LAST OF THE COLOR STUDIES (FOR NOW!)

Here is the last of the quartet of color studies. This one is ANALOGOUS COLORS (3 or 4 colors next to each other on the color wheel) As a random pick, I got Red Orange/Orange/Yellow Orange. I actually mixed the RO and YO together to get the orange as I didn't have one in the Hydrus line. My 3 forms of color trio was TINT/TONE/BLACK. I tried to stick to this but in the end I couldn't stand the total blackness of the side of the face so created a SHADE by brushing Red-Orange on top. I really like the result. I wound up "cheating" on my value plan, as well, as I was painting. In truth, this is the way to work. It pays to have a plan when you start but an artist needs to respond to what is happening on the page and make adjustments which may deviate from the plan to make the best painting possible. When I was a very inexperienced painter, many years ago, I remember being baffled by the expression "let the painting talk to you". It's exciting when you get to the stage that you not only understand this expression but have an engaging "conversation" with your painting.

THREE DOWN, ONE TO GO!

I redid the painting from the last post on traditional watercolor paper and I like it much better. I am actually using white and black pigment from the Dr. Martin's Hydrus liquid colors and I am pleased with the result. With GREY/TONE/SHADE, the tone parts look bright as long as I don't lower their intensity too much. I am a big believer in doing a painting a second or even third time until I get it right. Trying to rework watercolor just creates more problems than it fixes for me. I prefer a total do-over.

The second painting was my Split Compliment of Red/Blue Green and Yellow Green using the 3 forms of WHITE/HUE/TONE. I fudged a little with the hues because I wanted to try the Daniel Smith Watercolor Stix on this new paper I have. The colors I used were Quin Coral for the Red, Sap Green for the yellow green and Thalo Green, blue shade for the Blue Green. That's close enough. I actually like this one. It's pretty bizarre but fun. A little like a Baboon's bottom! The watercolor stixs actually worked much better on this paper than the tube paints I tried earlier. That means I shall take this paper with me for travel sketches in color. The stixs are good items for travel. I just touched a wet brush to them and painted directly on the paper.

The third painting used another Split Compliment combination of Yellow Orange with Blue and Violet. Faber Birren thinks that Split Compliments work best when there are two Tertiary colors and only one primary or secondary color. This one has only one Tertiary (yellow orange) but I am pleased with the results. The 3 color forms were TINT/TONE/SHADE.

I didn't get the last of the four paintings done today but it is nice to have something planned for the next day. It makes getting started so much easier. Tomorrow's painting will be with analogous colors. That should have a totally new look for Monsieur.

MORE COLOR SURPRISES!

I received a nice e-mail from Peggy Stermer-Cox and thought I would share it. She posed the following question:
"I've been thinking about asking you a question. How do you maintain your drawing skills? Would that be an entry you'd care to post? It seems to me your drawing skills are strong and an essential part of your successful work. Again, thanks! Peggy"
The answer is "practice, practice, practice". I'm sure we all have noticed how we get rusty when we don't use any skill we have acquired. I do love to draw, so it is easy to keep it up because it is pleasurable. It is the things we need to do but don't enjoy doing that are hard to maintain.

Yesterday I took an ART HOLIDAY with my good friend Andrea and we took the subway into San Francisco, had lunch and then went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Okay, so we detoured a little into a few shops along the way. It was Free Tuesday at the Museum! I didn't even know they had "free Tuesday" but a welcome surprise. The Georgia O'Keefe/Ansel Adams special exhibit was extra but that was why we came. We couldn't get into that part of the museum until 3 PM so we spent some time in the gift shop....a most dangerous place for me....and then we went up to the top to see the new sculpture garden. The top floor had some very unusual pieces. One was what appeared to be two photographs cut into strips and then plaited together like an Ikat weaving. I loved the idea, did a fast sketch with notes and took some photos. I am definitely going to do a piece in this manner put with watercolor paintings or drawings, not photographs.

The Georgia O'Keefe exhibit turned out to be so much more interesting to me since I have been reading and studying about color. I was able to analyze how she used color and break it down into the Faber Birren concepts. Her use of intensity, gradation, shape, et al was so exciting to discover with new eyes on my part. Now I have to get a book out of the library and really study at length. No photographs were allowed in this exhibit. In fact, no pens! I was sketching and the guard handed me a pencil. It's printed for all the world to read on the back of the ticket that no pens are allowed. Don't know how I missed that.

I am in the final stages of my color work. For fun and surprises I put all the variables on slips of paper and randomly pull them out and create a painting with those elements. I created 4 different value plans for this particular drawing. Then I pulled a slip with one of the Faber Birren variations. I added a slip from color variations. I did this 4 times and then matched each set to one of the value patterns. The one above was GREY/TONE/SHADE using Deep Rose Red, Gamboge and Viridian. The color choice was by writing all my paint tubes on separate slips of paper and pulling out 3 of them. I lucked out as this set wasn't too weird. I painted this on a new paper that I coated with gesso and textured slightly. One of the texturing elements created pin prick dots that look like measles on this guy. I think I will do this one over on regular watercolor paper.

The next painting is going to be a huge challenge to pull off because I have to work with the Split Compliment Red/Yellow Green and Blue Green. Sometimes you get very ugly paintings but sometimes you get some amazing results that would not have happened any other way. What you always get is a fun challenge.

TINT AND TONE EQUAL IRIDESCENCE

I have been re-reading Faber Birren's book from cover to cover in order to fully comprehend his ideas. He has a very formal way of expressing himself and often it is difficult to totally process the concepts. Putting words to visual expression is very tricky I am finding out. It turns out that Birren's contribution to color as it applies to painting was mostly in the area of figuring out how to express luminosity, iridescence and luster along with chromatic light effects and mist, etc. Much of this is strange to apply to a portrait but the attempt creates some very unusual results. I don't think you can really get an iridescent face but I decided to do something with the formula in today's painting. The general idea is to have the majority of the painting in the mid value range fairly neutral with TONES and then have small touches of TINTS. Instead of having the TINTS as part of the features, I decided to super-impose these squares on top of the image just for the fun of it. By masking off the areas for tints, I was able to paint more easily. I created the TONES by mixing complements. I have my palette arranged according to Stephen Quiller's recommendations for perfect compliments. It makes life so easy when it is established this way. All of his palette is pure hues so it works very smoothly with Faber Birren's 7 forms of color triangle. This color effect is all about INTENSITY of color and controlling the VALUE range. INTENSITY is the degree of purity of hue versus neutralizing or dulling it down. The confusion of intensity comes when you lighten the hue but don't dull it. Theoretically it maintains it full intensity but not full SATURATION which has to do with the pigment load, not the purity. I understand the concept. I just think there could be a better term to describe the situation. I like PURITY myself but the term INTENSITY is here to stay.

Art has it's own specific language and we have to be consistent in order to communicate these visual concepts. Many years ago when I was a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis in one of my first classes, the professor gave a talk. I remember thinking it sounded like English but I didn't understand a thing he said! I hadn't learned "art speak" yet. I'm still working on it!

THE CHALLENGE

It seems like there are challenges everywhere I turn. First of all, the internet signal to my computer keeps cutting out. Just when I want to post to the blog, no connection! Irritating to say the least.

The second challenge is really comprehending all the color ideas in Faber Birren's book, "Creative Color". My copy dates back to 1961. I think it may be out of print. It was the text for the college class I took in color. I am rereading it and trying some of the exercises. Above is the latest "Frenchman" painting trying to get LUSTER effect. This is the use of HUE, SHADE, BLACK combination of color forms. It turns out that DOMINANCE is critical for the effect. A small amount of pure hue surrounded by dark shades or black give the optical illusion of luster. Luster is generally "seen" in metal or fabric, not skin. In a portrait the effect isn't exactly lustrious but a beautiful glow. Rembrandt did it best! I think this version from the "Vern" series worked better. At the time I was translating a beautiful landscape painting by Wolf Kahn into a color scheme for a portrait. Now I realize that it followed the HUE, SHADE, BLACK formula which produced this beautiful glowing light. My latest version isn't as dramatic and has a much warmer set of colors but I think it works. I did lose the "intensity" of the yellow when I glazed the painting with red. A little watercolor crayon should bring it back.

The next painting will be pure hue surrounded by gray or neutral tones to capture "luminosity". I have attempted this before with limited success.

FABER BIRREN'S COLOR CONCEPT

In response to Rhonda Carpenter's request for more information on my last post, I will describe what I am trying to accomplish.

Faber Birren devoted his life to the study of color. Perhaps the most complicated of all the elements of design. In his book "Creative Color", he devised this schematic shown above where you have HUE (PURE COLOR) WHITE & BLACK in an equilateral triangle. If you combine HUE with WHITE you create a color called a TINT. If you combine HUE with BLACK you create a color called a SHADE. Lastly, if you combine WHITE with BLACK you get GRAY. He places each of these between the HUE, WHITE AND BLACK. In the center is what is called a TONE. A TONE is created when you mix GRAY (BLACK & WHITE) with a HUE or when you neutralize a HUE by adding it's compliment. By adding a compliment you are in effect combining all three primary colors in some ratio. Even a small addition of the 3rd primary creates a dulled color. So, you can see that this "triangle" has lines connecting each to the other where there is some common element. The idea that he had was to draw a straight line through three connecting "words" and create a painting using only these aspects of color. Why? You would have a natural harmony because each element has a relationship with one of the others. This is also a way to establish mood.

So, within this concept, a HUE must be a pure color. Many tubes of paint are mixtures and already TINTS, SHADES OR TONES. Magenta was one of those colors that was already altered. It would not work with the HUE/TINT/WHITE painting, as I found out. I should have known in advance but it isn't always easy to see the subtle alteration of a color. Watercolor makes this idea more difficult because the TINT is created by adding water instead of white pigment. At what point does HUE become TINT? I don't really know but will use my best judgement. Another factor making watercolor so challenging for this project is the transparent nature of watercolor. With color glazing I am getting tones when I don't want them. An opaque paint such as acrylic would be much easier to create the effects. I struggle on! Above is my watercolor version of WHITE/TONE/SHADE.

Color can be parsed very mathematically but I am not interested in "exact". I am satisfied with "approximate". I am intriguied by the concept and the visual result of following these color design formulas. If I get a general approximation of the effect by following the guidelines, I am not going to stress over a minor infraction.

Just to complicate the matter further, consider the aspect of DOMINANCE. If there are three items to work with, they could be used equally or one could dominate and the other two could be very minor or one could dominate, one could subordinate and the third could be very minor....think "PAPA, MAMA, BABY" or two could be equal and the third could be minor. When you switch the players around into the different positions you see why one lifetime isn't enough to grasp it all!

I have set the challenge for myself to paint the same image using a different combination of HUE, TINT, WHITE, GRAY, BLACK, SHADE & TONE and see what it looks like. The more I understand the more I have a powerful tool to express my ideas.
I am not going to try for all the variations of dominance within each grouping.

Rhonda,is your head spinning yet ? Aren't you sorry you asked!

FOCUS ON COLOR

Today's efforts were focused on color. I made two attempts to do a painting with hue/tint/white. I started with a magenta along with yellow and thalo blue. Magenta has some blue in it so the mixtures with yellow were actually tones (neutralized). I started over with deep rose red, new gamboge and thalo blue. Finally, I was able to create a painting with only hue/tint/white.

I had this idea to grid the failed two paintings and alternate the strips. It's much more interesting than the original versions.

VALUE STUDIES

I spend most mornings exercising in the pool, so I wake up and put on my suit before I have a chance to talk myself out of it. This morning I went into the studio to get some drawings transfered to watercolor paper in preparation for painting before I left for the pool. Well, I started painting and never left the house! About noon I decided to change out of my suit. It wasn't going to get wet today.

My project was to create illustrations for my book showing how one value study can be painted in a variety of ways depending on what value represented light, mid and dark. It's a lot easier to paint than it is to verbalize the concept in a few sentences. I am finding the wording a challenge. Most of these paintings are 9 x 12. I started out doing 4.5 x 6 paintings but found it difficult to paint "neatly" so small. I used the same three colors for all of the paintings. My photography and adjustments have slightly altered the color, but you get the idea. The colors are Quin Gold by Sennelier (it has a green tinge to it) Brown Madder and Indigo. The last image is a different value pattern than the rest. One of the samples got away from me and deviated from the value pattern. I will leave it up to the viewer to decide which one that is.

Painting really goes so much faster when decisions like value and color are decided in advance, not to mention the success rate goes up. I know which basic colors I am going to work with before I start, but I decide as I go along what will go where. It's great to only have to focus on technique and the color choices. There's still enough surprises to keep it interesting. If it were totally worked out in advance, it would take the fun out of painting for me.

VOTE FOR PEGGY STERMER-COX! and MORE MARATHON DRAWINGS

Peggy Stermer-Cox is one of 5 finalists in the on-line "furry friends" competition. If you click on the blog title it will take you to the website where you can vote for your favorite. All the finalists have done exceptional technical work but Peggy's is the most original and creative. In fact it is the only one of the five that isn't photo-realistic.

Here is a website where you can do a digital download of the October 2007 issue of Watercolor Magic which features an article about my portraits, in case you missed this issue and wanted one for yourself. As Robert Burridge says "shameless self promotion" http://www.fwmagazines.com/product/1379/160

These are the last I will post from the Merritt College Drawing Marathon. The first two had the paper treated with a diluted raw umber wash from my sponge top bottle I was looking for (found it at Staples) The color flooded out and looked like cafe au lait running all over. The sponge top bottle was not such a great success but I haven't given up on it yet. When that dried, I put some "dirty glaze" over it with the palette knife. I was going to collage some tissue over this but got lazy and just left it. Originally, I didn't like how the page looked but once I put the drawing on and added the black, walnut and white inks to it, I decided this was a good background to start with.

The last drawing was done on just the plain paper. It was an amazingly forshortened view. Reminded me of Manet's Dead Toreador.

LIFE DRAWING SESSION, SECOND SET

Here is the second set of marathon drawings. The way the book comes together, there are 4 pages accordian pleated together, so I treated them as a set and collaged and pre-painted the pages as one continuous page, not knowing how I was going to finish it.

First I collaged some Japanese papers from the book onto the paper, then I used the tissue paper from the previous day with the red acrylic ink on it and collaged that over the pages. Lastly, I mixed 8 parts matt medium with one part Micaceous Iron Oxide (a Golden Acrylic Product) and made a "dirty glaze". Using a plastic palette knife (an old credit card would also work) I spread this onto the pages. I love this "dirty glaze"! I will continue to explore the possibilities. At the drawing session I worked with several ink pens including the Elegant Writer, a wet brush and walnut ink and acrylic white ink.

PRIMARY TRIADS #5 & #6

These Frenchmen are sure looking strange! I paid particular attention to my value study today and then attempted to mix as many colors in that value with the 3 hues I was working with. Consequently, the paintings have more colors than I might ordinarily use in one area. I am also exploring the different neutrals. I am going to stick with this particular drawing for all the primary triad combinations and then I am going to pick a different drawing for the next series of color explorations.

The other thing I did today was make a sketch book out of one piece of watercolor paper. I am very excited about this idea. In fact, I dreamed about it last night and couldn't wait to make one this morning. Here is the website for instructions. http://ninajohansson.blogspot.com/2008/01/fold-simple-sketchbook.html

CREATIVE EFFORTS FOR THE DAY plus CREATIVE WISDOM FROM TWYLA THARP

Here are my efforts for the day. The every day matters challenge #4 (A Mug) Is fair. I used my brush pen set (the one that isn't light fast) to color it in. Those darn circles and ellipses are a bear to draw! I am thinking maybe there is a trick or technique to it. I need to research this question. I was so tempted to use a template to draw the circle but thought better of it. I actually got rid of all the odd mugs when we redid the kitchen but kept two English Porcelain mugs from our trip to London as a keepsake from a great vacation. The other two sketches are my first attempt in a long time at sketching from life. The guy with the newspaper was motionless for a loooooooong time until I started to draw him and then he moved his arm right when I was going to do that part. So, I made it up and it looks it. I captured the paintings on the wall, well, but of course they weren't moving and they were ridiculously simplistic and vapid. The second little sketch painting was done while I was gallery sitting. I used a pen on the desk. I tested it for permanence and it appeared to pass but then bled when I painted over it. At least my subject wasn't going to move on me. I can see I have lots to learn about this live sketching thing before I will be very happy with the results. I think I want to find a very very fine point pen with sanguine ink instead of black. I shall persevere.

Regarding where I found the little watercolor set: It came empty with spaces for 12 colors. I bought it at Accent Arts in Palo Alto for $15. I don't remember if it had a brand name label on it.

SMALL COLOR STUDY

Today was another turn at sitting at Gallery Concord. I had borrowed an out of print book by Christopher Schink on color from a friend, so this was my opportunity to read it carefully and try out a few of the principles. I felt like I needed to be more conscious in my use of color. I revisit this subject from time to time. It seems like I glean a little more each time. Something registers that didn't before even though I know it was discussed and/or covered in a class. So, this little study was done in my Aquabee sketch book 6" x 9" using my little travel kit. I finally loaded the second tin with 6 more colors. New Gamboge, Quin Burnt Orange, Tiziano Red (Maimeri Brand), Peacock, Ultramarine Blue and Fog (an opaque off white from Cheap JoeMy idea was to have mostly lowered intensity colors with a contrast of a few pure hues in the focal area and mostly warm colors with a contrast of cool. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

WATERCOLOR TRAVEL KIT SET UP

Here are some photos of my drawing and painting kit that I take with me when I travel. One could have it with them at all times because of its' size but I save it for when I am on the road. Please note that my hand is not that fat!!! It is the camera angle. I wanted to show the size in relation to my hand. Hotels have miniature bottles of shampoo, mouthwash etc. for the guests. I use such a bottle cleaned out as a small water container. It fits in the kit nicely and doesn't leak. I have several Elegant Writer Pens in this kit, two regular travel brushes, one brush that holds water in the handle and a small mechanical pencil as well as a pen with permanent ink. A purse size packet of tissues complete the set.

WILLIE NELSON CENTER SEAT STEERAGE CLASS FROM DALLAS TO SAN FRAN

Here is the sketchbook page from my return flight from the Cedar Hills workshop in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area last week. I was crammed into my middle seat next to two big guys. I felt like a contortionist sketching and painting in the limited space but it passes the time and is a fun activity while flying. The first drawing was done with the Elegant Writer caligraphy pen. I started to put some color on it but the ink kept bleeding and I decided it wasn't a good decision to add color, so I started the second image drawn with a pencil and then full color applied. I love my little art kit. I still haven't put any paint in the second Altoids box but the clear plastic water bottle lids are in place so I will probably fill them before my next trip. I don't really need a second box but there is room in the small makeup case I have everything so I will take advantage of it. It just occurred to me that I should photograph the whole setup. I will take care of that tomorrow.

I heard that you can paint watercolor on regular gessoed canvas (not the "special watercolor canvas") so I am intrigued. I spent part of the day transferring one of my drawings onto a 10" square canvas and will start to paint it tomorrow. I suspect I will finish it in a few hours. This canvas has a gesso coating so I don't see why it wouldn't work as gesso accepts watercolor very nicely. I will post tomorrow the results of this experiment.

Speaking of experimenting, I just booked a workshop in Minneapolis for next year and they want a short version of the "Vern" series as the focus of the workshop. Ideas are flashing around in my head how to present this material in five days. I am looking for some "guinea pigs" in the Bay Area to try these ideas out on. If you are interested in such a class, send me a note and I will find a place and time.

THE VALUE OF DRAWING

I did this fast little drawing (5 x 7) in my sketch book and decided to paint it. I spent a few more minutes creating little value plans and thumbnails for composition. This guy's face is so entertaining, I think I will do all the variations in composition sooner or later but I need to decide on one for the workshop. I spent the rest of the day installing the new Photoshop Elements 6 for the Mac. It looks exciting with some cool new tools but now I have to learn the darn thing all over again. I hate that they put all the instruction on the internet instead of in a book. I like to have the book open as I go. I guess a trip to the bookstore is in order. I have been working with Elements 2 so it was time to upgrade.


I can't remember whether I have posted the following comments by artist Sue Archer. It was on the CCP Blog awhile back and I saved it for my teaching. It was so perfectly worded and expressed my sentiments on the subject perfectly. If I have posted this before, I think it is worth repeating:

"The drawing process is the heart of art, the foundation of painting. Drawing involves learning how to "see" as an artist. It is during this process that you learn about your "subject", the lines, the shapes, the relationships. This is your "homework", your prep work for painting. It is during this process the artist is designing and composing.

Projecting can be a useful tool to assist the drawing process but it should never used as a crutch. Many accomplished artists project at some time during the drawing process, including the contemporary painter, Joseph Raffael. However they can draw.

They use the camera viewfinder as a cropping and designing tool, documenting a slice of time that will be transformed by the painting process. But this process involves the knowledge of drawing. Raffael's work often is up to 100 inches. Projection of his image helps him with scale and placement of shapes. The painting grows from this image and the artist transforms this into his or her vision.

During this transformation, you should do what artists do when they draw: add & subtract, pick & choose, emphasize & minimize, enhance & reduce. Often there are shapes, colors and values in your image that won't work in your painting. Use what you like and change what doesn't work.

The camera is a great tool for artists but it lies and has its limitations. Different lenses can cause distortions to reality. These need to be addressed. They distort perspective and the artist needs to be able to see this and correct for it. Values can be exaggerated and don't read well if copied verbatim.

So for those of you who feel they come up short on their drawing skills, take a class, carry a sketch book wherever you go, and just draw. You can learn to draw! As Lynn said, drawing is essential to art; it is very satisfying and fun too."

Sue Archer AWS NWS TWSA

DISCOVERIES ON THE WEB plus PLANE ART RETURN TRIP

Something was not working well with the Slide.com web site. My slide show was not loading properly. After 5 tries, I decided to forget it for tonight and try again tomorrow. I am posting the little color sketch I did on the return flight from New York. I found a black and white photograph in the newspaper to work with. I usually travel with some of my photos to work with. I didn't think to do that this trip.

I wanted to share some discoveries I made on the web recently. First is a website of a wire sculpture artist who does very original work, many of the pieces look like drawings. This kind of work requires seeing the image in simplified terms....what to leave out?...what to leave in? It's a great way to think about capturing the essence of your subject. Here is the web site for Spencer Little:
http://www.dirtyclean.net/ SPENCER LITTLE WIRE SCULPTURE

Google has a free service called Google Alerts. Whenever my name or web site appears on the Internet, I receive an e-mail from Google with the website. I received one of these alerts the other day and found myself on a website that had quite a few of my images from my web page. It was in a foreign language that looked somewhat like Spanish but turned out to be Portuguese. I was more than curious to discover why my work was there. A friend who had lived in Spain for a few years told me there were web sites that can translate other websites. Who knew! I Googled "Translate Website" and sure enough the first entry did the trick. It turns out that all the text was poetry by different people. You just put in the website url and then choose the language you want translated into English. The website with all my work on it appeared on my screen in English. WOW! This is an amazing service. I thought this was so special, I have added this service to my blog. The company is called Babble Fish.

Tomorrow is a new month, so look for a May Painting Challenge. It will involve another very special web site which I will reveal on my next post.

PLANE ART GOING TO NEW YORK

It was a long flight, so I entertained myself by painting in my sketch book. I took a small 6 x 9 Aquabee Super Deluxe sketch book with me on this trip. I love this paper for doing detailed graphite renderings and it works well with the Elegant Writer Pen but I wanted to see how it accepted watercolor. I'm still working with the same image. I saw a beautiful woven sculpture before I left that had heads divided down the middle with different color schemes. It was very interesting so I thought I would try it. Warm on one side, cool on the other. Awhile back, there was a terrific suggestion in Watercolor Magic magazine to make a small watercolor travel set by taking 6 plastic bottle caps from bottled water and glue them into an empty Altoid Mint tin. Load the caps with a warm and cool of red, yellow and blue. I used Cad Red Light and Alizarin Crimson, Quin Gold and Cad Yellow Light (wish I had used a less opaque yellow) and Thalo and Cobalt blue. The lid made a nice little mixing space. I like this set so much I want to load a second tin with some other colors. The paper takes the watercolor very nicely. I did some glazing and it held up. This is the same set I used to do the Central Park sketch.

I am still editing my photos from the trip but I posted a small slide show of a few pictures from the top of the Empire State Building (87th floor). We arrived at dusk and saw the sun setting over Manhattan....a beautiful site that is impossible to photograph perfectly...and we stayed until the lights of the city came on. It was the perfect way to start our stay in New York. Our hotel was a short walk away. I couldn't resist taking these photos though I usually leave the traditional photos to my husband while I am busy taking pictures of subjects for future paintings (translation: on the prowl for faces and figures). Tomorrow I will make a slide show of some of the interesting people of New York.

LATEST DRAWING MARATHON RESULTS

Today was another drawing marathon. I had to miss the morning session but made it to the afternoon one. Too bad! The models for the morning were two of my favorites. In all the years I have done life drawing, I don't think I fully appreciated a good model until this afternoon. It's too bad it takes a negative experience to contrast with a good or great one to wake me up to the extraordinary talent it takes to be a good model. I didn't realize what creativity it takes to invent lots of interesting and varied poses not to mention strength and focus. None of that was in evidence this afternoon. The model yawned through the entire afternoon and her lack of energy infected the room. The gentleman was much more accomplished but tended to just do variations on the same pose. Anyway, it was good to be drawing from life. It's a very different experience than working from photo references and I might try going to the Tuesday night weekly session more often.

I kept switching materials for drawing today, trying to get excited about what I was doing. I tried a new combination on Tyvek which I think has some possibilities. I worked some nupastels into the wet wash and they worked very well. Above are the best of today's session.

MORE WISDOM:

7. Study. A studio is a place of study. Use the necessity of production as an excuse to study. Everyone will benefit.



8. Drift. Allow yourself to wander aimlessly. Explore adjacencies. Lack judgment. Postpone criticism.



9. Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

LESSON 2: CHANGING THE LIGHT SOURCE

Saturday's class was very small. Illness kept many at home, but those that showed up did a great job with a complicated concept. The idea was to keep the same image but change the light source on the head, therefore creating different moods and effects. You really have to think through each change. I had everyone do fairly quick value sketches in watercolor. We were all working on the same bozzetto at the same time. I had lots of reference material to share and a great book by Hogarth on dramatic light and shadow.

Everyone will have their bozzetto sheet as an excellent reference in the future. This is a great exercise for understanding the structure of the head. It also gives one more options than the lighting of the original image. I have posted my bozzetto sheet above. If you look closely, you can see that there is still some wet paint in the upper right corner! I finished the sheet today while I sat at the Gallery Concord and became a little impatient to photograph the page. It's always best to let things dry.

The slide show has the student's finished bozzetto sheets on the color for people of color and their full size painting done this past week plus the light changing bozzettos. I think they did an amazing job. Enjoy!