Week 7: Boats

I am so proud of my painting this week, it might be the best I've done.
  There is an artist I really admire named Joseph Zbukvic, and I used one of his pieces as my reference.  Everything on his website is amazing and inspiring:  Paintings by Zbukvic

To prepare, I did a small study during my lunch hour.  I tried to do a slanted horizon, but it didn't work at all.  I'm so glad I did the study first:

This is how far I got during class.  I liked it a lot, but I wasn't getting the misty mountain effect, and the sail needed more detail.  I was pretty nervous that I'd mess it up, but I'm glad I made the changes.

First I used a scrubber to fade out the rooftops and shadows, and then I darkened the mountain in a few places, making sure to soften all of my edges. I added more masts, and some more detail to the sail and water, and that was about it.  This was my last class for this session, and I'm not planning on taking any more classes until after the holidays, so I might not be posting much for a while.

Week 6: White Flowers

It's crazy how much color goes into a white flower.  I'm not a fan of the background or the stems/leaves, but it's the first time I did a detailed flower and I think I did a great job with the colors and blending.

I used an amazing watercolor painting I found on google images as my reference.

Week 5: Flowers

For this week we were supposed to employ a loose, relaxed style to paint a vase of flowers.  For my reference I kind of cheated and followed a tutorial in a book by Charles Reid.  I wish I could come up with something like this on my own!

The first painting went so quickly I had time to start something else.  This next one took about 15 minutes and was done from a photo reference my teacher provided.  It needs some darker greens in the leaves, but I love how loose and easy it was.

Week 4: Moving Water

I haven't been doing much practice between sessions this year, but I did do a practice this week.

After I completely muddied up the left side shrubbery I decided to try a new fern technique.  I think it's kind of interesting, but not the right style.

With this second one I did a much better job with the foliage on the left, but there are still a lot of other issues.  The first thing that jumps out at me is how the waterfall isn't perfect horizontal across the top and is defying gravity.  There are also some gravity-defying rocks floating near the middle.  Oh dear.

Just look at the flowers.

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!