A Work in Progress

This is my second painting adapting the lessons I learned in Mindy Lacefield's Paint Your Story. I'm struggling a bit with this one as I keep comparing it to "Up". I know it'll come together in the end. I just need to trust the process.

Phase 1 of the painting.

I liked how her face was turning out.

Phase 2.

I'm not satisfied with her face anymore. It's not whimsical enough.

Phase 3.

I changed her eyes and my fairy is leading some butterflies somewhere.

I'm happier with her but I know she still needs work. I have my fingers crossed that I will get more painting done this weekend!

 

 

She's Finished

I'm calling I this painting "Up". I'm so proud of how it turned out!

 

How to Paint an Owl E-Course

Another course I have been taking recently is How to Paint an Owl by Juliette Crane. Juliette does wonderful mixed media paintings most of which are owls. She truly paints what she loves and developed an e-course about her passion. I love the depth of her paintings and she really breaks things down into easy steps you can follow but, you don't end up making a painting that looks exactly like Juliette's painting. At least mine don't seem to look a lot like hers.

Here are some work in progress paintings. I admit the owl on the far right looks more like "How to Paint a Penguin".

And this one is almost finished. For the moment I am calling it "Music of the Night".

I really enjoyed this course. There are lots of videos and a PDF at the end of the course for you to keep forever. Juliette's paintings all tell a story and this method fits right into my painting goals. She is also taking "Paint Your Story" and the work she is producing is amazing! Visit Juliette's blog to see her wonderful work. You can also take either of her e-courses. How to Paint an Owl is returning this July and How to Paint a Girl is coming up in a couple of weeks. And yes, I will likely be taking that one too.

 

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I'm Finding My Style!

I got to paint for 5 hours straight today! My wonderful Hubby took the kids out for several hours and I was able to work on my larger painting for the Paint Your Story e-course. I am so proud of how it is turning out. In a lot of courses you are replicating a project. This is a totally fine method because you are learning different techniques. With Mindy Lacefield's course, she gives you tools and exercises to help you develop your own style. I've tried painting like Mindy and I just can't seem to do it. I can adapt her methods though to work with how I paint and I think I am actually pulling it off. Here is the painting as it developed.

Here is a 12x12 canvas with a painted background.

Beginnings of a face. I used Panpastels.

Shading the face with paint.

My girly is starting to emerge.

The painting is coming along. She's turning out so cute!

I can't put into words how much joy I am getting out of this course. My fellow classmates are all so talented and very supportive. Mindy is such a wonderful teacher. We only have a couple weeks left which makes me sad. The good news is she is developing a new course! You will have to keep an eye on her blog for registration info. She will also be doing a self paced version of Paint Your Story this summer.

 

I'm a Kid Again!

I know I've been absent for a bit but I've been embroiled in three online e-courses; How to Paint an Owl, Flower Crazy and Paint Your Story. They are all so much fun! Each one taps into the artistic whimsy I've been seeking. I am planning to do a blog post on each one. The first one I will tell you about is Paint Your Story from Mindy Lacefield of Tim's Sally.

The premise of the course is to get in touch with your inner seven year old. It's all about play and having fun. I honestly don't remember having this much fun as a kid. We are exploring what we love, creating inspiration boards and building a personal library of marks, symbols and colors. I'm using all of my art supplies on this one. I'm trying to discover if I love the paint or pastels or just plain everything!

So far I've made some collage papers and a background and I've started playing with faces. I've been trying so hard to create child like characters and Mindy's method has opened up the floodgates. I've started a mini notebook of characters. They are 3" by 5" thumbnail sketches that only take a couple minutes to create. I don't know if they will make it into a painting or not. They are just so much fun to draw!

This course also has a wonderful private Facebook group. The ladies are very supportive and encouraging. It has been an inspiring experience so far. We currently just started week 4 and there are two more weeks left! I'm so excited I can't wait to see what she has in store for us next. I believe registration for the current run is closed. Check the website. I'm sure Mindy will run it again. This video will give you a taste. If you want to loosen up your style and play like a kid again, take this course when Mindy run's it again.

 

Finding Focus

I thought I had focus in my art but in reality I don't. I've never analyzed what I like and what I don't like. It's all kind of been scattered in my head. I am a big fan of the artist Wyanne. I have taken a couple of her classes and she is a guest teacher for Life Book. She is wonderful in helping you find your own style and reminding you to play in your art. Some things she said in an interview for Life Book made me realize I had never really sat down and thought about what I like in art. What excites me? What moves me? So, I decided to do a little exercise to help me focus. This is something I learned in creative writing class. It's a brainstorming method. You take a word and put it in the center of your page. Then from that central word you draw lines and write the first thing that comes to mind. Then you continue branching off from those secondary words. I did this exercise for three catagories; Painting, Drawing and What Inspires Me.

 

After I did that I looked at common words that popped up and I have discovered the kind of art I would like to make; Whimsical Paintings that Tell a Story.

The above image I did on my iPad. It is my roadmap for the kind of art I want to make and the media I enjoy using. Ironically, while I was writing this post I started a new e-course called Paint Your Story and we are doing a similar exercise. We are creating inspiration boards with art/colors/critters/marks we like and then we have to note why we like the things we chose. This course's exercise is all about finding your own style. Do you think the universe is trying to tell me something?

 

Moving On and a Review of Flora Bowley's E-Course

Sorry it's been ages since I posted. Illness struck again in the Metcalf household. Tummy bugs for me and the kids and then migraines for me. Ugh! If it's not one thing it's another, right? Anyway..... When we last left off I was feeling Flora Frustration! Well, I am moving on from the Flora class for now. I tried and tried and could not get this painting to work. There are elements I love and elements I don't.




I like the birds on the left and not the ones on the right. I feel I've lost the layers and depth. The more I worked at it the more irritated I got. Maybe it's too big for me to work on. I usually work smaller. All I know is I need to set it aside for now.
As promised I will give my opinion of the course. I wish I could say "I loved it!" but I didn't. I loved the painting portion despite my frustrations. I think my main issue was the lack of community. I was hoping this course would be the next best thing to an "in person" class. From what I've read online the friendships formed in the "in person" version are as life changing as the painting process. I was hoping for a private Facebook group but they chose Flickr for the social aspect. Flickr is great for posting photos but it didn't do anything for me in the community department. I recently took The Art of Wild Abandonment . This was a sketchbook/art journalling class and they did a Facebook group and it was awesome. The participants were very supportive of each other and if you felt insecure about your work they encouraged you to keep going. I was expecting that from Flora Bowley's Bloom True and it just wasn't there in my opinion. Do I regret taking the course? No. I value the painting process I learned. Flora has a book coming out soon. I will likely get it and will compare the ecourse with the book. That will help me decide if the ecourse is really worth the $200. If the book provides the same info, then why spend the money. I really wanted to love this course. I think Flora is an amazing painter. I have access for a few more months so, I will soak in the videos as much as I can. Maybe my opinion will change in the future. Right now I would recommend it with strong reservations.




This is a family of owls I did for The Art of Wild Abandonment. I did a very layered background like I learned from Flora, then sketched the owls and then I did some masking to preserve portions of the background. Adapting Flora's techniques worked better in a smaller format for me.




I have 3 new courses coming up that I am excited about, How to Paint an Owl, Paint Your Story, and Flower Crazy. These are all whimsical/intuitive painting courses which I am quite drawn to. I'm going to try and be more focused in choosing my courses. I like whimsy and painting without thinking. I'm hoping these courses help free up my style some more.