Scissors - With Carol Marine's Influence

Scissors.

6x6in  oil on canvas board. 85.

Continuing yesterdays blog on my work habits.

This painting was the first thing I painted after taking a workshop from Carol Marine, who is a fabulous artist. She is also a wonderful teacher. Carol has a very definite style which she generously shares with everyone who takes her workshops. I was fortunate enough to take from her in January of 2010.
Her influence is clearly seen in my painting of scissors.

Artist Note:

When taking a workshop I find it very important to take good notes because I can refer to them any time I want to after the memories start to fade. I found this out the hard way after thinking that photos alone would help. I was wrong and missed helpful steps to my growth because the information overload of a workshop needs all the support it can get.
I have also found that if I take photos and then print them out and place them next to the corresponding notations, it is a great way to jog the visual memory.
Here is an example of my notes from Carol's workshop. The photos of her demo  are on one side and my notes on the other.

I draw small  boxes of the step by step process with corresponding numbers for the note detail below.
I also watch how an artist holds their brush for different techniques and record that. I will photograph their palette to remind me of how they mixed their colors.

I try to take a workshop every year from an artist I admire. Last year it was Qiang Huang. It stimulates me and I always learn something new. The idea is not to paint exactly like any of the artist I take from, but to incorporate some of their teachings into my own vision.
Here are some of my notebooks below. I use the Bienfang Note Sketch Book. I now use the small size but the larger size is perfect too.