Is Two a Series?
Trying to find my way through the whole painting thing. Some of my struggles will be evident here.
But I am happy with a lot of things about the last few paintings and these last two in particular.
and then a short break while we watch Steve paint for a little while so we can all see how simple and easy painting is : )
He is working on another student’s painting for her in these photos – I am set up to paint directly behind where they are working.
and back to my painting:
Now that I am looking at this I realize that I did a tiny bit more after this last photo. Nothing earth shattering.
Realizing that we pack a whole lot into those three hour classes! This painting was all over the place and I really almost gave up on it a couple of times. It’ll be interesting to see where these go from here and if they do turn themselves into some sort of series.
Just TeeJay's Blog 
Love your work, but why is Steve working on someone else’s picture? Isn’t that a lot of ‘working’ or are the photos misleading?
It is a class and Steve will often demonstrate techniques directly on a student’s work. He is very courteous about it and asks before he does it. Including to what extend the student is comfortable with him working on their piece. The first painting that I did in his class he painted on quite a bit. I don’t think he has painted on any of them since. I am sure that there are some students who go home and lay claim to having done the work all by themselves – as for me, I didn’t sign the piece that he worked on as I don’t feel that it is really mine. It also was an exercise in learning a new technique for me and I found it very beneficial to have him explain and demonstrate for me.
Actually…. I know he did paint right on one of my more recent ones. I didn’t like it and painted it completely back out. He was trying to show me that he thought a different color would look better in that area.
I know. It’s a tricky one… sometimes you’re desperate for someone to step in, but afterwards it doesn’t feel like yours. My favourite tutor always refused to do it until someone begged him for a particularly difficult foreshortened and elevated pose – watching him do it was really helpful for us all. Another would carry around coloured tissue paper to hold up against pictures to show how different colours set it off. Thanks for replying.
Interesting thought. I don’t know if I have ever seen him render anything on anybody’s work – just block in color. I’ll have to pay attention next time and see if he does or not.
I had a previous instructor who used to do the grey paper to show us what was and wasn’t working. Holding other color scraps up would work really well – that’s a great idea. Everyone learns differently. I often won’t see what is wrong with an image that I have made until well after the fact. The mirror trick helps – but it seems that time and experience are still the best for that.
When I am trying to help someone see something in a drawing I will usually lay tracing paper over it and mark on that. Then I normally keep the tracing paper to make them figure it out again themselves.