Winter Break Week

This week we didn't have class because the school district was out for Winter Break. We took a trip to southern California and spent an afternoon at Laguna Beach. I did this first painting on a bench overlooking the beach. It's so gratifying to paint in public because people are so impressed. It was especially nice when I showed the finished painting to the friends I was saying with and they both gave a matching gasp of awe and amazement. I love you guys!


I wanted some practice painting waves, so I painted this next one that night, but from a reference:


I got a journal for Christmas with higher quality paper in it, and I've been wanting to paint and write in it, so today during my lunch break I did this quick sketch based on the previous two studies.



Each of the three have something that makes it better than the other two, but I don't think there's a clear best. I really like the shadows in the first one, but the boardwalk is out of scale and the wrong perspective. The second has the best wave, but the colors are weak, and the third has the best contrast (lights and darks), but the composition is unbalanced and it was just too rushed.

Hopefully I'll be able to practice painting waves until I get the hang of them. Stay tuned for my next class where we'll be learning about and painting flowering bushes or trees.