Alan

 My paper white bulb is coming along. Not as well as Greeta’s but then I’m not a natural mother. Watercolor on Yupo.

Here’s all of them on a strip of Yupo.  They’re very small But a lot of fun. 

I may have completed my 4th hole dogleg left painting with Chicago in the background. I couldn’t get Marina City in there. I can now see the shot shape now and I like the trees better. Watercolor on 140.

Looking forward to seeing you all in class Saturday. 

Gouache Life

I started break feeling VERY ambitious. Tried to copy Harry Styles' album cover.
Harry deserves better than this!!
Bryan thinks I'm being to hard on myself, but I KNOW what I THOUGHT I could accomplish and this ... is not it!

After humbling myself I poked around YouTube and found some beginner watercolor challenges and took a crack at a few.

All of these were painted using gouache. I do get frustrated with blending and layering. For now, I'm going to assume it's not me, it's the gouache :)

Hmm, maybe I will never purchase watercolor so I can always blame the paint!!

Studying the Studies….

 I know, I shouldn’t be photographing them this way, but they’re just studies…in the top one, I’m trying to work out the light and dark shapes…I’m not really interested in details, more the values and color temperature. The bottom one is from a cute photo of my friend’s grandson…trying to figure out the color palette here & how to paint a cat….

And here’s a strange still life that was oddly satisfying to paint…there’s a lot of layers on this little sheet of paper…looking forward to class, I need to see other people painting in real time!

Elaine O. — January 14, 2023

Before judging the quantity (or quality) of my recent efforts, bear in mind that I've spent a good deal of time recovering from a case of Covid and am just starting to get my painting mojo back. Still curious to compare/contrast gouache and watercolor, I painted the same still life in each medium, gouache on the left and watercolor on the right....

Some thoughts? In no particular order....

• I'm blown away by the results Bryan and Allison were able to get as newbies, having bought gouache instead of watercolor.
• Gouache is not meant to be layered repeatedly.
• There's a learning curve to color in gouache--blending, glazing, and how the color shifts as it dries.
• After I painted the gouache still life, I thought it was awful and looked forward to trying it again in watercolor the next day. The next day, I found the gouache didn't look as bad as I remembered, and the watercolor was harder than I anticipated. Turns out I like bits of each of them.
  
• Still life is fascinating! Why don't I do more of them?
  
• In any medium, ultramarine and burnt sienna are magic!
  

Pete in his prime

 His first night out, a happy young lad.  Using my new dagger brushes,  way cool.  Experimenting with blue-orange mixtures that lead to black.  The background, balcony posts and some twining withered vines and leaves, will use the viridian/rose combo.

and a new guy

 I know I already have posted for this week, but I just began a view of him when he was just a lad.  AND I just bought a couple dagger brushes and I am very excited about using them on these two studies and I am pleased as punch.

Elaine O. — January 7, 2023

 It's one of those years when nothing seems to be going right! My colors wouldn't blend and my triads fought each other. Even the 5 minute warmup didn't help get my mojo back. So I opened my gouache set, hoping that experimenting with a new medium might do the trick. Here's the pristine, unopened set of jelly gouaches, ready to open and swatch.

Here they are, with the lids peeled off....

... and labeled and swatched.

My first impressions? I found them to be a bit streaky and not as opaque as I expected. They also seemed to be clumpy and difficult to clean out of my brushes. On the other hand, I probably just need to play with them some more to figure out how to get that flat, matte, opaque look I associate with gouache. Back next week, hopefully with better results.

Another punkin done

I loved that viridian/Q rose combo so much that I made the checked table cloth out of it.  Not sure if it goes with the punkin, but it was a lot of fun to do and isn't that why we are all here?
 

Keeping busy….

 Inspired by Greeta’s bulb studies, I painted my amaryllis bulb and a small jug of lavender— both painted from real life directly with no drawing, 7x10. I like the bulb especially.

I’ve been working on three studies of Quinn in the marsh. The head portrait was painted directly and the other two I sketched first. The first two capture her rosy cheeks and sweet smile; the third one looks more like her older sister, but I like the background & composition. The third one is painted on 300lb paper, which makes all the difference. But I would really like to achieve a cross between the first one and last one in terms of style. I like the energy of the first one & the refinement of the third one-but is that a contradiction of terms?the first two are 7x10 & the last one is 9x12.

another punkin

This is the punkin about three weeks later.  Put the black in with viridian and Q rose.  Thinking of using them for a table cloth.  Wondering if I should put them in at a 45 degree angle like in the first two punkins or to do a ninety degree angle.