Learning to Paint

I've decided to take some time and learn how I paint. One of my art classes was supposed to leave me with a knowledge of painting, but I only developed a fear of it. There was too little time in and outside of class to explore the qualities of paint, and too much time spent being told about advanced techniques. Pretty much I was the only dolt in the class---how embarassing.



Anyway.



Here is an attempt I've made over the last week and a half to learn more about paint and how I the stuff. I took variations of an image I drew (my wife, Mikelle, in her Sunday outfit from three weeks ago) and painted each picture the best I knew how. I paid attention to how I was laying paint down, which colors I was mixing and where I put them, how rough I let the paint get, how I described skin tones, etc. After painting the first picture and feeling okay about it, I decided that the gold leaf and her shirt were too close to each other in value and that the background needed to be more subdued. So, picture #2 began... Each picture was meant to stand on its own, but be blatant in its relationship with the others.



These were all painted with acrylics on 9x12" panels of illustration board that I cut all by myself and I plan to do more painting in the future.



Here they are in the order they were painted:



All in all, I really like how the last picture turned out. It was the quickest painting of them all, but I really had a grasp of what I was doing. I hope other people who paint have as much fun making their pictures as I did with mine!