Painting Again

 

I started the on-line painting class again.  The same class that led to my latest quilt of the face.

And this is the first painting from the section of the class on Color.  You begin by painting many colors all over the background and then you paint-out the surrounding area to make the figure stand out.  

And here she is.  I am pleased with the results and find the process sort of amazing - to see how the crazy mishmash of paint colors look like they were meant to be part of the body.  Naked ladies aren't part of what I usually focus on - but I like this one.  She is large - about 18" square.  And I am NOT comfortable painting LARGE.  I think it is good that I am operating outside my comfort zone.  

Second painting

 And then I tried the second Color class.  And I tried and tried - and finally gave up.

I thought about not posting this one at all because it is not a success.  BUT I learned a lot.  And that is the reason that I am taking these classes.  I have no intention of becoming a painter but I like to try new things....even when I fail.

So this class starts by painting the background bright red.  Then taking a large brush and just blocking the figure.  You can see the inspiration photo in the upper left corner if you squint.

And then you start to add in all sorts of different colors and shadows and highlights.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And you keep adding shading and more color and some details.

If you saw my face as I was doing this you would laugh out loud.  I look like I am IN PAIN.  Because I am!  Trying a new media like paint - with a large brush - and a large painting - and struggling SO hard ----- it is actually sort of scary.  

Which is SUCH a good lesson for me as a teacher.  When I teach a class about fusible faces to traditional quilters who are trained to follow directions and use 1/4 inch seams and use patterns instead of their imagination - it is SCARY for them!  And I need to remember that.

 

  And this is where the painting is now.  I am putting it aside and admitting that some things just simply did NOT work. And I don't have the expertise to fix them.  Or, to be honest, the patience.  I would rather start over and try again.

I do like the red hair.  And her face is actually OK.  And I am proud of the hand!  Yes I am!  Hands are hard and this one is so much better than previous attempts.

But the chest looks like she has a white sweater on and it is supposed to look like skin because she is not wearing any clothes.  And I guess I could add more skin tones but ..... I need to let go of this attempt.

And here is the biggest problem... her face is TOO SMALL for her body.  It should be almost twice as large.  And I think that problem happened because of the sequence of steps in the lesson.  I do not have enough experience in sketching out the dimensions of the body parts with out more of a guideline.  But that is excellent information and knowledge to have going forward.

Because yes I am going to take the next lesson and see what happens.  Here is a secret: I feel very brave and vulnerable because I am posting this failed painting and people will see it.  Hopefully anyone who is just starting to look at this blog will look at previous posts to see my projects that were a success.

Till next lesson - - - - -

 

 

 Busy Busy 

 What a busy time this  has been.  And when my schedule gets too busy - I clean and organize.  It helps keep me calm. 

So - to keep busy and to accomplish something useful - I started reorganizing ALL OF MY FABRIC!!!

Was I insane?  Maybe a little bit.  Here is one of the challenging pieces of fabric that I "fussy cut" in order to find the exact colors that I wanted to use in a quilt - several years ago.  You can understand how hard it was to FOLD it so that it could sit on the shelf.

But I was persistent and this is how it looks now.  Much easier to store and to actually SEE the colors so that I use the crazy beautiful piece of wonderfulness instead of ignoring it.

And yes most of the other fabric is now folded.  I'll take a picture of my closet so you can see how nice it looks.