STUDIO SATURDAY

It's been a busy week here in the wee little studio. In addition to taking some fall photos on the hike & bike trail and doing some watercolor pencil sketches of my blazing orange bald cypress trees in my Field Notes journal, I did a couple of class assignments, and two just-for-fun projects -- each one nudging me further and further away from my comfort zone.

I finished up my semi-color-mad painting of a favorite hangout over in Austin. It's still a long way off from the intensely colored impressionist or folk art styles that I love most, but it's a start. I'm still struggling with that bit where my common sense tells me "that's a white wall, so you must paint it white", and forcing myself to see lime green in the hi-lites, and lavender in the shadows. Plus, I don't suppose I'm ever going to get the vivid colors I crave using water color pencils, huh? I love them because they're so easy to control (still trying to color inside the lines, perhaps?) but I guess I need to get over that.

This was the result of a fun tutorial on doing a faux crackle background. All you do is put down a layer of acrylic paint in one color. Dry it. Then spread a layer of Elmer's glue over that. While that is still moist, you paint a second color of acrylic over the glue, being careful to spread it across in a single stroke, instead of getting it all mixed up with the glue. Then just let it dry overnight, or speed things along with a heat tool. Because the glue and the paint dry at different speeds, cracks will begin to appear. So fun!

This was another Letter Lovin' lesson, where we had to write a quote or phrase about love, and finish it off using only shades of pink and red. That was pretty fun too!

This last one was a lesson from my Ode to Nature class, and it was a really hard one for me. Not because it was actually difficult, but because it was furthest from my norm. I had to choose a nature photograph, then do something abstract inspired by that, using only my fingers! I call it my Croton Creation. Messy, but fun!