My First Painting!

I had some time tonight and decided to paint.  So, I locked the cats in my bedroom so that disaster wouldn't strike and set up my work station which basically meant putting a garbage bad on my coffee table and a large sheet on the floor.  I had started with one glass of water for rising and by the time I was done, had three glasses on the table (one for rinsing, another for rinsing, and one for cleaned off brushes).  Paper towels were handy too which I found the tip online about that.

I took a piece of canvas paper since this was my first time painting since art class in middle school.  I had an idea for something to paint which is kind of how it turned out.  You know the term "don't knock it until you've tried it"?  Well, keep that in mind below:

My first painting: No Name (yet)

It was actually quite fun and relaxing since it had no real purpose other than practicing some techniques and getting my feet wet (or brushes).  I originally planned on having the red in the center, then purple, and blue with some sort of background.

The red:  The first part I painted.  Was quite simple in that it came directly out of the tube.  Had no idea what size brush to use so I picked one that was kind of in the middle.  I wanted the central part to be smaller but the outer part kept getting a lot of red so it kept getting larger until I finally figured out how to sharpen the outer border which was good to know for the other sections.

The blue (dark):  The second part I painted. Same method, came right out of the tube.  It ended up being a larger section than I envisioned thanks to trying to keep the edges sharp again.

The blue (light):  This part I wanted to be purple so one would mix red and blue right?  Not in my case.  Actually, I did get what looked like a deep purple on the palate but I wanted it to be lighter so I mixed some white in thinking that would lighten it up.  Right?  Nope.  It turned into the blue color that you see on the right half.  I thought it looked unique and so just used it.  Unfortunately, I don't think it really looks good with the other blue. Too much blue.

The background:  Since I had proven not to be a mixing whiz, I went with one of the colors I already have, black.  I wanted a dark color and my only options were that or brown.

Overall, I think it looks good.  Certainly room for improvement but that's what this blog is all about.  

Things learned

1.  The paintbrush will put paint in places you don't think it will go and make your object bigger trying to fix it.

2.  Mixing is an art in itself.

3.  I'm a bad estimator at how much paint I think I will need for a section (too much or too little).

4.  I'm probably going to be sticking to painting shapes for a while.

5.  Maybe I should take that painting course in April.