Day Two of Painting I

I feel like I have been waiting to paint in oils my whole life. I am so excited. It is so different from acrylic. I even like the smell.
The class is demonstration style and there is a definite step by step process.
1. Gesso the canvas using broad loose strokes. Note: do not put on too thick or it will take a long time to dry.
2. We made a view finder which helps tremendously in composition . Little L-shaped pieces of paper to narrow your world to a small section of a still life.
3. We squeezed a small bit of burnt siena onto a freezer paper palette and using lots of mineral spirits we toned our canvases. Which means get rid of the distracting white.
4. Using view finder we were to make 'notes' of the positions of the objects set up for our still life.
5. Then we loosely blocked in our compostions and they looked like weird abstract pieces. Some looked like rock formations, others like city scapes of unknown origin.
6.If there are problems we could erase with a bit of mineral spirits and it was like magick.
7. We worked mainly on the books and the canister on the next step.
8. Ms. Aycock took us step by step and showed us how to make the next move forward. She took the drama out but not the excitement.




I canot wait until the next class.