Category: Year 5
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Farm Road: End of Year 5
When I started watercolor painting, I painted the same thing every day for 30 days. I chose a photo of a farm road that I took while driving around Berlin, Ohio. It’s not a particularly amazing photograph, nor is it a particularly great composition – but it’s what I used. I learned a whole hell…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 6
In Week 6 of the watercolor class that I took a few weeks ago at the Canton Museum of Art, we worked on a seascape. The majority of the classes were dedicated to a critique period where we reviewed the works that class members had painted the week before, and this was the first week…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 5
This week in the Watercolor Class we discussed the technique of “scraping” when painting. This is a technique I have tried to use a number of times, but I regularly am frustrated by it. I don’t think I really “got” it, but I do think I was able to get the results more reliably. For…
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Taking Stock
I am laying awake in bed tonight – I’ve been laying here for two hours now. I want to sleep so I can start another day, but I don’t know that another day will make any difference. I feel grey tonight. I feel exhausted and a lot sad because I am not sure that I’m…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class, Week 4
In week four of the watercolor class, we focused on color theory, and edges. I know about half of a percent of everything I should know when it comes to color theory, so this was really beneficial. In the assignments for this week, we were supposed to paint a piece of fruit, over and over.…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 3
This week in the watercolor class I am taking at the Canton Museum of Art, we worked on glazing, and working with negative space. Negative space is one of those things that really confuses me, so I am glad to have an exercise that forces me to experiment with it. Aspen Leaves Our assignment this…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 2
Last week, we focused largely on critiques, and exploring how to create depth and contrast by glazing. There were two assignments: 1) Create a monochromatic version of a painting by a master. 2) Find a subject of my own, and paint it at least five times emphasizing different colors in each version. For the first…
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Spiker Park Duck Pond
After dropping Winnie off at dance the other night, I drove to Spiker Park and set up my easel next to the duck pond. I drive through this park on the way home, and I always feel like I take it for granted. It really is a pretty urban park and it gets a lot…
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CMA Bust
A few weeks ago, I went to the Cleveland Museum of Art with my sketchbook, and some pencils. I sat down on a bench looking at a bust, and spent five hours trying to draw it. This was an incredibly valuable exercise – it’s something I definitely want to try again. It highlighted two really…
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Canton Museum of Art Watercolor Class: Week 1
I enrolled in a watercolor class at the Canton Museum of Art. Last week was the first class. In that session, we covered a lot of the basics about what materials are used to paint in watercolor, why those materials are used, and a little bit about some of the techniques you can use to…
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Getting Better
Some of you who have followed this thing for a bit know that I struggle with depression. This year been very challenging for a number of reasons, but I am doing everything I can to get better. A few months ago, I participated in an intensive outpatient therapy group to work on things. I met…
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Gesture Practice
A big part of my recovery is focused on doing things. I spent a lot of time trying to reset by taking time away from things, and just slowing down a bit. Now, part of my next steps are getting back into things, though I’m trying to do so without putting so much pressure on…
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Winter Brook: Rick Surowicz Tutorial
This is a painting I did, following along with a YouTube tutorial by Rick Surowicz. If you haven’t checked him out, you should. I really value his pedagogy. My version doesn’t look exactly like his, but that’s ok. Maybe I’m starting to see a little bit of a style of my own – with those…
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Hills, Rocks and Streams
Here is a great example of an awful painting that I made. I make a lot of terrible paintings, and I try to post them even when they are awful. More and more often, these paintings are so discouraging that I can’t stomach the thought of posting them, but I need to. Paintings like this…
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Plein Air Monument Park
After my first day at IOP, I went to the park and painted this before I went home. I wasn’t expecting my first day painting outside in over a year to result in anything mind blowing – I simply wanted to force myself to go do it. I am intimidated by painting outside because so…
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Luna Moth
Part of the IOP program I just went through included art therapy. One day, I drew a painting of a pot on a fire, and surrounded it with spooky Scooby Doo eyes. When I showed the image, they thought the spooky eyes looked like moths – which I kind of liked. Instead of scary eyes…
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Daffodils
It’s been a long time since I have posted, but I have made a few things in that time. I don’t feel like writing up each and every one, but I do want to include them here because I want a record of my improvement that I can look back on in the future. So,…
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Getting Better So I Drew a Foot
I don’t really know how to write about this. I want to explain what has been going on in my life because I know these recent events are not unique to me. I like to think that being transparent with the mental health issues I deal with from time to time can help encourage others…
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Autobiography: #1
I have been very busy over the past few weeks… life has been… a lot. Between driving kids places, working, a colonoscopy, Rachel getting a biopsy and a lumpectomy – I’ve been very busy. But, I am still trying to find time to paint and draw. Recently, I finished this painting, which is one of…
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Sketching Practice: Faces and Gesture
I haven’t painted anything since my last Farm Road painting, but I haven’t been idle. I have been working on my draftsmanship by trying to draw my way through the Portrait and Figure Drawing courses on Proko.com. I purchased the Portrait course a long time ago, and won the Figure drawing course in the Proko…