After our first week of painting the pioneer village, our teacher decided we needed to go back to get some better work. Kind of sad, huh?! But I was really glad for a second try. You might recall that the owners of the Pioneer Village allowed us to go and paint in their facilities in hopes to get some art work to use as postcards to sell in their gift shop. So the second time around was greatly appreciated. This time we had two weeks to work on our pieces, one week at the park and another week in the classroom with the teacher guiding us to the finish. I decided to take the extra time and make two paintings. Unfortunately, I got so carried away getting both paintings done that I forgot to take pictures of most my steps. Opps! Here’s what I’ve got-
Painting 1: Steps (missing quite a few at the end there, sorry!)
Painting 2: (Sorry, no steps for this one!)
The things we really stressed this week were
1) Work hard to create a great layout and accurate drawing before you start anything else
2) Create a well-designed value study of your piece before you paint and make sure the values of your final design match.
3) Allow your colors to mix on the paper by adding them next to each other with lots of water rather than mixing on your pallet- it gives your shapes vibrant color blends instead of one flat color. For example, to make a green bush, paint the shape with yellow and then dab in some blue in the darkest spots and let the colors run together.
James, Great study. I am glad you post stuff like this – its a reminder to all of us who think we ‘don’t have eugonh time. I am reminded of louis auchincloss- who wrote 57 books (his last at 90)-while raising a family and working (Working not a face partner) as a lawyer. whit stilmman interviewed him and asked how he did it:How did you manage to combine a full-time law career with such extraordinary productivity as a writer?Auchincloss: What I learned to do was use bits and slices of time. If you learn that you can cover an enormous amount of ground. I’d go to Surrogate’s Court and listen to the calendar being called for a particular case – it might come up in 10 minutes or in an hour – I thought, look, I could write then. Lots of writers think you need rest and calm, your slippers and a cigar, and all that. That’s all very well if you can have those things, but you don’t need them. So I picked up a great deal of time that way. If you have a notebook, you can fill that in constantly. ……………Naturally painters can’t carry around their magnum opuses, but they can always carry a small sketchbook – and work out problems and ideas, or practice, and that makes time at the easel more productive.