The Challenge for June: Turn Your Back

This month we are challenged to pick a subject, study it carefully, then turn our back on it and draw or paint it. With no peeking.

Kathy's response to the challenge:
Source Photo: Grabbed this photo found on one of my favorite Facebook sites: "Birds." 

Process: Studied it. Turned my back.  Drew with some fun Tombow Dual Headed Brush Pens on 6"x4" Strathmore Toned Blue paper ... all from Ralph's Art Supply.
This is pretty much my default behavior. I usually study a plant, animal, etc. and then stylize without looking at the source, especially if it's a photo. Since I put him a little too close to the right of the paper, added a few weedy stems for him to add to his nest.

Kathy Garvey 

For more little birds, visit my Etsy shop. 

*****

"Adeline and Jake"

by Denette Schweikert

This is a "painting" of my grandchildren who live in Seattle.  As you tell, I don't do well painting without seeing a photo right next to me.   

*******

Carmen's response to the challenge:

I stared at this photo and thought I could remember all the elements in it, but in looking at my painting, I was surprised that I forgot all about the proportions of the building and the tree. Both are too tall! Also, I didn't remember that the treeline tapers down to the left of the tree. 

It's amazing what you don't remember even though you were concentrating. It can shake one's belief in eyewitness testimony!

Carmen Beecher

carmensart.etsy.com

carmenbeecher.com

* * * * *

 Mary answer to the Challenge.  I loved this challenge as it really teaches one to be more observant.
I didn’t love my result, I need more practice.  For some reason the pictures will not upload.

Friends

I sometimes think back to when I was raising a family, working in an office everyday, just rushing from one project to the next, trying to get everything done that needed to be done.
.trying to fit everything into the day, but instead of doing everything that needed to be done, I am doing everything I WANT to get done.

A large part of my life today is about art, and a large part of my art is about my friends, "Pieces of Eight".  We are eight women of a certain age, who found each other through our art.  We paint together every week at Ralph's Art Supply.

Our group blog

We do exhibitions together, we travel together, we paint together, and we never fail to support each other in good times and bad.

After a few hours painting and catching up with each other's week, we have lunch together.

We put the names of all the local eatery's in a bag and each week we draw a name and that is where we have lunch.  Why?  Have you ever tried to get 8 women to agree on anything?  Trust me, everyone has an opinion!

This was our luncheon view yesterday.....just in case we forget why we live in Florida!

These women are definitely a blessing in my life, and I just wanted to share it with you today.

Thanks for reading my blog.

LIKE ME ON FACEBOOK
JOIN ME ON ETSY

MY WEBSITE

 PRINTS

www.CarolSchiffStudio.blogspot.com

Amish laundry

Going to Amish country was like going back in time in many ways. One of the things that really brought a smile to my face and the smell of clean, slightly damp clothes to my nostrils was seeing laundry hanging on the line. I have not smelled that smell for more years than I can count and yet as soon as I saw a clothesline full of clean clothes my olfactory light bulb lit up like a Christmas tree. They say that smell is the best inducer of a memory and I believe it.
I took several shot of hanging laundry and did this painting at group yesterday. I have done several paintings like this in the past and for some reason I really enjoy it. I hope you do.

Donna Vines

Amish Laundry
 

Mary Warnick Exhibit

Ballard Park

The Palm Bay Library is showing paintings by Mary Warnick during the month of April.  The Library is off of Port Malabar Blvd., on Santiago Ave. It is next to the Turtle Creek Santuary, in a lovely wooded section. The Library is open on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9 am to 5 pm, and Wednesdays from 9 am to 8 pm.

Happy Mondays

Ask any member of Pieces of 8 what their favorite day is, and I guarantee they will say "Monday." That's when we meet to paint, cajole, commiserate, encourage, applaud, and laugh a lot. It's the best. Above, Denette and I are having our usual good time.

"Gondolas"

posted by Carmen
Photos by Kathy

Painting versus Digital

The attached image shows three "before" and "after" photos of last Sunday's venture to Rock City Gardens. (Clicking on it should make it larger.)

My original intent (many years ago) was to use Illustrator and/or Photoshop as a starting point for planning watercolor paintings. I love watercolor, but tended to play so much with the design elements that I lost the overall composition. With watercolor, you can't really recover - there's no getting back those beautiful light colors if you paint them away!

But then, using Illustrator and Photoshop kind of took over, for several reasons. One is that I still can't paint as well as what I create in both of these tools. Another is that I found painting from something I already created boring. But probably the main reason is that digital art is so incredibly powerful and fast! I can often build what's in my head in either tool in about an hour where I used to spend twenty or thirty hours on a watercolor and still not get the look I wanted.

I still want to paint. I like putting watercolors on paper and also because my digital art at this point exists mainly in my laptop. Getting it to look in print like it looks on screen is still a major issue for me. But I'd love to hear from others how they feel about digital art versus painting. And how they feel about photo manipulation in general. I'm not a skilled photographer, so maybe that's why I don't have any qualms about changing a photo into what looks more like a watercolor. Any opinions?