You Get What You Pay For

When I initially got set up to do my hobby paintings I went out and bought the cheapest of everything that I could find.  Initially I was happy with everything, but the more I did, and read, and saw; the more I wanted some nicer paints.

Wow, what a difference nicer paints make.  They are brighter, and the colors mix nicer; not muddy like the last set that I was working with.  I set out and did a "color wheel" background, and once it was done I thought it needed something else, so I did a tree silhouette.  I am still not good at this whole tree painting business but I hope to get there.

I like how bright and happy the colors are here.  I had a lot of fun painting this one.  I got myself set up in the basement with lamps and my new easel and paints.  I was going to find a little table for everything but we had a shelf screwed into the wall for the cats to sit on that was the perfect height, and since we don't have the tv down there anymore they don't use it.  So it has actually turned out perfectly for a space.

Here's a picture of my new paints.  I'm very excited to see what I can do with them.

When I did my first few paintings I was just playing, trying out the water so to speak.  Now that I've gotten my feet wet I want to learn all sorts of things.  I'll look at things around me and think about what it might take to accurately portray them in a painting, or how I would portray the feeling of them if I didn't want to be representational.  I've been realizing that I haven't stretched myself creatively in a very long time, it feels good to get those muscles out and stretch them.  I'm sure as I go I'll get stronger and stronger if I keep up with my plans and goals.

Wish me luck in my next endeavor, I think me trying to paint myself might be a disaster in the making, but we'll see I guess.

Playing with Paints

I was looking online at all sorts of painting tips.  I was drawn again and again to photos of abstract paintings.  And then I stumbled onto Jonas Gerard dancing with a paintbrush in his hand.  (The original video is gone, so I found a new one)  Suddenly the tiny paintings I've been doing didn't seem quite so much fun.  I wanted to have a paint party with dancing too (still do).  One of these days I think I'll enroll myself into a class, but first I want to spend more time playing.

I had read in the free ebook I mentioned in my last post that cardboard was a good medium to paint on.  So I did this next painting on Cardboard, I wanted to play with mixing colors together, and also to try my hand at something abstract.

Before I started I had the image in my mind of a guardian angel.  You can kind of see the wings.  I don't like the cardboard because it warped, and also because this painting won't last very long on it.  I actually really like this one.  My husband said he really likes it too, although he thinks it should be the other way around, cause he says its a flower.  On its side I think it looks like a fish, so multifunctional.  I used red, yellow, blue, black and white paint for this painting.  I really like the turquoisy blue, near the bottom, I am not so enamoured of the fry sauce pink at the top, but it works.

After the experiment with the cardboard I went to WalMart to get some larger boards to paint on.  (I have been researching putting my own stretched canvases together, but that's a topic for another post).  While I was there I saw their line of acrylic paints for crafters and was very intrigued by the metalics.  So I bought some, and painted this painting.

The picture didn't turn out very well, the background isn't quite as dark as it looks here.  My tree is kind of retarded looking, but I still really like this painting.  I think I'll revisit the idea once I've improved my skills, so I can make a really cool tree on a cool background.

For now I am thinking up ways to put together a better painting space.  Everything I've done so far has been done in our front room, perched on a reclining chair, with my painting stuff laid out on the couch next to me, and the painting itself proped up on a folding chair.

I found a nice aluminum easel on Amazon.  I think I'll set it up in the basement, then I'll just need to take one of the lamps down.  I'm thinking I might want a stool, but we'll see what happens.

I have one more painting that is a work in progress right now.  I was swirling together some red and blue metallic paint.  I wanted some purple, but not all purple which is what I got.... So its back to the drawing board with that one.

One of these days I will be set up do be able to dance with a paintbrush in my hand like Jonas Gerard.