"The Swimmer"...WIP

I didn't have a lot of time to paint today, but did manage a little time with my brush and paint.  Here is today's progress.

This is turning out to be some pretty tedious painting so things move along rather slowly.  At the moment it is difficult for me to wrap my head around the painting like I should so I just have to paint a little bit at a time.  I paint a little, leave it for a little while, then come back and paint a little then repeat the steps all day long.  Not the most ideal way to paint because I can't really get in the flow of the painting but it is the best I can manage at the time.  Do you ever have to just "make do" with the time you have to paint... and be happy you have that much?

These are some thoughts from Timothy Clark when he was at Watermedia 2003 in Houston. (Gosh that was a long time ago!!)

• Line inherits shape, shape inherits form, form is enhanced by value, value is enhanced by color.
• Pattern is 2-D and texture is 3-D.
• If you deal with shape and value, form will take care of itself.
• Composition is the way you organize the elements ~ organize with an underlying element (ie - triangles)
• Be aware of the emotion that you want.
• Local color + Light + Shadow = fully rounded form.
• If you paint orange on top of yellow your blue won't turn green in a sky.

Be Still My Art,


Kay

New Painting

Yesterday I started on a new painting.  I did the drawing and used maskit on the areas I wanted to remain white.  That was pretty tedious work so I didn't get any painting done other than a wash of blue over the entire painting.  Today I have had more time to paint so I have made decent progress on it.

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This is one of those paintings where the details will make or break things... IMO!  I don't have a lot of patience so I have to work on the painting a bit, then get away from it for a bit... then go back and work on it some more, and so on.  Slowly, usually very slowly, it begins to pull together.    Do you ever work on paintings with lots of details?  Do you ever get lost in all the little shapes?  Value will be a big key to this painting... that is what will pull the small shapes together into big shapes.

 Color Formulas (in case you don't have them already or have forgotten about them...):

• Burnt Sienna + Ultramarine = very attractive gray which dries with subtle granular patterns. (An excellent mixture for painting skies)
• Raw Umber is ideal for dulling blues, yellows and greens.
• Paint several sequences of colors in areas that move from light to shadow:

                   Red, Carmine, Violet - warm shadow

                   Thalo Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Violet - cool shadow

• A neutral gray blue - Cobalt Blue + Burnt Sienna
• Shadows:

                  Dark Shadows- Winsor Blue + Permanent Alizarin Crimson

                  Intermediate Shadows- French Ultramarine Blue + Perm. Aliz. Crimson

                  Subtle Shadows- French Ultra. Blue + Perm. Rose

                  Vary the shadows from cooler (more blue) to warmer (more red)

                  Warmer in foreground, cooler in background

Be Still My Art,

Kay         

            

Daydreamer... Completed!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was a good day for my mom and she slept most of the morning.  Her sleeping allowed me time to paint... I keep a monitor in my studio so I can hear her and know if she needs me.  It felt so good to paint for several uninterrupted hours.  Painting has been my "Saving Grace".

Some things to keep in mind when painting ... from Stephen Quiller:

1. See the stroke before you paint it.
2. Variation: light against dark, transparent against opaque, warm against cool, etc.
3. Rhythm in brush strokes
4. Create both negative and positive shapes
5. Create depth with overlapping forms
6. Decisions on paintings come up again and again, so push through the painting... MAKE THOSE DECISIONS!

Be Still My Art,

Kay

A Few Tidbits on Color and my WIP

These are just a few tidbits on color that you may already know... hope you don't mind a short reminder.

   If you want a color to look:                 Paint next to it:

• More intense                                   Its complement
• Less intense                                    A more-intense version of the same or a near-hue

                                                                          (Its neighbor on the color wheel)

• Darker                                            A lighter value
• Lighter                                            A darker value
• Cooler                                            A warmer color
• Warmer                                          A cooler color

A color that is surrounded by black or a dark value will appear lighter, brighter and larger than it actually is.
A color surrounded by white or a light value will appear darker, duller and smaller than it actually is.

More to come on color at a later time...

I worked on "Daydreamer" today and it seemed that the more I painted on it the more that needed to be done.  Ever get to that point in a painting where you just really have to push yourself to "just put paint on the paper" and not get caught up in all the little details that will come later?  I could have spent all day on just one little section, but I like to paint the entire painting and hold off on the details until last.

Doesn't look like a lot of progress... but any time you are moving forward it is a "good thing", right?

Be Still My Art

Kay

Work in Progress... values

Things felt good this afternoon as I had some uninterrupted painting time.  As I worked on this painting I was thinking a lot about the values I had planned.  Instead of working the entire painting like I did yesterday in just trying to get some color down, I started working more on individual areas of the painting.  It is difficult to judge the values when you don't have much color surrounding the area you are working on.  So, I pulled out an old value chart that I probably cut out of a book and punched holes in... so I had something to compare the values to.

Value chart on white paper

                           Value chart over the painting... what value would you say
                            the blue is?  It looks like a great middle area value to me...
                                only problem is it is supposed to be a dark value in that area.            

Here is the painting so far... remember it is a WIP!

Daydreamer.... in progress

I keep a poster on my wall that I made about analyzing a painting.  Of course it comes from some book that is long gone... sorry.  It reads:

All details must be eliminated so each object in the painting

is reduced to its basic shape.  Then the structural skeleton can be seen.

The examples of this are paintings by Grunewald and El Greco:

Altar Triptch by Grunewald

Kneeling Saint by El Greco

Notice how the paintings are reduced to three values in black, white and grey and then simplified by removing details and combining shapes.  I seem to be able to do that in my planning... now the trick is to carry it out in the final painting.  Sounds so easy, doesn't it???  Do you find it that easy to do?  Not me!

Be Still My Art,


Kay

On Composition and Design

When I read watercolor books and also when I go to workshops or to demos I always take a few notes... or at least scribble on some note of interest.  Unfortunately I don't always label where I read what I wrote down or where I was when I heard some tidbit of interest.  I have all these "floaties" stuck in various places around my studio to inspire me or to remind me of something I need to be doing.  I'd like to pass them on... and I will give credit when I know for certain where I read or who said whatever it is.  Unfortunately, I don't know where I picked up the following information.  However, I thought it might be of interest to you or someone you know.  Just know that the original credit doesn't belong to me.  (A lady in a class asked me once why I didn't write a book.  My answer was that everything I know I learned from a book that has already been written... why write it again?)

When planning your painting concentrate on the following:

• Balancing shapes
• Harmonizing color
• Making the eye flow through the painting
• Simplifying forms
• Giving the painting clarity

Before completion of the painting ask the following questions:

• What is dominant?
• What shows repetition?
• How is it balanced?
• Do we see gradation?

Do you have "floaties" with bits of wisdom in your studio?  Maybe you'd like to share some with me.

Be Still My Art,


Kay