Another Painting From Class

I am a little behind on blog posts. We have been working on a complicated still life in class.  First we painted it in black and white and for class on 11/08, we painted it in color (any color - - - not the actual color of the objects - - - there will be a post about that later).

Carl has the class working in a different way than I usually work. It's been good for me to stretch and try new things!  While I'm used to using a view finder, I'm using one without my handy-dandy grid lines. We draw on paper and might do several studies to get a composition to explore.  The drawing is used to transfer the outline of the drawing to the painting surface. The lines on the painting surface are sealed with the matte medium and left to dry for several minutes and then you are good to start painting.

I decided that I was mostly in class to learn skills, so I didn't agonize over my drawing. I also edited out several elements.  In last night's class, Carl was saying that sometimes you are making an artistic decision, since the point is not to just reproduce what you see.  While that is a good out, at this point, any goofiness is due to my drawing skills (or lack thereof), not artistic license.

This painting is from the 11/01 class.  Working in gray scale has been good practice.  I can't say that I feel very successful working with the medium and the paint.  I feel like I use way too much medium and my paint strokes just feel big and sloppy. I hope I don't sound too negative.  In actuality, I am enjoying learning a new way to paint and think it's going to help quite a bit overall.

#281 - Classroom Still Life - 11 x 14 - canvas panel

Carl helped me with the painting.  My vase looked really flat and he added the extremely light part on the side.  At first, it looked too harsh to me, which means I must be back to not making my lights light enough.