Nancy's painting finished

Because we only have a couple hours to paint in class most paintings are unfinished when I photograph them. Nancy completed hers after class and sent me this image. The lines and darker values really complete the work.

Lesson 57 Children's Book Illustration

Each session I schedule in one lesson dealing with figures. I usually try and talk people out of working with someone they know but for this lesson we dealt with the problem head on by thinking of the studies as whimsical book illustrations. We began by working of 2 minute sketches in pen or pencil from photos of children playing and a second series of 2 minute sketches in wash. Then we developed one of these into a possible line and wash book illustration.

The idea for this project came from Nancy who is working on a book for her granddaughter. This is the title page she worked out in the class.

Lynn took her studies, lined them up and added Peter Rabbit.

Adelheid began with a family photo and turned it into a charming illustration.


Nancy began with photos she had taken of kids playing in the fountain. The fairy was developed from another of the children.

Cheryl began with a photo of a similar set up but simplified it into a charming composition.

Lesson 56 Semi abstract fall fruit

This lesson was inspired by projects in Karlyn Holman's book Spirit of Spontaneity. We began with a pencil drawing of pomegranates or persimmons. We chose four colors from around the color wheel and and used these wet in wet to create a underpainting around the fruit shapes. Next we worked out a rectangle or geometric shapes overlapping our subjects. Finally we worked around the composition, sometimes painting within a shape, sometimes outside a shape to create an exciting interplay of foreground and background.


Lavonne's painting is part way done. You can clearly see the underpainting and how she has painted inside and outside edges of the background rectangle.

Marilyn painted her fruit more realistically with her rectangle lost and found in the background.

Sue let the geometric shapes run through her fruit so that they are only subtly showing in the background.

Emily's persimmons are very lifelike even though the values have been altered so that they interact with the background shapes.

We do a short critique at the end of each three hour class. The paintings from this exercise looked particularly striking together on the blackboard.