Oil Painting & Pottery... Art Day!

We are on Spring Break!!! (Yeah!) On Tuesday, had an art day...just because that is what we felt like doing! After spending time outside (in the high 70's!), we went in and did some oil painting and then some pottery.

Every since we did the oil painting class, I have wanted to re-do a piece like that to see if I still remembered the techinques. So, that's what I did! And, I thought I'd give a short tutorial of what I remembered. To start with, you paint this triangle pattern (the bottom one will end up being the reflection in the water). I used yellow, orange and blue. Then, I used my finger to blend the colors where they met.

Next, I filled in the rest of the painting with different patches of color. I used different colors from last time, and they are brighter as I didn't have much white to dilute them. You need to make sure you use symmetry across the middle line (which I painted purple) so it looks like a reflection in the end. Again, I used my finger to blend where colors met.

Next, I painted the purple island on the right of the painting. Since it is in the water, you don't need to create a reflection.

Then I painted the trees. I used purple (like last time) and created a line at the inner edge of the island that went all the way from the top to the bottom of the painting. Then, I added in the other trees - again trying to make it somewhat symmetrical above and below my purple line. Last time, we used a real sponge and linseed oil to make the leaves. Since I didn't have that, I just used a big brush for the leaves.

Then, I used a brush to smooth out the bottom. This is the scary part! You actually take a brush and wipe it all the way across the bottom of the painting. Then, go up a brush-length and do it again. The colors are smearing into each other, but that is what makes the reflection look real! I couldn't quite remember how we blended the top. You take a brush and make X's with it and kind of smear the lines. I didn't do it as well as last time, and think I should have blended the colors a little more.

My last step was to take an index card (or business card) and "load it" with white paint. Then, you kind of streak it on the painting. And, that's my finished piece!

Here's my painting from the class. I like that the colors are more muted... and more blended! But, I'm still fairly happy with my new piece, too.

As I mentioned, we also got out Alex's pottery wheel. I think she got this 3 Christmases ago, and we've never used it! (Yikes!) I always knew it'd be messy (and, it was!) but we had a lot of fun, too.

We had a hard time getting the clay the right consistency, though we finally did. We had fun just letting the clay spin around as we learned to shape it and etch into it. I ended up with one small bowl that I might post about when it is dry....and possibly painted.