Advanced Watercolor Class

So when Mrs. Elisa called in to sign me up for the advanced watercolor class with Jeanne, all the spots were taken!! Luckily, Jeanne mentors my community expert, so I reached out to him and asked if it was possible for her to take in one more student. She said yes! Thank the Lord! So I'm going to be taking two watercolor classes every Wednesday for the next 8 weeks starting April 5th. The advanced watercolor class with Jeanne in the afternoon and the Asian brush painting class in the evening. 

Update

So I won't be going to my usual Tuesday classes with Larry tomorrow since I finished that winter class. Since I the Wednesday class with my teachers and principle, I'm just waiting to hear response from the MAG now. Sometimes they do discontinue certain classes if not enough people sign up. Hopefully, this class goes through. In that case, the classes will start up on April 5th, Wednesday afternoons. Also, I'm signing up for an evening Asian Brush Painting class that also start up on April 5th. So if everything works out, I'll be taking two Wednesday classes at the MAG for the next two months. 

I'm taking Jeanne Lindsay's Class!!

As quoted from the Nan Miller Gallery, "Lindsay received her B.A. from the Empire State College of N.Y.S. She has taught art at the Rochester Institute of Technology and has been an instructor at the Memorial Art Gallery since 1984. . . Lindsay continues to receive awards of the highest standing for her botanical watercolors." 

So, in the fall when I first started looking for artists I can work with because two was the requirement for my senior project, I saw Jeanne's work and student work displayed at the Memorial Art Gallery. I asked about her and they told me that she was in her 90's and that she retired. I ended up finding Larry after working with Cynthia, so I was set. I then find out that Jeanne is Larry's mentor and I thought that was awesome. I'm learning from an awesome artist who is learning from and awesome artist. 

I recently reached out to Cynthia and we touched up on some things and she had let me know that the spring catalog was out so I obviously checked it out. To my surprise, I saw one of Jeanne's classes listed, BUT, it was on a Wednesday from 1:15- 4:15, and so it interferes with my Pre-Calc class and AP Environmental class. I spoke to both teachers and my principle about working something out if I were to miss those school times and they graciously supported me!! So thank God to Dan, Negussie, Dr. Idonia and of course Mrs. Elisa who helped me through the whole process,  I will be taking this class starting April. I'm so exited about it!! Hopefully it all works out great!

Watercolor Trees

So for our final class with Larry yesterday, we learned how to paint trees. I loved it. I'm definitely going to be practicing these more and more. I loved how my bare tree turned out for my first try. For my other tree, there's way more room for improvement.  I loved everything from shading techniques to branch techniques. Overall, really fun. The perfect thing to conclude our class!

Watercolor Academy Paint VS Professional Paint

The biggest mistake I made thus far with watercolor is spending 100's of dollars on worthless paint supply. I do have a job, but I don't make much, so when I do save up as much as I can, I do like to spend that money on my watercolor supplies. The problem though is knowing the right kind of paint to buy. I advise ANYONE looking to buy art supplies to speak to a professional first. So when I first started out in the fall before I spoke to anyone, I bought the student grade paint, about 5 colors ranging from $5- $10 each; not bad. Throughout the year I found out that the artist quality paint is so much better. It's more pigmented, better blending, it dries better, etc. And a very great trusted brand is Windsor Newton. So I go to the art store and buy a whole bunch of paint in the Windsor Newton brand each about $5. I come to find out that:

1. I can make most of the "extra" colors I bought using 2 or 3 of them. So that means I spent my money on unnecessary colors.
2. Just because it says Windsor Newton on it, that doesn't automatically make it artist grade paint. Now it makes sense why the smaller tubes (5 ml) were literally 2x the price of the bigger tubes (8 ml).

As you can see in the photo, the paint tube farthest to the left is a student grade paint (Academy) in the Grumbacher brand. The one in the middle is Windsor Newton but it's Cotman which is also student grade pain. The one fatherest to the right is also in the Windsor Newton brand but its the artist grade paint since it says professional on it. So I learned my lesson with that. I purchased some professional essential colors so far and let me tell you, there is a difference. Definitely worth the money difference.

Water color Practice W/ Little Brother

During my free time, I like to pull up Youtube tutorials and just practice painting. My little brother who recently turned 12 this month is also into art. So I do paint with him sometimes and he loves it. This is a piece we recently did together. At first glance, it's hard to tell which one I did and I think that's awesome considering I do have way more experience than he does. But it was fun and I love the colors!

Paint Brush Bag Roll

So in my first semester art class at school, I took a textiles class with Mrs. Elisa. In this class, we first designed our own stamps. We were required to create one figurative, geometrical and one other I forget the name of but it had to do with plants. Anyways, so I made one inspired by the Moroccan khumisa (palm shaped amulet), the Kurdish sun (on flag) and and the Egyptian Scarab. 

After that we printed our own fabric and were given the option to use our stamps. For the fabric base, we used acrylic paint and Gelli plates. If you know me, then you would know I stepped out of my comfort zone with these colors. I absolutely hated it at first because of the colors but when it was all put together, I ended up actually liking it. Anyways, so I added my stamps on top and this took several weeks to get completely done because there was so much behind the scene work involved. 

It didn't end there. My class was making regular bags fit for tablets and stuff like that, but Mrs. Elisa said I could make something that would go with my senior project, so we decided on the brush bag/roll. This also meant that my fabric pattern would be completely different than everyone else. So this involved a lot of thought processes from the both of us but it turned out to be awesome!!

Watercolor Artists

So since I have a research paper due soon on contemporary watercolor artist Janet Fish, I've been coming across many amazing artists besides her. There was one piece that caught my attention not just because it's one of Cloud Gate, but because of how real it looks! 

So after some research, I found out the amazing artist behind this piece. His name is Steven Kozar. I'm telling you, I'm still in doubt with some of his painting because of how real they look. 

  

Like there are some amazingly great watercolor artist out there like Janet Fish, but I can tell her painting is a painting which doesn't take away from how great the pieces. But Kozar's paintings are too realistic.  

Last Class Cancelled?

So because of this wonderful weather we've been having in NY, my last class with Larry has been cancelled :( BUT... It's also been rescheduled :) So our final class is next Tuesday. I'm glad we're still having it. The Spring catalog for the MAG Creative Workshop has been posted. There are so many great classes that include ones that will be taught by Cynthia and Larry. The problem is that most of them interfere with my school time. There is also one being taught by Jeanne Lindsay! I couldn't believe my eyes. She's taught watercolor at the creative workshop since 1984. She's an awesome artist! And, she does botanical pieces. Still life and botanical work was what I was primarily interested in when it comes to watercolor. Like it can't get any better.

But, her class is being taught during my school hours. I'm going to try to see if there's anyway I can work that out. 

Last Winter Class

So this coming up Tuesday will be my last class with Larry :( For our final class, we will be focusing on trees. I feel like trees are one of those essential things that just don't seem that important because they're everywhere but they're important because they're everywhere. If that makes any sense at all. So I am exited to learn the techniques for trees because they can add depth and interest to a lot of nature based piece of art. But this also means that I need to hunt down for more classes because I have to take at least one during the spring time. Exiting!!

Working with Shadows

So yesterday, we finished our observational piece from an image Larry took somewhere in Canandaigua. I like it! The shadow aspect of this piece is really cool. In order to achieve, I just went over the already painted areas with a blue wash. For the shadow wash, I mixed mostly ultramarine blue with a little bit of windsor blue and burnt sienna. The most important thing I got out of working with this piece was not going back in specifically with the glaze. For the shadow, we used a technique called glazing which just means going over a painted area with another. As tempting as it gets to go back into it after the first stroke, don't. But I do like the final piece.

Watercolor Redo... Success!

I redid it and it did come out better! I way more happy with how this piece came out! One of the major things with my other piece is that the tree on the far left was very muddy, the background was just horrible in general and the tree kind of looked unrealistic. Another thing was adding depth the the ground to make it almost look downhill. I mean there is still room for improvement with this piece but I'm happy with how it looks. You can see how i roughly sketched it before and how much life the color added to it afterwards.