Checotah Painting Stage 1 (maybe)
Aug. 10th, 2010 08:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cristinreneeI was angsty last night because I thought I needed another canvas ready to work on in class today just in case I had time leftover from working on the Mermer painting. During the first class, I'd tentatively decided on a picture of Checotah (a.k.a. Chickie) as my second class painting, but I've been fighting with that decision since. The only ways I really wanted to crop the picture would not fit on a standard-sized canvas.
I settled on a square canvas last week, but because I wasn't thrilled with the composition, I didn't want to waste a big canvas on it. I had it all sketched out on a 10" x 10" canvas. (Or was it an 8" x 8"? Whatever. It was small and cramped and it didn't make me happy.) Erased it as best I could.
Last night, I hunted for other images that I really wanted to paint right now. They all fell into three categories:
a) Things I'd been told we weren't to paint in this class (such as people or "complicated" stuff);
b) Things I wasn't going to paint in class because everyone else in class is painting them (flowers); and
c) Almost entirely monochromatic pictures (white bull in snowy field in Montana, black and white donkey in another snowy field in Montana, awesome tree in a snowy field in Montana, a black dog and a golden dog running through tall golden grass in North Dakota--what can I say? Some of my favorite places are very subtle in color.)
I thought the monochromes wouldn't go over well because we're supposed to be learning about color-mixing in this class.
Finally gave up and tried to make Chickie work again. Spent an hour or so drawing her on a 14" x 18" canvas. It was getting pretty late when I quit. Woke up at five this morning and erased her head. (Poor girl!)
Spent about an hour fussing with her head again and smudging the charcoal around something awful. I think I'm content with it now, though I'm not crazy with all the emphasis on line drawings in this class. Unless I want my end result to be a line drawing, I don't do them. I look more at the shapes of shadows and colored areas. I'm sure that's a benefit when I get to the painting stage, but it makes my original sketches a bit odd.
Wonder if I'll end up using this in class now.
I settled on a square canvas last week, but because I wasn't thrilled with the composition, I didn't want to waste a big canvas on it. I had it all sketched out on a 10" x 10" canvas. (Or was it an 8" x 8"? Whatever. It was small and cramped and it didn't make me happy.) Erased it as best I could.
Last night, I hunted for other images that I really wanted to paint right now. They all fell into three categories:
a) Things I'd been told we weren't to paint in this class (such as people or "complicated" stuff);
b) Things I wasn't going to paint in class because everyone else in class is painting them (flowers); and
c) Almost entirely monochromatic pictures (white bull in snowy field in Montana, black and white donkey in another snowy field in Montana, awesome tree in a snowy field in Montana, a black dog and a golden dog running through tall golden grass in North Dakota--what can I say? Some of my favorite places are very subtle in color.)
I thought the monochromes wouldn't go over well because we're supposed to be learning about color-mixing in this class.
Finally gave up and tried to make Chickie work again. Spent an hour or so drawing her on a 14" x 18" canvas. It was getting pretty late when I quit. Woke up at five this morning and erased her head. (Poor girl!)
Spent about an hour fussing with her head again and smudging the charcoal around something awful. I think I'm content with it now, though I'm not crazy with all the emphasis on line drawings in this class. Unless I want my end result to be a line drawing, I don't do them. I look more at the shapes of shadows and colored areas. I'm sure that's a benefit when I get to the painting stage, but it makes my original sketches a bit odd.
Wonder if I'll end up using this in class now.
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Date: 2010-08-10 02:45 pm (UTC)Secondly, wow, you're pretty damn competent at the line drawing. Yes, the first head was a bit too short, I think—more pit bull than lab, and now you've got it spot on. This should be a really nice one to paint, with the different textures and the lovely colours. I wonder if the darkness of your dog's front will be a problem, against the shadowed side of the tree behind her?
It's very interesting watching your painting at a distance. I've never learned to paint—it's probably just as well, as I am far too ill-disciplined to need yet another thing to do for pleasure, but I'd love to be able to. I know my mother did oil paintings, but oddly the only picture of hers I have is a charcoal sketch. And my sister did a watercolour course a while ago, and took to it beautifully, though I've never got on with watercolours at all. Have you done watercolours?
Are you saving the newt for the piece de resistance at the end of the course?
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Date: 2010-08-10 03:15 pm (UTC)Part of why I'm trying to be good posting these in stages is because when I looked for tutorials and the like, I didn't see very many. Not that I'm doing tutorials, but I would have liked to see more in-progress paintings.
I tried watercolors in the most cursory "Ooo! Neat! Lemme play with all of my mom's paints" when I was twenty or so. I did not do so well with it. It's not that I don't have patience, because for some art things I do have patience. But I didn't have the patience for them. Made things too watery, didn't want to plan out layers of washes, had difficulty with leaving white showing, etc. Memories of that is what kept me from trying painting again until now.
You're absolutely right that the first head looks like a pit bull. Oh dear. Doggie identity crisis.
I'm excited to try all the textures in this.
And I've got a newt picked out, but I'm saving him for after class. (I might need to hunt down a different panel for him, too. Guess I should really try sketching him on the one I have first.)