The power of observation - Learning to Paint

So I was asked to teach a workshop this week, I knew that these students had been taking classes for the past 6 months in drawing and acrylics, so I was under the assumption that some of the basics would have been covered. You know... composition, value, brush work, even maybe a color wheel or color chart? Well now I know why they have been frusterated. Ok lets stop and think about this, I wish I would have years ago whe I first started painting. LOL
Going from point A to point Z is not going to happen over night, but building a good foundation will only lead to monumental things. - wow that was deep - lol.
The most valuable tool in my arsenol is a 2 inch square, or in my case just ripped off the corner of a piece of binder paper, piece of cheap paper with a whole punched out of it. Why you ask? K take that tiny piece of paper and place it anywhere on your reference.. Now ask yourself, Is this tomatoe really red, how do the many tones relate to eachother, what color are the shadows really? Move this piece of paper around how do the different values play off eachother? One of the hardest things to train your brain to do is switch teams. I know I see a red tomatoe, but block out the shape of the tomatoe and you will have a true observation of what really makes up that tomatoe hmm.. Food for thought..
Next time we will discuss "Dont ask what you can do for your brushes, but what your brushes can do for you" ;) so until then. Happy Creating

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DIY Crayon costume for Halloween

Halloween is my favorite time of year. We spend weeks getting our yard and home decorated all for the night when the little ghosts and goblins come out to play. ;) B started school this year and within her school, they don't do a Halloween per say, they have an orange and black day. So in order to kill 2 birds with one stone, we decided that she is going to be an orange crayon. So with an old t-shirt and a little black felt fabric, this is what I came up with. I think it turned out Awesome! And the best part is that it was a no-sew project. Supplies needed: 1 t-shirt in the size required. 1 box of orange fabric dye (because they didn't' have any orange t-shirts in her size) 1 wooden spoon 1 large container for dying remnant black fabric. I used black felt because that is what I had on hand. 1 pattern for the Crayola font - I used this one Crayola pattern and made the size adjustments accordingly when I was printing it out. For the crayon label banding, I just wi

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Sailboat at sunset watercolor painting tutorial

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Eclectic Studio - Tammy Morrison-Koenig

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