Time For Painting Lessons, Or Practice...

 The last few years I have made birthday cards using a gelli plate and acrylic paints.  This year I thought I would do something different.  I love flowers so I thought I would try painting flowers.  Using gouache, a medium I have not used before!  Here are my first efforts.  Pitiful, but I have not shame and am sending them anyway, even though they are late.

This I call the Purple Flower, though it is not a real flower, just an inkling of a flower.

This orange and red "flower" shows what happens when you don't let the paint dry before adding more.

This flower shows the effects of wind blowing on the blossoms. At least that was my intention...

There is no telling what the recipients of these cards will think, but still, I did have fun painting them.  I just purchased a book about painting.  I think it is time to open it up!!!

Watercolor Card Painting

Now this is just silly.  After the acrylic painting class I could not sleep so was up a lot in the night.  I did some more of the "three dots" paintings which were awful, then I did some spatter painting.  Finally, I did a painting that in all silliness I titled!

This painting I call "Cardinals at Play".  I turned it into a greeting card which I will send out tomorrow to a dear friend.

This will probably be a one-of-a-kind...

Fun Acrylic Painting Class: Brush Strokes 101

Not long ago I happened to see an advertisement in a art studio's window for a class called "Brush Strokes 101".  Since I need help with my painting, I thought it would be worth attending.  It really was.

The artist/instructor had set up the tables with large sheets of thick plastic, a folded paper towel, 5 different paint brushes, and a water bucket.  Her assistants brought around paper plates with paint for us.

When the whole class was there we came up to her table where she placed the first sheet of brush strokes under the plastic then mixed blue acrylic paint with white acrylic paint and some sort of paint extender so the paint would be useable longer.  She showed us how to paint each of the strokes on that first sheet...in this case it was a flat brush and we were mostly making straight lines of different weights.

We then went back to our tables and used our brush to paint each of the strokes as she had done.  She gave us a few minutes, rung a bell to stop us at which point we wiped down our plastic and went back to her table for the second sheet.  We followed this process through all the sheets and all the brushes.  We had three different flat brushes, and round brush and a filbert and I think eight sheets of brush strokes.

About half an hour before the end of the class she gave us the opportunity to put our brush strokes together and paint a bouquet of flowers. Or whatever else we wanted to do.  By that time I was completely shot so I took about ten minutes to paint my flowers and left.  I arrived home at about the time the class was to be over.

As you can see, I mostly just slapped paint on the canvas so I could in good conscience leave.  Still, I like the painting okay.  It is my second acrylic painting. I took the class so I could learn to handle the brushes better with watercolor painting.  We shall see if that hope was accomplished.

Watercolor Painting: A Fail For Sure. Good for a Laugh. A BIG Laugh!

Today I went to paint with friends.  We painted from live models.

Here is the first model.  Well, here is my second painting of the first model.

What creature do you think it is?  I have had three "dinosaurs", an aardvark, and an anteater.  Dear One just asked, "WHAT IS IT?"

When you look at the next picture you will be able to tell what creatures we were painting.  I think.

Dear One looked at this one and laughed.  Later on I showed it to him up close.  His comment, "Oh, it is two of them.  I thought it was one dog with a bad chin!"  That is so funny.  I loved it.  I am still laughing.

Well, first attempts at anything are often less than stellar.  At this point I think I can say, without a LOT of work, I will not be a dog painter.

Watercolor Quick "Primitive" Painting

A friend is having a birthday soon.  Not all my supplies were at hand so I decided to just do a quick little painting and attach it to a card blank.  This is what I managed in the short time I had with the few supplies I had.  Not my best work.  Not my favorite work.  Still, it is somewhat colorful, which is something I like.

Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils

The Frugal Crafter has mentioned, and demonstrated, the Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils multiple times.  Recently the Holiday catalog came from Dick Blick's Art Supplies.  There were deep discounts on these pencils.  I looked at them for quite some time.  Ordered the small set to try them out, BUT had the order declined because of a problem with my payment.  It turns out that I had not updated my online buying method the last time my info was stolen by someone in Texas...

After I fixed the purchasing info I started looking around to see if I could get these Inktense pencils at the same price elsewhere.  I could!  At a site which had no shipping charges!  SO  I went ahead and made the plunge, going for this much bigger box.

So far I have not done any real work with the pencils, but winter is coming on. I am hoping to give up many of  the other activities on my plate and hunker down with these pencils, a pot of water, and some wonderful Arches watercolor paper which was a gift from a friend.  Well, and maybe a basket of previously started knitting projects...knitting is always good winter work in a rocking chair beside the woodstove.

When Lindsay Weirich suggests any color supply set, she usually says to purchase the largest set you can afford rather than buying a small set then a larger one, since that way you always have duplicate implements.  I did not want to go the $100 set, which was the largest offered and which price was half price at Blick. Yikes!  One hundred dollars was half price!!!  I could not afford that set.  (Actually, I want to spend the next $100 I have to play with on DNA testing, for whatever that will be worth.)

When I have anything completed, I will show and tell my experience with these Inktense pencils.