Baby Steps

29 Sep 2011
I'm making a tiny bit of progress. Last week's painting was awful, so I scraped it off, cleaned up the canvas and started over. This week was better. In the photo above you can see that its still unfinished and needs quite a bit more work, but I'm learning to do a better job of incorporating variations in temperature as well as color and value. Based on the proverb that you have to do something 10,000 hours before you've mastered it - as long as I stick with it, I should know what I'm doing in about 10 more years!

Lots of Room for Improvement

19 September 2011

I'm sure I'll learn from every painting I do. Today, I finished the painting I started in class the other day and learned several things during the process.
1. Its much better to complete as much of the painting in the studio as possible, because, even with photos to refer to, its very hard to recreate an image you're not actually looking at.
2. I have terrible lighting in the room I'm painting in at home. Need to find a solution for that.
3. I need to figure out how to photograph a painting so there's not so much glare on it (which makes every brushstroke show!) There actually is some definition to the table covering, but you can't tell from this photo. And,
4. I have lots of room for growth!

A Painting and a Book

The painting I started today. I had to take the photo at an odd angle because of the glare on it, so it looks a bit skewed. Its a good start, but still needs a lot of work.

My "Promises" book cover.

"Promises" book, first spread.

15 Sep 2011

Today I started a painting (in a still life class I signed up for.) Its great to be in a class and see everyone else's work, too. Several in the class are excellent painters, whereas, I'm just beginning, really. Someone in class today said, "We all learn to write with a pencil and paper looking at the same alphabet charts posted on the wall or printed in little books for us to copy. Yet, we all have different handwriting — each of us writes with our own distinct characteristics. Painting is the same. My brush doesn't make the same strokes as someone else's but I can appreciate how theirs looks." I like that.

I've also been working on a little book for myself. Its probably about half done and I'm happy with how its looking so far. . . (And, I'm continuing work on the book for my Chabo granddaughters, as well.)

Feels good to be doing more creative things!