Final Owl for Anna

Wow, I can hardly believe it has been 2 months since I've posted anything. I've not heard any howls of protest at my lack of posting, so I'm not in trouble I suppose! :-)

Recall my rejected barn owl by Anna; I decided to do a more whimsical piece for her; it is an owl practicing ballet. I gave it to her this week and she said that she liked it, so that means it is a huge success.

I have promised myself to be more diligent ( i.e at least one per day) in doing some sketching/painting during the summer.

Here is the dancing owl:

PS: I was smart enough to do a quick preliminary sketch to show her before I started the final; she said it was OK but I needed to put more jewels on the tiara! 

Anna and the Owl

Recall from a previous post that I gave a "practice" rabbit I painted to Adrian when he asked if he could have it. I didn't want to leave Anna out and asked what she would like: "...an owl". [ at this point is where I went off the rails...]

I decided to do a simple barn owl; did one and didn't like it so I did another. I've posted photos of the painting at various stages. Then when she was over today, I asked her which one she liked best and would want me to put into the frame I had.

She furrowed her brow and stuck out her arms with each hand made into a fist. I had to get Adrian to translate: "she means none of them". I asked her what she didn't like about the painting "..I don't want so much white, I want brown".

I then did what I should have done at the start: we sat with a bird book to look at the section on owls, and it turns out she would like a great horned owl.

I respect Anna for sticking to her guns and wish I had been sensitive enough to ask her at the start what she wanted.

So, it is literally back to the drawing board - stay tuned for Owl #3!

 Above is the initial pencil sketch [darkened so I can trace onto watercolour paper].

I apologize for the shadows on these, but rather than putting damp paper into the scanner, I stood and photographed these; shadow is from my desk lamp.

Last Painting Class in Canmore

Today was my last class in Canmore; each time I learn something and also learn how much more I need to learn!

Here are the results from last 4 classes ( 2 classes per painting).

At the end of each class we all put up our paintings on a wall and stand back...if you stand far enough back they don't look too bad. Unfortunately, scanning them is like putting your eyeball on the painting... so give me a break and stand up and back away from your monitor...trust me - they will look better!

Now I need to find an owl to paint for Anna to go along with the rabbit for Adrian.

Accidental "art"?

I have been trying to put in as much time as I can on exercises,etc recognizing that I'm not going to get any better by reading about painting!

On of the exercises I did was a rabbit in a field using "non traditional" colours; most(all) are just that, exercises. However the other day Adrian was over and we were in my office looking at some lego stuff and he saw the rabbit. He said it was good and could he have it?

I was going to re-do it - since it was a quick exercise there are many areas for improvement; but Robin pointed out that it was this one that he liked.

Now I need to plan to do something similar for Anna... perhaps an owl?

Art Class _ Painting #2, final stage

Here is the final painting of the house; recall 'stage 1' was posted previously.

The learning continues, the curve looks steep at times!

Art class

I  got to class this week and had to catch up a bit; below is the 'work in progress' from 3 weeks ago, I will finish it this week and then post the finished painting for comparison...and add the finished painting from this week's class.

One thing I have gotten so far from this class is an appreciation of the subtleties of the medium ( and the frustrating uncertainties as it interacts with water); I see that in the past I have been using it more or less like a crayon!...so that should mean that I can't get any worse!

Painting with grandkids

Both Adrian and Anna enjoying drawing and painting with me. However, Anna has really taken to watercolours and insists on painting at "grampa's painting desk".

 This one above is a "spotted elephant"; coloured after she drew it in pencil. She insisted that this elephant has a short trunk ( head on RH side) and didn't want to make it longer.

This was her first water colour using "real paper" and Grampa's paints; she just wanted to see what she could do.

These are from a joint session with both Anna and Adrian. Top left is Anna's 2 laughing giraffes, bottom right is Anna's "storm clouds", and she added, that the purple looks like sunset!

Top right is Adrian's: there is a red giraffe kicking out at a shark (in grey); there is also a red hazelnut tree; bottom left is one that Adrian did for Nora.

Drawing and painting with the kids, who are so uninhibited reminds me of a story from the book "drawing on the right side of the brain" by Betty Edwards. Her 4 year old niece asked her what she taught; Betty responded that she taught art to adults. There was a long pause and the little girl said "..why, did they forget how?".

Updates?...where are they??

Just a quick note to explain that I've missed my last 2 art classes due to Robin being ill and our furnace blowing up. I will post my latest from art class in a day or so - we are tied up with looking after grand-kids, which takes priority!

I had the pleasure of painting with Anna today; how refreshing to be with a 3 year old with no per-conceptions of what she should be doing. She now enjoys water colour and wants to paint "at grampa's paint desk". I'll scan her latest also..tomorrow.

Sketching People - "homework"

I mentioned that I am taking the video course offered by Marc Holmes on craftsy.com called "sketching people ".
This is supposed to be sketching people who are moving or at least not posing.... I cheated and sketched myself staring into the computer monitor! These are meant to be more impressionistic than "realistic"...good thing!

I will park myself in a coffee shop and try to do what the course is training me to do: sketch moving ( i.e not posing) people.

The canada goose is what I painted at my first session of watercolour class.... there is some room for improvement!

Elephant Sketches

As I mentioned in my last post, I will be filling up a small format sketch book I have from "PooPooPaper". The paper is made from elephant poop - apparently they are very inefficient in processing what they eat, so there is a LOT of vegetable matter in their waste. They have paper made from other animals, including Moose. Their website is www.poopoopaper.com

I find the paper difficult to work with using watercolour; it is heavy but doesn't behave like normal watercolour; the water is absorbed very quickly so you have little time to add your paints.

Here are my first 3 sketches.

2015 - this will get better!

I am determined to follow the obvious advice and draw/paint more to get better; silence my inner critic and just do more drawing.

To that end I'm now taking a watercolour painting class in Canmore once a week; I'll post my 'classwork'. I've also been inspired by a book by Marc Holmes on urban sketching. I'm also taking  his online video class on sketching people. So, hopefully I can get past my previous drawing 'block' and just "do it"!

Finally, I found a small sketch book I bought in Sidney BC some time ago and forgot I had it. The paper is made from elephant poop, and I told myself I'd fill the book with elephant sketches...so more to come on that front also.

I've attached here one of the last things I drew in 2014, I made these drawings on puzzle kits to put in Anna and Adrian's stockings.