From Stick Figures to Masterpieces

My mother-in-law, who is an artist, is heading to China in September to do a painting workshop with Kevin Macpherson. And she invited me to join her. Of course I said yes. I mean how many opportunities do you get to visit China?

But there's one teensy little problem. I don't paint. And if we're being totally honest, I am probably one of the least artistic people I know. I mean I can barely draw a decent stick figure.

But I put my best foot forward and decided to give painting a try, even though it goes against every bone in my body. I decided to learn the basics of painting from my mother-in-law. The first day of this experiment went okay. We decided to use a photo printed on canvas. So basically all I did was paint over the photo. Nothing too scary about that. I wasn't super pleased with the final product, as I was basically tracing, but I was satisfied.

Here's a close up of the flowers with a little bit of impasto.

Now for day two. That was the real challenge. Sheryle (my mother-in-law) had me scope out a scene, sketch it, and then paint it. This was really hard for me. I kind of went into a dark, sullen place because I felt like I couldn't do anything right. My brush strokes were just a little too amateurish, which makes the end result look like that of a fifth grader. But all in all, despite my frustrations, I was pretty pleased with the end result, considering I can't even draw a stick figure :).

Here is the photo of the original scene.

Here's the sketch.

And finally the masterpiece. Well at least a masterpiece in my own mind!

My plan is to start on another painting as soon as I get all my supplies. I'm hoping the next painting will have more layers and show a little more depth, contrast and texture. But I'm trying not to be too hard on myself, as it will only be my second painting ever! Daughter.