Hi everyone!

 

Here's some extra photos of the projects and exercises that I did in the class!

 

I experimented with 3 brushes during the Mark-making Exercise:

• #8 Round (Princeton Neptune)
• 1/4" One Stroke (Rosemary & Co, Ser 721)
• 1/4" Dagger (Princeton Neptune)

In this exercise I tried the same basic strokes and then let each brush suggest some unique strokes to explore. Starting with the Round brush, then the One stroke/flat, and finishing with the dagger, I moved from a brush with more control, and slowly swapped control for expression.

 

For the Suggesting Form exercise, I used my three different brushes to paint three various simple shapes in front of me, an apple, a tree, and some clouds. I focused on painting the shapes of and space around the objects, and not trying to draw the outlines of the objects first. Keep reminding yourself to try those different parts of the brush to get interesting strokes.

For the Strategy One: Choose a Focus, I deliberately painted some fun cat toys to emphasize the importance of just diving in and not thinking too seriously about the painting. I simply started with the mouse in front and worked my way around the subjects as the page dried and then ties everything together at the end with some shadows. I used the most controlled of my brushes, the #8 round to ease into these projects and prove that you don't need a fancy brush to get interesting results.

For the Strategy Two: Big to Little, I chose a subject that combined big and little shapes and allowed me to "plan out" my composition by situating the largest shape first (my pumpkin) before moving on to smaller components that surrounded it. This allowed me to allow enough space on the page around my entire subject by judging the size largest object, and gave me a point of reference when painting smaller nearby areas later. I used my one stroke/flat brush to pull paint along the surface of each object, always following any curvature and modeling the form.

For the Strategy Three: Layering exercise I painting a landscape that is outside my studio window. Using my dagger brush to create both loose expressive clouds and tighter grass shapes, I allowed the paper to dry completely (using a heat dryer) so I could get clear distinctions between layers. I also chose to allow the last two layers to blend to created less of a distinction.

Thanks so much for taking the class and reading through my project summary. If you have any questions feel free to drop them in the comments here, or in the class discussion forum!

-Jill