Yesterday I turned in my 4th painting in my painting class! This one was my favorite so far! I love Impressionism! Although, it was a little of a challenge for me, because I have a hard time making such deliberate and distinct brushstrokes. I want to blend everything nice and neatly together with clean lines. I love the way it looks, it is just so hard for me to do it myself! However, on this project and the next, I’m trying my best to step outside my comfort zone. I’m pleased with the result! The painting that I copied was “My Garden” by Gari Melchers.

Sorry for the poor quality image, I took this picture with my phone really quick before I turned it in. Hence the art studio floor for a backdrop. As promised in the post about my last project, I took pictures throughout the process to show how I came about getting an image that looked like this one.

First off, I taped my paper to my board and applied 3 coats of gesso. Then I drew the image onto my paper. After getting a rough sketch of where everything was at, I started the painting process.

I started with a complementary underpainting of sorts. This helps neutralize the color above it slightly and allows some of the compliment to show through in places where it should (especially on the sky in this particular painting).

Then on top of that, I started to lay in the blended undertones of the next layers.

And on top of those, I start to add the more distinct marks and brushstrokes. Slowly layering on top of the previous layers of paint.

In the last few pictures you can especially see the bottom part taking shape.

More layers of colored brushstrokes. 🙂

The paint is applied in different techniques. The bottom layer was a wash, then on top of that you use drybrushing, glazing, and normal painting, depending on the look you are going for, or in this case, the look that you are trying to replicate.

Keep in mind that for this painting I only used 7 paints. Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Alizarin Crimson, Hansa Yellow, Cerulean Blue, and White. Therefore, every color of paint you see here all has to be mixed to match the color. There is rarely ever any application of a paint color directly out of a tube. You can see some of that in action, here.

Getting closer!

Feel like you’ve been staring at the same picture over and over again the last few minutes? Well that is sort-of what it feels like when you are painting. It looks easy, but it is oh so time consuming. You can spend hours painting and it barely looks like you made any progress! Ahh frustration.

Plus, even when you are finally done, you see about a million little changes you could make and the process continues… But anyhow, that is basically how I arrived at completion of this painting. Minus all the late night hours of work, color matching, paint mixing, brush cleaning, etc. etc. etc… I think you get the idea.

This is the first painting that I’ve done in a while that I’m thinking of framing and hanging on the wall. I’ll let you know what it looks like when it is up. 🙂

How many of you all like to paint yourselves? I’m sure if you are taking the time to read this then you are crafty or creative in some area. What is your artsy medium of choice?