Very Merry

So as of today I'm all done with the semester! I'm very excited to start break and have some breathing time to enjoy Christmas time. It's been a good semester, but there's always some crazy business going on.

So after teaching an RS lesson about being prepared and recently teaching a YW lesson about time management, you'd think I'd be all set, right? {snort}

I got a late start on this final painting- my teacher explained the project options to us and then only gave us basically a day to come up with a fab idea and gather all your materials. That's a tall order when you want to do something good, not cliche. It took awhile to gather everything and glue the still life together. So I found myself finishing my painting at 2 am this morning. Other painting students stayed even later!

And even though yesterday started off with no snow, by the time I left school there was three to four inches on the ground. I didn't have boots or a heavy coat with me because it'd been so nice out earlier when I'd left for the day.

Oh, and I had to be at school at 8 am this morning for my other final. And and keep in mind I live nearly an hour away from school.

The best solution was to get a hotel room in Edinboro, by the time I got McD's and got checked in it was 2:40 am. So there I was- no pj's, no toothbrush, no change of clothes, no makeup or hairbrush. I'd taken my other clothes out that had been in the car. I made do, got up at 6ish, showered and picked up a couple things (like a toothbrush) at Wal-Mart. There are few things grosser than having to put back on socks that you've already worn!

And I'm having to walk around campus in my tennies when I should have had boots. Blech.

So that's a lesson to me to 1) manage my time better so I don't have to do projects at 2 am and 2) to be more prepared in all this snow.


Anyhow, on to my painting. It took a long time to do because I wanted it to be good. Things went well in critique today and I got an A! I was also asked to bring it back for display at school next semester.

Am I painting bubbles? Nope, Christmas ornaments!

Normally you would work your entire painting from general to specific, but since I had so many colors and a large canvas (18x24) that was pretty impossible. It became kinda like paint by numbers! You had to look at each ball and separate the reflections into shapes.

A good start:

A little more progress...

and then it was done! It's even more colorful in real life. My teacher liked how they gleamed like vintage ornaments, that was the look I was going for. I really like how the colors popped against the dark. The trick in painting is not to use black but a very very dark color, like blue. If you use a true black then it becomes rather dead looking.

So act surprised....this will likely be used for next year's Christmas cards!

Creepy Baby Dolls

Recently I finished my creepy baby doll painting, our teacher wanted us to try flesh tones because they are hard to do. My dolls weren't even as creepy as other ones that people had to paint!

You never draw on a canvas with a pencil, instead you sketch it with paint- yellow ochre. It'll blend into your painting because it's not a harsh color.

Here's the finished product, I was pleased:

Here's the photo of the dolls:

Our teacher encourages us to tweak our paintings if needed- adjust contrast or pump up color. Ultimately the painting has to stand on its own, the items won't always be there for a comparison!

It's always so interesting to see how people can take the same thing and make it all their own- this is someone else's painting of the doll on the left that you see in mine. It's fun seeing everyone's style.

No actual painting in class for awhile now, I have a little meeting with my teacher next Monday and then after Thanksgiving we'll be brainstorming our final projects. The semester is going by fast! I am having fun.

Painting

I waited until I had enough work to show what I'd been doing in painting class- each painting takes several classes (the last one took three weeks!) to do. Overall I really like what I'm learning-I've never worked with oil paints before and I really like the medium. It's very forgiving and you can get such great color. It's also great that it takes awhile to dry- you can take your sweet time to get stuff right.

I need to keep a mirror in my tacklebox, I keep roaming about in public like this:

Nice warpaint, eh? Yesterday I was in public with red paint on my nose!

The first real thing I did was a b&w study of a bell pepper using a palette knife (instead of a paintbrush) but it turned out rather hideous so I won't post it here.

Then we moved on to a color study done with a palette knife, I improved:

(It's oranges on a green plate with a red cloth. My dad loves the colors)

Then we moved on to a color study and learned how to use brushes and solvent:
That one hung up on the display wall and someone even asked me if I was a painting major...no, but thanks! Made me feel good!


Then the latest still life:

It looks better in person. I was pleased with it, though I'm not crazy about Owl's head. When you put a face in an artwork, you eye goes right to it (your brain is wired that way) and the best stuff in my painting is down below Owl's face so it takes your eye away from that. I was pleased with the reflective tea pot on the right, that was hard!

Here is what other people did in class on this assignment, I took pics of the ones I liked:

Dreamy oranges:

Nice contrast, really nice reflections, though the tea kettle's a bit wonky and the orange is flat:

Nice composition, wish there was more contrast to make it more visually interesting:

Very nice drapery:

This one cracked me up- it's done well but it looks like the teapot at the bottom is talking to the above objects! It's so funny how inanimate objects take on personality.

I was really impressed by this one, done very well:

What now? Painting creepy baby dolls in an attempt to learn how to mix skin tones (it's proving to be hard!)...so stay tuned!