A lesson in color.

This was a very interesting lesson about color. We used cutouts that my teacher had made. I put them together and then learned how to find the reality in them. The cutouts you can see help with depth and shadows even though it's not a real thing. On the right is my landscape.

When I did this it looked familiar to me.

Still life.

My teacher gave me these reminders for how to do a small still life, 6" x 8" using acrylics:

set up at least two objects; they should overlap each other slightly. Shadow areas on objects should be made up of the local color of the object. For example, the red of an apple plus a small amoung of the complement of red. The cast shadow and object shadow should be two different values. He told me to "think composition": the main object should not be in the center of the page. Above is a picture of what I was looking at, and here's what I did:

Self portraits.

These are two self portraits that my teacher had me do. The one above I did in his studio. Here are the instructions I got: use charcoal; 10x12; remember how to hold the implement (the medium is charcoal); make a series of straight lines; do measurements. How wide is the nose compared to the eye? Where does a straight line from edge of eye intersect cheek, chin, neck? Keeping those questions in mind I did this one at home: