Who knew so much could happen in 30 days!!! The Facebook 5 day challenge was so much fun and introduced me to fabulous artists all over the world. And, through the challenge I found Susan Harrison-Tustain! I haven't been this excited about anything in a long, long time. Started with a 30 day challenge to get myself back into painting on a regular basis and had no idea my whole artistic world would change! I can't get enough of this new way of painting. I ordered the other 2 DVDs this morning, so I will soon have her whole library of teaching videos. I can't stop thinking about it - I wake up in the middle of the night and listen to all my teachers argue with each other and her! Do it my way - no, my way is the best! Hahahaha! Actually, I think each and every one of them would encourage any type of growth!! I've mostly painted "dry" - very little water in the paint or on the brush. Still in many layers, but it didn't create that smooth, flowing look I love about watercolors. I learned wet on wet with an entire sheet of wet paper and a paint brush - no control whatsoever, the paint travels where it wants to! Actually, Karlyn taught me to paint individual petals wet on wet - but only got one shot at them, not layers! Susan's method is wetting very small areas at a time, and waiting til the shine is off the paper and then apply paint. The Iris now has it's first two coats of blue. The next step will be to add the colors - it's actually a purple iris, with many bright red places, almost orange in the sunlight - and very dark purple in the shade. I can't wait and the waiting is not fun for me! :-). I am redoing the beach scene with the sand castle, taken in Avalon, NJ. So far so good! It's early, but everything has to dry. Nice sunny day out, so I'm going to take the leaves off the Hellebores and cut some of their leaves back - they are getting ready to bloom!!! And I need to take the leaves away from the bulbs - daffodils are starting to pop up their little heads!! See you tomorrow - oh, and here are the pictures of today's progress:
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I added purple to 5 of the petals - can you tell??? :-) I maybe should have done the under painting in yellow instead of blue, but I was afraid it would turn to green and brown if I put blue and purple on top of them. Must experiment some more! Have to wait til these dry completely before painting adjacent petals. I painted the legs and reflections on the beach scene. Getting a little closer to what I am looking for with the reflections, but needs improving! I am really having fun trying new techniques to old skills and you couldn't smack the smile off my face! I'm also glad it's several months til the Prizery Show!
A little more progress on both of these - Iris becoming a little more purple - sand beginning to form, though the paper dried really quickly and the edges of the red are too hard - all in a day's work! Can't believe there is only one more day left of this 30 day challenge - for the most part it has been really, really fun and I'm very glad that I did it! 5 "keepers" for the Prizery Show - lots more to go for goal of 50 by the end of October!! And in the midst of this taking the time to learn from my now most favorite teacher, Susan Harrison-Tustain!!! Will be worthwhile, I'm positive!!!
Woot Woot!!! I'm done!!! Am I glad I did it? Very much so!!! It definitely got me into painting on a daily basis again, and that's always good! I'm sorry I don't have more finished works to show for it - I took the opportunity to try some different things - some worked, some didn't. And I've gotten really side tracked watching Susan Harrison-Tustain's DVDs! Finished the second series today - two more are coming soon. I love her style, methods and teaching. It's a very, very slow process and I'll probably paint one of hers to several faster styles, yet know in my heart if I did the entire show at the Prizery using her teachings, I'd be a star! :-)
The last two that I've been working on are not keepers, but great lessons! I got a little farther on each of them and definitely learned how to do them better next time, and I promise I will! If you choose to keep following me, I'll keep posting paintings as I finish them! Thank you for your time - and whoever reads my blog, thank you from the bottom of my heart! |
AuthorAndrea Burke, WVWS Click on this if you'd like new blog posts emailed to you!
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'This world is but a canvas to our imagination' - Henry David Thoreau