Have a Wonderful Holiday Week!

I'm taking the week off to clean my house and spend time with the family! See you all next week!

Teacup Study

I purchased this pattern packet a few years ago and finally decided to work on it. I don't know why I was so intimidated by it. It's not perfect, but I really learned A LOT by completing it.

What was really emphasized in this DVD is how light travels in a straight line. You can see this in my study. The light is coming from the right, slightly in front of the object.

Theory

Do you know what I've been missing in my life? THEORY! Yes, there are some guidelines to painting and drawing and you should get to know them.

Today I was working through one of my lessons in THE OIL PAINTING COURSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED and found that taking the time to do some exercises in the "illusion of three dimensions" very helpful.

For example I learned that when drawing a sphere there is a cast shadow, general light, highlight, reflected light, halftone, core shadow and lost edges. WOW! All these elements are identified and when placed in the correct areas give the "illusion of three dimensions".

Now I have a general idea of what to look for to give my work more dimension.

Tomorrow I'm going to be working with mixing paint. AND I'm gearing up to paint some pumpkins.

2 Nice Things My Husband Said Recently

My husband is the type of person that doesn't give many complements, but the other day he noticed my "Three Is A Crowd" painting and asked, "Did you paint that?" and I said, "Yes." And he said, "That's pretty good."

AND then the other day he told me that he actually like me NOT working a full-time outside the home job.

WOW!

Since I don't have any art to show for this week, I thought I would show you a picture of the Iowa State Capitol we visited the last week of October. Isn't it lovely?!

Back at IT...

I found this great book last week.

AND just as the title says it IS the painting course I’ve always wanted. How did the author know? So, I’ll be sharing the exercises over the next few weeks.

I’m also taking a class on line with Kingslan & Gibilisco Decorative Arts Studio. The class is a design course that covers:

• How to be a Creative Thinker
• Color Theory and Schemes
• Perspective
• Design Principles
• Design Elements
• How to Work with Reference Material
• How to Work from a Set-up
• History of Composition

I have really enjoyed it so far and LOVE the section about color!

I had a great few days off. Our family took a quick trip to Des Moins, Iowa. We toured their lovely state capitol. I'll have to post pictures later.