges of the objects. I have to admit that I did not get as much done as I would have liked to, but there will be plenty of time to work.

I'm looking forward to day two. Hopefully I will be able to get more work done.

Biography

I have always had an interest in art and being creative. Although I have the most experience with acrylic paint, I have worked a little bit with oil as well. I have noticed over the years that I seem to like to paint portraits- particularly of relationships between two people.