Expressive Drawing 2.2 "In My Garden" - Graphite, colored pencil and gesso on paper - $300

This one grew naturally into a painting about plants, growing, roots, seeds, leaves. It was fun to work on. At least it wasn’t about castles!

Expressive Drawing 2.1 "Above and Below" - Graphite and gesso on paper - $300

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 3
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 64

I am really trying to get the hang of this cover up technique. I see art that uses it and I really like the idea that there is a hint of something that was lost and covered up in a painting. “What can it be?” “Why was it covered?” These are some of the questions that are asked when things are covered up as you paint.

It adds depth – not just physical depth, but an emotional depth to a piece.

I can talk about it, but it is difficult to cover something up that I have put into the painting. It isn’t like you cover up a mistake. It is something good, but it is just less essential to the art you are working on right now.

The following three paintings are designed to help me learn how to cover things up. I think I was successively more successful.

Alley #1 - 16" x 20" - Acrylic and graphite on Masonite - $400

PAINTINGS COMPLETED TODAY: 1
PAINTINGS COMPLETED TO DATE: 43

I really like the painting I finished today. I think, however, that it is a little dark because of how I have started doing my paintings. I draw on the gessoed board with a woodless pencil. The I start to paint with gesso to cover up lines I dont’ want to show.

There is so much graphite on the board that it gets picked up with the gesso and paint and I think it makes the painting a little dingy.  What do you think? Is the painting clear enough to tell? I like the picture, I like the composition, I like the colors. I just don’t know if I should use fixative to lock the graphite down before I start painting.

Me teaching my first art class in a school

Today I taught an art class in my 2nd grader’s class. I had spoken with his teacher during our parent/teacher conference. I mentioned that I was an artist and could teach a class. She took me up on the offer and today I taught my first real school art class.

I did the second exercise in Steve Aimone’s “Expressive Drawing” book. We did some automatic drawing with a little “veiling.” the kids did a great job and I think I blew it when I said “OK kids you have 2 minutes left…” because they just started whiting over everything and scribbling over everything they had just done. There were a few really nice pieces.

I told them their parents just might not understand what they were doing because it wasn’t really a picture of something. So they should just tell their parents it is “Expressive drawing.”

One little girl was crying because she scratched her paper and the teacher wouldn’t let her get a new one. I asked her how she felt and then told her to draw how she felt on the paper. She started scribbling within the lines she had just drawn and it looked really cool.

One boy's "Expressive Drawing. I like the use of color to add a focal point to the drawing.

I will have to try this again if the teacher will have me back!