Roses painted from life

So I finally got the book Alla Prima by Richard Schmid and read it over the past few weeks. I have really loved learning more about painting this year, and I can see myself growing and becoming more confident. I still have so much to learn and master, but at least I'm not afraid to try :)  If you are serious about painting, READ THIS BOOK! He paints completely from life, almost always in one sitting, which is the best way to paint. I don't think I will always be able to paint from life, but I definitely need much more experience from painting from life. Sooo.... Yesterday, I picked some knockout roses from our garden and set up a little box and a light in my studio and started painting on an 8x10 canvas. I had actually picked some other smaller roses to compliment, but they have so many petals etc that when I got to them I said phooey and got a couple more knockouts and painted them solely instead. It was a good decision. They are really pretty easy to paint I think ;) The harder part for me was today when I had to paint the leaves and the background. I'm still not amazing at that.. but I think it turned out ok. The roses themselves are still my favorite part :)
So here it is!

I did notice that I painted differently this time, partly because of my studying and partly because I painted from life with a smaller amount of time (5 hours yesterday and 3 1/2 today). I am becoming more lose and confident..... that I am learning and progressing....and I'm quite enjoying it :) 

In other news, I'm getting stuff ready to start going to art festivals! Purty exciting stuff right there, lots to do to get ready.... Got a tent, got most of the wall/hanging stuff, starting the process of getting prints made etc. All lots of money up front, but I so hope that I can sell paintings! I'll post an update about that soon. I'm going to be doing as many paintings as I can pop out, and I want to do some things other than flowers also, something interesting...still haven't come up with a good idea yet, but look for it! haha. 

"Cherry Blossom Puff" For Sale!

"Cherry Blossom Puff"

 Oil on canvas 8x10

FOR SALE $250 FRAMED $185 UNFRAMED

I will post pictures of it framed soon, it will be a super nice frame. 

Don't forget to click on the picture for better viewing!

Rhododendrons Final

Here it is! "Rhododendrons" is finished and is For Sale!
14x14 oil on canvas

For inquiries email juliawichmanartist@gmail.com
Click on the picture to see it better.

Rhododendron painting update

I had painted the majority of the flower earlier, I think before Christmas even...  And now, a couple of paintings later, I'm getting back to it to get it done for an art contest that I'm entering soon! I've painted more than half of the leaves and background now and really love how it is all looking with the colors and the contrast. I am more pleased with it than I thought I would be. The colors  are so vibrant, it makes me happy! Gotta love COLOR! I have had a very productive week working on this painting and launching my Etsy shop, Jule's Fleurs. Check it out etsy.julesfleurs.com 

Exciting times!

Birch Tree Lesson ish

So last week at one of my schools we did the standard birch tree watercolor lesson from:
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/01/birch-trees-watercolor-lesson/
We tore masking tape and laid it down as a mask for the trees. I had a couple assistants helping me, but I think we could have done more with helping them tear the tape and lay it down to look more like trees (like thinner towards the end of branches etc.) Even still they turned out great. :)  The kids had fun with painting sunsets and those looked awesome in watercolor.  We didn't all do birch trees, but I had them all make a shadow side on their trees and showed them how that made the tree look round. I have a lot of new students so I'm having to teach them blending and shading like I did for the class last semester. Also, we switched it up and used colored pencils for our trees.

These are a few of the projects from one of the classes :) The one on the bottom right is not finished yet ;)
This project is good for students beginning in art. It is simple enough, but it teaches about masking an area to keep it clean and how that looks afterward, how to use watercolors, horizon line, and shading with colored pencils.

Clipper Ships

This project was inspired by Deep Space Sparkle's lesson
http://www.deepspacesparkle.com/2011/05/watercolor-clipper-ships-art-lesson/

I found a painting of a Clipper ship online, and then drew step by step on the white board with my students. They did great! lots of sails and some complex shapes. I haven't done this with my second school yet, but will post pictures here when I get to it.
After the drawing, everyone painted the sails and I showed them how to do the shading along the left side and bottom to make the sails look full of air. I also showed them how to do a very light wash over the whole sail and then darken with more pigment in the shadow area and blend out. I had to show most of the students on their own painting what I meant, but eventually they all figured it out. Lots to learn!
I tried to show them how to paint the waves light on the peaks and darker down below, but I don't think that ended up coming across very well and I just ended up letting them have more fun with that part since the first part was more intense.
I also showed my students how to draw a dolphin and whale jumping out of the water, and I required each to draw one. Some of the students in my second class chose to do some outlining in sharpie pen. 

Lots of pictures this time! Grades 1-5.

Connor's harbor boats

My brother asked me to paint a "harbor" painting for him for his Christmas/birthday (two days after Christmas) present. He built a room for himself in our garage and wants art on the walls hah. So I started on a painting for him before Christmas, I got the sky done then...  Then a few weeks ago I painted the ships and water, and today I finished it up finally! It's not much of a sunset like he wanted, but it was the best overall picture that I could find for a source.

Click on the picture to see it larger!
I had fun painting the cloud, especially the edge of the cloud as it whispily blends into the sky. I used my new manganese blue mixed with lemon yellow to create the turquoise in the lower right corner and also mixed in with the blue in the ocean.  Ahh so peaceful :)