Bethanyology

I’ve been meaning for a long time to try my hand at painting again. Once in high school I did a watercolor under the expert supervision of my grandmother and it was successful enough to win a prize at a competition. A few years later I tried to do another watercolor unsupervised. It turned out as a piece of paper completely covered in purpley-brown. No, it was not a modern art piece. It was supposed to be beautiful snow-capped mountains. Didn’t work out that way.

I have several talented award-winning painter sisters, one of them who was a high school art teacher all this last school year. A while back I asked her why my latest attempt at painting was such a failure, and she decided that it wasn’t so much me as it was my choice of materials. I’d used sketch paper instead of watercolor paper, spiral bound instead of taped to a board. Apparently that’s going to nearly guarantee watercolor failure. I also used one of those plastic brushes that comes with sets of kids watercolors. Also not setting myself up for success.

So, another nearly decade later, I decided to try again, this time with guidance from my more experienced sisters. Emily (the art teacher) told me to start with acrylics this time, since they’re apparently a more forgiving medium than watercolor.  She passed on some of her paints to me, and told me to get a canvas board (less than $5 at Michaels for a 3-pack) in a smaller size (8×10) and to get some better brushes.  I watched a bunch of Bob Ross shows (I love his happy trees!) on the DVR in preparation, but when I mentioned that I was planning to try one of his shows as a starter painting, Emily recommended that I hold off on that for a little while in order to give me some instant gratification (i.e. decrease my chances of  discouragement).  Between her and Eliza, it was decided that my first try should be a black-and white painting to give me some experience with values.  I was a little disappointed about this at first since I like bright colors, but once we compared Bob Ross to calculus (or algebra or whatever) and my monochromatic option to addition, I decided to go with addition today.

Emily and Eliza suggested that I find a simply shaped picture to work from in black and white and grid-trace it onto a midtone-gray-painted canvas.  I went to old newspapers for inspiration, and found a small photo by Jeff Vendsel of fireworks at the county fair to work from. Thanks IJ!  I chose it because Eliza said that photos that are darker are more fun to do in monochrome, and because I liked the subject.  I didn’t do the tracing thing, as the proportions didn’t really fit (maybe you can tell…), but I found the mid-points and generally stuck to the shapes as much as I could.

Determined to get some paint on canvas, I waited until nap time during the half-hour all three kids were asleep, gathered my supplies, put on the grey base coat, and sketched out my shapes.  I pulled out my still-inexpensive brushes ($5 for about 15 of various shapes and sizes)  and got to work.

By the time Maggie woke up two hours later, I had finished what you see in the photo above.  The first to admit it’s no masterpiece, I think it’s a really good first try, given naptime constraints and phone-only coaching.  And when I asked Maggie and Degen what the stripes were, they knew they were fireworks, and that the roundish thing on the right was a “merry-go-round” and that the bottom part was water.  So it’s at least recognizable, and I’m pleased to have taken a step toward my aspirations to paint as a hobby.

P.S.  Like my background for my photo?  It’s my desk, complete with an offer I’ve been reluctantly sort of ignoring for a discount subscription to Cook’s Illustrated.  Someday when I have lots of money lying around, I’m going to buy subscriptions to Cook’s Illustrated, Popular Science, and the Economist–hey, and while we’re at it probably seven-day/week subscriptions to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, since we have unlimited money in my dream world here.