Thoughts on Painting and Drawing

Hello again, I wanted to write about the painting that I love to do and teach others. I also wanted to write about how important having some drawing skills is needed to be able to render your painting well. You really need to understand drawing in its most basic forms such as just thinking in simple terms like lines, shapes, forms, and textures. Having a basic understanding of how a flat 2 dimensional picture is transformed into a realistic 3 dimensional picture by using shading, forms and other drawing techniques will greatly improve your confidence when you do finally pick up the paint brush. What you need to realize is that the drawing is really just a "guide" for you to be able to use in order to start painting with your paints. Your eventually going to just cover this "guide" over with paint anyway so it doesn't really matter if it is a rough drawing quickly layed in with a piece of flint charcoal. Because you have to remember that using a pencil is alot easier to use than a paint brush. Lay in your drawing by possibly using a grid to help you get a more accurate drawing then when you have your drawing in and you know where you are going to start painting your subjects you can adjust the picture by changing the position of your shapes with your paint brush. Bottom line is don't get too stressed about the drawing process because you are really only using it as a "guide" so you know where you are going to start to paint. Enjoy!

Art Classes are going Great!

I thought I better post in the blog about how the new art classes are going. I have a few people in the class and hope to get more later. I am planning to go to the U.S. to see my family in a few weeks and will be away for awhile so will not be able to teach the art lessons during my vacation. I will give the students some assignments and a project to work on while I'm away to keep them busy until I get back. When I get back I plan on resuming the art class and start taking kids in to teach art classes to. I now have heaps more space in my shed now and will be able to accommodate up to 8 to 10 people in the class. Also, I have a fireplace being installed to keep the temperature comfortable during the winter time.

Regarding the website, I plan on adding more great content on art instruction coming up soon. I will be putting in more step-by-step demonstrations for beginning painters. The students in my art classes will have an opportunity to get their art posted on a page in my web site with their permission for a limited time. It will be fun and exciting for them to see their art in the internet!

I have also been busy painting my own projects and have finished a small rooster painting which I will post in my gallery site soon. I have started a larger project. I like to have several projects going at the same time as sometimes I get "bogged" down with a painting and need to take a short break from it and come back later with a fresh eye and usually I can get through the slump easier and see the solution. One tip an artist told me to do is to look at the picture upside down, as this sometimes works to figure out the question "what do I do next?"
Thanks for reading my blog and I'll be posting again soon!

New art class starting for beginners!

I have started a new art class for oil painting beginners this last week. It is every Wednesday from 9 to 12. Students need to bring their own supplies, I can give them a list of supplies they will need. If you don't have your supplies, you can use my supplies for a small fee. There is small fee to join the class. For further information about the class you can email me at Marilou@oil-painting-for-beginners.com Hope you can join us. I can only accommodate about 8 people. This class is held in my shed/studio. There is plenty of room because the shed is about 40 x 25 feet. But I only have about half of this space at the moment. This class curriculum will cover basic knowledge that beginners need to learn about. I will be teaching about colour, values (shading), and composition. There will be some discussions about drawing and what skills you need in order to be successful with painting. How to SEE like an artist. Thanks for reading and hope you can join our fun group of painters.

Current work in progress

I thought I better post something in the blog to keep my readers up to date with what was happening with the website oil painting for beginners. I recently finished a portrait painting of my daughter who is 12 years old and will be putting it in the website under portraits. Like I said previously in the portrait page, I do want to do more portrait painting and feel that I will improve with more experience in that area. I want to do a new self portrait of myself in oils as I haven't done one in a long time (maybe 15 years?) Anyway, the painting I started after the portrait one is a landscape painting of a very old bridge here in the town I live. I will post the photos of this painting in a page called "work in progress" on the website shortly. I haven't done anything on the painting in a couple of days as the weather has been very cold outside and my studio is in a shed with no insulation (just metal walls).

For those of you waiting for the video clips, they will be coming soon, I am looking for a good camcorder to buy and will record those mini lessons and get them posted in the website under a new page soon.

Thanks for your patronage.
Marilou

Welcome to the Paint Rag Blog!

Gday and welcome to my new blog for oil painting for beginners. I hope to use this blog to post new ideas for my website. Hopefully I can post to it at least once a week to keep my readers up to date with the website news. I will be giving tips and techniques in this blog on how to overcome certain obstacles when you are doing your painting. Also, new ideas for easy paintings to do.