First half of Oil Painting Course

The first lesson started off with a Burnt Sienna and white painting of boxes. I went into more detail in a previous post here: http://www.diysarah.com/?p=60

The second lesson was a reverse painting where we put down burnt sienna and then pulled it off to make the highlights. Clearly, these were both exercises. The bags and that white bottle were the difficult ones. I’m quite proud of the paper bag though. The corner was crinkled in which I wasn’t really able to capture but the side seems to convey what’s going on pretty well. But that still failed to satiate me as that looked like a hastily-done corner. I then had a brainwave of bringing out the 5d diamond painting kits that I had in the cellar to see if diamond painting outpassed this flaw. The white box is a little off and the background is blah but I’m getting the hang of things.

The third lesson was our first foray into color. We painted with a limited palate but again, more boxes, that stupid bottle, and some difficult red cloth. The yellow box is messed up. It is not right. I ended up doing alright on the fabric though. It also looks like I forgot to put a shadow on the white bottle. Oops. The background is streaky again but that fabric looks like it is coming off the box and wrinkling on the table which is exactly what it was doing. The shadows on the ball aren’t quite there either.

Yay Color in the 4th lesson. My drawing is actually worse than usual in this one. I think I got too excited about coloring in and I didn’t quite get the drawing right. That orange is floating weird. Shadowing on white is really hard. Everything gets streaky in a hurry. That blue box does not look good. The pitcher isn’t bad but it needs some highlights that I didn’t ever add. I think that is the real thing, we focused really only on adding lowlights and not highlights.

The 5th lesson is one of a 2-part-er. We blended everything with brown and made it all kinda blah. We are going to let it dry and go back and paint over it so don’t judge too harshly yet. There is a metal bowl in the still life. That is that weird grey blob with colors in it. The instructor promises it will get better.

Beginning Oil Painting Class 1

Today will be my second oil painting class.  The class is offered through the Cambridge Center for Adult Education.  The class meets in Harvard Square which is convenient.  I am able to drive to Davis Sq, park in Somerville and take the T in 2 stops.  It takes less than 10 min to get there from my apartment. The class is at 5:45 on Mondays so getting dinner in between work and class is tricky but I’m doing well with a PB&J on the subway.

You can see my first attempt.  The photo isn’t at quite the same angle as the painting, but you get the idea.  Mu black box is a little skewed and the bottle doesn’t have quite the right proportions but overall, I’m pleased with my first attempt.

So far, the class has been quite informative.  The class is very structured.  We watch her do some painting first and then we begin to work on our own paintings.  Last week, we worked only in 2 colors: White and Burnt Sienna.  The idea is to begin by looking at just light and dark and we will eventually get into working with color.  The still life for last week was a white box, a black box, a white bottle, and two brown paper bags.  This week, we will be working in just white and burnt sienna again but we will hopefully be working on a different still life.   I am very excited!

The teacher is not like any art teacher I’ve ever seen.  She isn’t the scarf wearing flighty type.  She is sarcastic and perhaps even a little coarse but I like her.  She has a very practical approach to painting.  No feeling blah blah stuff.  Just “This is darker than this, this is bigger than this.”  You can visit her website here: http://www.denisemickilowski.com/.

I’m excited to get into color.  I ordered 9 of these 4” x 4” canvases from Dick Blick.  When I got the order though, they had shipped 9 boxes of 12!  So I have over 100 4×4 canvases.  I’m planning on going a little crazy on painted Christmas ornaments this year!  I’d better start early if I’m going to get those done.  I’m thinking paintings of Christmas ornaments could be really neat.  That doesn’t sound too hard either but we’ll see how well the class goes!  I’d also kind of like to do a set of 9 teacup paintings.  I think they would be cool all framed together.

Sarah