Art Class - Week 2 - Frida Kahlo

I've painting my picture this past week, mostly on the face. I had to make some drastic adjustments to the positioning of her right eye. Now she looks more like Frida on the photo. I had to reschedule my erhu lesson to Thursday to come to class today. I took another student's spot since she is on vacation. Teacher said he may not have a spot for me to switch my time to when his student returns. I hope he can find an alternate time for me eventually since I really want to go to art class both Monday and Tuesday.

Art Class - Week 1

Last week, my mom joined an art class at the local senior center. She came home all excited with her first painting. It was a desert scene, done in acrylics. Not bad at all for a first painting. She said teacher helped her with the pencil sketch and she painted it herself. Apparently, this class is not limited to seniors only. Needless to say, I wanted to check it out. And that's what I did today! Delko came with us too. The teacher's name is Fred Alvarado, and the class had about a dozen people today. As I walked in, I can see people painting on their canvases. There wasn't a particular theme or anything. Everyone was just doing their own thing. After signing up for the class, teacher told me to get a canvas and bring it to him so he can sketch a desert scene for me. I told him I didn't want to do the same thing as my mom and if I can sketch something else myself. He asked me what I wanted to sketch, and I told him I had no idea, and if he could suggest something. Well, he handed me a stack of pictures and told me to look through that for ideas. I showed the pictures to Delko and we were trying to decide what to pick. I told Delko that I shouldn't be too ambitious and pick something too hard since this is my first painting in class. Fred, who was helping another student, overheard me and without turning around, he said, "No, be ambitious!" I was surprised, but I said ok. Finally I found the picture I'm going to use. It's a photo of Frida Kahlo. When teacher saw it, he said, wow, that's ambitious! By the end of class, I almost finished my sketch. Teacher seemed very surprise when he saw it. He said it was beautiful and held it up for the class to see. He said, "I didn't help her with the sketch, she did it herself." I'm just relieved it was alright. It's not exactly like Frida in the photo, so I will probably be tweaking it as I'm painting. Teacher said I have to help him with the sketching for the other students from now on. We'll see how that goes! After all, I'm there to learn. I'm simply overjoyed to be in an art class. There are many talented people, but most importantly, you can see they love painting. I can't wait to go again next time. It will have to be 2 weeks from now since they're closed on Memorial Day.

Tiny art on bamboo

Hello!

Here are 2 tiny pictures that I painted on bamboo pieces. Each piece is 1.5" x 0.75". I painted directly onto the bamboo without pencil sketches. That was different for me, and fun!

I love the way they turned out! I will probably make them into pendants, after I protect the surface with some clear acrylic coating.

Here are the bamboo pieces before they are painted. They need to be lightly sanded or primed before applying the acrylic paints.

Nothing happening....

I haven't done any painting in 10 days. My shoulder, neck and back still hurts. At least the migraine went away today. Well, I did create a pressed flower picture for my mother-in-law. She wanted to give it as a gift to her friends for their 50th anniversary. I used rose petals of yellow and orange red, white alyssums, and yellow verbenas. Sounds yummy!

Art journey update

I almost forgot...I bought 3 painting guide books last weekend. One on watercolor, one on oil and one on drawing and sketching. Couldn't find one on acrylic, but I think these books will be a great help to me. I am eager to learn some techniques and really try hard to teach myself to become a good artist. This experience has been great so far. It has opened my eyes to see everything with a keener interest and with purposeful examination. I feel my eyes opening to everything. Somewhat similar to the day I put on contact lenses for the first time, ( I was 16 then.) and was able to see everything clearer and brighter. Wow! I literally gasped! I was shocked to discover how much I was unable to see all those years before. : ) May

Portrait of a friend

Today, I painted a portrait of my friend Lee. I tilted her head down a bit and brushed back the hair to reveal more of the left eye. I've never actually painted a "real" person before, so this is a real challenge. I started with a pencil sketch on a 5" x 7", 140 lb. coldpress watercolor paper. Using diluted acrylic paints, I was able to get a watercolor effect. Since I painted from a photo on my computer monitor, I had to keep turning to my left to look at the monitor, and turning back to the picture to paint it. That was a bit tough, particularly because I've been suffering from back and neck spasms lately. But in the end, I'm very pleased with the results, and I did it all in one day! Whew! This is my artistic interpretation of a dear friend, and I wanted to capture the sparkle in her eyes and a soft peaceful expression. I thought she looks like an angel in this portrait! Not too bad for a first "real person" portrait right?

A most unusual bird!

I going to tell you something very silly! Last night, I decided to do one last picture before going to bed. Since I had the idea in my head, I wanted to put it down on paper before it slips out of my memory forever. I made myself comfortable with a couple of pillows so I can prop my head up a bit. First I sketched a big tree branch with a few simple lines. I proceded to sketch a fairy, and then a bird. And now for the really silly thing that happened. OK, I drew the bird's body, drew its eyes, and everything was fine. Then sometime after sketching the bird's eyes, my brain must have turned off completely. However, I continued sketching, and even erasing somehow. That went on for a little while. And then, all of a sudden, I was "back"! And to my horror, my bird ended up with a nose, lips and some funny whispy hair. It was truly hysterical! I just brust out laughing even though I wasn't fully awake. This bird already has such a funny scarcastic expression in the eyes. And with the hair, nose and lips...my goodness! It was quite a sight. Hmm....Now I regretted erasing it, or I can show you what it looks like . You will have a good laugh too!