Back to my Art Lessons

While in the US, I invested in a few more art supplies. Few because the stuff is VERY expensive and even more so here. It's a nice hobby if you can afford it. I have learned, however, that I just don't seem to do well with the student quality (read: cheap) stuff. I got some fairly decent colored pencils (not dollar store quality) and I can work a little better, but for sure colored pencils will NOT be my specialty. They seem to require too much time and too many details and they are not forgiving in the least. The cat is a study on the eyes. I didn't finish it because I just got tired of working on it. I spent a lot of hours and wore down a lot of pencils. I used at least 7 different colors to try to achieve the calico effect. If and when I ever finish it, I'll put it up on a post.
Yesterday was our first lesson with watercolors and all of us were like a bunch of kids. It is a totally new thing to work with a brush and not a pencil. I, especially, had a hard time. Nevertheless I did produce something. Nothing to shout about, but a learning experience, nevertheless. I had a hard time with the strokes UNTIL I switched over to using the one sable brush ($44!) I have. It was like night and day. I used it on the cherries and I think you can see the difference. I could control what I was doing. Today I tried a monochromatic study of a goblet, just to try to learn a little about mixing the water and applying the layers. I feel like there is so much to learn - working with the brush, controlling the water, mixing the colors, layering, leaving some white on the paper for contrast, getting the tone/shadowing right. Wow. And as our teacher tells us, a little bit of color won't make the actual "drawing" look better, so you can't neglect the drawing part either. Certainly is challenging for me, but one thing can be said - I am not afraid of trying out and failing at the art stuff. I have nothing to lose. There are now some teenagers in our class and they are terrified of failing. Of course, they are really good, but lack the confidence. Me I just plunge in and take a stab at it. It's fun to me, not life and death. I am so glad not to be 14 again!!!!