Flower arrangement study

This week at evening classes we worked from a still life of flowers in a jug. The idea was to understand the values of light and white space. I think I missed the point of white space though!

Flowers in jug

Cley Windmill – reworked

These are two studies of Cley windmill in Norfolk.

Glass study

This weeks class looked at the myriad of colours and tones you can see in glass. Reflections, show through and distortions all come together to create quite a challenge for a novice watercolorist like me.

Watercolours are unpredictable at the best of times and there was a real battle between wet paint and my dry brush to contain the levels which the paint wanted to disperse into one another.

Wine and olive oil bottles

Cley Windmill – a work in progress

Used a photo I took of the windmill on a recent trip to Norfolk. Looking at ways to interpret reedbeds but the colour intensity of this study is way too strong. I have noticed my paint usage tends to be a bit too bold sometimes.

Autumn Notes

Autumn 1

This has been the most difficult still life for me yet. I think the variety of shapes and colours and the fact I was working with the wet-in-wet technique made the thing quite daunting. I may have another crack at this soon.

Neutral tones. Mushroom and Garlic

Mushrooms and Garlic

Thursday’s evening class concentrated on subject matter with subtle neutral tones. This required a simple palette of Alizirin Crimson, Raw Sienna and Umber, Vandyke Brown, Yellow Ochre and Colbalt Blue.

Fairly happy with the mushroom but the garlic look a bit neglected. I then did a quick 10 minute study of a garlic bulb. Not convinced it worked very well.

Garlic

A Red Pepper Day

Evening class focused on using a single tone for this still life study. I know the first image is in colour because I prefer it to the monotone one below so I put it first!