Tuesday, February 3, 2009

A Pastel Acorn

Acorn
pastel on paper
copyright
Jan Gibson

The acorn above was done for a challenge at Let's Make Art, unfortunately, it was done rather quickly and I didn't add the detail nor take the time with it I should have. However, my husband came home from work and saw it and wanted to frame it right away! If men have a hard time understanding women, it's nothing compared to women trying to understand them! Oh, well----

I'm getting rather excited about a new online watercolor site/class I've signed up for at Lori Andrew's Come Paint With Me Ning site. She's a fun person and there are many levels of painting skill within the members so I've already learned much from them. I think I told you about another class I'd joined online that I was kind of disappointed in and which has pretty much come to a stand still. Fortunately, I didn't pay for that class!

Anyway, Lori is a go-getter and is setting up her classes so we can interact with her online. This is both exhilarating and frightening! For one thing, I guess I need to get a web cam so I can show my painting for critique during the class. I've never been comfortable painting in front of others so I hope I don't freeze up completely.

Also, I think I'm going to have to move my computer onto my work table or set up some kind of space for painting near my computer to make this all work. That's kind of a dangerous situation for me! I can be a klutz sometimes but I think I can leave my computer where it is, put my mat cutter away and use that table for painting and keep my water container away from the computer stuff. Right now I'm not sure how to arrange everything so I can paint and compute at the same time.

Well, I'm sure it will all work out. I just like to have things all worked out before any event so I'm not caught unprepared but it will be awhile before the first class so maybe I have time to work it all out.

I'll keep ya posted!

7 comments:

~Barbara~ said...

Child, I think this is one of your better paintings. I have a thing for the acorns. Guess God must have known it, cause we have wall to wall acorns here this year. A blind pig wouldn't have any trouble finding one.

Jan said...

Well, thank you. You and DH must have the same taste as he liked it a lot also. I guess it's ok but from a technical standpoint, it leaves a lot to be done. Maybe one day I'll take the time to finish it.

Sounds as if the squirrels will have good eating at your house this winter! Maybe you should add a pot-bellied pig to your menagerie too!

~Barbara~ said...

Pigs ain't welcome at my house. We had about 30 wild ones here last year and boy did they ever do the damage.. Took them about 3 weeks to finally eat up all the acorns and whatever else they could find. Looked like a bulldozer came thru.... Just very glad they didn't decide to get into my fish ponds.

Teresa Mallen said...

Hi Jan, like Barbara I have a thing for acorns. I always like your backgrounds and I like how you did the grass in this one.

I have just started using a computer in my studio and yikes I am glad I work in coloured pencil...I never thought about having containers of water around my computer!! Good luck! And good luck with that whole webcam thing. Lots of folks do it now so it can't be too hard. :-) I am glad you are excited about your watercolour course.

Jan said...

LOL, Barbara. When we had chickens, we took advantage of their "bulldozing" qualities by having a huge chicken pen with the chicken house in the middle. We'd turn them out into the pen on one side all fall & winter to scratch up and fertilize and "till" the soil. Then we'd shut them out of that side a couple of months before time to plant the garden & let them into the other side to repeat the process. That way the garden was always almost ready to plant each spring. I've heard you can do the same with pigs and it sounds as if you can verify that!

Jan said...

Thank you, Teresa. I had to laugh at your compliment about my backgrounds - I absolutely agonize over them much of the time but I do thank you for saying you like them.

Well, it looks as if it's 3 against one so I guess I'll get busy and finish the acorn painting. It's just a matter of pushing some darks for the most part.

Yes, the water situation is one reason I paint in pastels much of the time. Even the pastel pencils are dusty/messy but nothing like a tub of dirty water spilled on a freshly finished painting!

I sometimes wonder if my mother had named me "Grace" if I'd be a little less klutzy!

I'm not even sure I'm going to get a webcam as it will only be needed for critiques during the class. I may wait to see how the first class goes then see if I'll really need one. I would only use it for these classes anyway and I haven't even found a suitable set up to watch the class and paint at the same time yet. Hmmm, wonder if that will be like walking and chewing bubble gum?

Teresa said...

Really nice, Jan! Very soft and inviting... I can see why the hubby wanted to hang it on the wall!