20130831 - Strawberry Fields Forever

Another day, another painting!

By the way, if you click on any painting in this blog, it presents you with a larger version. You can then exit by clicking on the "X" in the upper right hand corner of the window.

Well, as you can see, I decided against doing the ultra-realistic painting of a strawberry. Why? Did I think I would have problems doing that? Perhaps. But in all honesty, I just decided that I really love doing the pen & ink with watercolor. I *really* like it. So, that's exactly what I did.

Oddly, the color in this painting is much more vibrant in person than this scanned image. Ah, well, you get the idea behind it.

And since working on this painting put a song in my head, I thought I would share it with you:

Hope you have a great day!

20130826 - Possible next painting ..

Well, the artwork is submitted. As I noted there are some really remarkable artists that have submitted work in the past. They submitted new works today. It should be interesting to see who gets what.

I'm just happy that I reached a point that I could submit a couple works to the show. I've not had any classes (other than YouTube videos and a painting course on DVD). While I've learned a lot from that, it's not the same as any sort of formal training. But it seems to suit me well. I enjoy learning new techniques.

Speaking of which, I happened to find a YouTube video of drawing a realistic strawberry. The artist, Anna Mason, offers an online workshop and shows, step by step, how to create realistic paintings. Though I do not think I will end up with "realism" as my own personal style, I am fascinated at the possibility of taking a very impressionistic art form and moving toward realism. I might see what the free membership provides and how what the results will be.

Here's the YouTube video if you are interested.

Additionally, next week I will start two courses that the Town of Cary offers. One is titled "Painting Fall Landscapes and Florals". The other is titled "Pen, Ink and Watercolor Painting". Should be interesting. As I noted, I love to learn new techniques and approaches.