The Mishap

Three and a half years ago I was provided a canvas and easel and was asked to make a painting. I still have the canvas and easel but no still no finished painting.  However, that's not to say I've been letting the materials collect dust for the past three years. They collected dust for only the first two years. Last year I finally picked up my brushes and dusted off the canvas to try my hand at painting again. Below is a series of progress pictures of the painting from March 2010, all done in one day:

Start with a blank canvas. I chose to do a horizontal landscape because I had in mind a beach scene.

Lightly pencil in the major lines and put down a base coat. I decided to make the base coat the three major colors of the painting.

Add more detail to the background area (in this case the ocean and sky) by layering with more vibrant shades of blue.

Once satisfied with background, begin work on the foreground. It's best to have an idea of what you want to put in the whole painting before you begin. Don't be like me and just start painting with no purpose because you'll end up with these on your painting:

And then these:

And next thing you know it'll look like this:

I like my palette better:



I was quite unhappy with the final product of this painting session so I decided to let the piece collect some more dust all over again. I put my easel and other painting materials, along with the painting, in the room on the other side of the house until I recovered from this mishap.

Some things I learned from this experience:

-Do not start painting without a final image in mind. At least, don't do it on such a large canvas.

-I don't like painting flowers

-Acrylic paint dries really fast

-Mixing colors is fun! The colors on this canvas were created using basic red, yellow, green, blue, white, and black.