Portraits

Hey all,

            Last Saturday after reviewing the features of the face, class particpants drew each other. We focused on such things as the distance between the center of the nose and corners of the eye, space between the top of the eyelid to the top of the eye socket to the eyebrow.
            We noticed how different each side of the face features are from the shape of each eye, nostrils, corners of the mouth. All amazing. So much fun. One person modeled while the other drew them. Then we switched. After that, everyone worked on their portraits.
          The best thing was how well everyone did. Truly.
Time allowed everyone to begin to shape and shadow around the eyes, under the nose, lips and chin and to add details to hair, ears, eyebrows.
                Portraits - capturing someone's image - is one difficult task. This past week's class got everyone on their way to understanding the basics. Don't worry, we'll continue to work on the subtle differences and nuances of the face.

Next week I'll teach drawing and painting people. Prior to this, we learned about human body proportions. This time I will demonstrate how to paint people using shapes and gestures while keeping in mind those proportions of the body. We'll use some basic shapes and quick gesture painting.

                        FYI - the wedding was beautiful and the cake awesomely delicious.                         

Techniques

As I prepare for this week's lesson, I am reminded that I have not done a recap of last week's lesson...
       my excuse is that my son is getting married and I've been making cake......
So,
last week, I demonstrated with the pallet knife, sponges and resists.
I "painted" rubber cement on water color paper, painted over it, rubbed it off.
"Painted" hot wax on cloth and painted over it. Sort of a batik. To get the wax out, you iron with newspaper to absorb the wax.
One thing I failed to mention, for texture, you can put the waxed cloth into the freezer and then crinkle it. when you paint, the paint will go into the cracks.
I painted with a sponge cut into different shapes.
I spread paint on the canvas with a knife - paying attention to the color wheel and the blending of the hues.

This week, we will focus on the face and draw  portraits.
Oh boy.

The next 8 Weeks

Illusions

What do we see? Is there a face in that tree or just a shadow? Horses in the snow.

We looked at artwork by Bev Doolittle and M.C. Escher.

                                                                                                                           Optical illusions

Shapes and shadows with trees and high contrast.

The assignment was to create an illusion be it realism or imaginary. Look only at the black shapes in the Che Guevera poster. See lines and space and shapes in everything.
I'm working on aspens in black and white with spherical fractures amidst the scene. Deadline for a juried show at Art Matters Gallery in Salida is July 7. I love deadlines.
Coming up next week: Tools and Techniques with watercolor, pastel and acrylic or oil. I'm bringing oils and acrylics if you want to try your hand at either. Please bring your own canvas or heavy paper. (I almost always bring watercolors and pastels if you want to try those.)
We'll play with the pallet knife, sponges and brushes using wetter and drier media and differents surfaces.
Fun.

Abstract Painting

 Such a wide and open subject, I could go on and on and on.
Jackson Pollock, Joan Miro.


The top piece, to give proper credit, is a fellow named Bruce Grey, just something I found on the internet.
 I wanted to demonstrate geometric shapes and maybe get ready for
 next week's class on Illusion.

In the center, White on White by Mondrian (since I mentioned it in class.)

I wanted to show some softness with the bottom piece.



Keep in mind what makes a piece interesting. What is the composition or color scheme? Movement. Emotion.

Sometimes, it doesn't seem to have either.


Sometimes it's just fun or mind bending.

I use it to get out of my box.

Sometimes it works. Mostly it provides some quietude.

Trees

We examined the nature of trees and some painting techniques such as dabbing or "scrubbing" the tip of the brush both wet and dry brush techniques. I also demonstrated some "swooshing" with the brush and using the thickness of the brush for the base of the trunk or branch while moving it up or out, lifting up for a narrower and lighter stroke.
I brought some branches from
 Pinon,




Juniper and






Ponderosa


I talked about how the branches of trees in general split and travel upward and with some trees, such as Firs or Willows hang downward


and it's pretty easy to depict trees in paintings.

There's also a lot of shadow amongst the branches, so whichever method one uses, lay out the darks or sketch in the shapes and move from light to dark adding layers with paint or pastel (or marker or pencil).

Notice the light. What color actually is the tree? Is it golden? Green? Blue?
Use a color scheme or stick with realism.

Have fun staring at trees, examining them and your imagination.