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'Tude This is an acrylic, 14"x18", a bit larger than I normally work.  This is actually based on last week's lesson where Kara painted her daughter.  Since I don't have a daughter, what I got out of the lesson was she paints rather "unfinished" and her teenage daughter had a bit of an attitude in her reference photo.  The other challenge was to paint a full figure, well I got most of one.   That is the main reason I needed to paint in a larger format.  Kara painted her 4'+, so I am still really tiny. I really like this reference, the direct gaze, her more sophisticated makeup against the really casual leggings and hoodie.  I have to tell you my heart stops when I put paint across the more finished sections and had to go back in and add some pastel to get a bit more action.   As I got lower on the paper I tried to finish it less, just give the impressions, because I really want the focus on the face.  In case you are wondering at the stre

Floating Well the last three lessons have been about learning to paint intuitively.  For a straight arrow such as myself, it has been a pretty sufficient challenge.  While I have tried to let go I still find myself partly painting in a semi realistic fashion.   Maybe that is just going to be my style - but doesn't mean I won't continue to try to let go.  But the beginning painting process, where the subject is going to come from, and how it is going to go is definitely getting free from preplanning.  Mostly it becomes a study of finding the hook and then where does that take you.  My teachers are creating most of their paintings without any references at all.  And, of course ranging from folk to abstract art.   Beginning of painting w/little collage To start this lesson I scraped off my palette and got some color on top of an old painting.  I then collaged a couple of sheets of paper towel (had been under the glass in my palette and gotten stained) onto the surface.

Nicolae's Giraffe Over the years we have decided the places we like to visit and have gone back multiple times.   In this day and age I think it is uncommon that in a hotel environment the workers would have been there 10-35 years.  So friendships develop.   Each of the people we have encountered have made our stays extra special in a variety of ways.   One of the ladies that works the check in desk had a baby last year.   Since we were unable to go in November we just saw her when we were in DC.   He is now 14 months, and in love with giraffes.  She has a yellow and gray nursery decor and I wanted to do a giraffe.   Wasn't sure if it should be the "kiddie" kind, but thought he might outgrow it.   So I decided to do one semi realistic so that he wouldn't outgrow it right away.  Aren't they just the strangest looking animal? I always wish I would keep my mouth shut, because it does worry me when I say I will paint something - it sort becomes like a com

Just Watching Well a couple of days without painting, and I get kind of antsy.  We have had the most beautiful weather in Georgia for the past few days.  So you just had to be outside to really enjoy it.  Yesterday we took a drive and were in 3 states, doing the Cherahola Skyway. But, I wanted to see if I could incorporate some of the techniques I have learned into doing something other than a portrait.   Ok, technically this is a portrait, but it is an animal.  I haven't done an animal portrait in sooooooo long, I wondered if I could remember. Anyway, of course I had to add more pops of color, so I took the original photo and really saturated it again in the photo program.   It came up with the blues, but feel it  needed more, so and added a bit more of the purples and yellows.   I started with an "underpants", shown below, (yes this is a technical collage term - I didn't make it up) collaging tissue paper that I had made myself and the other half of

Left Waiting Today was another experiment of painting an abstract background and then finding something.  I wanted to paint mostly today trying to tell a story with emotion.  I saw the arches in the abstract and have wanted to paint a lady from behind for quite some time.   However, it isn't easy to find a reference photo of a woman from behind.   Don't ask me why, but there aren't many of them. Anyway, after deciding on the figure I felt that the background was way too much and that I would need to quiet it down a bit.  Hence the arches were the perfect way for her to view into the woods/garden.    I felt that the slump of her shoulders was what would tell the story and that is what I used to derive the title. What do you see in the abstract?   What could be another story? Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

Mother Nature Well this week's lesson was a doozy, packed full of so much by a master artist,  Cathrine Edlinger-Kunze . She is a spectacular artist who does abstract figurative paintings. The goal here was to create an abstract beginning. Then you need to visualize the figure or portrait that would go into it. Yes, I forgot to just take a picture of the abstract itself, so you got it when I had already started filling it in. I have done pictures like this previously, but setting out to do it this time was a bit scary.  I had this reference picture that I have been hanging onto, knowing I would do her some time.  I wanted to call it Mother Nature - or maybe is should be Esmeralda?  Anyway, maybe she isn't old enough to be Mother Nature.   But anyway, when I saw the picture I liked the idea of the swing and couldn't really come up with a background that could be nature.  But here with the drips I think it can pass for either sun, sky, trees, or creek flowing

Koningin Original Reference Saturated Collage  Well, this is Koningin, means Queen in Afrikaans, so I have really dubbed and called her Queenie during the painting process.   When I saw the photo reference I thought she was very regal, and, of course, I loved the color and pattern of her headscarf.  Figured it would be a good challenge. As you can see the original photo was really dark and pretty much devoid of color.  So put it into the photo program and really saturated the color.  This now became a whole new photo to work with. Next step was to do the collage.  You can see on the sketchbook that I have taped multiple pages together to give it some support, sort of like a watercolor block, so that the paper will dry back pretty flat after I applied all the matte medium.  Once dried I painted random lines on the page, then put plain white tissue paper over the background.   The effect of the tissue softened the color and lines.  Paul's used coffee filter gav

Abandon Today I am recovering from two days of planting trees/shrubs up on the berm behind my house.  I must have climbed that berm about 40 times and since I am old, I am feeling it a bit.   So it was a perfect excuse to say I'll just play in the art room. Leo-Vinh Beauvois, a terrific French artist, was this week's teacher and wow, did she ever have a complicated lesson just full of information.  It has taken me most of the week to watch the videos and think it through in my head how I would approach a picture using her technique.  She really uses bold, non-traditional colors.  So that was my charge for this picture to really let loose and use color.  I do like the photo reference she used as it has a really unusual head angle and will probably give it a try at a future time.   First she collages the whole picture surface.  I have been reading more and more where people are using the collage papers/tissues because it really helps the paint and other media to stick

Victor Well it has been quite the busy week.   Always lots to do when you get back from a trip, but I also have been planting trees/shrubs.  Since the developer took all the trees, and it has gotten really quite hot we decided to go ahead and put in some things to give us vertical lift and something for the birds to run to.  Plus, this week's lesson was pretty involved so I just got finished watching all 5 videos.   I have that started and am taking some pictures as the collage is pretty wild at this point. I don't think there is anyone that hasn't been touched in some manner by cancer.  This week's lesson had drips and it made me think of tears. The abstract background came together it it looked rather chaotic.   When I saw this reference photo it immediately made me think of a cancer survivor.   While this is not quite the mixed media painting of the lesson, this painting needed to be painted, so she kind of jumped ahead in line of all the other ideas. Than