painting classes

I took a couple painting classes in Rajasthan. Ah Rajasthan, feels like it's been months ago.  But I took two painting classes,  one  in Jaipur and one in Udaipur. 

Jaipur,  the pink city, famous for its colors and scams. I wasn't expecting to take a class here,  but ended up taking one,  which was a bit of a scam. It was in a cute art studio,  the class was to learn miniature painting which is traditional of the region and really all of India. I asked to focus on flowers and patterns,  as that would be most useful for my work.  I was given a painting to copy and they left. After a few hours they said I wouldn't actually be painting today,  what!? I was getting frustrated as I can copy anything on my own time and wasn't given any instruction or information about the traditional technique. So I went over the drawing in pen to keep it from smudging,  the above drawing is what I did day one.  Day 2 was supposed to be painting. Again I was given a paper and picture to copy,  not this again! I asked to get into painting, reluctantly, they have me some watercolors. Now I'm pretty pissed, no instruction and given watercolors,  my least favorite medium. I can't do watercolors no matter how hard I try.  After a couple hours I give up and start doing my own thing. Psychedelic patterns drawn from old paintings in the studio.  Now they come over, confused as to what I'm doing and start giving little instruction. I finished up my little doodle and left. "You coming back tomorrow? " Nope.

The other class I took in Udaipur was awesome! Udaipur is known to have good art classes and there are plenty to be found.  I went to Asoka Arts. Here I did a small elephant painting on silk with stone colors,  seen below. Some colors are exactly that,  bright stones mashed up to make a color.  I had a difficult time using the brush,  was long and thin,  you had to use it at an angle. The boarder is pretty janked up,  but was fun trying. 

Overall,  both classes weren't as I liked.  But I was expecting to really learn something,  which I didn't really. Oh well,  it was kinda fun and I did pick up a lot of patterns to use!