Sunday, February 17, 2008

Painting Class Week Three

Week Three started out with a lot of frustration. I was unhappy with where Week Two's painting had ended. As I was working on the painting I had to stop myself twice from packing up and leaving. This is my biggest problem with my goal to become an artist. My frustration. When I was a child I would spend hours and hours drawing. Maybe it is the pressure I put on myself to succeed. I have lost the joy of just creating a painting. Because I have lost the joy I tend to put of painting. Because I put off painting, I am not developing my skill. In order to become successful, I must develop my skill further, so I must paint more, so I must get past the frustration! It's a viscious cycle!!



As I was wallowing in my frustration the deep resonating base thumping from the exhaust fan made me almost pull my hair out.

I did stay with it, mainly because I had paid to be there. As I finally gave up on trying to perfect the composition and began working with a deeper blue to create the background I found my frustration leave, and the fan noise receeded. Note to self...bring ipod next week.



I had a chance to speak with the instructor at the end of the class, and mentioned my frustration and how I pushed through it, and she told me to remind her next week and she will tell us a story about that. It seems I am not the only frustrated wanna-be artist in the world.

I have been tenative with my lights and dark, which is typical, but will have to loosen up on those next week as it is our final week on this project. Or I should say in two weeks. Next week we have off. You can start to see the shape of the pair and not just a flat shape.


I put a complete new layer of paint on everything except the gray cup that is holding the orange and the insides of the vase and burnt orange cup.




Now, some of you may wonder why this is a successful composition when things are behind things? Why did I choose to create a painting like this? Below I pointed out my limited availability to a good location. That was one of the reasons I chose this composition. I believe the composition creates an interesting negative space. Meaning the space around the objects is interesting. None of the objects touch the edge of the painting (a big no-no) and when the painting is finished the colors I have chosen will be intermixed amongs the entire painting. That means there will be blue in the shadows, greens in the pear, yellows as highlights, etc. etc. This while it might seem unatural, will create interesting things for the eye to look at and keep the eye moving throughout the painting instead of becoming stagnant.

I apologize for misspelled words. Spell check doesn't seem to be working.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

2/8 Class - Thumbnails and blocking in colors


Class last week was more than a little frustrating for me. I guess that's why I haven't posted about it sooner. So here's my list of things that frustrated me:


1) I wasn't paying attention when the still life was set up and got a bad location. I was getting supplies out and looking at handouts before I realized she had set it up in a different location than what I was anticipating. I was able to adjust and found a spot very close to where I had originally set up, I just had to look "between" two other people.


2) I had a very nice composition sketched up and it didn't transfer well. I am going to work on that first thing this week.


3) I am very disapointed with my colors. I have had time this week to think about what is disappointing me and I have decided it's the pastel coloring. The table cloth is a pastel purple while the vase, upside down pot and cup behind the vase are a brownish terra cotta color. Pastel colors are NOT my thing. I have something in mind to change the palette to. My goal today is to find some examples to take in and discuss with the instructor. I have to if I want to truly learn in this class.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Class Canceled

Grrr! I didn't find out until I turned the corner of 7th floor to see the door locked. Our instructor had a family emergency and had to cancel last minute.

Oh well, I got some shopping done. Picked up a few more brushes and some burnt umber and burnt sienna.