Beach assignment #7-turtle

The weather out here has been gross practically all winter. Today it has been blowing and snowing all day. It can get slightly tiring after awhile and although this is perfect weather to stay indoors and do art-which I am extremely grateful for-it is difficult to keep up the positive spirits. I just keeping hoping that soon the sun shall shine....

Assignment #7-I believe for Laure's class. Again I had this lil guy drawn and painted it today. Tomorrow, I hope, I will do another one but on hot pressed paper. I am really enjoying working on that paper too.

I attempted to draw Minou today-which I am kind of use to while she is sleeping but I have been unhappy with my colour choices for Jane's class...I will just keep on every day and choose the best of the three and post them. Wednesday I am also hoping to go to the museum to draw for my final assignment.

Beach Assignment #6

I am not particularly happy with this one but one must go on. Tomorrow, I will be painting some turtles-this assignment I will be doing twice, once on hot pressed paper and the other on cold pressed. Almost caught up in her course although this coming week, we will be getting another two assignments-the last two. It is always sad when Laure's classes come to an end because I really enjoy them and learn so much from each project and experience. She is a fantastic teacher.

Beach Assignment #5

I kind of lost the texture in the feathers with this one as I was trying to work in the values and colours. Again I had this one done for some time with the hope of trying some other ones that she provided for us. They looked great and inviting. If I have time after all of my projects completed, I will go back and try another one. Next week I start her New Orleans course so I can't fall too behind.

Beach Assignment #4

It is snowy, cold and yucky outside. How I long for summer.....This one I have had done for quite some time but forgot to post it. I absolutely loved doing this one-although my boat looks like a floating Mexican hat. I am behind in both classes but will be catching up vigorously this week.

Fiddler Crab on Hot Pressed Paper

Another one I did today but with hot pressed watercolour paper. With Jane Lafazio's course, she recommended this type of paper. In the past I have been very hesitant in trying it. It is always good to take courses so that you learn, grow, and experience new things. Once you get the hang of hot pressed watercolour paper, it is truly enjoyable. Certain things are more difficult to do on this paper but I love the staccato colour effect that can be achieved. I am presently caught up in Laure's class-well until Friday. Now Jane's class....

Beach Assignment #2 and #3

Here are the two that I completed today. The pelicans were done this morning. I was trying some new colours. I did not like how the birds were looking so I added some ink. The crabbies were a spontaneous project that I chose to do today. I just received the Laure's crab's assignment and loved the colours. Printed off the material, watched the video and ran. Had a timer set and was moving quite fast to get it done in time. I was hoping to do another one but on hot pressed paper. I am kind of saturated with art and will take a break. I still have to catch up on Jane's class. Yesterday I sketched in the coffee shop and my goal was to do three. The first one turned out fine, but the second one, I got kind of frustrated and didn't finish it. I will have to go out sometime within the next two days and finish those guys as I am getting further behind in that course.

Laure Ferlita's Beach Class

My first class with Laure after Christmas and boy does it feel good to be back in her class. For awhile, I thought I lost my mojo and halfway through the project I started feeling better. It pays not to take a break from drawing and painting. We used wax resist to capture the texture on the starfish which was alot of fun. I think my white guys are a little too smooth and of course my shadows are in the wrong place for them. I did challenge myself to use reflected colours particularly in the sand and creating colourful optical browns using primary and secondary colours. I am behind in her class as well as Jane's but I will catch up-hopefully soon. Tomorrow I will be sketching in a coffee shop. I was going to go yesterday but it was snowing, cold and miserable! How I long to be at the beach where I drew these little guys!

Assignment #5 Susanne

Here is my final assignment for our Christmas Theme. Originally I was contemplating on drawing a moose but I had this stuffed bear holding a present that captured my attention. I took it upon myself to challenge my skills on drawing from life. I am still grappling with fitting a design on a page as I originally wanted the word "Christmas to be towards our right. Generally speaking I tend to draw larger thus had to squish the word onto our left. I personally find that I should have changed the colour of the box the bear is holding to give more contrast or perhaps his ribbon. It was a good challenge to see the values and colours from life.

assignment #4

Here is my fourth assignment in Laure's Christmas class. The theme was to design a stocking. I contemplated on this one for awhile and decided to keep traditional style but play with the border and colour. I wasn't going to use ink but did not like how the ribbon was going . For my last assignment, I am going to draw one from life.

Snowman project #2

I decided to do another snowman for my Christmas course with Laure Ferlita. I actually liked my thumbnail sketch of the snowman above and wanted to elaborate more on him. I had the design in my mind but wasn't sure what to put on either side of the snowman. I ended using balls. I have three more assignments to complete and as time is running out of my sketchbook project I believe I may keep the last three simple focusing on ink and a touch of watercolour.

Christmas Assignment #2

Here is my second Christmas assignment for Laure Ferlita's course. I wanted for this one to focus on design first, ink second and last colour. I did grapple with the wording and was not sure which direction to place it. I will be doing another snowman which focuses on design first and then colour.

Christmas Assignment #1

Here is another hat that I did for Laure's Christmas class. As usual, I am falling behind. Tomorrow I am going to work on my snowman project. I do have many ideas for it, just need some time to materialize my thoughts.

Assignment #10

This was our last assignment for this class. As we were given pictures of fall rusty tools used for gardening, I choose to apply what I have learned from her beginner class by implementing design techniques. The green background was a spontaneous decision as I was considering using colour theory. As painted complementary colours-blues and oranges -I decided to tie the green colour in because it does relate to each complementary colour. Soon I will be posting my sketches from my "Sketchbook Project 2011. My book will travel to Brooklyn, Portland, Washington, Florida, Texas, California, Seattle, etc. I am quite excited to start this. I have basically in my mind what I am going to be drawing-so I shall be busy over the next month. Moreover, I am excited to have joined Mary Jane Butter's sisterhood. What this means to me is that I will journal/sketch my way as I work for badges. I will be applying what I have learned from Laure's class as well. So I shall be posting those sketches as well.

Assignment #7

This assignment was about autumn reflections. Landscapes are my weakest areas as I tend to paint trees with extremely tight marks. I attempted to block the bigger shapes with colour and tried not to spend too much time on this picture to give it more of a sketchy appearance.

Assignment #8 Susanne

Above are images from Laure Ferlita's Autumn Class. With the Tea cup image I had to change the original composition to fit the bottom orange into the picture. The rose on top was painted fairly fast. I believe I did it within the hour.

Assignment #5

The theme for this lesson with Laure Ferlita's course was painting leaves with full pigment load, scratching out the veins with a sharp object such as credit card, or in my case an edge of a steel ruler. We also used the spritzer to keep the paper moist and allow it to bleed outwards. This was slightly difficult as my cat was laying on my table thus confining me to a small space to work. Some of my pigments did dry out relatively fast. I also used the grating technique of watercolour pencil to capture the speckled look and snuck a tooth brush splattering as well. The one area that I had difficult is capturing the veins on the lower leaf. I should have practiced it first. It was a good lesson and I am always learning much from Laure's classes.

Welcome to my first posting on this blog. Since July of this year, I have been taking several online journaling courses with Laure Ferlita. I have enjoyed them tremendously and learning much from every experience. The above image is my second project in assignment #4 in the Imaginary Trip Through Autumn course. At this point I am slightly behind as I just finished her other course, Imaginary Trip To Paris. I had to laugh as I was painting this one as the pie looks like an alligator/crocodile face. One thing I am craving is making the above apple crisp. I think I shall go to the store and buy some apples. It is snowing outside right now but the warm apple crisp will be just perfect.