Week 7...the last day

Gee's I've been freaking myself out today I can tell you!!! I 'finally' decided on a picture I wanted to paint (talk about leaving things until the last minute...the last painting class is tonight!!!) and I 'finally' decided on a style that I wanted to do it in!!!

I started it last night...

this is the photo....

and the style I've decided on is a kind of Van Gogh'ey Impressionism...

..and I'm doing it with a knife!!!!

Aaaaaargh!!!

I've never ever done anything like this before and the feeling of 'not really having full control' is really scarey! But I guess if I want to learn I have to experience new & scarey things! lol I just hope it turns out okay.....!!!

...this is it ....so far....

Week 7...I FINISHED IT!!!!

Woohooo!!! I finally got there...the finish line!....the end!....one finished painting! I'm so excited!

I know there are probably a ton of things I could fix up on it and I'm sure that someone with a lot more experience than me (which is pretty much everyone at this stage) could point out all of the errors that I've made.

But at the moment I can't pick them out myself ...so for now I will leave that until I'm a lot more experienced and a lot more knowledgeable (however many years in the future that actually might be) and when I am at the stage where I can pick my old paintings to pieces all by myself!

What can I say....at this stage 'Ignorance is bliss'!

Hope you like it........

.....now to get started on my 'last painting' for class. Wish me luck...

Week 7 ...and a lot

Aaargh!!! I'm feeling so frustrated with myself!

It took me all day today to get started on finishing my still life painting...I'm still not over this flu fully yet but that wasn't the main reason I procrastinated all day! It was that darn goblet!!! I've been avoiding doing it ever since I started this painting! lol ..and today I knew I had no choice...I had to get in there and do it!

In the end though, I didn't give myself enough 'daylight time' to finish it but at least I've now got something that looks sort of like a metal goblet. I'll have to try and finish it tomorrow.

I've also changed the background & 'table like' surface area a little. I didn't like that straight line between table and background. Don't know if doing what I did helped..but I guess it's not

annoying me as much as it was.

Here it is....so far......

Hopefully I might have a finished painting tomorrow???!!! Fingers crossed!

Now to my other 'problem'....

I'm supposed to have found a picture/photo/painting that I would like to paint as my final painting in class (last lesson this Wednesday) but I 've gone and put so much pressure on myself to try and find something that I think looks 'spectacular' that I haven't been able to find anything at all!! So now I don't know what to do..... here I go again!!! Frustrating the heck out of myself!!! I could really give myself a good kick up the backside some days!

...sigh...

Tell me...is painting stressful for anyone else??..or is it just me???

I'm just hoping that, the more I learn, the more confident I will become, and the less stressed I will be every time I paint.

Please please please let that be true!!!!!!

Week 7...and a bit

Well I haven't been doing much of anything over the past week & a half due to my having caught the Flu and feeling miserable and sorry for myself.

I even had to miss my art class on Wednesday night! :OP I wasn't very impressed at all!

Umph!!!

I didn't dare paint whilst I had the flu just in case I sneezed half way through a brush stroke! eeek!

But, I'm happy to say that I'm feeling a lot better now and as of yesterday started to work on my painting again.

Unfortunately it ended up being a very frustrating day painting wise.... I wasn't happy with my background at all. My teacher had told me I should think about changing it because there were too many primary colours in the painting...fair enough...he also suggested maybe painting in some wall paper as a background... which I thought was an okay idea too. Until I actually did it.... I just couldn't get it right! I even tried lightening it...but nope..it was still rubbish!

Needless to say it got painted over very quickly! lol ..and guess what..I've gone back to blue! Sorry Rene. ;o) But I have made it a lot darker blue..so it doesn't look so 'primary' any more. I really hope it's okay...I realllly don't want to have to change it again. lol :oP

....here are the different versions....

As you can see I've also changed the ground a bit...darkened it....and I've also done a bit more to the leaves. Still got to do something about the shadowing and 'that goblet', but I'm leaving that until last.

Week 6

Well last night we were supposed to have started on our 'final paintings' that are to be of a favourite photo/picture...but seen as how I forgot to take my photo/picture in! :oP ...I continued on with my 'Still Life' instead. Which was a good thing actually, as I was able to get some feedback/suggestions from my teacher, as well as from a couple of the other students in the class. 

In the end it was decided that my 'floating' platter of fruit & vegies needed to be grounded (probably shouldn't listen to the 'Spacey' sounds of ELO's album 'Time' whilst painting...!) 

So I've now changed it to look like it's on a table cloth 'kind of thing' instead. I'm not happy with it yet...but I'll keep working on it. 

Here it is so far.....

Week 5...Last day

Well it's taken my until today to be able to get some more painting done! ..and it's time to go back to art class again so I've run out of time to finish my painting again. Oh well...another one to finish later! lol

Here it is ...so far....

Week 5

Well it's taken me a few days to post back on here again, the reason being that I've only just today started working on the latest 'assignment' from art class. 

This week we had to do a 'still life'. One of the ladies in class set up a bunch of different objects on a stand which we were meant to then do a painting of. 

Here is my view of our objects...

I would have started earlier but I couldn't work out how I wanted to do this painting. Rene, my art teacher, showed me an example of a painting in a book at class and I thought I would try to copy (as much as I am able) his style. but I wasn't happy with how everything looked 'as is' so I thought I'd add a bit of extra stuff! lol I'm also not going to fully stick to his style either....In other words I'm gonna make it up as I go along! :oP

As you can see I've taken away the stand and just made it look like a floating platform (don't know why???) and I've added in lots of leaves. Gawd knows how this is going to turn out but what the heck...I'll give it a go! Just mainly done the background and the platform so far...just started working on the leaves now. Fruit/vegies will come last.

Wish me luck.

ps...Yes..I do know the pumpkin looks like two oranges (as my hubby keeps pointing out!..thanks David :oP)...it won't stay that way okay! lol

Week 4...last day

Well I tried but I didn't get it finished in time for tonights class. I've been working so I haven't had time to do much on it until today. 

Oh well..it'll just have to be something for me to do later...maybe when the course is finished? 

Of course it might be what we're still working on tonight..I have no idea. 

I'll find out soon enough. 

Anyway, here's the updated version....still got a lot to do.

Had a whole lot of trouble with that bloomin cart!!! grrr 

But it's looking a whole lot better than it was earlier today!

 :OP

Still Week 4.....

Well I haven't got much done since Friday :oP

...mainly because I've been at work and by the time I get home the light is no good. 

I have an Ott light, which is usually very helpful, but it's just a small one and I find it doesn't give me enough light to paint by, especially when I'm painting  snow and using such light colours.

I'm working tomorrow too so that means I've only got Wednesday to try and get it as close to finished as possible. Aaargh! :oP Don't fancy my chances but I'll give it a good go.

Here's the painting so far....

...feeling a bit frustrated with the big tree...can't get it right. I'll keep working on it...

Week 4...continued...again....

Well I didn't have much time to paint today because I was working...but..I did manage to do a little when I got home. 

After this evenings effort I think I've worked out something about myself....I think I need to get to a certain point in my painting where I'm starting to feel like it might actually look 'not too bad', before the 'sick & stressed feelings', that I was feeling yesterday, can go away! 

I'm very happy to say that I got to that point today after putting in some more tree detail. 

I feel like I might actually even get a painting out of this!.... my 'beginners version of a painting' ...but still 'a painting'... and that makes me feel very good.   :o)

Here's the painting so far...

Week 4 ....continued

Aaaaaaaargh!!!!   :oS

That pretty much sums up my afternoon of painting!

Is it normal to feel sick and completely on edge & frustrated when you're painting??? 

That's how I feel! Is that normal? 

...or is it just me?   :oP

When I told my hubby how I was feeling he reminded me that I'm trying to copy part of a Monet...& I can't expect to get it 'perfect'! 

lol

He's so right...that's what my problem is..I'm stressing too much about 'getting it right'! I need to remind myself that I'm only just a beginner! ..and the painting I'm trying to copy is a Monet for goodness sake! How silly am I!

Anyway, here is the updated version of the painting....still a mess I know...but veryyyy slowly starting to come together. I quite like the sky..although it is a little darker than I planned..but I'm not going to change it as I don't mind it that way. I've only ever done 1 1/2 paintings before I started art class (never got around to finishing the 2nd one lol) and none of them were anything like this so it's all very new..and quite scary...to me. But it is all 'learning' in the end isn't it. 

I just hope that one day I will be able to stop feeling sick every time I paint!

Week 4

Impressionists! That's who we had to try and mimic this week. Eeeeek!!! We were given books of famous artists....mine was Monet. (I just happen to love his work so that suited me fine).

I chose one of his paintings from the book 'Monet & Japan'. It's called 'A cart on the snowy road at Honfleur' painted in 1865.

Here is the original....

 

I felt a bit freaked out by this class...mainly because I find it so hard to get my head around painting in this style....it's something I really would love to be able to do though.

We used our view finders and picked out a part we'd like to have a go at painting....

this is the beginning of my painting....(acrylics)

so far I've only really put in the shapes...

..as you can see I have a long way to go before its finished!!!

Hopefully I'll have it done in time for next weeks class.....

...as if...!

Week 3

Still freaking out every wednesday but I have to say I think I might just be able to get used to going to art class...I'm starting to enjoy myself...which is helping me to relax a little. Hopefully things keep improving!

This week we were given fishing lures...wish I had a photo of mine but I forgot to take a pic.

Oh well..here's the sketch coloured with pastels....

& here's the painting....(acrylics)

we were meant to make it look like it was underwater..hence the bubbles...

Week 2....continued

Practice during the week......same thing...vase sketch ...

then painting... (gouache)

Week 2

Felt a lot calmer this week....could have had something to do with the glass of wine I had before class??? ;oP

Today we drew bottles/jugs/jars....mine was a bottle...

......We had to sketch it.............

 

......then we had to paint it........kinda pop art style

Week 1

The first class.....was so terrified I could hardly hold my pencil...but..I got through it so at least that's something!

Rene Inei, our teacher, put on some short pieces of music and told us to 'just doodle'. 

From our doodles we chose a section with our view finder ...this was to be our first painting.

Doodles...

Painting...

Music: Now we are free by Zimmer, Gerrard & Baddelt

Birthday Surprise!

Birthday surprise from my beloved....Painting Classes!

Class 1 ... 6pm on the evening of my birthday!

Panicked all day! Panicked all through the class! Still panicking! But have calmed down quite a bit compared to day 1. Thank goodness!!! 

I have a 'dread'...a very large 'fear'....of creating/painting in front of others. 

I feel so silly and I don't know why I react this way ...I guess it's a fear of being judged???... of looking like a fool??? ...of getting it wrong??? I don't know. Whatever it is...I really hope it goes away!