The ANSWER, a day late and a painting short

I LOVE Saturday mornings. 7:30am (KAET Channel 8 - Phoenix Valley) is The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross. Today he started with a black canvas. Just like my Series 2 #3 painting last week. I had decided to use a "liquid clear" layer over the acrylic black canvas. Today after seeing this additional episode AND after having done the same treatment last week, I'm pretty sure I didn't need the clear layer.

The reason being that he used a layer of transparent color on both. Mine last week was Aliz.Crimson and Phathlo Blue, and today on TV he used Phathlo Blue and Phathlo Green. In both cased, you don't really see the color on the black. It's when you add the White that it becomes opaque as you start to blend the two.

My painting last week ended up SHINNY with the undercoating. While my paint did indeed move on the canvas, I believe it may have had the same effect from simply the Aliz and Blue.

Here's the photo.  I really dislike it (I typed "hate it" but went back and was nicer to myself) because my white cap waves are NOT believable.  I should have blended them more. I also need to stop making those "smiley faces" with my fan brush.

My trees, while eliciting a compliment from my 18 yr old son, are just . . well, bad.  The grass and bushes are my least favorite as they are WAY TO BRIGHT . .  and I even heard Bob say "be careful you don't make it so bright ya can't stand it" but it must have been after I actually painted them because it was too late.

Lately I have been yearning to go outside and paint something (Plein Air style) that isn't fed to me on DVD.  That would be the real goal of painting with a Bob Ross or Bill Alexander style painter.  Learn techniques that you can apply to your own compositions.  I want to be able to see trees and KNOW how I'd paint them.  It's starting to happen.  I see rocks in and along streams and I can see the contrast between the dark and highlighted sides.  I look and know how I'd paint that.  I silently (sometimes to my husband out loud) say that I'm going to put one of those in my world.

I've been visiting other web sites and forums, just looking for places to learn.   One that I found just recently via another blogging artist site is The Wet Canvas (www.wetcanvas.com) they are very friendly there and while it's FILLED with Artists who can really call themselves artists, many still took the time to welcome me and comment on my painting.  Compared to them, what I'm doing is just entertainment (for me and MiMi and anyone else who wants to watch the video) but someday I'm going to be an artist.

Share the Joy.
Kay