Taking Good Notes

Since beginning my art journey I have been diligent (mostly) in the taking of good notes.  I keep these notes in an blank diary and they serve the purpose of recording the process of completing a piece, the teaching points, hints and tips that Don imparts or I discover along the way.  I photograph each step along the way as a visual reminder also.  Because I do this I was able to pick up Mma Tembo and restart her with relative ease after my two year hiatus.

Here are some pages from my journal.

Here is a small copy of my reference photo (this painting is for study purposes and not for sale so it is not my own photograph, just one I found in google images that appealed to me).  Here I've recorded a few notes about elephants.

Just the bottom of the page here showing some notes on the use of colour in the piece and a picture of my palette with a list of the colours to be used in the piece.  This was brilliant to have after so long away from the painting.

 Don demonstrated glazing techniques to me on a piece of scrap canvas and I taped this into my journal as a reminder.

Recording progress photos with any notes I need to remember written alongside.  These may be techniques I've used, notes on tone/colour or changes that need to be made.

Further notes, mainly to document progress.

Where I left off at the end of my last class....

Not a great photo but it gives you an idea of how I am progressing.  For comparison, I have included the image below from the end of the previous weeks class so you can compare them. I think the true colour of the painting lies between these images.  They've photgraphed very differently.