Snowscene

I should add that I really did learn a lot about tone and recession together with techniques.

Hi Carol, nothing wrong in copying other people's work, as long as its the techniques that your learn. Then take what you learn and build your own style. That's when you move forward. Regarding your picture you are certainly stating to understand distance, as the trees are lighter as the reseed in the distance. One small point, how do you do your sky washes, as your sky brush strokes seam to be vertical. Consider the use of masking fluids on the foreground trees. The carry out a wet into wet sky wash using horizontal strokes and graduate your colour from darker at the top to lighter at the bottom. Pick up your board and allow the colour pigments to run into each other. Works for me. The main thing is to keep working at it.

Hi Carol. Have looked at your gallery and think you are achieving well on your own initiative. I'm personally not convinced about the value of working on someone else's painting step by step as it were. Painting can be a lonely business and the temptation to join a group can be strong, I understand that. I may be on the wrong tack entirely, so ignore what I say, if you wish. But press on with your own vision as well.

Thank you Peter for your comments. There is irony in what you say -firstly the sky -I have always worked as you say -horizontal strokes. At the workshop we were instructed to work vertically ,board tilted at all times -the logic being that as all the background is vertical (the trees) it would merge in. Secondly -masking fluid was used on all theforeground trees aswell as the snowman & children. Perhaps I've spent too long working in my own way to accept such precise direction at a workshop.

Ruth -thank you for looking and for your comments. I have to admit I enjoyed the company of others at the workshop but I'm beginning to doubt the wisdom of attending. I've a feeling that following this step by step idea may not be for me. There is obviously no choice of subject and one feels obliged to "do as one is told". This coming week is going to be a sea and rocks picture which appeals but it may be that I'll feel more comfortable working on my own. Watch this space!!

It's still a lovely little painting Carol, however it came about. Stick with it for a while Carol, pick up the tips and techniques, build up your confidence and I bet after a few weeks when you come to put all that you've learned into your own painting you will see a difference. Good luck and I hope you enjoy it more the next time!

Beautiful little painting Carol, I like it.

Its a lovely wintry scene but I can tell that this way of learning doesn't sit well with you. Being told what to do and how to paint can make you feel that this is the only right way to paint, which it isn't and therefore it pulls your self confidence down, I sometimes do horizontal skies and they can be very effective. Perhaps the course will become more relaxed as the weeks go by. I hope so :)

Thank you Fiona, Carole and Sarah for your comments. It's interesting that both Fiona & Carole refer to "a little" painting as it's actually the biggest painting I've done -13 x 9 inches. I obviously slipped up when I photographed and posted it. Fiona I will certainly attend the next workshop to do the sea & rocks picture. Sarah you hit the nail on the head about the method of learning. There are people at the group who have attended for years and produce very good paintings. That's fine if you want to paint what the teacher (who is a good artist) chooses each time. I have today had a go at a new painting which I'm about to post. I think I've already learnt a lot.

Carol, I am not qualified to advise as I have never done any classes, never learned the correct way to do anything, and often think perhaps I should have done - but we used to run classes at the gallery and they were very popular. What put me off was that they would all sign up for a course with an artist whose style they admired, obviously, and then learn how to produce stilted, amateur looking versions of that artist's work. Admittedly, watercolour is a very technique based medium which I never mastered and good classes might have made a difference. Your snowscene is pleasing, you are learning the techniques and bringing home something you have done to remind you what you have learned. Developing style of one's own is something that gradually evolves............