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.

• 

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         

            

More on Value and a WIP

My Mom (who is 90 years old) had some medical tests run last week and sitting in the lobby waiting brought back memories of when she had a stroke several years ago.  At that time I was in a critique class led by Polly Hammett.  Polly is a master at design and composition and really emphasized underlying abstract value designs.  She suggested that we take old art show catalogues and look at the value patterns of the winning entries and/or paintings that we liked.  By putting a piece of tracing paper over the photo one could see the larger value shapes in each painting.  I happened to have a sketch book that I had made by putting a sheet of drawing paper and then a sheet of tracing paper, until I had enough pages for the book.  To pass the time while at the hospital I started my Value Patterns Book...

Award winning paintings

Value Patterns of the paintings

Award winning paintings

Value Patterns of the paintings

Stephen Quiller

 I filled an entire sketchbook with the underlying abstract value patterns of winning watercolor paintings and also with the paintings of artist whose work I admire.  It was a very soothing exercise and I think I really learned a lot from doing it.  One thing I began to notice in all the value patterns was the use of large value shapes.

Value Patterns

Arne Westerman

Today I finished the drawing on my next painting and got the first glaze put on!!  Yea me!  Persistence and perseverance... one little step at a time.  Any progress is good progress... as long as it is progress in the right direction!

Work in Progress

Be Still My Art,


Kay

Contour Line Drawings

One of the best ways I know to improve your drawing skills is to do blind, semi-blind and regular contour line drawings.  I haven't always felt that way because I remember back (W-A-Y...back) when I was in college I thought it was stupid that we had to do them... but then I thought everything was stupid.  I didn't really learn to appreciate contour line drawing exercises until I taught them to my students at school.  After standing and demonstrating how to do a blind contour line drawing 7 times a day several days a week I began to notice my own drawing skills were improving.  It didn't take long to convince me of the value of doing contour line drawings.

Blind contour line drawing

A blind contour line drawing is done by looking only at what you are drawing and not the drawing itself.  It is supposed to be done using one continuous line and not ever picking up your pencil.  Obviously the objective is not to produce a great drawing but rather to learn to really look at and thus really see what you are drawing.  It stands to reason then that since drawing is seeing, one's drawing skills would improve proportionately to one's ability to really see objects.  A semi-blind contour line drawing is when you look at the drawing only once in a while to adjust your pencil (without picking it up... just move the line to where you should be).  In doing a true contour line drawing, one is constantly looking back and forth from the object being drawn to the drawing itself.  It is still done in one continuous line without picking up the pencil.

As is the case with many artists, I take my sketchbook with me wherever I go... even to church.  As I listen to the sermons I draw... usually a modified contour line drawing (which means I do it however I want to do it :0}  ).

Yesterday I had a heart fluttering moment as I looked at the light hitting the beautiful cannas blooming outside our backdoor.  I cut them and brought them in to my studio where I took the time to study them just a little.

 I can feel another watercolor painting about to bloom.  (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Be Still My Art,
Kay


P.S. To see some really good contour line drawings turned into paintings see Nancy Fleagle .  

Abstract Distraction

I am currently working on a commission portrait of an elderly couple.  This type of painting can become rather tense at times, at least for me.  I am so particular.  I paint and I think about the people I am painting... often I say a little prayer for them.  Somehow this makes me feel more in touch with who they are and not just what they look like physically.  But there are times when I just have to take a break from the commission and work on something totally unrelated.  Sometimes I work on another painting (I always have several at different stages somewhere in this room!... don't you?) sometimes I draw, sometimes I do exercises (NOT the kind where you perspire!!) to improve some aspect of my painting, and yes, often I play Angry Birds.  Today I decided to paint a small abstract since that is so far removed from what I normally do.  Several days ago I had taken a view finder and gone through a magazine looking for abstract ideas that I might want to paint.  I drew around the rectangular shape of the viewfinder and cut out the shapes.

I picked one out, not being very particular as to my choice.  I had some small scraps of paper and I used the grid method to get the proportionately correct size and draw the design on the paper.

Using the grid system makes drawing the design simple and fast.  All that is left is to paint the shapes.

I thought the large red shape on the right would balance the yellow shapes, but now that it is painted I think it needs a small yellow shape on the right that is on top of the red.  That would also give me an odd number of yellow shapes which would be much better.  What do you think?  It certainly is different from what I normally do and a "learning distraction".

Be Still My Art,

Kay