NaNoBlogMo2 - Painting the Great Wall

When I posted in my blog for NaNoBlogMo last year and mentioned that I am not much of a painter, but still enjoy it, my good friend Rose said that we should get together and paint sometime. Being a lady of her word, she and her hubby (Jesse, also a good friend of mine) came up for a visit and I received a present: everything I needed to make a nice painting (including a palette, paints, brushes, canvas, etc) in a lovely wood box. One of the days of their visit, we set everything up in the living room to spend a day painting. My easel that I received for Christmas years ago from my parents got dusted off and readjusted.

For inspiration, I thumbed through a book my mother got in Beijing years ago with different pictures of the Great Wall. The day we painted was a long time ago, so I can't remember the details too much, but I believe that Rose suggested or gave some advice that lead me to pick this picture as a good one to start with.

 I'm not too impressed with the end result, but I'm not disappointed either. Painting is not my strong suit, but it looks pretty close to what I was using as a reference. There are a few parts I am quite proud of. The sky looks pretty nice, and the shadow cast by the wall. Rose helped me with the clouds and gave advice from time to time regarding mixing paints, proper layering and such.

It took some effort for me to not be an idiot and to actually listen to Rose. I don't know if I've said this plainly in this blog, but I have a problem sometime (aka....often) listening to advice. If someone tries to help me, for some reason my brain immediately says "THIS PERSON THINKS I'M STUPID". It is a ridiculous reaction, moreso in this case because I welcomed Rose and wanted her advice.

The epilogue to this story is that I haven't painted since that day. I am pretty sure painting will continue to be something that I thoroughly enjoy....once in a blue moon.