Third Acrylic Painting Class - 30/09/14

This class's masterpiece: 

Actually, this came at the end of the class and I had to add the coloured spots ("flowers") after class. Our class started with this:

The instructor calls it gesturals. Gesturals? Maybe I'm misunderstanding the term, but fruit and vegetables can't gesture. I call them charcoal sketches. She actually had the nerve to take my charcoal and add lines to my apple on the right. Grrr!. I don't think that's very good art instructor technique. Tell me how to do it, or demonstrate on your own paper how to do it, but don't touch my drawing. Anyway, I still think I'm better at sketching than I am at painting. And  maybe I will take a drawing class, but not from her. 
Next, we folded our "gesturals" in half (hence the smudges you can see in my picture) and did this on the other side:

My purple looks more purple in real life than it does in this picture. She called this a colour wheel. How it qualifies as a wheel when it's a rectangle is anyone's guess. And didn't we cover mixing colours in the first class (as well as in kindergarten)? Why am I doing this anyway?
Next we did this:

Ah, now this makes sense. It actually is an art lesson. Except that, as usual, she didn't go into detail on exactly how we should blend our colours to make them gradually fade from light to dark. And you should have seen how she was trying to teach us to draw a cube. She started going on about vanishing points and drawing in different vanishing points - I think there were three of them. I was just watching in mostly stunned silence and then picked up my brush and made my own cube, while everyone else in the class was trying to follow the instructor and they ended up with what looked more like envelopes. Or something that didn't at all resemble a cube. Then she had to go around the class and take each person's brush (except mine) and draw a cube on their papers for them since she had helped them all mess it up so badly. Her remark to me: "Oh, you drew one freehand?" Amazing concept that I could actually draw one freehand!
And then, with 15 minutes left in the class, we began the painting that's at the top of this post. She said she would teach us how to do a quick flower painting. This is certainly not what I expected when she said that. Oh and she took my brush and was marking lines on my painting for me to show me where each different shade in the foreground should begin and end. I had to grit my teeth as she got muddy coloured paint in my purple strokes. Well, it took longer than 15 minutes and I wasn't having so much fun that I wanted to stay that late. That's why I added my coloured blobs afterwards. And I really don't think they look great. And here's my facebook post from after class:
Leaving my third acrylic painting class tonight, I was carrying two large pieces of art paper that I had painted on plus a small canvas board painting, in addition to my box of art supplies, as well as a bag for the supplies that didn't fit in the box. And my purse. None of the paintings were completely dry. As a result, they shared the paint among themselves and generously bestowed some on my purse as well.
The next morning when I went to get into my truck, I discovered that I had also gotten paint on the side of the seat. So not impressed. I haven't had a chance to try to clean it off yet, but I did manage to clean my purse. You can also see some of the resulting mess on my paintings. I did manage to keep the front of the canvas board clean, however, not that this picture is anything I intend to hang anywhere. Maybe if I had an outhouse... 

Second Art Class

I don't think I enjoyed this art class any more than the previous one. We did the lesson that we were supposed to do last week with the black and white paint. The lesson was on value. Here's my finished product:

Before we did this, we did what the instructor calls "gesturals." Each of the class members went to the front and struck a pose. Then the rest of us had two minutes to sketch her with fine charcoal, looking at our paper as little as possible. I actually enjoyed that part of the class more than anything as I think I probably have more sketching talent than painting talent. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of my gesturals as they are on the back of my value study above. As you can see, it's still a little wet. Not only that, but light sketching on charcoal probably wouldn't show up well on camera. Especially not when it's got wet black paint on the reverse side.
After doing the value study, we had to do a still life in grayscale. For your information, I really do not like most still life pictures. We were not to add any perspective, so here's my result:

It was a fish-shaped bowl and a spoon. And we could do anything we wanted with the background. On the right is my value study I completed at home. However, I used math for calculating the colours and ended up with too much dark. How did I use math, you ask? Well the first square is 8/8 white, the next square is 7/8 white, followed by 6/8 white and so on down to 8/8 black. Quite different from the one I did in class today, but you can still tell that they are all different colours. 
So far, my paintings for class are so kindergarten-ish. I suppose I shouldn't feel bad about that since a lot of the so-called great painters' works look pretty kindergarten-ish as well. And speaking of great painters, the instructor has a computer projecting on the screen at the front of the class, so while we are working, she will look up different artists and display their work. She asks us which artists we want to see. I'm not sure who decides what great art is, but most of it is not so great to me. A lot of it looks like just blobs of paint on a canvas. Seriously, I really do like Thomas Kinkade's paintings, but the instructor just ignored me when I mentioned him. I know they're not considered great art. But they are so pretty. And peaceful. I would like to just walk into one of them and never come back. And they certainly are popular. Obviously, "the people" think they are pretty great. It's the artistic authorities (whoever they are) that have determined that they are not great art. Perhaps they are just jealous that Thomas Kinkade's art actually sells. 
So I asked for Glen Loates. The instructor didn't even know who he is. But she did google him and bring up some of his images. I don't think she really likes art that actually looks like what it's supposed to look like. But I do. If I had the choice between hanging a Van Gogh or a Kinkade in my living room, I'd definitely pick the Kinkade. Or the Loates or the Bateman. Currently, I have some of my daughter's and my mother's paintings in my living room. And that's good enough for me. 
Here's my very first painting (I'm not counting the lesson paintings that I did for class):

I actually completed it last night. It's a Painted Trillium. Not great, but not bad for my first attempt. I didn't do this for class, either. I just did it because I wanted to do it. And I think I wanted to prove to myself that I could do better than that horrible thing I did for my first class. 

Anyway, I have also enrolled in a couple of painting classes on Craftsy. I think I will probably enjoy them more than my night school class. We'll see. I thought after I left class tonight: "Only 4 more classes to go. I'm 1/3 of the way through." LOL. That's pretty sad to feel that way about a class that I'm supposed to be taking for fun.

Meanwhile, Mystery developed an eye problem - he was actually bleeding from his eye. So I had to take time off work to take him to the vet today. Now I'm having to put eye drops in twice daily. But the eye already looks much better. I've got a follow up appointment October 1st. 

Acrylic Painting Class

Tonight was my first acrylic painting class. Can you believe I produced this masterpiece?

LOL! We were experimenting with colour. Tonight's class was supposed to have been about value, but someone forgot to tell us that we need black and white paint. So four out of the 6 class members didn't have any, including me and we had to switch topics. The woman who was sitting next to me let me use some of her black and white paints for this picture. That is, if I can call it a picture. If tonight's results are anything to go by, I'd better stick with quilting. Everyone else's paintings actually looked like something. Mine looks like I did it in kindergarten. And I found out we need even more supplies than were on the list. Hey, this was just supposed to be about whether or not I will actually enjoy painting. I really didn't want to make a major financial investment until I know whether or not I can do this. Someone didn't plan this list very well. Even the colours: when you mix light cadmium red (which is more of an orange) with ultramarine blue, you don't get purple, you get mud (see the colour in the bottom half of the painting and in the centre). We actually should have crimson red. And more paintbrushes. And more canvas boards. So I could get to the end of this course and have a bunch of expensive art supplies and no artistic talent. Okay, I shouldn't say no artistic talent. Quilting is an art. And I used to do cake decorating and I think I was reasonably good at that, which is also art. But that doesn't mean I can paint. The original supply list said that it should only cost about $15 for supplies. Hello, I've already spent more than that and I hate to waste more money when I might get to the end of the course and wish I'd spent it on quilting supplies. <sigh> I half-ways already do.
Nevertheless, I'm no quitter and I shall persist until I find out I definitely can't paint. The instructor said that if anyone wanted to, they could try a painting at home and bring it in to next class. I responded that I'd rather bring in a quilt.
The interesting thing is half of the class members are my colleagues from work, though one of them doesn't work at the health unit any more. I had no idea they were taking the class, nor they me. All young occupational therapists, young enough to be my daughters, probably. The other two ladies in the class were more my age. One is a retired school teacher and I didn't get a chance to ask the other one what she does. 
Well, I need to head to bed soon, but first I think I'll check online to see how if I can order the rest of my supplies. Or at least what I can't get in town. I don't think I'll be shopping in the city in the next week and the art supply store where I bought my paints and brushes is not open any time that I could get in anyway. Unless I take time off work.