Learning by mistake

The first assignment of the autumn semester was to paint a portrait of oneself from one's childhood, and a memory. For various reasons I had no reference material available, and so had to revert to memory and vagueness. I started out painting on a canvas of fairly small size, but painted for too long in the evening - the light changed, I made a colour-mix and then, the morning after, saw my mistake. Covering it up only made everything worse and so, I faced an uncommon occurence to me: I had to start over from the very beginning.
So I did. With deadline mere hours away (I believe, eight or six hours, maybe less) On a rather larger canvas of size F4, I suspect, I worked with the original idea, but simplified it. There is me, reading a book - as I did all the time, whether I was standing, sitting or even walking - but it is all made with a muted, Raw Umber mixed with Titanium White, colour, and sketchy at that. I did fill it in with a bit of colour, but only a little. The book is a little more detailed, but the interesting part are the surroundings. As I seemed to live most of the time inside my own head, or in my books, and the books and my fantasies were all much more colourful and enticing than real life, I painted some fantastical and mythical beings and things around the head of the girl. A lady with a sword, a dragon, some fairy lights or possibly butterflies, a moon, a stylised star. My art teacher labelled it "Symbolist" though I hesitate to place myself amongst the distinguished painters of the age when that label first appeared.

I certainly am not calling this a good painting, in any way but the idea that started it. It is hastily made, the colours aren't very well matched, the composition of it is decent but not perfect and over all, yes, it certainly shows that the artist, that is, me, was working under the pressure of a severe time limit. I simply didn't have the time to even lay the groundwork for making it better at a later time. I had to have a painting ready and so that was the only goal.
No, it's not a very good painting, but it was a learning experience nevertheless and the subject is one I plan on re-using at a later date.

Emergency acrylics

The next assignment for the course was predictably enough to paint a picture in post-impressionist style. The problem was, by the time I knew it was supposed to be done in oils and before what date, I'd already left the particular place where I keep most of my stuff, including my oils. I had brought with me acrylics, though, as they are far easier to transport, and an F2 canvas board (I have a preference for canvas boards, as they take up less space and are cheaper). So I set out to at least try to do the assignment anyway.
Once again I found myself troubled by the choice of what to paint. I wanted something from real life, but that proved unfeasible, and taking something from off the top of my head didn't work. But recently, via the blog of Neil Gaiman, I found at Dr Sketchy a session that had been dedicated to The Endless, from the comic series "Sandman" (which, if you haven't read it, you ought to). I found this, and was taken with how awesome Desire came across.
I used said F2 canvas board, my synthetic acrylic brushes and my paints, to which I'd added one more yellow. I previously owned only a Process Yellow, but decided that a Windsor & Newton Cadmium Yellow Light would be a good addition - in hindsight, I should have gone for something darker but, there you go. I didn't sketch beforehand, but started with a dark brown, mixed from I can't remember which colours (orange and green, probably) to get the outlines of his/her coat. I did try, I really did, to paint with inspiration from Rysselberghe and Tolouse-Lautrec but as you can see... I pretty much failed. I tried using their brush technique, and their eye for colour but bugger it all, I failed. I'm not about to give up, however! I intend to have another try once I get a hold of my oils again. Post-impressionism isn't my favoured style but I want to force myself to paint in ways I never would otherwise, to progress my skills.

I painted this in two sittings, and did the majority of Desire in the first, but the background and touch-ups the next time. A good thing, since also the light changed in the room I worked in, so that some colours that seemed like good ideas the first sitting, weren't actually, as it turned out in full daylight.

I tried not to shy away from strong colours and sharp contrasts, and to paint with small brushstrokes and thick layers of paint.