"Every little painting is just a mystery adventure into what you think you know." Robert Watts quite organically remarked while demonstrating a landscape. He is amazing.
Well it's adventure after adventure! Through Watt's Spring,
Meadow's Workshop, and Summer Term, I can readily pick out some themes into what I may not know. They aren't much of a surprise if you've been here before. I continue to strive for better organization, clear turning of form, and improved congruent shape design (as opposed to a speckled archipelago of isolated shapes).
I had my first class in gouache this spring! It is the perfect medium to work on careful shape design as the water soluble media is sucked quickly up by the paper in precisely the area your brush applies it. This kind of opaque water color requires a strict adherence to a tile laying procedure, and is a great exercise for those of us whose tendencies might otherwise speed sloppily toward a 'hot mess.'
Man From India
Gouache
Sold
(with Jeff Watt's helping to design some shapes)
This took 8, 3 hour classes, of just slowing down and staying disciplined.
Erik Gist's Reilly Painting Method
Reilly not only used figure abstractions to achieve successful form, but also had procedure in place for his preparing his palate by premixing puddles in a value structure, and utilizing a monochrome
underpainting before applying color or opacity. After I scrubbed my lay-in (monochrome gesture game plan) three times, Erik came to the rescue sketching in this great figure gesture. Then he left me to the fun part. You can still see the underpainting in many places. I was trying to slow down.
This is a shot of the teacher preparing the pallet, though it is missing a 5th row of an Ultramarine Blue 5 value gradient.
12x16" oil, not quite finished
Meadow's Costume Portrait Workshop
This 6 hour portrait sketch I did in Meadow's class was the most fun I have done so far. One of my favorite models was looking right at me, and I managed to stay patient and in the zone. Meaning, I didn't put too much paint on too fast. Jeff has mentioned to me that I try to hit my finishing strokes too soon, as opposed to building it up and tearing it down until I really know where the impasto strokes go. I am actually working on tightening up now, and saving the more expressive strokes until I have really earned them. Have I been told this before? Yes. Recall Terry's advice "Paint the dog before the fleas?" Good teachers are very, very patient.
Meadow didn't have to hop on until the very end where she helped me address some passages of the beard that suffered from redundant treatment. She also helped me to turn the plane of his right temple to the side wall. This day I was thrilled! I even managed to keep rolling on a mini dog painting when I got home that night. A step up from crashing into Netflix.
6 hour pose progress
Yankee
12x16"
oil on canvas
sold
San Diego Comic-Con
I was so lucky to be the date of an artist from class! We got to meet
Terryl Whitlatch, inconspicuously tucked into the Copic Pen booth. She was so gracious, spending many unassuming minutes to sketch personalized creatures in our books, and sending off us saying, "I mean, why not you?"
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| My very own Whitlatch Original! |
Big fan.
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| Terryl sketching in my book |
I had the opportunity to work on a couple fun dog portrait commissions
For these two I laid in a careful graphite drawing using a grid, and slowly built them up over an underpainting similar to the Reilly class.
Django
9x12" oil commission
Hayley
8x10" oil commission
Mini Dog Painting Fest or How I Spent My Spring Break
Then, I had another great idea. I wanted a deadline, a fun event, a challenge, and so I signed up last minute for 'Dog Days of Summer' down the hill in Cardiff. Then I set to cramming. My animal instructor Tom Babbey gave great counsel advising not to paint any study over 5x7'. Out of frustration (they are SO LITTLE) I had nearly given up before I had started. Fortunately, Meadow happened to bring in a couple 5x7" studies of her own portrait studies to show the class and I was saved by her inspiration. These were SO much fun. I may have got a little seduced into calligraphy over clarity, but I am fine with it. This exercise was a kick.
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| Dr Cortadi, the boys, and me |
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| Supporting members of the Lenefsky Family |
For these studies, I did all the drawings free-hand in paint. I really liked the freedom of doing this, though it could take a little wresting to make a good map- for me the struggle is easier done in oil paint.
Doberman
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| Doberman |
Frenchie
(complete with the perfect vintage frame find!)
6x8" oil
Aussie-by-the-Sea
6x6" oil
Beach Wolf
4x6" oil
Bulldog
4x4"
Keeping it
Treasure Hunt
5x7" oil
sold
Roxy
4x4" oil
sold
Dachshunde
4x4" oil
sold
Corgi
5x7" oil
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| Dog Fest Booth! |
My first Plein Air Class at Watts, with Ben Young
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| Cabrillo Cliffs National Monument |
Plein air is tough. This is the first time I have had any success in it. A couple things that really helped me was to watch the teachers demo much more carefully. I finally realized how slow and patiently they map their drawings and design their compositions. Then, the utmost care is taken to respect these drawings, not to lose them. Robert Watts, or maybe Ben Young, said something that really helped me to get the point, "Imagine your whole composition is only 7 puzzle pieces (at the most)." So that the big shapes are given the priority, strengthening and organizing the piece with some chance of success. Ben also had be prepare by doing little thumbnail sketches from Edgar Payne's book- it is full of good examples of thumbnail comps.
This study actually turned out!! Ben did the entire ocean, I had no hand in it. Though I did compose it, lay it in, and pretty much do the rest ;)
Cabrillo Cliffs
8x10" oil on canvas
The Summer Term is a quick 5 weeks, and so I had the opportunity to do some more dog portraits over Summer Break.
Zoe
8x8" oil commission
Dee
10x10" oil commission
Hudson
10x10" oil commission
We are now in week 1 of the 10 week fall term, and I decided to take nine classes. Yay!
Onward to the next mystery adventure!
