Meanwhile Back at Water Color Painting Class...

Sculpture in Garden- water color on yupo paper

We ended up taking a couple of weeks off from water painting class due to death in my teacher's, Colleen's, family.  But last night class was resumed.  We started off by showing what we've been doing while class was out.  I had three paintings to show for missing two weeks.  She critiqued our work and gave up helpful suggestions on how to improve our painting.  I really like that about her teaching style.  She's positive about what we do but still gives helpful suggestions on how we can improve.

Tower Against the Sky- water color on yupo paper

Then we moved onto this week's lesson; Symmetry.  We went to the computer area and she showed us samples of water color paintings on Yupo (pronounce- U- Poo - with only 1 P-- I thought it had 2 P's and I was pronouncing it- YuP-Poo-- OOppps!)  We discussed and looked at good examples and some not so good examples of symmetry.  She talked and showed us how we can improve our paintings by getting our symmetry proper.

Biking Along Vine Street- water color on yupo

Next we were working on our own examples of symmetry.  I chose a photo with two different flowered vases to work on.  She had me softly draw one vase free hand.  Then, she had me stop and decide which half of the vase looked closest to the vase in the photo.  We measured top to bottom and side to side; to determine the center point.  I drew a line down the center.  Then, I erased one half and darkened the outline on the other side that was the "good side". 



Tracing paper was placed over the "good side" with the edge down along the center line.  Carefully taping the tracing paper along the center line but above and below the drawing area.  I, then, drew on top of the tracing paper above the "good side", and flipped the paper over and rubbed along the line I drew on the tracing paper.  It left a mark when I removed the tracing paper that I used then to draw a little darker.

 

Next I drew a second vase from free hand again.  I chose the "good side" and then erased the other side.  This time I measured up and down the vase from the center line to re-draw the "bad side" to look like the "good side".  Then, we got into the fun part.... PAINTING!  And thus, I ended up with this painting below...



Two Vases with Flowers- water color on yupo paper





Water Painting Classes- Week 5 & 6- Puddle Painting...

This is my second week and I'm struggling with this style of painting.  In Puddle Painting, the painting is divided up into segments.  You start off by lightly drawing in the painting.  Then you plan you painting in segments.  Something that I will admit that I'm not very good at-- planning my painting.  Taking each segment of the painting you "puddle" water in that segment then drop color in.  It is very different in this style in that you mix the colors right in the painting rather than using a mixing tray.  I find this a bit scary in that I'm not always definite on what color I want to use in a certain segment of a painting.  Thus, I'm coming face to face with my problem of planning my paintings.  OUCH! 

I saw improvement in my second week of learning the puddle painting style of water color.  Last week's class was a disaster!  I ended up throwing last weeks attempt it was SO bad. I will admit that such things don't happen often but it did last week.  I had tried to paint a couple of young children leaning on each other.  It looked like a couple of lobster-colored aliens that were getting ready for Halloween. 

(Photo- The Highway Home- my second attempt at puddle painting.)

This week Colleen took us through a presentation of visually making our paintings have a sense of spacial feelings.  In other words, making our two dimensional paintings look 3-D.  We went over several different ways that you could accomplish this-- value, sizing, level of detail, and height on the paper.  Colleen showed up several details and also talked about the plains of a painting.  Plains is referring to those items that are closer are on a plain and those item that are farther will be on another plain.  We need to use these concepts when we are planning our paintings.  Ooopps!  There's my problem-- planning a painting! 

I chose to paint from a photo that I took from my car as I was driving home from my Omaha trip this last week.  Photo of the painting is above and believe me-- it's better than last week's attempt.  The Highway Home -- I think it looks like a highway disappearing in the distance.  What do you think?  BUT now I do need to see about getting some practice in!  See if I can improve my learning curve just a bit.