Week 3: Building and Foliage

You may remember this house from a previous post - I painted the neighbor house to this house during the summer.  I preferred the shape of this house and have wanted to come back to it, so this week's assignment was a great match.

Again, I only had an hour to complete the painting below.  The biggest problem to me is the dark foliage on the sides which kept me from seeing the lines of the house in a few places.  I thought I could fake it, but I've ended up with a house that has obvious structural issues.

I am considering giving this a second go.  I'd like to fix the lines and perspective, commit to more shadows, and play up the complementary colors.  I think this could be a really pretty cottage-y type piece if I can loosen up a little, and if I can figure out how to communicate the blue of the house without it becoming overwhelming.

Bottom line though:  I was actually quite pleased by how this came out.

Week 2: Marsh Landscape

After the hot mess I painted the first week of class, I was really pleased by how well this turned out.  I got some really pretty colors, was able to save a lot of effective whites, my reflections weren't bad and I got some nice darks in a few places.

The class format only gives me an hour each week to try to get to a finished state, and after an hour this is probably only about 65% done, but I think it's tough to go back to something once I've put my brush down.

Week 1: Washes

It's kind of ironic that I just mentioned how I feel like I've made so much progress in the past year, and then I have to post my Week 1 in-class study which turned out SO abysmal.  

My teacher provided the reference, which was a close-up of some kind of plant foliage.  We were supposed to practice our washes.  I wish I'd used some glazing techniques and treated the image as a whole instead of a bunch of small shapes.

There is nothing about this to like, and I'm going to put it here and then walk away from it forever.  No looking back!

One Year

In September of 2010, one year ago, I took my first watercolor class.  I had enjoyed an hour or two of watercolor instruction in a college class about teaching art to children, and 15 years later when my husband and kids gave me some art supplies for my birthday I knew I wanted to give it another try.

In the year since I started painting, I've taken 3 classes and I'm beginning my 4th.  Two of the classes were pretty traditional, and one was an outdoors class.  I still struggle with a lot of things, but what started out as a 10-week experiment has been very enjoyable and fulfilling.  Not only that, but as I compare my current work with my paintings from a year ago I can see a lot of improvement.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this next year will take me.

Plein Air Week 8: Lake Tahoe, Pope Beach

Here are a couple of watercolor sketches I did this weekend while visiting the shore with friends:

Plein Air Week 7: DeMartini Orchard

My next project is a colorful fruit stand not far from work.  It's a great subject, but the only place to really set up is in this tiny little corner of the curb practically in the parking lot.  I did a quick study of another fruit stand I found on-line.

Here's a photo of the fruit stand:

 

Here is the painting I did on-site.  It was a bright morning, with lots of people going in and out of the store.  I had some trouble figuring out how to do the interior of the store, so I put a car there, but I wish that I hadn't because it doesn't look right.

The best part I think is the umbrella:

Here is a version with the car cropped out:

 
I am going to take a little break from the weekly painting.  There's a class I'll join again in the fall, and potentially one that starts in July, but I'm not sure about that one.  I will still do some painting this summer, but I want to spend more of my free time being a little more active, and maybe do some reading and bike riding.  I'll still post what I do paint, but it probably won't be as often.

Plein Air Week 6: Capitola Beach

Capitola Beach is a beautiful beach less than an hour from my house, so when some friends invited us to spend the day there with them it seemed like the perfect opportunity for some plein air painting.

I have pretty limited experience painting the ocean, so I watched some youtube videos to try to understand what makes a wave.  I was working very quickly (because it was getting late the night before the beach), so each painting only took about 20 minutes.  They're loose, and not fantastic.  My least favorite is the one with the boy digging in the sand because it's not very good AND because I accidentally gave him a great big sad frown.  My favorite is this first one, because it's the first time I've done reflections.  They were a lot easier than I thought they'd be and I think this one was the best of the bunch.  (It was also the best youtube tutorial.)

This next one is the painting I did at the beach.  There was a kite flying competition that day, and someone was flying a kite right on the part of the beach I wanted to paint.  It didn't come out that great, but it's one of the only paintings I've done where the person didn't come out looking kind of oddly scary.  Instead the scary part is the kite, which looks like a strange, giant bird about to attack the helpless little girl on the beach.  :)

I need to spend some serious time practicing beach paintings since I live so close and will probably have lots of opportunities to paint ocean scenes.  One fun part was having so many people come up and compliment me.  They were probably just being nice, but someday I'd like to paint something I think deserves the fuss.