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Friday's Design Wall

Thanks Betty for letting me know that I forgot to post the image from the last class where we all worked on a complicated Rose project.

The image below is what I thought was finished. But after looking at it for a week, I wanted to add more punch to the colors and values. I took some video of what I did and will try to post it after I learn how to edit as it is too long right now.

Below is the Friday class design wall, where all the students (who remembered) placed their images up for a final critique. Everyone did great and now know how to finish their images.

Below I've added a unifying glaze over the rose. I wet the entire rose and then dropped in a Bright Rose letting it soften and spread which allowed for a punchier rose. You can really see the shadows and where the sun is landing now.
I also added more "darks" to the leaves below creating more mystery and now it's not stealing the show from the rose. But on it's own the background is stunning.

What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by.

New Classes

Well you asked for it! Happy Friday Painting People - we are finally doing a stretched Watercolor over 1 and a 1/2 inch deep wooden stretcher bars! We are going to stretch a full sheet of 140lb Arches cold pressed watercolor paper. First we have to protect the paper from the wood, so we have to paint the wood with a primer to seal the oils in the wood. I use Kilz.
The full materials list can be found on the Friday Materials List "tab" - Here's the image:

Next for the Wednesday Evening Guided Class we are finally beginning a student's image. Below is Debbie's picture of a yellow eyed duck with a reflection swimming in water (of course!). When I saw her image and how excited she was to paint it I thought "Wow - let's start painting students images instead of mine". Now we all get to experience all the 'behind the scenes' work to get something from photo to paper!
The list of materials can be found on the "Classes tab" just scroll down until you get to the Wednesday Evening Guided Classes and look for Debbie's Duck. The image is posted below:

Happy Painting! Thanks for stopping by.

Dramatic Color Blending Workshop with Chris Beck

Mark your calendar, and reserve your spot for a 2 & 1/2 day Watercolor Workshop with Chris Beck!

I first saw Chris Becks' Hollyhocks in the Artists Magazine and her images took my breath away. You lucky folks get to learn in person how she creates subtle and dramatic color blends to make her images so memorable and dramatic. Below is the image I love that made me want to get to know her.

 

Join Chris and be a part of the adventure....

Wednesday Class Changes

In order to help students achieve their goals and have a better understanding of the creative process, from idea to a completed image we are changing the format of the class.
Instead of everyone enjoying one of my images, we are going to take turns painting one of the student's images! This way we will all learn composition strengths, approach, and how to get it on paper from their own photography. Everyone has been learning how I approach an image, but now they will have an opportunity in relishing their own.

Here's a picture of the Wednesday Evening Class...

Well ok, two pictures. Here's to more of an adventure

The Big Reveal

I could not stand another minute of wondering what Joyce was working on and I just had to share with her what my choice was and how I was progressing. Curiosity has always gotten the better of me, and while I am known for my patience there is also this great impatience that will not be ignored. It was so GOOD to see Joyce and what she was working on.

While painting this glass still life image I would catch myself questioning my choices, and I had to keep reminding myself to trust in my process and to stick with it. It was so strange to work on this project and to hear how I must sound to my students, and once I realized how uncomfortable I was working through this challenge, I realized how I just needed to relax and get into my groove.

A wonderful experience happened - I have a better understanding of what my students go through listening to me - and that is priceless!

Oh the wonderful adventures and journeys that we share - the good and the bad. Adding experience to our craft; hopefully learning from our mistakes and having that lesson just once instead of repeating that lesson over and over again until we finally "get it".

Thanks so much for stopping by...

Rejects for the ArtistsNetworkUniversity workshop and a Filoli Finish

Here's some images I shot that were not a perfect fit for a good piece of glass! Lots of images with lots of organic media, but nothing caught my eye. What the heck is he going to do?

All will be revealed next weekend, can't wait to show what I'm finishing.

Hope to see you next weekend!

Here's a shot of how we finished the Water Lily and Dragonfly yesterday at the Filoli Watercolor Workshop:

Fun was had by all, we had the perfect weather and the perfect place to paint.

Thanks for stopping by...

Looking for a good piece of glass?

What will Guy and Joyce come up with?

The ArtistsNetworkUniversity asked them to do a watercolor weekend workshop and they challenged each other to come up with a still life image using one or all of Guy's glass bulb vases.

I don't know about Joyce, but I had a heck of a time coming up with an image. I photographed tons of images of the vases with fresh cut flowers, completely empty, with different levels of water, I even got some little Siamese fighting fish!  I felt a little like "Goldilocks"; they were nice but nothing was perfect, nothing really caught my attention.
But I finally came up with an image that has bold color and something I am so excited to paint.

I can hardly wait to see what Joyce is painting.

The paintings will make their appearance and we'll explain how we got there from an idea, setting up a strong composition and showing all the steps it took to paint each image during the weekend workshop taking place March 23 and 24th.

We will answer all your questions during the workshop!

Follow the two links below for more information

http://view.artists-hub.com/?j=fec812707360007e&m=fe9a15707463077574&ls=fe2216777c6501757c1771&l=ff66107575&s=fe9016777760067a72&jb=ffcf14&ju=fe5c15757d62077c7113&et_mid=606443&rid=2724277&r=0

http://www.artistsnetworkuniversity.com/courses/watercolor-weekend-workshop


Looking forward to showing you everything soon!
Thanks for stopping by...

Next Friday Session Image

Here's the next image for our Friday Session which starts this Friday - March 8th.
This image was shot at the Central Park Rose Garden in San Mateo. I would love to paint the full image on a full sheet of watercolor paper, but for now we are just going to paint a part of the full image cut down to a 1/4 sheet of 300lb Arches cold pressed paper.
The materials list can be found on the tab "Friday Materials"


Full Image Raw



Cropped Image Raw



Cropped Image Enhanced

 Hope to see you this Friday and thanks for stopping by...

Working Wet on Wet without a reference

The coyote is finished so we had a free day to create something without a sketch or a reference. For me this was fun, hope the rest of you thought so too!  We worked wet on wet and dropped color into the water and letting gravity do all the work, we tilted the paper slowly this way and that to let the color run through the water on the paper, which creates such wonderful soft edges.

Once the paper starts to dry you have to leave it alone and let it dry flat or else you'll get blossoms or backruns of color. Not good for a sky. Don't worry if there isn't enough color, we can always add some more once the paper is dry. Just rewet the paper quickly and lightly and reapply your colors.

Here's a lovely landscape created by Marilynne Genis Friday morning. I love it.

Keep posted to see what we are going to paint during the next session.