There were a few challenges:
- Ian is an oil painter and all the demos were in oil. I am a watercolorist, not interested in working with oil.
- We had a specific set of primaries to use.
- I am an inveterate comparer of my work to others'. This does not go well for me.
- I wanted to stay caught up despite a number of other things going on: big house projects, kids dealing with covid & college/job stresses, my own job, etc.
Some of my aha! moments:
- A good Standard Operating Procedure will get you a decent painting regardless of whether you're having a bad day or a bad attitude. Follow the SOP.
- Green in bright sunlight can be represented by a number of colors that aren't actually very green.
- Start by thinking about the focal area; let the rest fall into place after that.
- You can't ignore backgrounds.
- Sometimes the 6th version is when you get it.
- Value studies are very enjoyable. I don't need an excuse to do them. [I feel a series of value studies in purple coming on....]
- I'm better at still life than I think I am.
- It is perfectly acceptable to mix all the colors I need to get a color/effect, despite the watercolor 'rule' to never mix more than 2 or 3.
- Purple vines are freaking awesome. [I already knew that.]
- Evening light goes really pink.
- I know my watercolor pigments well and have an excellent grounding in color theory. I can trust my choices in primaries that are appropriate for watercolor.
- It is possible to paint flowers in large simple masses and have it work
- Consider everyone's piece on its own merit, not on how closely it matches the ref photo. Look for the genius in their work.
- Goal: Sing the song on the paper, with gusto, my way. It doesn't matter how everyone else is painting the same scene.
Now that the course is over, I'm formulating my goal for the next few months. It will probably have something to do with working through my own reference photos and seeing if some of the bad ones can be salvaged. [Seriously, Ian had us working with nothing but greeeeeeen ref photos that had good bones, and showed us ways of tweaking them to make them really interesting. I am sure I can find ways to do that with my own ref photos.]
Here is some of my work from the course:
Value Study
Muting Color: Still Life with Squash
Muting Color Exercise 2
Limited Palette: Purple/Blue instead of greens.
Painting Light 1
Painting Light 2
Poppy Field
Daisies