New Experience

Yesterday's painting of Hammett was a good one and made me happy!  There really is no better feeling than being happy with something that you've created. Usually when this happens, the next several paintings just don't quite work out. I am not sure why, but it's also true with juggling, another hobby of mine. If a passing pattern with other jugglers goes really well, the next 2-3 times it seems to go poorly.

Overall last night, the painting process last night went very well. I did it in one sitting. I took several breaks and also spread my time around different parts of the painting, rather than zeroing in on one part, moving onto the next part, and so on. Here is the drawing.

My only goof-up with the painting was on the left side of Dorian's face. The final shape is too round. For some reason if I make an error like this it's always on the left side. Otherwise, I'm thrilled, especially when this one follows a painting that I really, really liked.

Hammett!!

I did another painting, yesterday.  Finally, I was able to concentrate and do. There are a lot of layers of paint in this one, which always seems to happen with orange colors. I may try to do some practice oranges and browns, like I did with gray when Kat assigned it as homework. That helped with the color mixing quite a lot!

I am especially happy with the eyes and the slightly quizzical look. One of Hammett's specialties is to look at you like this.

Hurrah! I painted this one on a board, so I can put a hanger on it and put it on the wall!!

Two Paintings

I carved out time to do a painting yesterday and today.  Here they are.  It's funny, but I feel a little bit rusty and it hasn't really been that long since I last painted!

Bottles

Here are some bottles. I enjoyed trying the different shapes.

What's Important?

What's important? This is the question that I should ask myself whenever I sit down to draw or paint, but especially when I draw or sketch. When I pick up a pen or pencil, I crave accuracy and details because of who I am and how I am. In the moment, I get caught up in the process and it's all good. When I'm done and I look at the finished item, the lack of accuracy is both glaring and disheartening, at times.

It's easy to prop myself back up, when I think back to the beginning of the year and how scary it was to even try and put a line on a piece of paper. I also get that my inner critic is getting a little louder, since my expectations are higher. At the beginning of the year, I was thrilled if what I created even vaguely resembled the actual object. Lastly, I get that we are all our own worst critics.

For the rest of the 30 days of sketching when I post a picture, that's it. Here's what I did. I am going to cut the verbal critique.

As a point of comparison, here's where I was early in the year. I could not see where the lines should go or how to draw them in the correct direction. In this example, I was trying to copy someone from a video.

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I sure don't have the answers, but my questions keep getting better when I look at things. Figuring out how to represent 3-D reality in two dimensions is hard. My kitchen sink presented some challenges today. 

Getting back to the original point, I want to think about what's important. What do you need to capture the bare essence of a kitchen sink, a tissue box, a cat? That doesn't mean sketching quickly. It means thinking more about each line and whether adding it is essential.

Thanksgiving Number 2

Yesterday, I celebrated Thanksgiving with friends. Today, I co-coordinated the gathering of my hubby's family in my mother-in-law's apartment. Before the first family members arrived, I had a small amount of time completely alone in her apartment so I grabbed an object and tried to sketch it. The picture is not at the same angle as the drawing.

I didn't have time to finish my sketch.

After everyone left and I finished cleaning up, I had about 15 minutes to wait. I did a few more quick sketches, including the following.  The proportions and scale of my drawings always seem to be off. Although, it does keep getting better........slowly.  

Esther, Again

Happy Thanksgiving to all. It's been awhile since I've tried painting Esther. I want to get good enough to give a painting of her to my friends. They loved this cat. One of these days...... 

My latest attempt was last night. It's getting better, but still not there. I've been having difficulty with eyes.

Here are three earlier attempts back in May to June. I enjoy comparing my latest attempts to earlier ones.

Hershey's Kiss

For my drawing challenge, I may not post everything and I may not do the blind contour drawing part. Today, the juggling Hershey's kiss on the shelf caught my attention.

My viewpoint was slightly higher than the picture. I thought was doing okay on the proportions, but in the finished drawing, the proportions are off.  Oh no!  My kiss was too short! I finished up practicing the outline of a Hershey's kiss. It's hard to get the two sides the same!

Better Now

I have the day off and I am in housewife mode, planning, shopping, and cooking for the two Thanksgiving meals that we will attend. After I was done making a garlic broth, I saw Ella sleeping and I wanted to try and do a rough sketch of her. First, I tried to see different shapes that would help "build" her into a cohesive whole. After that I drew a rough sketch.

After this morning's drawing, which quite frankly did not feel good, this one does.

Sketching Anxiety

At the last painting class, two people shared some of their sketches. Their sketches were really lovely. I especially liked when a partial or entire scene was captured and also when a sketch was finished even though the object (a cat) moved.

In painting or drawing, I mostly focus on one object at a time. At some point, I need to start working with more objects and also address composition. For now, I leave that to the future. At present, there are basic drawing issues to address. Outside of a narrow comfort zone, I'm wary of drawing and sketching. I'm most comfortable with either drawing something to paint (from a picture or using a viewfinder) or blind contour drawing.

Last night, I tried to draw my back door and door jam. The door has panels and a window. I tried using my pencil to measure and compare the different pieces to themselves. It was a bit too much to tackle.

Since the best way to learn is to do, I am going to start another 30-day challenge for myself. My goal for the next 30 days is to select one object and blind contour and sketch it. In the book, Drawing for the Absolute and Utter Beginner, there are some good exercises and things to think about, which I hope will help.  Also, I signed up for a four week beginning drawing class that starts in early January.

This is a kendama. It has a lot of different shapes. It's not a great start, but it's a start.

Truck In Woods

This one is finished! This is an 6" x 6" on paper. I like it better than the 8" x 10" from awhile back. I like this picture a lot, so I'm sure that I will revisit it.

Final Painting Class

Yesterday was the final painting class of the six sessions. It was good to retake this class. In the first set of lessons, it was all so new. I took in the information that I could. This time, I picked up on different things, including

• Taking a short break mid-painting.
• Working on the entire painting rather than focusing on one area until it's done and moving on to the next area.
• Better paint strokes. 

The first one seems as though it should be simple to do, but it's not. Especially if a painting is not going well, the harder it is to walk away from it, even for five seconds. 

The other thing that made more sense is trying to capture an accurate impression of reality. This made more sense with being able to look at the same thing that Kat was painting, watching her paint, and seeing the finish product. In the moment, I could see the reality and part of her impression of the reality. Plus, her accuracy is pretty impressive. When she would outline an apple or a mug, it truly was that exact apple or mug. Watching her, it looked easy, but I can assure that it's not! Noticing this type of stuff, thinking about it, and trying to find the words to describe it is part of what I enjoy about all of this. It's a new way to look at and consider the world and I think with the processing of learning to create art, it's a never-ending journey.

We worked on landscape paintings yesterday. I cheated and worked on one that I drew ahead of time. I didn't get as far as I wanted. Hopefully, I'll find time to finish it today.

The Leaves Are Leaving

The fall-like weather ended yesterday. When I went down to paint yesterday afternoon, I looked at the pile of leaves that I collected this fall and thought it's probably time for them to go into the compost.

Before that, I selected one leaf from my own personal pile and painted it.

Goodbye to fall.  Hello to winter. 

Take Three

This is my third attempt at painting Dorian from the same picture. Each try gets better. Her face shape  is much better in this one. My hope is that, eventually, I will get something like this the first time that I paint something, rather than the third time. For now, I still need to revisit the same pictures or objects more than once.

Saturday is the last painting class for this session (sniff). I will miss it. Part of our homework is to bring the color gray. I've been practicing!  Here is what I am going to bring. Both of these pictures were taken at  night without any natural light. The gray colors look better in person (or will look better in natural light).

Getting There

Typically, the third time is the charm and this is the second attempt. It's better than the first attempt, but not quite where I want it to be. I made my grays less gray this time.

After I finished the painting, I went back to mixing gray. There are a lot of different types of gray!

Homework Drama

I missed the most recent painting class. Part of the new homework was to sketch / paint the negative space around chair/table legs as they touch the floor. I've been avoiding it. Quite frankly, the idea of trying has been bringing up slight feelings of terror.

When I first started drawing in January 2016 through Creativebug's 30 day's of drawing, day 3 was to draw chairs. The goal was to copy the illustration-type chairs that were presented or to draw your "idea" of a chair. I tried and I practiced, before I put some drawings on a "real" piece of paper. The proportions are off.  I couldn't see or represent how the pieces of a chair relate to one another or get the legs right. Because of that, I didn't really "commit" to my drawing. I used pencil and the lightest strokes possible.  It's as if I wanted my drawing to fade away.

In spite of that, I picked up my pencil, paper, and viewfinder. After an internal fight in my brain with one side saying "Nooooooooo!  Don't do it" and the other side saying "Oh, just give it a try", I gave it a try. It took forever. The viewfinder helps, but it is so hard to hold it in the same place and I need it in the exact same place because my drawing skills are pretty rudimentary. This drawing had a lot of drama associated with it.

I do want to improve my drawing skills. It's fun. You can do it when it's not practical to paint. It will improve my painting. I am going to look for a drawing class to take some time during the winter.

It's also hard and something like a chair can be a bit overwhelming (yes, I am still being dramatic). There are a lot of pieces, a lot of angles - - - just a lot going on.

Tired

I am too tired to paint tonight.  Instead, I drew and will paint tomorrow!

One Step Forward

Yesterday's painting seemed like one step forward.  Today's seems like two steps back.  Mostly, I'm disappointed in my paint strokes.  They've been quite a bit better lately.  Also, I painted when I was a bit distracted, as well.

I really need to work on the homework exercise of focusing on the negative space around either chair legs or table legs.  Maybe tomorrow!

More Gray and Ella - Take 2

I like the color gray. Some of my favorite things in this world are gray, so I practiced mixing gray colors again. From top to bottom, it's the same color on the white gesso and the black gesso.

After that, I painted Ella, who is one of this favorite gray things. This picture of her is really perfect in terms of the angle, the lighting and so on. Having a good pictures really helps.

It was one of those evenings where it just worked. I am especially happy that, except for the eyes, this painting is one layer of paint! So many times, I paint over and over and over. Instead, I was in "the zone" and it came together very well.

Also, I painted from this same picture approximately 6 weeks ago. I can see improvement when I compare today's painting to the older one, below.  Yeah!  

The Left Side Of The Painting

I got together with a friend today.  Part of the agenda was to paint.  Here is my pretty girl, Dorian.

I like it much better if I ignore the side of her face on the left side of the painting.  If I'm off, it always seems to be on this same side.  Why is that?

My Friend The Garlic

I'm taking it easy.  I did a simple 20 minute painting of a beautiful head of garlic.  It should not have taken the full 20 minutes.  The drawing took a long time because I goofed up my grid lines and hence my drawing of the bottom portion of the garlic.  I didn't realize it until I was done with the initial drawing and looked at the picture as a whole.
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I've been taking my pictures at night. The light is not as good, so the colors aren't as true.

Sadie Take 5

It was a very difficult day. Tonight, I decided to finish the painting of Sadie, in spite of that.

Hello!

There was a big 3-day knitting event in town this weekend and I had a very busy weekend attending classes and lectures. It was wonderful! Each night, I came home and my brain was completely full. I was too tired to think about drawing or painting. Yesterday, I did do a simple drawing. Today, I finally picked up the paint brushes, again, and it felt good.

First up is the color gray. I missed painting class on Saturday. Apparently, we are supposed to practice our grays. The goal is a neutral gray, but I decided to play around with different types of grays. Since I made up grids long, long ago to test my paint mixing, I pulled those out. I used the same color paint (in relative order) on the two different grids. One is on white gesso and other is on black gesso. It's interesting to see how different they look. Not surprisingly, the grays look grayer on the black gesso than on the white.

Also, I started a painting of Sadie (again). Here is the drawing.

Here is the start of the painting. I worked around the entire painting, rather than focusing in one place. I also tried to have "juicier" paint strokes. It's still hard to get good coverage with orange and yellow/orange colors. Finally, I am really, really trying to do a better job on the values. It sounds like work, but it wasn't. I was in a nice little zone, which was a welcome break from waiting for election results. When the zone left me, it was time to stop for the night.

Another Different Type Of Painting

Yarn dyeing is fun, especially when you take a class from someone who is knowledgeable. .

It Might Be Hard To Paint And Draw

It might be hard to find time this weekend.

Glass Is Hard

Yesterday, I tried painting a small flower in a small, glass container.  Painting glass is challenging! It's a busy day, so that's all I have to say for today.

Garlic On A Timer and Paint Strokes

I finished the other two timed garlic paintings. Each square was drawn and painted in only 10 minutes. It's a really good exercise. I like the shape of the one in the lower left corner. Although, it would have been better to leave a shadow under the little stub of a stem to help anchor it.

Before I painted, I did another paint stroke thing. It's a really fun warm up exercise. Plus, it's helping me figure out how to get more paint on my brush. I can also work on how much pressure to use and think about leaving gesso showing through.