Becoming Artful

Bob ross type painting

2012-11-13T05:08:00.001-08:00

2011-12-06T16:27:00.001-08:00

Today in art class, watercolor

2011-11-11T08:33:00.001-08:00

Mandala

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2011-11-09T13:33:00.000-08:00

Mandalas last night

Life Took Over

2011-11-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

I have neglected my art. Sorry.

I promised that I would update my progress. The business of life took over. The husband came home from Iraq, one child went to school, another decided to be home schooled, I started to work, and I had been training for a fight. (which I won, about 1 1/2 minutes into the first round with a kick to the head, knocked her out)

But I have taken an art class. Not the same as the one before. The oil portrait class was awful for me. I just don't learn in the way that she taught.

I found a drawing class through adult ed. It is $50 for 15 classes and the woman brings most of her own materials for us all to share. She is a art college graduate, just like the other teacher, but not as pretentious. I love it!

We have played with Sumi ink and brushes, colored pencils, charcoal, watercolor pencils, watercolors, and she brings in new stuff every week. Going to post some pictures of the stuff we are doing.

I Hate My Art Class

2011-07-12T11:26:00.000-07:00

I started taking an oil portrait class some time ago. When I went I felt out of place. The very next week, I was called and told the class was cancelled. I was kind of disappointed because I learned something new and wanted to continue to learn. I was also kind of upset because I spent more money than I could on paints and brushes that the teacher said was required. I think I spent $85 on it and for me, right now, thats a lot of money.

A few weeks after that I was called and told that the class was starting again and so I jumped at the chance.

Remember how it is oil portrait painting? The first class we drew with charcoal and of course no one brought any because we were supposed to be painting.

For the second class we were told to being a toned canvas with us because we were going to do monochromatic paintings, like I had done in the previous class. I was excited to do that again because I liked the result. I get to class and the teacher, one of the students and the art director have a half hour long conversation and then they take another half hour adjusting the lights for the model.

To make matters worse, the teacher decides to tell us that we aren't doing monochromatic but an oil painting with skin tones. She tells us this when there is 45 minutes left to the three hour class. She had told the woman that she spent so much time talking to in the beginning of class though.

I skipped the next week's class because it was finishing up the same painting with the model. I was extremely frustrated.

This week we have a new model and when I come in the instructor tells me to set up. So I break out my brushes and canvas and what not and ask what colors I am supposed to take out. I am not exactly sure what we are doing. She says I should take out my color chart and put my mixes down and blah, blah blah. I am totally lost and I wasn't the only one. I told her I didn't have a color chart, that I didn't know what she was talking about. She had given her other class information but forgot my class. At first I thought it was because I missed last week, but no one had her chart or list of colors.

My painting is awful, just like the last time. Which I didn't expect to be a great artist overnight, but whenever she tells me to do something, she uses terms I don't know and when I ask for an explanation, she doesn't have one.

I literally cried home today because I want to learn so bad but I feel like a failure. I don't understand what I am supposed to do. I get home and I am angry and frustrated.

Trying to find the positive, I did learn something, that was how to mix flesh tones in paint.

Winters day

2011-07-08T12:18:00.001-07:00

deep dark woods

2011-07-07T07:41:00.001-07:00

So Sad, Art Class Cancelled

2011-05-18T02:00:00.000-07:00

All the intimidation and apprehension I felt in being in the oil painting class full of 'real' artists, was for not. I got a call the it is cancelled because she doesn't have enough people in that time slot to make it profitable. I was invited to join up with the Monday night class, but I have another class I am in. That is also an art class, but martial arts. All the other classes are already 3 weeks in to the 6 week sessions, so I will have to wait until the next round of classes.

First Portrait Lesson

2011-05-08T04:00:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday I went to an art class held at Western Maine Art. The woman who was teaching it, Gail was very nice. I came in empty handed because when I called I was told supplies were included. She let me use her things.

She asked everyone about their art background. All the others were all art college grads. Even the model was going to art school. I was feeling very much out of place. She then said that we were going to paint the model's face. I started to get nervous, like I should really go home. I never drew a person. The most I have ever done when it comes to drawing, is doodling.

We were going to do a monochromatic painting with paint that went to the value of 5. I was lost already. She showed me a book that showed values of darkness from white to black and all the shades of gray in between. Our paintings of "Brittany" were going to be one color. Starting out at with the lightest shade of color and then building darker color on top of it.

Gail set me up with an easel, canvas paper, a little Terra Rosa and 2 filbert brushes, one small, one big, and a little bit of paint thinner. She told us how if we were going to do this for a real painting, that we would want to have a toned canvas, but because we were going to sketch and erase a few times, we didn't have to tone.

First Attempt

She grabbed my brush and did this line at a curve. Then she showed me how to use the brush to check the angle of the eyes and then drew a line across the curve and two more lines for the nose and chin. She then srubbed it away with a paper towel and a little paint thinner.

Mt turn and I have got to admit, I was more than impressed with myself, but I was more surprised than impressed. Who knew I could do that. My first sketch. I totally hated that she made me erase it. It was a lucky sketch too because I couldn't recreate it.

Finished Need More Practice

I moved my easel to get a profile, but just couldn't get it. I moved back to where I was and tried again. Then we went painted over the darker areas and painted more darks over that.

I really really wish I kept the first sketch but all in all, not bad.

I have a huge list of supplied I need to take this class and I am not sure if I can afford it. There are a dozen paints, half a dozen brushes, canvas, thinner and they cost some bank.

Meanwhile every-time a friend comes over, they say I should sell my paintings that I have done. The whole two of them. I already gave one away. So I have one, the dusty skys painting. If I could sell it, I could afford paint. Hmmm maybe I will post something online and see if anyone is interested.

Feeling a Little Dusty

2011-04-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

I painted again today.I am not found of the leafless trees, the branches looked forced to me. Think I will get a canvas pad and do a few pages just trees.

First Completed Painting

2011-04-18T20:01:00.000-07:00

I finally did it! This is only my second try at oil painting but I finished the painting this time. I learned a lot and learned that I need to learn tons more. I have lots of mistakes but seeing that it is my first, I am feeling pretty good at the results.

First Attempt ~ Wet-On-Wet Boss Ross Style

2011-04-16T02:20:00.000-07:00

Ever see that movie "A Christmas Story"? You know the one. Little Ralphie tries to convince his parents that he should get a BB gun for Christmas. In the movie Ralphie wants something else too. He wants a Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder Ring and he drank gallons of Ovaltine just to get it. Ralphie wanted to decode the secret told to the insiders at the end of the radio show. He ran home from school and checked the mail every day, just to be disappointed that it wasn't there yet.

I wanted the Bob Ross Master Set. "Comes with everything to complete your first painting" I was told on the website. I had been wanting it for a long time. I cruised the internet looking for a deal, found one on ebay from a five star seller.

I felt like Ralphie. Two days after placing the order, I am headed to the post office everyday to see if it arrived. The weekend came and went and finally the following Thursday it arrived. I opened the package while I walked home and read every word on the box and inspected the graphics of the tools and paints that awaited me.

I headed to the art store bought my canvas, thinner and a few colors of paint that where listed on the DVD to paint the Mountain Summit that were not included in the box. Yesterday, I set aside the time to set aside for painting. I know it takes Bob 30 minutes to complete a painting. It will take me considerably longer.

Final results? Well I think I may have put on just a little too much liquid white and maybe it was as evenly distributed as it should have been. The sky same out decent. The clouds were okay, I need to work on the light touch to blend them, there were some small streaks. Then the mountain. Oh Man! the mountain was a pain. This is where I think I had too much white because it was mixing with the black base of the mountain. I wasn't dragging the white snow properly so it would break. I think I scraped and redid the mountain 5 times before I noticed that I was holding the knife wrong. Just simply turning the knife over gave me the results I was looking for, the breaking of the snow. I still didn't like it, but decided to move on to practice a different brush stroke. The next step was the land. The bristles of the brush weren't going in the direction that I wanted and the kids came home, so it was time to put the paint away.

First Attempt at oil

It would have been time to put the paint away anyway. After the mountain mistakes, and the land wasn't coming like I wanted, I was frustrated. Very frustrated. So disgusted with my lack of painting skills. I cleaned up and put the painting still in it's table top easel on the floor of the dining room. I was washing my hand when I saw the painting from the other room. The mountain really isn't that bad when looking from a distance.

Does anyone know how to reclaim the canvas so I can try again?