THURSDAY PAINTING (W I P)

Shadows have been darkened, flowers completed.

THURSDAY PAINTING (W I P)

I usually paint with a friend on Thursdays, and thought I would try (emphasis on TRY) to get a Thursday painting ritual going, showing a work in progress and the finished progress, posting each Thursday.

The first of these paintings appears here.

Obviously, once again, I forgot to take a photo of the very beginning!  After the drawing was traced I added a very light red, yellow and blue, lightly began shadowing the sides of the vases and shadows on the fabric and began painting in the flowers.

PAINTING, ANYONE???

Most people do not look forward to Monday, start of another work week.

Not me!

I LOVE Monday mornings - and here's why:

I have the best students in the world!  Somehow I have lucked out with a zany bunch of people who love to cook, bake and drink!

Spontaneous celebration breaks out with great regularity.

Consider last Monday - - -

One student arrived with a bag full of ingredients for Mimosas and Blood Marys!  How can you argue with that.  Here's the "bar" set up in the kitchen:

 and here they all are preparing to imbibe!

And "they" say that painting is a solitary process!

I'm already looking forward to next Monday!

PEARS ANYONE?

In my Cincinnati Recreation classes I have to have paintings that can be done by people with experience as well as those who have never picked up a paint brush before - so I have to come up with something that can be done by all.

Who doesn't love pears?

This first example (not my best, but I don't teach to get beautiful paintings, I just want to give students the idea how to do things) is mean to show how to paint realistically.  This one is obviously not complete, but enough was done so that the students "got the idea".  I spend most of my time going from student to student to give them guidance.

We first painted the pears wet in wet, then some glazing.  Then the background - we created wood.  They thought it was lots of fun.

Then for our next project I let them run wild - pretend to be a little kid again, do anything you want to a pear!

Some people were still intimidated and it took them a while to loosen up, others got crazy from the get go.

This exercise also lets those with less experience work with their brushes, paint, paper and water to experiment and learn in a playful manner.

This last photo was my "homework" for that class.  I created several different ideas, just to show what could be possible.

This week we will begin a new project - a rose.

BASKETS - FINAL

The chair rail above and the chest below have been added.

More colors added to the main basket and a few tweaks here and there and the project is complete.

BASKET - 2

Next we worked on the two baskets behind the main basket.  Neither are very detailed.

Then we began adding more color to the main basket, and more shadows below.  Obviously this step is not finished here.

BASKET - 1

Here's another class project.  The purpose of this was to show that when we look at a brown object - in this case a basket - it doesn't mean we get out our brown paint and use that.  There may be - or COULD be - a lot of other color in that object.

As usual, I neglected to get a photo of the beginning!  But I will tell you that it began with a wet paper and the primaries dropped into the water.  Use yellow where the sun hits, or where the light areas are, blues in shadows areas and the red randomly in the mid tones.  These colors should be very pale so that just a glow remains when it dries.

What you see here is actually the third layer.  After we let the first pale layer dry we brought in more color all over, then began bringing more color to the main basket.

CORN ON THE COB - FINAL

Then we added colors in mid-tones to finish the painting.

Obviously not my best!  But it was, again, a teaching tool about color - transparent versus opaque - so they could see why people sometimes get "mud" when they paint! . . . 

. . . and about values.  From across the room it reads as corn - no matter how bad it looks up close!

CORN ON THE COB!

The class is learning about color and value.

We did one painting using all transparent paints, and then this painting using all opaque or semi-opaque paints - and only 3 colors - a yellow, red and blue.  This was also a study in values.

First we all took the same photo and created a simple value study.  This was done by placing tracing paper over the photo and darkening areas with a pencil.

After that we put down our lightest color, then our darkest colors.

A CUP OF COFFEE AND A GOOD BOOK . . . .

. . . ESPECIALLY  PAGE 79!

Yep - the new AcrylicWorks book is here - and my "Peekaboo Bear" resides on page 79!

This is (obviously) the 3rd book in the acrylic series and I'm thrilled to be included once again.  By my tally there are only 10 artists whose work has appeared in all three of these books - and I'm one of the 10!

The book is available at Northlight Books - if you are interested in purchasing a copy.