watercolor class 03



third class this past monday was great!  it was cool to learn about abstract painting and to practice loose, quick painting, getting the shapes and values down more than being accurate or focusing on details.  it was definitely a liberating exercise for me, as i tend to be pretty meticulous.

 this is a series of fast burns, 5-minute paintings focusing on the general shapes, values and the general feel of the still life.  i used a size 30 round brush for the next 4 sketches, which are of various proportions, and no larger than 6"x4".



charcoal and watercolor

pastel and watercolor

charcoal and watercolor

pastel and watercolor



this is a series of thumbnails, about 2"x3" each, where with a more simplified approach.  i used only two colors in the first two thumbnails, yellow+purple and red+blue, and only one color in the third, brown (oddly, my least favorite color in general.  i hardly ever wear brown, and only in certain color combinations ... says i, as i'm wearing an olive green v-neck sweater and a taupe cardigan which totally looks brown next to the olive green!  my friend lori likes the combo!). 



i used a very large round brush for such a small sized thumbnail, size 20, which forced me to be quick and to make general impressions on the paper, rather than to focus on details.

 

two-tone and single-tone thumbnails



this is an in-progress larger abstract painting of the same still life.  the difference here is that i did the graphite drawing and the painting with my left hand.  i'm right handed.  this is another way of forcing yourself not to get too detailed, but to try and capture the general feel of the still life ... debatable whether or not i achieve that, but nonetheless, this exercise was pretty freeing. 

 



graphite and watercolor

-cristina



old watercolor class

these are a few paintings i've done in the two classes i took at truman. 

the basic color wheel, of course ... step 1 of watercolor 101!  started with only primary colors, mixed them to get secondary colors, then mixed those to get tertiary colors.



three paintings of the same apple, experimenting three different techniques.  very dry paint, as dry as possible, on dry paper, very wet paint on dry paper, and super wet paint on paper that's been soaked in water for 15 minutes.


dry-on-dry



wet-on-dry



wet-on-wet

 an egg to study shade and shadow


egg

trying a blue hue for shadow on the apple and lemon.  study of values, color matching and object relationship in space.


apple and lemon

 -cristina

homework

i painted a small still life this weekend, a few dried up leaves i'd saved up since last fall.  i painted at night, with artificial lighting and strong shadows.  never painted leaves before, so this was fun.

leaves still life

-cristina

watercolor class 02

had the second watercolor class last night.  got my supplies this past week and came ready to paint.  we only had 5 students this time, including myself, and we went through more introductions and the reasons we took this class. 

one of my reasons for taking this class is my main watercolor inspiration, david walker, a british painter who does the most amazing and moving architectural renderings i’ve ever seen!  i will be very happy if i become at least half as good as he is!  check out his website: http://davidwalkervisuals.com/  he also has a fine art work website at http://www.davidwalkerstudio.com/

we spent some time observing in-class demonstrations, then we started to sketch a still life to study the shades and values in the composition.  unfortunately, we only had a short time left to paint.  this is the partial painting i’ve done during class, with a quick and dirty base wash, wishing i had more time to really get into it.

 -cristina

still life value sketch

partial still life

watercolor class 01

first day of class was fun and basic: meeting the instructor, ricardo (a different person than listed in the schedule, last minute switch), some class introductory conversations, checking out the materials and supplies list, filling out questionnaires, getting the dry stuff out of the way.  we experimented with some basic watercolor techniques with different brushes and media, and just let loose.  a lot of my basic knowledge from the Truman classes kicked in, and it felt like half of a Truman class crammed into one evening.  the format was pretty loose, nothing as formal as what i’ve been through before in my previous two classes, so i’m glad I’ve had the step-by-step, organized learning of the basics before.  i’m just glad i didn’t feel lost!

these are the explorations i did in class, testing out techniques, media and brushes.



graphite, charcoal over watercolor, testing brush sizes



charcoal over watercolor, wet-on-wet technique



watercolor over graphite, charcoal, dry-to-dry technique

 

graphite over watercolor, wet-on-wet technique

 

testing brush sizes, brush pressure, watercolor over charcoal

 

next monday, class starts for good.  looking forward to some paintin’!

-cristina

new watercolor class

today i’m starting a new watercolor class at the Art Institute of Chicago.  i’m so excited to start this class, a super nice present from my thoughtful husband!  i’ve taken a couple of watercolor classes before, at Truman College, but as i was a complete beginner, those classes were all about learning basic color theory and mixing colors than about actual finished paintings.  i’ve done lots of little exercises, mixing basic colors to match certain colors, painting an occasional apple or two (and even an egg!).  and while the class at Truman was a nice first experience, it was more of a ‘happy painting’ sort of thing than anything else.

this new class seems like it’s going to be a bit more academic, more focused on critique, or at least that’s what i hope it will turn out to be.  i have to say, i have pretty high expectations from the Art Institute, and hopefully i’m not setting myself up for disappointment.  i’m hoping to get constructive critique, and i really hope to make a lot of progress!  i’m somewhat nervous about whether or not this will meet my expectations and take me far enough in terms or progress, but i’m trying not to think about that.  i’m trying to just go with the flow and enjoy it.  i’m pretty psyched to be doing some ‘actual’ paintings at this point, i feel like I’m ready to start painting something with an end result.

i think it will be a good thing to learn from a new instructor with new methods and a new approach, to freshen up things a bit.  plus, walking directly across the street from work beats my previous hour commute on the Red Line to Truman!  the super short trip to class after work will definitely be a nice change!
i’ll be keeping track of my progress along the way, and at the end of the 10 weeks, we’ll see where i am. 

off i go!

-cristina