Playing With Picasso

Collage ala Picasso.  This was a fun one.

Picasso style based on work by Theresa McFayden in the Masters course.

I started with this portrait of Picasso of a woman sleeping.  I loved the simplicity of this.  It wasn't very simple to paint though. 

So many colors that I had trouble making come out right. I can see that I need to work on mixing colors instead of depended on all the colors out there. I learned a lot with this. I also can't paint a straight line. There are so many things wrong with her but I choose not to focus on them.  To focus on the process and what I learned is way more important than this color is wrong, or the hands don't look right and so forth. I am learning so much studying these masters. I can see myself doing even more of this when the course is done.

Working with Picasso is so much like play. Have you taken your creative self out to play lately? What did you discover?  

Kate

Trying a New Technique

Here is a picture of Frida that I chose as my  model.  I wanted to try this new technique I learned from Jeanne Oliver in the Studying Under the Masters course.

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First you draw with charcoal and then you add gesso to make an underpainting and then you paint it. This is what I have so far.  Its a great technique, I think I will use this from now on.It really helped me see where I had gone wrong.  At first I had the hand in the wrong place so I just gessoed over it and used the charcoal to add it in the right place.  It doesn't really look like her but that is ok as I am just learning the technique and I don't like making exact replicas anyways. I am learning so much in this course.

She was painted with Golden fluid acrylics.  I made the background and table with PanPastels. She is not perfect by any measure but I sort of like her so I will move on to the next piece. Oops I just realized I never added her jewelry.  I guess I will do that at some point. As they say art is never finished.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday today. To see what other artists are doing. Check out Paint Party Friday here. If you found something of value in today's post, I'd love it if you shared it.

Have a great weekend.

Kate

Following Van Gogh

I am taking Jeanne Olivers course Studying Under the Masters, the portrait version. We begin with Van Gogh.

This Justine Waddell, isn't this just a lovely painting. The colors in this are lovely. Part of me wants to try this.To really capture his work you need to use oils which I do not have.  Not sure if I want to jump into that quite yet, but we'll see.  The reason I love acrylics is the cleanup. I don't want to mess with linseed oil and turpentine.  I have learned there is a new oil paint out there that cleans up with water. Maybe I will have to put some of those oils on my Christmas list.



I have always loved Don Maclean's song Vincent, so here is some of his art along with the music. I also loved the Dr.Who episode on Van Gogh. It makes me cry everytime.

This was an exercise in using the patterns that Van Gogh used in his sketches  Lots of simple lines and cross hatching.  Values and textures all created with varying lines.  Not the easiest thing to do but a great exercise.

This was called the Knitting woman, even though there are no knitting needles in sight. Drawn in pencil and then watercolor. I had a little difficulty mixing the browns to come out right. As with anything we want it to be perfect the first time, when it may take years of practice.

Watching Jeanne Oliver, my instructor show all these Van Gogh images was great.  So I headed to the library and brought home some books. I'll be studying Van Gogh for awhile. In the course they cover one master a week, not nearly enough time.  I am going be immersed in his brilliance for awhile.

I did discover the difference between looking at the images on line and in books.  So much better in the book.  Now of course seeing some paintings in real life sounds like it would be amazing.  Ah something new to add to my bucket list.  Now I have another reason to go to New York City.

What artists inspire you?

Kate