I’ve been going a bit off piste in See.Feel.Paint the last few days. I always seem to be walking a fine line between being a ‘good student’ and following each lesson to the letter, and remembering I am in fact allowed to pick and choose to dive into the lessons that appeal the most. Also it’s been really sunny, which does not bode well for any indoor activities.

So not a lot of painting over the last five days or so, but the outdoor studio {aka beach} has been seeing quite a bit of action.

Here is an oil pastel piece I did, using this painting by Charlotte Evans, a painter whose work I love, as a reference. It is essentially a copy, because sometimes I find that very helpful to learn about how another artist has put a painting together in terms of composition, balance and colour combinations.

It was SO fun, and I learned a few things about tempering my favourite colour palette with unexpected colours such as black and pale pink.

The next two are blind contour drawings in black pen of seagulls on the beach from photos I’d taken. The fact that they were in my phone, which kept going black and was hard to see in the sunlight made the blind contour part even more effective. 🙂

After drawing with the pens in two thicknesses, I went in with the trusty Neocolors and just played, adding water from those brushes that hold water in the handle.

Even got some drips in. Win.

This weird landscape is a development from a drawing I did ages ago. It was fun and meditative to do but let’s just say it’s not going any further than this! I’m very interested in using neutrals to temper the brights I always seem to go for; you can’t really see them here but I did try!

SeeFeelPaint finishes today!  I’m a little behind on the lessons but there’s plenty of time. I’m so happy with the landscape paintings I have produced and the experience of being taught by Pauline again, it’s worth it just for that. She’ll be holding her Open Studio again at the end of July – it’s a free gathering on Facebook and she always includes a free lesson and lots of art and giveaways. Maybe I’ll see you there. 🙂