Day 7: 30 Paintings in 30 Days!

"I've had Better Days"  $75  (8" x 8" image)

I think I’m finally over the hump.  I’m in a routine of being one day ahead for this challenge, and trying to get a few more ahead, in case of busy days ahead.  I do feel that the practice of painting every day sure makes you better faster. 

Today’s painting, "Looking ahead to Better Days” is a blind contour drawing on top of a 3 color design. I love doing blind contour drawings. If interested, it's available on my website, karenknutson.com 

Tip #7:  Look at a magazine photo or maybe even one of your photos, and do a very fast, blind contour drawing.  Do NOT look at the paper, till you are done.  I don't lift my pencil.  You can always make changes at that time if things don’t match up, but the fact that you don’t look at the paper gives your people such character.  

Then I like to close all the shapes, meaning there are no lines just hanging out.  Every shape has to be closed, like pieces to a puzzle.  I then trace that drawing onto tracing paper, and use graphite paper to transfer it to whatever surface you want to paint on.  I like to start an abstract and before I get too far into it, I add the blind contour drawing.  To see more abstract beginnings, just do a search for color studies on the opening page of my blog.  At the end of the painting, I use a permanent marker to trace the drawing again.