Jane's Class is Almost Over

Lesson nine revolved around monochrome painting with a little bit of something else. After only managing to do one painting from the last lesson I knew I needed to push and make sure I did this one. I don't find that I struggle a whole lot with the lessons once I actually sit down to do them...The issue is actually sitting down to paint!

These are all 9X12 except #1 which is a 5X7 postcard.

1

I knew that I wanted to try some collage with the mostly monochrome theme so I pulled out my extra painted papers from Lesson 7.  There is a lot of variety in the greens with hard collage edges being totally different from my paintings. The interesting thing that you can't really appreciate in the scan is that some of the dots are holes, while some are added on top.

2

For 2 and 3, I decided to try yellow again because I find it so hard to get sufficient variation yellows.
In 2, I added the collage on top.

3

In 3, I started with the collage and painted around it. It is really hard to see in the scan, but I was happy with a subtle tone on tone in the upper right corner. I think I may take these further with some more orangey-yellows.

4

Number 4 also started with the "something else". I realize now that all of the paintings have very soft edges in the monochrome section.

5-before

This one (5) felt like I was done, but got better as I added more transparent greens. I have to keep reminding myself that they almost always are better with more layers. I love the contrast of the orange and greeny-turquoise

5-after

6-before

I thought the #6-before picture was finished before I sat down to paint again tonight. As much as I really enjoyed the tiny white lines, the painting definitely benefited from the addition of more red layers and punching up the white lines.

6-after

 It isn't easy to see in the scan, but there is a purple section under the white lines.

7-before

I wasn't sure where #7 was going because I was feeling attached to the one orange piece of collage. More layers and a weird shape...Now I think it works...

7-after

I just realized that some of my most successful pieces have value shifts that help define shapes. The pink swash defines the collage square in this one and the light blue shading in #4 highlights those pod shapes.

8-before

8-after

Exploring adding the "something else" in this one was so much fun. The "something else" started out as a blob of graphite scribbled over a stencil. As much as I love the shiny graphite, the layers created while painting over parts of it created great depth and textures. On the right I added many layers and scratched back into it while on the left I added fewer layers.

9-before

 #9 is probably the one I took the furthest from its starting point. I started with the something else and then pushed it pretty far (for me) with brown monochrome. The darker browns at "the crossroads" draw your eye up and then the dots echoed down at the bottom in both blue and beige add interest down there. This one is definitely my favorite of the lesson and makes me want to continue on and paint more!

9-after

I enjoyed going down the Pinterest and Flickr rabbit holes and spending far too much time looking at art vs. creating. I need to set a time limit for looking vs.doing. This class has been awesome in actually giving the PUSH to paint. Thanks, Jane....