Watercolor Class Part 1

 Sorry about the delay between posts! Took a small, spontaneous trip while I had the opportunity. Regardless, I'd like to post some of my work from my recent water color class. It's not terribly interesting stuff. It was more about technique than anything. I guess I'll start with a couple still-life pieces I did.  The scanner doesn't quite represent them as they are, but it will do I suppose.  If you'd like to view any of them in larger size you can find them in the photobar at the top of my blog.

This is your pretty standard fruit/vegetable still life sort of thing.  It was our first real project after wading through all the basic color theory at the beginning of the class.

 This isn't really a still life.  This is actually a master study.  I don't have a link to the reference because my professor didn't actually tell us whose it was.  If the colors seem off, I was working from an enlarged black and white print off and only saw the colored image a couple of times.

This was the last still life piece we did in which we were allowed to set up the content and composition.  I honestly wish I'd had a little more time to work on it but the class was very fast paced.

Over all I'm satisfied considering I had little experience with the medium so far.  Perhaps I wouldn't have chosen this exact content, but it was a great exploration and I learned a lot in the class that I will carry into my other art.  More to come!

Book Review and Exciting News!

I must apologize for the lack of pretty pictures that you might expect in an art blog, but I am currently reading a book I picked up at the local thrift store for a buck. It's called The Non-Designer's Design Book by Robin Williams . It's a pretty basic book to begin to teach you about laying out type on a page for whatever you might need it for. I'm about half way through it right now, but I thought I'd write a little bit of a review.

In terms of the audience this book is designed for, it is perfect! Robin Williams, the author,  doesn't get into a lot of technical details, use unfamiliar terms but includes lots and lots of visual examples. As an art student with some design experience under my belt (though not a lot of working with type), I do find some of it simplistic, but that's pretty much what I would expect. I picked it up to help jump start me into thinking like an artist and getting ready for a full time school workload and it's been great for that!  Robin lays out all the simple little techniques we can use to make a brochure, business card, flier, web page etc. look professional. She really teaches us how to use visual elements to make information more accessible, meaningful and pleasing to the eye (I love it when art can be practical!).

I highly recommend this to anyone who makes fliers or brochures in a regular basis, or if you're looking to get into design for whatever reason, or if you are already into design and feel like you need a quick refresher. Like I said, she uses tons of examples so that you can see her principles in use.

On an unrelated note: I finished my first class as a re-admitted college student! Wooo! I took my little vocab quiz yesterday and got my portfolio back and I was done! It was a pretty basic watercolor class and there are no grades yet, but it feels good to have a class under my belt. More about it later when I get everything scanned in an can show you some pictures and talk about my assignments.  Pretty pictures!  I promise!

Have to Start Somewhere...

 Honestly, this is the third time I've attempted to start this blog. But I've gotten past the 11 hour work days, moving and other such things so I hope I have a little more time to focus. So here is yet another obligatory first post.

First of all. I'm Missa! I'm here, mostly, to get some more direction and practice and, hopefully, feedback for my art. I've recently just become a student again with the goal of pursuing my degree in art, so this is as good a place to start as any! Most content will revolve around my art and things I'm doing to improve my technique. As well, I hope to celebrate some artists I find inspirational occasionally philosophize about art, and also other parts of my life that contribute to the whole picture of me as an artist.

No reason to drag this out forever. Onto bigger and better things in the following posts as I get to work on some new projects.