Painting

I've taken a break from designing baby clothes and logos and decided to get back to some more traditional art. I really just wanted to play with my some of my Christmas presents...a set of acrylic paints, brushes, an easel, and clayboard. I'm not much of a painter; I never have been. I'm really not good at anything with color - pastels, watercolors, colored pencils, etc. But I know I won't get better unless I practice, and if I happen to create a lot of crap in the meantime, oh well. So, I asked for acrylic paints because they seemed like the best of both watercolors and oil paints.

For my first painting, I was really trying to get the feel for how the paints act. I tried mixing up washes and painting right out of the tube. There are definitely a lot of problems with this painting, but also, some aspects I like. I thought I did a decent job of laying in the wash for the sky. I also thought the use of a little orange was well placed. The actual pier looks like crap...the lines aren't straight, they're too thick, and the colors suck. But I learned a lot in the course of this painting which hopefully I will carry on to future paintings.




The second painting I tried to do more like a watercolor painting. I used watercolor paper which reacts much differently than clayboard. Again, there are several things I like and dislike about this painting. I like the way the sky wash turned out. I also like the texture and depth of the sand. I really like how the different colors of the water blend together on the right side. I could have done a better job with the hobie cats, especially the body of the boats. For the sails I probably should have stuck with the more transparent glazes, but I went for the thicker paint. I also took a little artistic liberty with the coloring of the sails which did not turn out well. Overall, not TOO bad, but I need lots of practice!