January 24, 2011

What the duck.

Today was so gorgeous I had to take some photos at the arboretum. But it was really funny this morning the ducks caused a traffic jam when they all decided to cross the street on mass but at least they were polite enough to actually use the crosswalk.






From the bridge







Pirating around the creek














This was originally of a squirrel but he disappeared!

January 23, 2011

How to ruin a still life in 5 easy steps.

Right, so allow me to preface this by you about my classes this semester. Quarter. DAMMIT.


Anyways. I'm actually taking art classes this time around. Excited? Just a little. So I'm taking beginning painting, which in all fairness should just be called "Play With Expensive Oil Paints 101" But I need it, because apparently the word, watercolor is synonymous with shitting your pants.

Moving along, I am also taking beginning drawing, which is a necessary evil in my mind. My rendering skills are my weakest link and so I figure I'll start from the bottom but presently I'm bored to tears but still trying to challenge myself.

My last class I am so excited about, its lithography, and we're printing on actual stones, not plates (squeal!).


Alright so circling back around to my painting class our second assignment was a still life of pears and apples. Once upon a time...


Simple enough, however we were challenged to use only complimentary pairs. Some girl actually thought red and orange were complimentary. Holy crap. So things started out well enough, I set mine up and chose purple and yellow as my pair.


Things seem to moving along smoothly here, I'm liking the warmth of the colors and the complimentary neutrals I'm making as well as the kind of impressionistic brushstrokes, but then I decide that I should probably block in the majority of my canvas with color. Mind you there's really been no instruction at this point as to technique so this is me playing and experimenting.


Really happy at this point but I started to struggle with keeping my darks dark and my highlights light. But I'm enjoying the process.

Here is where things start sink. I've blocked in most of the paper towels and now start to overwork the fruit until I'm starting to lose all those nice expressive strokes, and this is when the shit started to hit the fan so to speak.


WE ARE GOING DOWN CAPTAIN. Oh. em. gee. What the hell happened. Why did some one not talk me off the ledge once they saw the cad yellow on my brush?! Friends don't let friends do this to their painting.


Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today to recognize that this painting has been over worked like hooker. At this point the "salvaging" that I was attempting was not happening. I put down the brush, remade the still life and started over. Sadly though, I don't have pictures of that paintings progress, its still at school but I shall update you all post haste when I return.

This next week should be rather hectic because I'm moving closer to school and organizing that should be the biggest pain in the ass.

January 17, 2011

New year, new look

I finally got around to making this blog my own again. and I'm so glad. As you might have guessed life got the best of me and this blog has remained neglected. But now I'm back! And I have so much to tell and show off, so stay tuned!