This was another class project. Most of the class felt uneasy at the prospect of painting a face, but everyone did suprisingly well. I think mine came out pretty good. The original photo had a very dark background like my painting, but in his demonstration, Ron started painting a lighter colored background in blues and reds, intending to add the darker background later, but changed his mind and left the background as it was. I thought it needed the darkness, so I made mine dark.
The next class project was a view of Lower Yosemite Falls from a photo recently taken by Ron. It was a nice photo and felt like just the kind of scene that I like to paint. I was able to keep it pretty loose, and I think it one of my better paintings.
Then we did a scene from a calendar of the lone cypress on the 17 mile drive near Monterey. I remember seeing it on a family vacation when I was a kid, but not since then. We have spent a lot of time in the area over the years, but never did the drive again.
For the first class of the spring session, I chose to work from a photo that I took with my phone one day when the sky was filled with dramatic clouds. It is looking south from Diamond Hills, north of Livermore, the ranch where our horses are boarded. I mostly wanted to see what I could do with the clouds. I found it a bit challenging, but overall, not too bad.
