I've really been enjoying my art classes and I hope my Facebook friends have enjoyed seeing my classwork. For those not on Facebook, I thought I'd put some of my work here for you to see. I'm very open to constructive criticism since I'm just learning so feel free to tell me what you think and why. Here are some samples:
Drawing class - Lebron James of the Miami Heat.
Watercolor - Farmhouse and Lighthouse
This was an exercise in shadow. Not real happy with it but it was one of my first watercolors.
Koi Pond - Watercolor - Free exercise
This was done by wetting the paper and pouring color on, then letting them run in a controlled fashion. Final details like eyes were added with a brush.
This watercolor was just to learn how to properly apply a smooth wash. I didn't do a good job here - there are streaks within the colors but this is how we learn.
Watercolor Collage - This watercolor started out badly but here's what I ended up doing: The first time my background came out all muddy and yucky (that's a technical term). But the Flower and Butterfly came out OK - so I took another piece of paper - just plain sketch paper not meant for watercolor - and put a purple/pink wash on it. Then I carefully cut out the parts of the other painting and pasted them all together on a larger piece of watercolor paper. Voila - a collage.
This is a watercolor exercise from a book I got out of the library. It is supposed to be to demonstrate transparency of watercolor and glazing. I got it right with the small yellow circle over the blue circle to make it green where they intersect. The blue and red intersect to make purple (doesn't show up well here but it does). But the orange over green didn't work - make too many passes. Glazing is just one pass with the color.
Winter Beach-Montauk Watercolor This is Zack and his friend Cortney at the beach. Taken from a photograph. Courtney wants it for her apartment so I'm sending it to her.
Rain in the Forecast - Watercolor
This is an exercise in painting pattern - it's from the same book as the circles. I had fun doing it and it looks much better in person - you can see much more detail than the photograph shows. It was suggested to me to make notes cards from this. I may take a section and do that. I wasn't happy with upper right corner so I'll leave that out.
Boats in the fog. Watercolor. This was one of my first watercolors done in class. It's all done with one color (phalo blue) and the different values are done by the amount of water used. Again, the photograph doesn't show the detail such as the tree trunks or texture of the dock.
Yellow Butterfly - Pastel
This was my last pastel class for the year.
It was taken from a photograph on an old calendar I had and gave to the instructor. He assigned different butterfly pictures to each student.
Deconstructed Flower and Vase - Watercolor
This also was an exercise in free expression. We wet the paper, poured on three colors of paint and let the paint do it's thing. We could not use brushes but could use our fingers. Mine was actually turned upside down (purple flower was at the bottom). When I started turning the paper around I was able to see a flower but the yellow center was not attached. Then I saw where a vase could be so I drew that with my pinky. I kind of like this even though it's weird.
This is just a detail from the butterfly collage picture - taken when it still had an messed up background.
Ready for a fight - Pastel
This pastel piece is one of the ones currently in an exhibition at the center where I take lessons. When I get it back it's going to my friend Barbara in Tampa. Her husband's nickname is Rooster.
This is my first attempt at a charcoal drawing. I didn't really enjoy working with charcoal - way too messy for me and very hard to make corrections. I'm still at a stage where I NEED to make corrections!
Silverware - Watercolor. This was successful in that I was able to capture the shine of a spoon and the cast shadow was done correctly - but the drawing itself isn't good. Spoon is too fat and the fork is too bulky and not very elegant. So I give myself B+ for the painting and C for the drawing.
This is my latest watercolor and I'm sorry that the photograph isn't better because the color is great in this. It was a study in elongated form and I was happy with the way the vase came out - less happy with the flower but then, flowers are not really my thing.
Well that's it for now - hope you enjoyed seeing some of what I've been up to. You can see more of my work in some earlier posts and even more on Facebook. TTFN
