Takes me a while to figure out what’s wrong w a painting. Did not like this one. Paint along with Vladislav Yesileyev

Till I darkened the roof on the right. It was competing with the focal point of the roof on the red barn. Oops. Think I still need to darken the smallest roof. But oh so much better now. A day or two of looking at it and bingo there was the answer.

Today I took a sketching class from Vlad which really was about how focus a painting using a value sketch. 32 of us showed up for 4 hours with the master Vlad. He has an MFA from St Petersburgs Art Institute in Russia. That’s a lot of art practice to get a degree.

Lots of great tips on focus squinting and shading.

a page of my notes today.

the photo – not much there is there. Guarantee if he paints it it would be wonderous.

And how to focus. Lightest light will be focal point. We used 3 shades well four if u count white. Light medium and darkest dark.

Also taught us about perspective which I already knew though sometimes it can drive me crazy.

And for dinner tabouleh veg salad and strawberry shortcake for desert. Yum.

Margaret ready for bed. Xoxoxo