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Lately, I've been focusing on some basic painting principles. I'm realizing that legibility in a painting is really crucial. The ability to read what is going on and to simplify elements when necessary is what I am focusing on. A beautiful painting doesn't need to be filled with details because it needs to work as a whole first; this is why a great painting looks good even as a thumbnail sized image.
There's always so much to juggle in a painting (especially en plein air): drawing, composition, values, colors, brushwork. I feel like simplifying those elements is the highest order. There's a lot that I'm learning recently about my mindset also. To keep calm and have the painting under control is really important. These are all things that I'm continually working on. I am very pleased to announce that I'll be returning to do another free online lecture for the Atelier at Flowerfield. My previous lecture (see below) was all about plein air painting and this upcoming lecture will be about another passion of mine: pigments. As a brand ambassador for Natural Pigments, I have spent many years studying pigments from a historical and technical standpoint. This lecture will cover a full rainbow of pigments and I'll share many fun and educational stories about pigments. As a teacher, I know students often have questions about pigments so I encourage you to come with questions to ask. Cant wait! My previous plein air lecture is available to watch on Youtube Exercise for this week was to do an underpainting using burnt sienna, raw umber and titanium white. So a warm, a cool and a cool white. This mastercopy will be covered over with the Zorn palette next week, but I was amazed at the variety of color that I got out of such a simple palette; it could almost pass as a full figure painting. The initial painting was done with burnt sienna and raw umber and no white.
My friend asked me how we got the initial outline drawing. I wanted to scale my figure up so I drew directly onto the canvas and then inked it with a thin sharpie, but we've also done direct transfers to get the outlines. I've had trouble with transfers (not from a moral point of view) but because the proportions seem to be clunky and always a little off despite the fact that it's a direct transfer. Our teacher for these last two weeks is Mitchell Price who, like all the teachers, has been fantastic. He's very intelligent, knows anatomy like the back of his hand and has a real gift for teaching the process in a manageable way. |
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