artwork

This was based on a photo in a J. Crew catalog. As I was doing it, Andy looked at it and didn't say anything, and then I got all defensive and accused him of thinking it wasn't good and we had an argument about how I was obviously frustrated and it doesn't matter what he thinks and I shouldn't need him to validate what I'm doing. And then I finally got him to tell me what he thought, and he said that it looked like I had gotten frustrated with it, and that just made me angrier.

In class, one of the students -- a kind of weird, awkward middle-aged guy who is both very interested in watercolors and completely unable to use them -- told me he liked it and asked if it was Michael Jackson. I said, "No, it's not, but it does look like him, doesn't it." I'd already thought that it looked like him, myself, but I didn't like thinking about it.

The instructor thought it was fine, just a little heavy under the neck.

Posted by beth at 12:00 AM | Permalink

Posted by beth at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For the first class, he had us go out and buy a piece of fruit. I bought an apple for fifty cents. Then we painted. I'm pretty happy with how the first one turned out. It was more careful than the second. In the second one, I just wanted to experiment with how wet I could make the paper and still end up with something I liked. I didn't stop until the instructor started whispering, "Stop!" to me, but I probably should have stopped even earlier.

The most challenging thing about watercolor for me is going to be knowing when to stop. One thing I like (or at least, am accustomed to) with acrylics is that I can just keep painting and painting. It will be difficult, because I won't always feel like putting down the paintbrush, but learning restraint will certainly be beneficial.

Posted by beth at 05:23 PM | Permalink