Painting Class with Lorie

Last Saturday, I joined my friend, Lorie, for a free oil painting class taught at a library in a nearby town. I always like to take artsy classes, and free is always good. Here's the original painting we were trying to paint on our own.

We began by using carbon paper to trace a butterfly onto our canvas. Why would I never think of that on my own? Tracing a design takes away a lot of my nervousness about trying to draw, and it resulted in a pretty good looking butterfly (if I do say so myself).

Our teacher, Bob Shoop, was very mild-mannered and kind. I appreciated his teaching approach and admired him for being so artistically talented while only having one hand. 

Lorie and I paused for a quick selfie toward the beginning of class.

Butterfly progress...

Note to self - sit on the right hand side of the room next time.

A quick glance at some of the other students in the room; there were about a dozen of us in all.

More butterfly progress...

Here, you can see the progress of my painting as compared to the teacher's painting in the background.

The rose was totally a freehand experience - nervewracking!

Here, you can see my painting with the teacher's canvas in the background. I'm pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish in working with oil paints for the very first time.

At least you can tell it's supposed to be a rose with a butterfly!

Lorie's picture and mine ended up looking a lot like the one we were supposed to be copying, so I think we were definitely top-notch students in that regard. Here we are posing with our finished pieces.

Here are our teacher's paintings - his original on the left and the one he painted in class with us on the right.

The class was definitely a lot of fun! I can't wait to take another art class at the Allen County Library; it's definitely worth the 1/2 hour drive for a quality art experience that is free. :) Do you know what's available at your nearby libraries or community centers? I encourage you to check.