When painting break down the shapes and paint them in shapes to start. Look at the tail, paint the shape of the feathers in the common color. Don’t paint all one color and then paint in the feathers. By painting the shapes first you are creating depth and adding texture to forms.
In the above picture notice how the direction of the lines are being drawn; hill and valley. When working up a hill shape draw in the direction, in the valley your direction of line is in the curve direction. Remember to treat the shapes you are drawing, shading and creating in a similar direction. Crosshatching lines will come later; learn the value scales in every graphite range pencil first before adding other techniques.
Also remember light or highlighted areas will come forward in space and dark values will sink in space. This is a principle just like gravity, the way God designed it and it can’t be changed. B graphite pencils are cool, softer and will go back in space as H graphite pencils are warmer in tones and will come forward in space as well are harder in texture. Use that fact to help set apart objects in your drawings.
Merry Christmas and Happy Healthy New Year to everyone. Thank you for the wonder feedback as well.
Updated version of Rose’s bike. Working on tiny remote details which takes time. Looks Fabulous and preparing for framing.
When driving Please do not tex or answer and talk on your phone. You may just be saving your life and someone else by actually driving and playing attention to the road.
Remember when working on acrylic paintings the paint dries quickly; use a paint extender to help with slowing the drying time. In comparison acrylic paint dries faster than craft paints. Here the painting still needs fine details, which I will show her how too on Saturday.
Do not forget that acrylic paints can have semi transparent layers so the building process will only add a realistic form to the subject. Just because the paint is somewhat opaque doesn’t mean you can not control the thickness you paint with. Look closely at the object you are painting and look for the under tones using them to help create and reinforce form and shape. depending on how much focus you want on the foreground subject determines how much detail goes into the background. 
As a super Mom there comes a time when you must take time for yourself and what makes you happy. If your happy and content with yourself it will make it easier to deal with all the stresses and responsibilities in your life. It isn’t easy to take a step back from everyone’s needs and wants to count yourself important. When your children are smaller it is understandable the children need you more. Don’t be afraid to pass on responsibilities to growing children; chores are good and teach responsibility. I learned and am still learning or going through the process of readjusting the way I live my life and counting myself important. You can not give away something you don’t have; for example love. If you don’t love yourself you can not give love or offer healthy love to somebody else. You can’t give respect if you don’t respect yourself. I also know God won’t give you the next step, more responsiblity or promotion in your life if you can’t even put the grocery cart back; not leaving the cart in the parking lot to hit another car.
It is important to take time for yourself and enjoy your life. It doesn’t make you a bad parent, just a healthy happy one. If drawing or art is important to you, then start with an hour or two a week for yourself to draw. I know time is hard to come by in certain stages of raising kids so use the time wisely to prepare for the future; take pictures of things you would like to draw or paint in the future and keep a file. Remember you were somebody before the kids came and you still will be somebody when they grow up and leave to live their own lives. As hard as that fact is it is true. So, count yourself deserving and valuable now!
God gives each and every one of us a gift for life, now it is our job to bless Him with that gift and bless others with that gift as well. Don’t think you are “Just” a anything…….be a light and shine in your environment. A friendly hello to someone, a caring smile or action towards someone can mean the world to someone else. You may not even realize how much you really mean to somebody and a difference you are making.
When you are working with acrylic paint remember to add a Slow-dry blending medium to keep the paint from drying too quickly. There is not a lot of time between blending and shading objects. Before you have a chance to re-work a section the paint will dry. In comparison acrylic paint has a faster drying time compared to craft paint.
Another important fact is metallic colors are either transparent or semi-transparent. For example; if you are painting metal, chrome and want a shine paint the object first in gray and gray tones and then once dry coat the object with the metallic silver. metallic do not usually mix well with opaque colors.
[Opaque is solid color or can’t see through. Transparent is being able to see through the color; almost feels watered down].
The following pictures are Rose’s motorcycle painting in process. I will add more pictures as we work on it.
Creating any type of artwork you must have a desire to be…….any one thing; an artist painter, an artist drawer, crafters, a photographer and so on. The desire really can’t be given to you from a teacher to say, a teacher or an artist can inspire and motivate you. The artistic desire must come from within yourself first. There are no magic graphite pencils nor brushes to avoid hard work to achieve a successful gratifying piece of artwork. Always go to class prepared and ready to work and learn valuable tools to improve your skills. Practice drawing exercises, learn the value scales, practice drawing and rendering spheres then other shapes. Keep a positive attitude and do not give up, eventually your efforts will start to pay off in great results.
I can teach you on the basis you have artwork to work from. How much effort you apply to learning is how much more I can teach you new skills. Do not work from or have the practice of looking at other artist artwork/pictures to copy. You may be inspired by another artist, just take from their work an idea and recreate the idea to make it your own. Take your own pictures and work from those. It’s good work ethic and good respect standards amongst fellow artist.
Life goes so quickly and nobody is promised tomorrow. Enjoy your life the best you can in any given moment. Every moment or group of moments are a season and shall pass.
Time never stays the same for anyone.
Enjoy your life and produce art from emotion. I suggest doing something that you enjoy and like spending time doing and start there. There are seasons of life that change continually and we can not do one blessed thing to change that. So instead of going against the tide……. try to swim with the waves [events and everyday life]. Believe me I understand about stress in life; from major health issues and not knowing I would make it through the illness. I raised three kids that all live at home yet! I understand. The point is if there is no desire to create or time is a huge issue then decide if art is what you want to do. If so, use the time you have to either store-up reference photos or sketches for future use. The time will come before you know it. When we are going through situations the time passes what seems to be slow and the situations just seem to take forever to pass. Then when we look back and reflect on the seasons or passed situations we ask ourself where did the time go? The time just simply went so fast and we over reacted when we should have embraced all the moments good or bad.
I am trying to understand and questioning life I suppose in my art, especially my photography. I have been challenging myself in a series of self portraits which have been forcing me not only to push past ordinary portraiture, but compositions with the lighting telling my story. Trying to find what my life means to me now and pictures to portray my life to this point in time. It has not been an easy journey to arrive here, what I am seeing in my photography. I guess I would say soul searching for meaning and direction.
When there seems to be no direction in your artwork photograph yourself in film. You need a hard copy to look at in a group, not a click on the computer. You can hold art and the impact will be greater vs. digital work where there is no hard copy or proof of creation. Hit the wrong button and your artwork is gone. In film you have negatives as proof of hard-working creativity. Shoot at least three rolls of yourself; keep two rolls for onetime usage in one or two environments and then another roll for shooting at random. The first two rolls will force you to look at yourself past the normal composition and force you to see what you want to portray. It may take ten rolls before you start to see what you are looking for, but a few will speak to you. There you will see new direction in your artwork.
I hope to enter a few shows once I have this series somewhat mastered. I’d post but there are too many people copy and pasting my artwork. I don’t have the time to inject my name in bold letters across the pictures. I’d really would like to post so then you could see what I am stating…..Before we get to the promise land we all must go through first. As artist we use all moments to produce our work.
This watercolor study by Joan is fruit and learning watercolor 101. In watercolor there are layers of color in a building process to produce realism. Depending how many layers you add and how controlled the layers are depend on how far you want the painting to be realistic. Here are several steps to reach this point of realism 101. I will add more pictures as this painting develops. Once the background is painted in the colors of the fruit take on a different appearance in hues; look at previous pictures and notice how the fruit colors change in appearance. Adding shadows will ground the work so the fruit don’t look floating in space. The box is a deep purple which plays nicely with the fruits.
Watercolor will usually stay and follow a wet surface, if you wet a section of paper the watercolor should stay in the wet areas as a rule. Painting on damp paper will give you a bleed mark or the new color will blend into the other. It is important to play around with paint to see how the control works for you. If you stop in mid stroke the color will build in that area and will not be a solid line or stroke. If you want a solid section then keep pulling a one stroke move.
So far the table grain was made by painting the a warm sepia brown over a damp surface painted in the same color. First paint the common color with a wide brush. If you look in the upper left section in the above picture you can see how Joan was painting from the box, apple and pear stopping when painting in the sepia on the first layer. If you stop and don’t pull the color all the way through you get a line/band or heaviness of paint. If you don’t want a band of color make sure to pull the strokes all the way to the edge or off the edge of paper.
Now notice the brush in the bottom picture the brush is older and has stiff bristles. Making the paint a bit thicker or same stronger richer hue drag the stiff brush across the surface to make the grain lines . Follow the pattern the first main layer that has been put down.
The grain lines are not in the picture below. Fuzzing the shadows of the grapes working wet on damp paper will help the shadow blend the edges. The shadows from the objects should ground or start to ground the objects.
************Look at the next two pictures and notice how the color of the grapes change in the following picture compared to the picture after this one. Just adding a background color changes the entire appearance. Think about how and what color will change the environment.
COMPARE THE NEXT TWO PICTURES AND HOW THE BACKGROUND CHANGES THE APPEARANCE OF COLORS. HOW THE BACKGROUND COLOR WILL AFFECT THE HUES OF COLORS OF THE OTHER OBJECTS. NOTICE HOW THE GRAPES CHANGE IN APPEARANCE AND THE PEAR IS BRIGHTER JUST FROM THE BACKGROUND BEING ADDED. THERE WASN’T ANY COLORS ADDED TO THE FRUIT AND NOTICE HOW THE BROWN WOOD SURFACE EFFECTED THE COMPOSITION. THINK ABOUT AND PLAN A PAINTING AND THE COLORS YOU ARE USING. THE BRUSH IN THE FOLLOWING PICTURE IS #6 DRAG OR LINER. I LOVE THIS BRUSH AND HOW MUCH WATER/COLOR IT CAN HOLD AND THE DISTANCE YOU CAN GET USING IT. IF I HAD TO PICK ONE BRUSH TO PAINT AN ENTIRE PAINTING THIS WOULD BE THE BRUSH!
When starting grapes remember to look at the shapes and placement of each grape. How they are attached to the vine. Actually get grapes and examine how they really look. Paint them as spheres in values as you drawn in graphite. Remember to keep highlights in place to relationship to the light source. This watercolor will end up being wc 101, the next study will be 102 level with much more detail and realism. Each added layer of watercolor usually demands more controlled strokes, even dry brush techniques.
Roxanne 
