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Showing posts from 2010

Designs From Paintings

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Using a photo-manipulation program - in this case, Corel PhotoPaint - it's possible to have even more fun with colors and patterns you've dreamed up...all without touching your paintings. I used to like to make these designs then print them on high- or 100% cotton papers and either cover mini-books or do origami with them. Miss R. Fadler's "Finland Farm" turned into a repeating design (tiled). Miss M. Wolfe's "Free-For-All" Aussie beach, tiled. Miss G. Smith's "Tilting Barns" tiled. Miss K. Breeding's "Tibet Plain w/Yaks" tiled with selective colors altered. Miss K. Breeding's "Tibet Plain w/Yaks" tiled.

Our Last Project!

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Miss S. Noel has another one of the most delicate renderings this time. Nicely done drawing as well. She could go in and add some shadows if she wanted, but I'm enjoying the coolness of this Canadian mountain scene. Miss G. Smith had perhaps the MOST challenging location of them all. I didn't tell her at the time that even I was a bit intimidated by the central falls and all the details in the vertical rock walls that form this chasm. (G: I know you struggled to get the borders 'clean' so I took the liberty of swiping them with my Photoshop 'eraser' for the web-pic.) Doesn't this look like a pastel-painting? I like it very much... Miss C. Lee chose to work on the smoother of our paper's sides. Can you recognize this landmark? It's only one of the most famous buildings in the entire world! What a nice way to wrap up the year. Well done, Missy. Miss R. Fadler has used two concepts to create depth in her painting of two pyramids: increasing the "mi

Blame it on Spring Fever...or Allergies?

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In several cases I felt student-work slid downhill kind of like the nearest barn's doing in our picture this time (compare individual works from this week to previous posts)! I'll probably never know if it was because this view was considered too hard or the weather outside was just too nice to stay cooped up inside. I include my own version in order to point out the main 'teaching points' for this painting: to experiment with a crumpled-paper(towel) effect for the stormy/cloudy sky (I likened it to texturing a wall at home with paint-dipped natural sponges); to practice leaving 'white space' when a dark or rich color will need to be 'covered' with a lighter one...it would be near impossible even with our terrific opaque watercolors - see especially where the long 'palomino' yellow grass overlaps the red of the closest, tiltiest barn; to realize that sometimes nothing other than a strip/stripe of permanently unpainted white paper will suffice to

Destination Europe: Farm in Finland

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This project was different in two ways. It was our first experience with canvas. Yes, Virginia, there IS canvas for watercolors (we used Fredrix brand - sheets of gessoed material torn from a 9x12 pad)! HINT: read the manufacturer's flyer that comes with...all the way to the last sentence, because that's where you'll find out the unmounted-stuff warps/buckles LIKE CRAZY unless "secured" to a non-buckling surface... The other difference was in the capturing of images for the blog: scanning picked up a 'moire' pattern from the fabric weave, so tripod-photography was needed. I hope you'll see the possibilities of this challenging surface, even though you'll quickly notice several students were unable to complete their pictures. (p.s. I'm having trouble with the blog's 'add picture' function, so will add Miss Noel's work later.) Miss R. Fadler Inadvertaintly the 'covering power' of our opaque watercolors is illustrated in

Last Stop in Asia: the high plains of Tibet

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Miss S. Noel Miss R. Fadler Miss M. Wolfe Miss M. Craycraft Miss K. Breeding Miss G. Smith Master D. Harwell (he missed one of our classes) Miss C. Lee Miss Am. Cole Miss Alx. Cole Miss A. Escue Master J. Wolters (he was not feeling well our first week on this project, so was unable to complete it)