Thought for today

The best thing about a painting is the beginning and the saddest is the ending.

I know but this is a really good tipi

I had the most fun ever. I felt so Charles Russell doing this painting. And I felt that I really got the whole color wheel thing right. I was actually getting the answers right when I would ask Margee if this color was going to work and she would say YES. Yeah! I really feel I have learned alot. I  gessoed and toned my canvas then I sort of indicated where the objects were going to be. Then I mixed viridian and cad orange and cerulean and ultramarine which went everywhere I wanted to have green.I put bluish shadows on the side of the tipi.  I purposely put no light  color on the tipi because I wanted it as white as possible.The background trees were more of the green mixture above with more ultramarine and cad red and orange. I roughly blocked in the trees so as to have a loose feel.I used this where ever I thought a dark would be. The blue toned foliage was cerulean blue, green, ochre and white. Again I tried to be loose and painterly. I pushed here and pulled there and worked to get the lights in the right place. Never did decide how to handle the top of the painting. Margee suggested really warm cad oranges and red and yellow to make the tops of the trees glow. It was great. I brushed a little ochre and yellow on the tipi then wiped the excess off. I liked it as it was. All in all I like what I did and feel I came close to that early morning late afternoon light that I love so much.

My last blog

This is my last blog for art class. But I think I will continue to blog it is rather addicting. This painting is one that Margee let my use one of hers for an example. Mine is not nearly as pretty as hers but I was pleased at how it turned out. She really turned my world upside down when she instructed me to start with the trees and placement of land and stuff. Using viridian green and cad orange we blocked in the darks of the trees and  foliage.  The grey grass in the fore ground is ochre, cerulean blue cad orange and white.  The road had all sorts of colors in it cad orange, red, white and ochre with just a touch tiny touch of blue. The red bluffs in the back were red and orange and I kept the colors as pure as possible. My yellows were brushed in and the idea is to suggest and let the eye fill in the details. The grass i kept on the brown side of green since it is Oklahoma. In Virginia it would be more green. Viridian, yellow, and red. I let the underpainting show through a little and  I was amazed at the effect.. Lesson learned. Let the underneath add interst and mystery; The sky was blue and white with cad orange and the closer to the horizen the lighter it gets. The higher up it goes the darker it gets. The clouds were swatched in and they were mostly white with grey.

Apples and Pears Oh My

This is was a learning experience par excellence. The colors are bright and I learned to make the most of brush strokes. My shadow color is cerulean blue and cad orange with white. The shadow strikes at first were too blue and had to go back and lighten them. It was very patriotic at first. Then the bright part of the stripes were ochre and white. It is a creamy glowing color. The red stripes were alizarin and cad orange and cad red in the shadows and then just cad orange and cad red in the light areas. The apples got a treatment of alizarin and cad red in the shadows with orange and ochre and yellow in the lighter areas. The green was cerulean blue and lemon yellow and white and Margee showed us a fun thing in how to paint reflections. Making a soft blue ish grey we painted those in the for the white stripes on the apples and a alizarin and ultramarine blue for the red stripe reflections. I over thought it and thought my eyes were tricking me but maanged to get them in. My pear hasn't got much attention yet.

My dwarf and my crystal ball

Yesterday was a good day. My crystal ball in my still life was fun although still at this point unfinished and needing a little pop. I have gotten the background to the leave it alone point and I hope to get the brass pedestal to the same point.  My little dwarf is coming along but slowly since I have been focusing on the fine points of still life work. Tonight I get to do something  I have never done before. Painting as worship....

Pears can be pretty

Pears can be pretty. I did this in class and it was fun. A red pear on a white plate and I got to be as painterly as I pleased. Although it felt very wasteful to use those great juicy bits of paint.  Preparing canvas as alwayswith a underpainting of siena and then applying pure color. From there it was a matter of just adding those bits of paint that add dimension and depth to my pear.

I have done so much!

I have done so much this semester in painting. Love learning all the bag of tricks that will give my painting interest. Have started a still life that I am in love with already. Purple witches hat and drape with brass goblet and crystal ball and candle. I am having a lovely time.

She is Becoming MoreHuman

As the colors become more like one would expect for people, my painting is more and more 'real'. Although like the velveteen rabbit, I ask, what is 'real'?

 I have learned how to paint veils and it was a revelation. Less is more in this instance and I spent several hours painting little bits of nothing. Using cad orange and cerulean blue I lightly brushed on with one brush and smoothed with another.

Yesterday was magical

Having a siena undercoat, we began applying color and to do this we USED NO MINERAL SPIRITS. It was hard not to.  for the flesh we used alizarin crimson, ochre, cerulean blue, touch of cad red, cad orange and  just touch of white. When we applied it looked PURPLE. It was odd.
Then we used a lighter version of the original and applied it to the in between tones. From there we worked on the eyes and lips. For the lips i used a bit more red and cad orange with white. Her eyes are blue so i used a dark greyed blue with lighter at the edges. We worked on the hair only as it was close to the face. It was so fun to see her become a flesh and blood person. I can't wait to see what magic Margee

 pull out of her hat on Tuesday.

Victory!

It took forever to get this lovely lady to her destination. But I was victorious. We worked on the eyes and hair and shadows and learned more about two brushes vs one.It was wonderful. Three hours go too quickly.  I learned how to emphasize b painting around things and that painting is not drawing.  We continue with siena and we developed our background a bit more. There is a little Cornwall in mine I think.

The new project goes forth

This is the finale of my foray into still lifes. I was sad to see it finished.
     On Thursday we began our copy of a mjor work.  We are each copying a Pre-raphealite and we began by blocking in the shadows on the face with burnt siena. That took the WHOLE class time. it was harder than one would think to block in a face. This is an area that is the breadth of one's hand! Had a blast.

Sptember ,28, 2010

The still life is complete and we have learned how to place highlights on objects in our paintings. No white, but white  yellow or ochre. To make a glowing reflection.We havelearned how not place brught objects near the edge of a composition, and it was a wonderful journey. I feel I have learned so much in seven I wonder what the next nine will bring.

Getting to the End

I will be sad when my first oil is done. But have learned a lot. Number one white will dull not brighten. To darken or grey a hue use its opposite. Also start with the darks and then add light. The darks are  thinner layers and the lights are a thicker layer.
I am starting to ask myself the question? Will they believe? I want them to believe. Margee is always saying you have to make me believe it. It has gone from will she believe it to will they believe. it.

Life is as good as the last painting session

The self-portrait was so much fun I felt obcsurely guilty.













The still life is still progressing we worked on our box and mug and drapery. The drapery was fun in that we could make it more or less detailed. Alizarin and orange and  blue made a lovely highlight. The background was darkened with the original color of dark blue and alizarin and orange.. The box was siena, chre with touch of cerulean  blue and white. The mug we used the two blues and a touch of orange and then we worked on the cup rim. It really is starting to looking 'finished'. Someone once said that 'a painting is never finished' if only that were true.... I always fell a little sad when I finish a painting because I will never do that painting a gain.

September 16, 2010 Part II

I almost forgot about my little man in the oil we are working on. He was so lonely we started giving him a little tone and definition. We used cad orange and yellow and ochre with  a hint of cerulean blue. In my painting he looks a little like C-3PO.  He looks much happier than he did

Who knew? September 16, 2010

Ah the joys of acrylic. It dries fast, stays where I put it and it smells good. But... oil is more of a challenge  someday  I hope to love them both just the same.Last Tuesday we went to the computer pit and using photoshop we manipulated the image Margee took of each of us and got a minimalist version of our picture. It was fun paying with the colors and effects in cutout and artistic.
Today we took the printed copy of that picture and made a measuring tool to accurately draw  the picture onto the  5x5 canvas. Taking a square sticky note we measured one eye from the inside corner and made a small mark on the paper and labeled it 'photo'. The next thing was to measure off the photo from top to chin and decide how many eye lengths the face had.  On the photo using a pen for better visibility we 'ticked off the lengths down the face'. We counted the ticks and then decided how big the measure could be for the canvas. We marked that on the paper and labeled that 'canvas'. Using that measure we 'ticked down the length of the canvas'.  Now for the fun part. Taking a piece of charcoal (or pencil if you have a very light hand) draw the image using the tick marks as a scale guide.  The real trick is to not name what you are drawing. You draw the SHAPES not the the eye, nose, or so forth. Drawing the little shapes and relating them to the other shapes one gets into this space in your mind and time slows and there is only the line and shape. Once you have drawn all the little shapes and lines, then comes the applying of paint. In my case it is yellow, red and black. I didn't get to the yellow yet but I got most of the red and black ( see photo). The serene satisfaction I felt after class almost makes up for having to do word problems.....

Day VIII

Working on the canister was frustrating. Sometimes there is an element one is just not happy with and this canister is it. But Margee assures me there are remedies.
Worked with shadows and on the canister and i did a bit more on my paint tube. Taking funny pictures was fun and can't wait to see what we will do on photo shop.

Day VII The Vase

The day came when we were onto the vase and the tube/tubes in the foreground.
The vase was a slippery thing to catch and I finally achieved partial success. The painting of wet on wet is harder than in acrylic because the oil stays wet and slides around. Acrylic tends to in the main stay where I put it.
To create the middle shadows of the thing we used cad-orange, cerulean blue and white. makes a soft gentle grey blue that is very pretty.
To darken this we added a ultramarine blue and this went in the left shadow(see picture at left).

the tube shadows got alizarin and cad orange a nd touch of light blue. White, but not a lot. Have to remember that white will dull not brighten. Then we used pure cad-orange and white to bring up a suggestion of details in the tube.

Progress from Day SIx

I am going to have to practice a lot to get these picutures in the right place each time! It is fun, never sure if it is computer error or operator error.

Day VI My books are coming along!

Wow. I love painting books. I never really liked still life pieces before but now I have a new appreciation for them.  The thing is there is something fascinating about capturing the light and shadows of a piece. To learn that red is greyed by green  and that the darkest color is helped by the brightest not necessarily the lightest color.  It is all very exciting.
Today we worked n our book part of the still life and toward the very end we worked on the paint brushes. It was a productive day all in all. Things are starting to read 'true' now. I learned that stepping back from the piece and looking is a invaluable tool. Not to keep working and working until the 'forest for the tress' syndrome kicks in and the focus and aim of a piece is lost sight of. One of my favorite quotes is this,
' a painting is never really finished-it merely stops in interesting places'-- Paul Gardner.

Day V

Day five was exciting. We learned more about color and how to get the effects we want with it. There are tubes of paint in our composition and we learned how to put the under coat for silver in and how to correct compositional faux paux.

To make the under coat for silver, mix orange, cerulean and just a bit of white. This is also good for the shadows and for the inside of the cup and the silver caps for the brushes. If you need to grey out ochre just add blue or red.For the brushes we used yellow and dark blue and orange and a hint of alizarin crimson.

We were able to further develop the bottom book color. It was fun and frustrating. I am still unlearning things from acrylic and I find myself holding my breath trying not to beat the paint from drying out. Time is always a factor when painting in acrylics and it is a luxury to know with oil I have plenty of time.

The book got a treatment of cad red, yellow ochre, ceruelan blue. We worked wet into wet and worked from dark to light. Once that was done we mixed a bit of yellow and orange into the darker mixture and  added a middle tone. We held our brushes at a sideways edge and brushed the color in wiping our brushe with each stroke. Then we added a little more organge, ochre and white( a very little white since white can dull a color). There is a little jot of color under the edge of the book that is stacked on the one we were working and it was amazing what that little lighter stroke did for the book. Finally we added even more yellow and orange and red and tiny bit of white and worked the lightest areas. The book looks like a book, which is all anyone can ask for.

In learning about composition we learned there were four ways to achieve leading someone's eye.

They are:

Brightest color in the composition,

Most detailed area of the composition,

All points and lines lead to the object one wants to focus the eye on,

Lightest source placed next to the darkest source.

I have learned more in five classes than I learned in all my self-learning. 

 

 

Day four of Painting I

Mixing much mixing of colors. No more guess work of what will brighten and what will grey a  color. The color wheel is our friend dear ones.

We worked on the books and the canister, and vase of our composition. And the pages got thier own treatment as well. The bottom book received cad orange, cerulean blue and yellow ochre. This made a orangey color rather like my copy of "The Nile" by Emil Ludwig. Then the red book got a reddish mixture that was dulled with a bit (tiny) blue. Because red and blue are opposites. To dull green one uses red.To get black we mixed cad yellow and ultramarine and alizarin crimson. This was for the books that were blackish in color. Now for the pages and the canister: we mixed orange, ultramarine blue, aand white. Note to self start with white and orange other wise one uses too much blue and get green. We were then shown how to get our vase looking like a vase(more or less). Using the greyish brownish color of the canister and book pages we added the merest hint of dark blue and put in the shadows. Adding white to this mixture we put in the lighter areas and were show how to drag into the darker color and thereby mix the intermediate shades right onto the canvas. The trick is to clean your brush after each drag! The mysteries are unfolding and i am quite pleased to finally be able to paint( sort of) in oils. Wonder what next class will bring and will I succeed in grasping it?

The picture from day 3 of class

Day III Painting

I love the smell of mineral spirits.
Today we learned how to check our proportions on our still life. First we got a thin paintbrush. A fat one will be misleading.Then we measured at arms length how big the model's head is. From the tip of his chin to the top of is head. Our wooden model doesn't have a name. I think it should be Winston.Using that as a guide we coounted down the length of the body and then did the same with our painting. The two measurements should match if not then the proportions could very well be off.
Then happy day we got to block in adn firm up the lines on some of our objects. The wooden model, canister ect. I accidentally blocked with large strokes instead of drawing the model. Whoops.
Finally a little color. using ultramarine and orange we made a odd grey blue color. This we used to block in our cup. Then we applied the same to the background. The drapery got a coat of  the blue with the addition of alizarin crimson. Saitsfyingly rich. There is a box in the still life and that got an application of ochre, organge and touch of blue. The man also got a little white. It is starting to look like a painting. Our glorious leader says if we dont like it we are doing it right. Then mine is a masterpiece in the tradition of finger painter everywhere.
The colors we squeezed onto our palettes were alizarin crimson, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue, red, yellow, yellow ochre, cadmium orange, and white. The siena we had there already.
I also started a another painting to fill in the odd corners of time. I think he will be a Green Man. Then again maybe he won't.

Day Two of Painting I

I feel like I have been waiting to paint in oils my whole life. I am so excited. It is so different from acrylic. I even like the smell.
The class is demonstration style and there is a definite step by step process.
1. Gesso the canvas using broad loose strokes. Note: do not put on too thick or it will take a long time to dry.
2. We made a view finder which helps tremendously in composition . Little L-shaped pieces of paper to narrow your world to a small section of a still life.
3. We squeezed a small bit of burnt siena onto a freezer paper palette and using lots of mineral spirits we toned our canvases. Which means get rid of the distracting white.
4. Using view finder we were to make 'notes' of the positions of the objects set up for our still life.
5. Then we loosely blocked in our compostions and they looked like weird abstract pieces. Some looked like rock formations, others like city scapes of unknown origin.
6.If there are problems we could erase with a bit of mineral spirits and it was like magick.
7. We worked mainly on the books and the canister on the next step.
8. Ms. Aycock took us step by step and showed us how to make the next move forward. She took the drama out but not the excitement.




I canot wait until the next class.

Still Life First Day