painting - Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts • Mixed Martial Arts and Crafts

I don’t have a good title for this painting but I think it’s one of my favorites so far!

Abandoned boat

It’s been a few months since I went to painting class and it was really good to be back. I’m really proud at my improvement since my first painting. Looking at it now, I should have made the lake bluer but that’s fine. I’m really proud of how the grass at the bottom came out. And that it looks like boat and less like a shoe. Though, small boats are wooden shoe like.

For more FOs, check out the party at Tami’s blog.

I have not one but TWO things to show off on this sunny Friday. I am so proud of both of them but I can see where I could make improvements.

Firstly, I finished my sockettes! And they fit! I even wore them two days in a row! Kinda gross, I know but they’re soaking again!

They're finally done!

They’re of uniform size and everything! I should really stop with the exclamation points! I’m seriously proud of these. Things I could fix: I did some ribbing along the arch that I should have extended a little further down. Basically, I did the K3, P1 ribbing until I was bored of it. Also, the yarn is wonderful but a little thin so I may have to reinforce the heels. It’s a cashmere/merino blend so it feels so warm and heavenly. I am in love with these socks. Ravelry information is here.

Secondly, yesterday was painting class again. Yesterday’s painting was an angel which really isn’t my sort of thing. But Jason, the teacher, gave me some really great tips on making it a little more punk and some glow in the dark paints.

It kinda looks like Peter Boyle?

I messed up the face and the hair looks more like a hood than hair. It sort of reminds me of either Peter Boyle, Marlon Brando or my character in Skyrim dressed in his Thieves Guild cloak. Not my intention but whatever. Looking back on it now, I would have made the face a little darker by using more white and perhaps made it featureless? But I sort of like how translucent the robes are.

The biggest change I made to this painting is that I splattered water and different color paints all over the bottom. I liked his example and the rest of the class also did a good job but it really wasn’t in my taste or style. This is a little more me. My classmates said it was very “modern” but I’m not sure if it went over very well. Modern is up there with “nice” and “interesting” as adjectives that are either meaningless or polite forms of “awful”. I’m proud of it and that’s all that matters. Haters gonna hate!

For more FOs, check out the party at Tami’s place.

It’s another Friday which means another finished object to show off. Yesterday was painting class! And just in time because the only FO I have to show off is husband’s super secret present. I assume that he reads this so I’m keeping mum on the details for now.

Anyway, I title this Barn at Sunset. I’ve been trying to come up with a snappier name but so far, I’m failing.

I didn’t like it until I stepped away from it. I still prefer the Water Lillies I did in August but this one does look cool. I feel particularly clever for adding in the shadow of the interior of the barn. Next month we’re painting very stylized angels. It’ll be a series of three or four so I may give two of them away. We’ll see how generous I feel.

For more FOs, check out the party at Tami’s blog.

…with apologies to Monet is the full title of my newest painting.

This will be shown in galleries all across my living room

I had so much fun at last month’s painting class that I decided to do it again. This time I decided to take what the teacher, Jason Erwin, was saying as more of a guide and less like a rule and just throw myself into the painting. For the landscape I made last month, I mostly just sat there waiting for his instructions and trying to carry it out to the letter instead of just going with it. His instructions are open-ended, I just wasn’t used to that.

I’m super proud of this painting and the touches that I put into it like using bits of red on the lily’s leaves and having one go off the canvas. I felt my creativity flow in a way that’s really different from knitting. I’d like to knit something inspired by this and I have an idea slowly forming. We’ll see if it ever gets off of the page and onto the needles.

For more FOs check out the link parties over at Tami’s blog and Natural Suburbia!

Yesterday I took a painting class with one of Husband’s co-workers. The class is taught by Jason Erwin and it’s held the second Thursday of every month. It’s also BYOB which can lead to some interesting paintings. Jason is a very laid back teacher and reminded me of a skate boarding, kinda punk rock, Southern Bob Ross. Minus the ‘fro, natch. I don’t think anyone can really come close to the wonder that is Bob Ross’s ‘fro.

Today's colors are pthalo blue, yellow ochre and titanium white

But I digress. It’s a small group that meets and he walks you through every step of the painting. For this landscape, it was just a series of washes using a very limited palette. Our main color was a bright blue with just a little bit of blue black mixed at times and just a hint of green. Even using the same palette, painting the same landscape, there was a variety of results. Here’s mine:

I call this "Islands in the Stream"

From afar, it isn’t too bad. This is my first painting ever. I think the last time I painted something was a finger painting in school. I hated art class in elementary school so much so I didn’t bother taking it in high school or college. That’s something that I regret now. I’m going to keep at these classes in the hopes that playing around with color and using a different part of my brain will help me more in my knitting. I have some ideas kicking around for a sweater pattern and maybe this will help me really kick start my creativity.

And this wouldn’t be a Bob Ross-ish painting with out happy little trees. Here they are:

See the happy little trees?

For more FOs, check out Tami’s blog and Natural Suburbia!

FO Friday: Boat painting

FO Friday: Double FO Header!

FO Friday: Barn at Sunset

FO Friday: Water Lilies

FO Friday: A landscape