Saturday, September 29, 2012

Being true to yourself

Just a jar painted week 2 of an oil painting class


This is week two of an oil painting class I am taking at the Flint Institute of Art and just wanted to share the process.  The class is formal classic painting and so far I am loving it.  Class started this week with a short lecture on thumb nail sketching, before we were turned loose to paint a still-life.  There was a lovely well lit still-life waiting to for us, that I sat and stared at for about 20 minutes while everyone else was already putting paint down.  Just past the set up was an off white jar set not part of the set up on another table.  My eyes just kept going to that jar as if it was calling me.  So I made a few quick sketches of it at the bottom of my canvas paper and just decided it was what I wanted to paint. After a while the instructor came over, took a deep breath and said “ok I can work with this” and gave me some suggestions. 
    The story here is be true to yourself and still be wiling to learn. I know this is going to go well 11 more weeks to go and looking forward to each one.
A classic set up to paint
The jar that caught my eyes
Full picture of the painting and the sketches at the bottom.




http://www.zazzle.com/mbschiros 



Sunday, September 23, 2012

Second Ink

   
Acrylic on paper, 20 x 16 inches



     Still working with the quick ink sketches I posted last time.  This is the second one.
Worked this up on red gessoed watercolor paper, and pick only primary colors to experiment with.
This is just one option, and I plan to try different variations to the way I paint it, but you need to start some where.  While I was painting, the thought of  "disconnected  conversations" kept popping into my head. I may later follow up on that idea.  It is always a good idea to jot down the ideas that can give a future work a direction to follow, that can be as important as the sketch.
Hope that sharing this process, encourages new ideas and gets painters to get those brushes going:)


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Just Do IT!

Acrylic on paper 20 x 16 inches "The Climb"


    Most of you know I try to paint or draw everyday.  When I suggest that to students and friends the first comment I get is, “I just don’t have enough time to do that”.  But, the truth is we really do, who can’t find 5 or ten minutes to put something on paper?  That is really all the time it takes sometimes. 
    The problem is what to do in that five or ten minutes.  We probably spend more time than that just thinking about what to do.  Well then don’t think, just pick up a pen or brush and start making some marks…really!  My favorite media for quick work is a small goat hair brush, some ink, and plain old printer paper.  A few brush strokes with ink will trigger ideas, or at the least some interesting designs.
    The pics here are from yesterdays 10 minute play with ink time.  I started with some random marks, then realizing I was sitting on the edge of a stool about ready to tip over.  I decided to try and capture that movement with the brush (see ideas come from strange places sometimes).  Today I picked one of the ink drawings and decided to work it up in acrylic, and plan to do more of these in the next few days. 
  Hope you enjoy the examples.


Yep this is me about to fall of my painting stool :)


Sunday, September 16, 2012

The Process

Oil 16 x 12 inches
Ink 7 x5 inches




    Art is always on my mind.  And the only way to deal with an obsession like that is to learn to live with it.  When the TV is on, I am doodling, when I go out there is always a small sketch pad with me.  Even when I get ready to sleep there is a sketch pad near the bed, for those times a picture pops in my brain just as my eyes are closing.
     Because I have learned to grab ideas when ever they happen, I always have a source to work from when real time allows.
   Thought I would share the start of one of these ideas.  The sketch is on a small 5 x 7 drawing pad, one of many I did while pretending to watch TV with my husband.  When I had the time to get some oil paint out, instead of sitting and trying to think of something to paint, I accessed the nearest sketch pad and picked the first one that caught my interest.
   The Painting is on watercolor paper 140 lb that was gessoed with orange colored gesso.  I keep a small pile of prepped paper handy.  This is a working idea now.  The small painting is complete, but also may lead to a larger work.