Things I did today

 Collection of Paintings throughout the 6 week class: Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 The final set, with proper photography of the paintings: Continuation of Painting

 It's the last class. I feel like my flower and tree painting is finished, because I don't know how to fix it. I don't really want to add to my small canvas, because I like it as it is. So, I decided to take my blending exercise paintings and practice painting palm tree silhouettes on them. I brought the other finished paintings with me in case the instructor wanted pictures of the final pieces. Spoiler alert: He did not. I went to work, painting palm trees, starting with my least favorite blending painting to my most favorite, in the expectation that I would get better as I progressed. I would paint a few trees, then set the canvas aside to dry while I worked on the next canvas, noting what I wanted to do better, either pressure on the canvas, or thinness of brush strokes, or the multiple ways to paint palm fronds. The instructor was confused when he got to my station. "I've heard of people painting a triptych but a five... tych?" I responded, "I'm j

 I am determined to practice. I decide to focus on blends and sun rays. The blending exercise goes well, as I continue to practice each subsequent canvas. Looking good, especially the last one! Ok, onto the sun rays. Well, that was an incredible failure. I ended up attempting 12 suns, painting over the first four, lightly, and all of them just stunk. I tried two different techniques and hated them all. Although, the very top right isn't horrid, I would just need better and lighter spikes. Hopefully as I continue to use the membership, I'll get better. Week 6

I didn't want to forget things I had learned already, like how to blend colors and use the fan brush and how to paint clouds, so I grabbed a small set of canvases to practice on, and started on one. The sky at the horizon reminded me of mountains, so I just leaned into it and actually painted mountains in the distance. I attempted another go at making the sun not look like the moon, but I failed. Maybe it's a level 2 skill and I'm still at level 1. Everything else, I think I like. The mountains are a little messy, but this is just a practice canvas, and I'm only attempting to learn... pretty much by myself.  The instructor brings his long cow painting back, wanders around, and talks about his dagger striper brush again. He notices that I've brought a small canvas and notes that I must be painting from memory since I am not referencing the original painting. He says to the class that we need to be finishing up our paintings as there is one more class to go. I have no

  I got a small straight edge brush and watched a few YouTube videos in an attempt to do better flowers. While they are better, I couldn't be consistent enough to make it look like the flowers were receding into the field. Instead, it just looks like a weird wall of flowers. I fixed the tree trunk back to what I wanted, and attempted sun rays (which failed again) and a different way to show sunlight diffusion (which also failed.) Ah well, I don't quite know what to do, and I don't know how to fix it. The instructor noted that my flowers were better, and brought a painting about a cow that a farmer friend of his pointed out was too long. He was going to work on making the cow more realistic while everyone worked on their paintings. He spent most of the time talking about going to the sunflower field at Dorthea Dix Park, and how he likes his dagger striper brush. I buy an annual membership to the studio so I can go back on the weekends and practice more. Week 5

This week, I aimed to continue painting clouds, paint flowers and sun rays on the canvas panel. I also expected the instructor to, you know, instruct, but he didn't. He walked around, talking about the paintings people were doing in a superficial manner, and worked on his two guitarists painting he brought back. He also talked about his dagger striper brush that he uses for grass and leaves and other thin items. The clouds look pretty good, but my flowers just aren't what I imagined. I didn't have any smaller brush with me, so I dabbed as lightly as I could with what I had. It was still too much. The tree is looking alright, if a little cartoonish. It's very difficult to paint realistically, I'm finding. I tried a few times for sun rays, but ended up removing them, as they didn't look good. Well, it is something, and I still have three weeks yet... as well as two other canvas panels and two canvases that I guess we don't need to use? The instructor walked to

 I took a look at my reference painting. My painting has all the wrong colors! Also, it doesn't have a straight line at the horizon. I also found out through Bob Ross that I needed a few more brushes, and what I bought were NOT going to work. I picked up a number 6 fan brush, a few much larger straight edged brushes and more white paint. Reference: The instructor didn't add anything, or teach anything, but talked about the gig he just did in Delaware. Oh, by the way, he's actually a guitarist. That's his real job. He's in a band, and got his education in music, not art. He just kind of fell into art and his wife wanted him out of the house, and suggested that he go teach at the art center. He brought a half finished painting with two guitarists and worked on that while talking to one of the students. However, I think I got my colors corrected and my horizon line is straight! I used my fan brush to create grass in the foreground and started on clouds and a sun. Not t