Day 2 Still Life — Ok this is harder than I thought it would be!!!  Kudos to you still life painters.  Just trying to figure out what to paint, how to arrange, light, etc. was a huge challenge.  Painted for an hour or so and then wiped it out completely.  Hopefully I’m learning something in the process!!

I always start with the brush.  Then at some point I get totally frustrated that I can get the depth of color and value that I want and end up picking up the knife.  I think some of it is laziness too.  I’m really not enamored of total realism – maybe because I’ve never really mastered it?  But I end up liking some looseness and the knife seems to achieve that for me.  Anyway that’s my excuse at this point!

The other piece of this challenge that I am happy about is that it forces me to keep up with my blog every day.  That’s a discipline that I have lacked, and perhaps after a month of posting I won’t let it go in the future.

Hoping that the rain will stop soon and I can go outside and do some plein air as part of this challenge. Day 2 down, 28 to go!  Come on lessons!!!