Reason for the change

My body warned me I should have physical exercises. So I'm back to gym and spend quite a lot of time there. The regular exercise does make my body feel much better, but unfortunately, I don't have enough time for painting.
Well, one thing at a time. I am sure I will come back for my painting again. But now for long run, I have to take care of my health first.

The Lower Gooseberry Falls

I found a beautiful photo on WebShot of Lower Gooseberry Falls.
The water in the picture wasn't clear, it looks muddy and dirty, maybe has some reflection from trees. But I found its colors serve the best in this photo, better than clear water. It echos its surrounding. The clouds in sky make interesting patterns. Their straight lines make the top of photo very special. Since I painted another small waterfall before, I'm very comfortable to deal with the water.
This time I didn't use any pencil to start the draft. I marked center and quarter spots on the edge of the canvas to help me measure and control the size of different shapes. I used Burned Sienna with water to outline the trees, bridge and main rocks. (Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me when I was painting in art class. Next time, I should bring my camera to capture all important stages. ) I started with the bridge. Erica said that was an very interesting start. I didn't have chance to ask for her opinion where to start the drawing, so I just started with the point I thought was important and easy to find. After I outlined all major shapes, I started to fill these shapes with different undertone colors. I don't cover the whole canvas with the same under painting any more. Instead, I do under painting in smaller areas, such as sky, trees, rocks. I choose the darkest local color to be the under painting color for that area. This way works for me very well.
Because I use a big canvas (24x30) again, it takes lots of paint to cover the surface. Then, Erica showed me how to add a layer of glazing on top of my base painting. She added lots of water into the paint I mixed, and glazed on top of my half finished under painting. It covered the whole area with much lighter color and let the under painting texture showed. It makes my progress much faster becuase glazing with thin paint is very fast, and it covers the pure white canvas very well.
I still want to have more painting feeling in this new one. When I was painting, I took off my glasses again, even when I was in early drawing stage. Erica told me to use the biggest brush I had most of the time, and it worked well. Now I just keep adding layers and layers of colors and slowly building details in all areas. Make sure I build all different areas in same pace to keep the balance.
This is another fun art class for me. I feel happier now when I'm painting. It's fun to play with colors, my brush and different shapes. I'm not afraid how it looks any more, just want to put colors on and have fun.

Modified "Summer Shore"

I didn't like the background trees. They made the whole picture flat. So I added some blue green leaves into the trees, tried to push them back a little bit. I also applied a layer of dark blue green glazing on the trees. The front sand beach, I changed it from warm brown yellow to cool yellow.
Wish this one looks better.

Details of finishing "Summer Shore"

I was surprised to see how easy to finish the bottom water in the painting. I didn't have time to wait for Erica's instruction. So I started with big round brush with light purple paint. I dragged the brush from left to right with horizontal movement, twisted the bush when I dragged it and applied different pressure at the same time. The result was very pleasant. It showed the high lights on the ocean surface. Later on, I added samiliar strokes with light blue and light grey green (to reflect the trees and rocks) on the water surface. With a small round brush, I loaded with white, used the same movement to add few final water high lights. It made the waves more interesting.
Rocks has been lightened and glazed. Except adding more hightlights on the rocks, I also applied one layer of red glazing on the small rock, one layer of yellow and one layer of red glazing on the left big rock. The glazing enhanced the darker areas on the rocks and also warmed up the whole rocky area.
I added few different colors into the top left corner tree leaves to make them more interesting. The shore line was broken with white paint when it connected with rocks, it looks nature when it doesn't just go staight.
To finished the whole painting wasn't as difficult as I thought;)
Aha, I forgot one thing. This painting is done on a primed hardboard. I prepared the board by myself following a post on WetCanvas. I painted the hardboard with white exterior house painting. But I really don't like the hard smooth surface, too hard and too shinny. Maybe because I used wrong paint to prepare the board. Next time, I will go back to canvas again. I like canvas' texture.

Back to art class

I am back to art class eventually. My teacher is still Erica. I hardly found time to paint at home. So back to art class is the best choice.
Last night, I finished the Summer Shore. It's quite colorful, looks much better than its original photo.
Credits are for myself and Erica. I love the rocks and water. I didn't know I could make the water look nice. I like this one a lot.
I will write down more details later. I have to run to a trade show in Strathmore today. It will be a long day for me.

Plan change

Well, I don't like to see this, but I have to stop my art class for about 2 months. My new job keeps me very busy and I have to make money after stay at home for almost half year. Mary-Leah hasn't replied to me whether I could have a spot in her September's art class. There's so many things on my plate now. But I will try to find time to paint at home.

I want to paint a sea turtle

Not sure whether this is a good idea to paint animal again. Since last painting of deers didn't go well, I am not that confident to paint animals. But this sea turtle picture popped into my mind quite often whenever I want to think something peaceful and positive. I see a big sea turtle swimming underneath the peaceful ocean surface. The sunlight shines on its shell and dancing around it in water.
After I finish my "Peaceful Shore", I should try to paint this picture. I need to deal with my fear, the feeling of the left over of failure from last deer painting. If I can see it in my mind, I should be able to paint it without too much trouble. The only problem will be whether to keep it with loose style or get into realistic style. I will decide this later.

Exciting, I'm no longer the prisoner of a photo

I've been having trouble with my "peaceful shore". The problem was I didn't want to be a copy machine to follow the colors and shapes on the original photo, I want to make things out of the photo, to add my own interpretation. Yesterday after the art class, I was very tired because I only focused on the details and didn't know how to get myself free from the photo. I was very disappointed.
I had a make up class this morning because next Monday is my formal start date in RBC Insurance, I won't be able to take the art class on that day. I didn't know where I was heading until my art teacher, Erica told me I went into the details again. She told me to hold my brushes far away from canvas/board and photo. Because I want to paint loose, I should never get close to the canvas/board. Then I changed the way I held brushes and also took off my glasses for the rest of my painting.
Painting without my glasses were a big surprise for me. All at the sudden, I could see big shapes and even more colors. I added more red in warm yellow brown, and I also made cold blue more purple, also emphasized green on rocks, too. I got a really great painting. Rocks have more depth and are very colorful. Compare with some of my previous paintings which only have blue, green and brown, this one is a big hit. I always like the way other people add more colors in their painting to make it more colorful and cherish. I didn't know how could they've done that. Now I find my own way to see and add more colors into my painting. I'm no longer a prisoner of the original photo. I enjoyed my new experience the whole morning, and finished the major rocks in this painting. It looks so much better now.

I was really happy about this new experiment. Just like what I thought before I went to the art class this morning: nothing should I be afraid of, I should be able to try something new on my painting. I'm happy I can now break free from the original photo and have fun adding my personal touch into the painting. Erica was happy for me, too. She really liked the way I did all the rocks. Another surprise was I wasn't that tired after art class, I even went for shopping for another hour without having my lunch, and I wasn't very sleepy driving home, either. That's the power of happiness. The freedom of creation and the excitment had supported me more energy. See, mind matters.
One secret here, except to keep my mind positive, I had practiced visualizing root chakra and heart chakra last night and this morning. Even though they were very short practice sessions, and without too much focus (one was done when my husband and his friend were watching a movie beside me, another was done when I was walking my dog), the final result is amazing. On top of my 1 year painting practice, these mind exercises also bring new positive energy into my path of creation. My new mind exercises can be referred to book "Secrets of Success: The Science and Spirit of Real Prosperity" by Sandra Anne Taylor and Sharon A. Klingler.

Small Stream - Framed

I framed my favorite painting - Small Stream in Fall. It's in my bedroom now. Since I have too much fire element in my personality, this painting brings some water to settle me down. It's lovely.

Peaceful Shore - New start

I started a new painting "Peaceful Shore" with Erica this week. I'm using painted hardboard this time. I bought hardboard few months ago from Home Depot and painted it with white outdoor paint. I learned how to prepare the board from WetCanvas (I should find that post in WetCanvas later). Just want to try what difference it makes.
The painting is still in its first stage. This time, I tried not to draw too much details at the beginning. Erica asked me not to use pencil to draw on board because pencil drawing lines are very hard to cover with paint. So I didn't draw grid this time, just used a small brush drew very basic shapes, such as sky, rocks, shore line with burned sienna paint. Then I started to block in local colors in different areas.
The original photo has blue sky, I told Erica I wanted my sky purple. She told me I only needed to keep the value right, I could use whatever colors I liked. Plus, in the photo the water is purple blue, so to add purple into sky makes perfect sense. Erica also reminded me not to draw shore line in the centre of the board.
It's not very hard to cover the whole board with paint. It's much easier than doing the same thing on a cheap canvas. The surface is very smooth. It's very interesting feeling to me. I may add mat medium into paint in the later stages.