Challenge for December: Do a Painting Using Only 50 Strokes

Carmen: This challenge is really challenging! A painting done using only 50 strokes. What a great exercise this is for making us simplify.

When I got to the last stroke my hand was itching to do just a couple more details, but I resisted.

Carmen Beecher

 "50 Strokes of Chicken"

 www.carmenbeecher.com

www.carmensart.etsy.com

www.carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

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Donna:  50 strokes, no problem...after the 4th try of 4 different subjects  I finally had something!!

There are lessons to be learned here but let's just say pick something simple, a stoke is a stroke be it long or a dab, roundish strokes somehow cover more. You will notice the original photo is upside down by this time I had learned that 50 strokes is not a lot, the pear would have to stand alone.

A pear in 50 strokes

donnavinesart.etsy.com
donnavinesart.blogspot.com

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Kathy: I kept trying with this challenge. I never managed to produce something I liked well enough to leave alone after only 50 strokes. Of all my attempts (3 different birds and a butterfly), this was my best and it kept the closest to 50 strokes.

Left: 20 strokes, Middle: 33 Strokes, Right: 50 Strokes

 I was supposed to stop there!

I had to finish this little chickadee and did not count how many strokes that took! 

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Fay: Above is a photograph of a great white egret in flight. It was taken by my late friend, Tom B. Sanders, and is used as the cover for a book of his photographs of  birds along with the poems of his wife, Bonny B. Sanders. I recently helped Bonny format and edit this book. I was so taken by this image, I decided to use it for my challenge, seen below.

This challenge does not meet the requirements of 50 strokes (or pieces of paper), but it comes close. There are 47 wing feathers, 6 additional pieces of paper for the head, shoulders, shadows on the wing span and legs. I added one outline of the eye in black, filled it in with yellow and surrounded it with the typical green found around the Great White's eyes. It took 2 strokes to make the black feet. If I have counted correctly, I am still under 60. I should have made fewer feathers. No going back now.

Fay Picardi

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Denette: Above is my fifty strokes although was more sixty strokes. It was interesting but not my cup of tea. 

Glad I tried it and learned a lot. Denette Schweikert. 

denette.net 

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Carol: I am an oil painter....in a slump!  However, I am away from home for 3 months.  In the interest of saving space, I left my oils at home and brought a collection of watercolor, pastels, and alcohol inks.  I wanted to stretch myself, and maybe ignite a new interest in my art.

This is a watercolor, and oil pastel painting.  My reference photo had many, many more trees, but I could not add them in under 50 strokes.

This is a second try; a scene from Sanibel Island.

I will try this again.

www.CarolASchiff.com

www.CarolSchiffStudio.etsy.com

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Mary: After several really bad tries, I used one color, alizarin crimson, and two brushes, a one-inch flat to begin and a number 10 round to finish.  Fifty strokes exactly.  Not the most interesting painting, but better than the first attempts.  It was fun to try, and just being with the Pieces is always fun!

Mary Warnick

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