Painting class - week 7

Pastels on brown paper.

The purpose of these four panels was to create four abstract pieces based on a combination of 2-3 letters (e.g. your initials) or numbers. The idea was to not think too much and just let the artwork happen naturally. It took me a while NOT to think too much while doing this project, but by the fourth panel I think I got there!

I'm aware that I haven't posted anything since week 1 of my painting class and that what I have posted has not been paintings. The reason for this is basically that I have not yet completed anything that is worthwhile. I have enjoyed this painting class and I have been slowly improving, and by the end of the course I plan to actually post some finished paintings! It has taken me until this last assignment in the class to really start getting into painting - it's a shame that the final class is this week, now that I'm finally starting to get the hang of it. 

Painting Class - week 1

Charcoal and white chalk pastel on grey paper.

I've started a nine week painting class to rebuild my confidence in using paints. I've been drawing with colored pencils for years now and have barely touched a paint brush in that time but I really want to get back into painting again.

The idea of these four panels was to get us used to the flexibility and looseness of charcoal in preparation for starting with paints next week. We used a picture of some bottles as a reference and had to choose four compositions within the picture to draw.

I didn't like these when I first did them but they have since grown on me. I like the contrast between the lights and darks.