Betsy's Art Journey

We started by watching a demonstration of how to blend skin tones. Then we were set loose to start our paintings. He encouraged us to concentrate on the facial shading, but because of our background washes, we all felt like the colors, which looked right on the pallet paper, made us look like zombies. My thought was that I looked like I had painted on face powder. It was rather disconcerting to many of us and soon we were wandering around trying to see if we were the only ones having that thought. After taking a break, I decided to fill in my shirt and hair, because I was pretty sure the issue was the orange wash background.  Once I did that, it did help a bit, but I also decided I did have some rosiness to my cheeks, so I added a bit of rosy color and it really woke up the painting. At this point, Prof. Garguilo said he thought it was coming along nicely, but that I need more value range, so the rest of class was spent remedying that and finishing my eyes and ears. In the en

We began our last major project today during class. This will take at least four class periods.  We are doing self portraits. Not my favorite thing. However, at the beginning of class, Prof. Garguilo demonstrated his approach to drawing a self portrait with vine charcoal. His approach was to first lay out the proportions and then build the face from the center out. This made so much more sense to me than what I had been taught in all of my prior drawing classes. Before we started drawing, it was suggested that we paint a wash over the canvas to have a starting base. He used a wash of burnt sienna, but I felt that I have a more yellow base to my skin, so I mixed some yellow ochre with my burnt sienna. From there, we started laying out our faces. This is where mine started: Prof. Garguilo went around to each student and did some adjustments: In my case, he worked on my eyes. The rest of the class was spent adding details and values to the drawing. What I am pleased wit

Today, we continued working on our canvases. I was a little late arriving, but saw most of the first demonstration.  Prof. Garguilo did a second canvas and then set us to work on our own. We worked in groups of three, and for our first, larger canvasses, that worked out great. The hardest part was learning to fold the corners. I am grateful for the fact that my first job required wrapping gifts, that mom made us learn to sew, and that origami was popular when we were kids.  It made it easier for me to figure out the folds.  Prof. Garguilo did tell us that if our fingertips weren't sore by the time we finished, we weren't stretching hard enough. Well, he was right! Not only were my fingertips feeling raw, but the next day the muscles in my fingers were achy. But I suspect I would get over that quickly if I were to do this on a regular basis. And speaking of that, while I was at Lowe's getting staples last night, I looked at miter saws and brad guns. Turns out, it would onl

Today, we had a blast making frames for stretching our own canvas. In the end, we will have made 2 canvases: 14" X 16" and 24.5" X 28".  We learned to use a miter saw and brad gun in the process.  It was a fun class!