Wednesday, November 14, 2012

The Fruits of their Labors



Well our first workshop finished up on Monday night and I wanted to share paintings by two of my students.  Unfortunately weather and sickness got in the way of my other two students, so we ultimately ended up with a class of two -- but had a merry ol' time anyway!  I'm very proud of them and their hard work.  Above is an example of their cards . . . below are their paintings.  If you are in the area of central Massachusetts and would like to participate in my next class, I'm anticipating running a new one at the end of January, so be sure to check back here under "Workshops." I hope to have my new description up within the next few weeks.  I think for my next class I will pick a subject and we'll all paint it . . . so stay tuned!  In the meantime, check these babies out:

"Winter Cardinal"
by Cheryl M.

"Christmas Bulb"
by Donna S.

Aren't these great!!??  Thank you Donna and Cheryl!  :)

P.S. -- the PayPal link on my "2013 Calendars" post works!  Yippee!  So if you haven't already, check out my last post and my new calendars.  And if anyone out there needs help creating their own PayPal button, just let me know, it's not that hard.

9 comments:

  1. De très jolies cartes pour les fêtes de fin d'année... comme j'aimerais recevoir !...
    Joli travail.


    Gros bisous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Je vous remercie beaucoup! J'adore faire des cartes et de partager la joie que je reçois de le faire. Je pense que mes élèves ont été surpris de voir à quel point ils ont l'air!

      Delete
  2. Your students were very lucky to have such an intimate class!
    Nice work!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Laura -- it really was a great workshop. I know I had fun! :)

      Delete
  3. I would sign up for your class in an instant if I lived in Massachusetts instead of California! I am trying out Ampersand Aquaboards because you praise them so much and keep wishing I could get your advice on how to smooth out washes on their highly receptive surface.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Dana . . . so sweet. Ugh . . . so frustrating but the commute would be a bear! Ha! :) I'm glad you're trying out he aquabord -- it takes some getting used to. In fact I tried it, wasn't sure I liked it, abandoned the painting I was doing on it because it was HORRIBLE, then bought a small sample of it again about a year later and picked a better subject and went to town. Here's how I lay down a wash and ultimately "fix" washes that aren't smooth:

      Really saturate the board where you want the wash -- but be careful because unlike paper, the water doesn't necessarily stay where you put it. Drop in your pigment, painting it around, moving the board as you go, tilting and such, but being careful. Once it's dry, it should be pretty smooth and if it isn't, just brush clear water over it again. You can scrub a little and add pigment where you need to. The key I've found is water. Don't be afraid to use a lot. You'll get a feel for it. Again, just know that it travels outside its boundaries unlike on paper. You can always go back with a damp brush and very gingerly pull out stains (like the dark edges that may appear). It's almost like using an eraser.

      I hope this helps! Have fun! :)

      Delete
  4. Het was haast privé les ik vind dat ze het knap hebben gedaan lieve groetjes danielle

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very nice work Kara. Look forward to seeing more:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Kara for explaining the water issue when painting on Aquaboard (the clue is in the name)! I tend to be very stingey with water because I like strong watercolor with a lot of "punch" . Now I'm looking forward to trying Aquaboard again with generous amounts of water. I like your results so much that I'm inspired to perservere. When we get flying cars, I'll come for a workshop!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for commenting!