2/14/12
Happy Valentines Day!!!!! We just worked on the finishing touches of our painting. I lightened the right side of my cup. I also darkened the top of my box more. It looked uneven. I added a few more reflections in my counter. That was hard because there is a natural reflection off the paint so I had trouble seeing where the reflection I painted was and where the paint was just wet. I also changed one of my flowers. It looked extremely wide and out of place. I made it look more like it turned to the side like the one below it. I think my painting looks AMAZING!!!Especially since I have never taken an art class before!!!! :D
At this point we are just putting the finishing touches on our objects and cleaning up the images. I have a couple of flowers I am fixing and I am still trying to fix the symmetry of my cup. I'm warming up my background also.
2/2/12
Worked on the background and counter that everything sits on. I originally had a bottle in the background behind the bowl and I took it out. Also worked on the stupid coffee cup. UGH!!! That cup is frustrating.
1/31/12
We worked on our flowers and vase today. My flowers are my favorite part so far, and the easiest! The vase is just the opposite of normal shadows. These are more highlights than shadows. I also worked on the color of my box. I made it warmer and filled it in a little better.
1/26/12
We worked on our teapots and also started working on our scarf/blanket. Just like the teapot, we worked on the shadows and darkest parts first. The brightest areas go in last. It is weird because from my angle the red stripes all look like a red wine color. When you get up close it actually looks more purple. We also started working on our ribbon. I like it. It's coming along nicely. The teapot is even looking a little better.
(This photo is a little dark but you can see the shadows better)
1/24/12
We started adding shading to our tea pots. It is MUCH harder than I thought it would be. You don't just use black or dark gray. You take the base color and add in reflective colors. For example, in real life you see a shadow that has an orange tint where the orange on the table reflects in the teapot. So you make that shadow color for your teapot. I got super frustrated and actually wiped all of the paint off of my teapot and started over.
1/19/12
Today was much better. Margee helped me get the angles and depths on my scarf right and we worked on firming up our bowl and fruit. I personally think my bowl and oranges are AWESOME!!!! It is starting to look like a real painting and it is really neat. I did shorten my bowl and add to my vase. I think it was a pretty good day.
1/17/12
We blocked in our colors today. This means we added basic muted color to our subjects. (It made everything ugly! The usual process for adding color is dark colors to light colors and thin to thick. We work on putting in shadows first and we will add our highlights last. I had a TON of trouble trying to get the scarf in and finally gave up for today. (I didn't want to be late for Algebra either)
We started our still life paintings. I am so happy, my painting actually looks like it has a chance!!! First we used a light coat of Gesso on our canvas. This basically gave us a primer coat. Then we made a transparent wash that we applied to the entire canvas. We used turpentine and burnt sienna oil paint for this. We applied the wash to our canvas using random brush strokes with the side of our brush. Once we had our canvas adequately covered, we made a light abstract sketch of the items for placement. During this process we used a view finder to make sure our placement and angle was right. We then began to draw the outside edges of our subjects.
1/10/12
First day of class!!! Super excited and nervous. I am not sure I will be able to do this, but I am ready to try. I just want my paintings to look better than a pre-school childs finger painting. We start painting Wednesday, so we will see how it goes.
