Lesson 1

Last night was my first watercolor class, I was excited! I learned more in this 2 hrs than in a long time, I guess you cannot learn how to paint watercolor from books. But I did learn about paint consistency, thick as buttermilk or thin as skim milk. Never was able to put that together before. But that was after I painted my image. We also learned how to paint a prettier tree which will take some getting used to but the secret is that you turn your painting upside down and hold your wrist over the bottom of the tree and without moving your hand, pull in jerking motions toward you, this way you get a more natural look. We painted a very simple image with 3 colors. Learned how to fling paint, then spray with water to create foliage. Mine was done with too small a brush so it looks like the leaves are just emerging. Cynthia Mask is our teacher, she is getting her fine arts degree from Auburn University.

Snow in Auburn!

Hooray for snow, it is beautiful; large fat snowflakes falling and quickly covering everything in its path. We are forcasted to get 3-6". Click on the image to see a close up image, you can see how heavy the snowfall is. I frequently take pictures of the lake across the street from the front of our house because I find such quiet beauty at the most unexpected times. I will take a snapshot and upload to the computer so I can remember. I finished another of the paintbox exercises, this one is really showing my lack of talent but, I am going to post because it is a visual record, so I can bring it back at a later date to see where I was and where I have come.

Flowers, Snow, Wheels

I am going to oil painting tonight after a long break over the holidays. My watercolor class last night was delayed until next Tues due to the death of the instructor's family member. So, I painted another two from Frank Clark's Paintbox. This time daisies and snow. But, I have also been making color wheels by mixing paints using either a 3 color method or a 6 color method. I like the 6 color method the best. With the 6 color method, choose warm, cool reds, warm, cool yellows and warm, cool blues. The one I am posting is from KOI, it has a neat water cartridge paintbrush which I used to paint the colors.

Busy Holidays

Now that the holidays are over, I can get my house back in order, just took the tree to the garage. I have been painting all along. I am taking another watercolor course at Auburn University starting tomorrow evening. I am so excited to finally get a structured course in the basics of watercolor. So, I have still been working on leaves. I have spread myself all around the house with leaves and watercolor. My husband has been putting up with the kitchen table covered in all sorts of an array of watercolor paints, brushes, paper, books, etc. You know the drill, when you paint, you loose all sense of time, space, others...Speaking of others, Bella, my dog has taken up the habit of carrying a rope around from room to room. She played with it some at Christmas and this morning, she looked so cute standing in the den with that thing in her mouth, I had to take a snapshot, and those of you who know me, know how special my dog is, so I am including her as well.

Back to leaves, I have been painting them too as well as trying out this book called "Frank Clarks Paintbox". I usually just read the book and don't do the exercises, this time I decided to do the exercises as well, so I thought I would post them too. I have also been busy making color wheels. That has been fun too. Let's see how many pics I can post at one time. Only 5 of them. I will save the rest for later.