Something new to get into!

So one of the classes I've been going to on Wednesday's at the AAC is a figure drawing sketch group. It's 2 hours of drawing 1 to 30 minute poses of a model. I've been really struggling with the face on the models so I just got several new portrait drawing books to help me out. Also I am hoping to take a workshop from a local artist that I met last weekend that is about painting heads and the figure. Take a look at her work here: http://mmatthews.com/ . Surely she can teach me a thing or two. This is one of the new skills I am attempting to take on with gusto!

I'm excited about how active the arts are in Atlanta. In the past month I've found all sorts of things to keep me busy with classes, workshops, and demos. I went to a demo last weekend at the Buckhead art store and was really impressed with the turnout- probably about 50 other "recreational" artists like me :-) Then I spent the rest of my spare time reading the portrait books so I didn't actually paint the rest of the weekend. I feel like I am in the awkward stage that I go through periodically. It's like I'm almost on the verge of a breakthrough of some sort but it's really painful getting there since I'm trying to change or improve what I'm already doing.

So coming up this week- I am copying John Singer Sargent's style into one of my own paintings, all in the 3 hour class. I have my photo of venice ready to go and am excited at the prospect of having a deadline to get it done. I want my watercolors to be looser and look more painterly and I've got a couple of ideas to help me achieve this. I will post the result later this week so you can see the finished product. Hopefully I will make Sargent proud!