Beach and Umbrellas

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I enjoy doing beach paintings and I love to hint at the figures with dynamic hits of color. I having been playing with canvas sizes. In truth, this originally had a lot more beach and it didn't work. I decided this format was best for zeroing in on the area I was most interested in doing. Originally, this area was the supporting background but it became the hero. More on thoughts of heros and supporting cast players in paintings in future posts.

Sand Play

Didn't have a lot of time yesterday so I thought I'd have fun doing a little 6 x 6 inch oil. I wanted to have fun with color. Well, my first attempt had three figures and was so labored...so I wiped it out and redesigned it with just the two and was able to reach the hypnotic state. Funny how sometimes it's just so hard and wiping out and starting again can be the solution.

Teacup Pastel

When I did this teacup in pastel, I wanted to created something that had really interesting color but still said "white teacup" It is always hard to get the elipses correct and I struggled to create the drawing. The color however was one of those rare times when everything just flowed without much thought. It is our goal as artists that when what we know intellectually about design, drawing and color becomes so ingrained we are able to create in an almost hypnotic state.

Ten Strokes Redux

Another 10 strokes day in class by popular request. I have posted a series of 8 photos showing the process of the 10 strokes. This exercise is designed to encourage the artist to define the object...in this case an artichoke....in just 10 strokes. A lot of thought has to go into how to use value, color and brush stroke. These photos shows how I progress and also show my palette with the two puddles of paint...light and dark side and the beginning of modifying the puddles to change the value or hue of the original color. The 9th photo is a ten stroke red onion. I found my students’ paintings became more authoritative and less fussy after this assignment.

Palette

As I mentioned, I want to talk a little about my palette. I use many basic colors but have a selection of "fun" colors which, as I said before, they make them so I use them.
My basic palette has a selection of colors that are warm and cool in each category. A cool red, Alizarin Crimson, a warm one, Cadmium Red. Cool blue, Ultramarine, warm blue, Cerulean Blue. I only put out Sap Green, a warm green but easy to cool down.
Within my warm section I also have some Cadmium Orange and Cadmium Yellow and then my "grays" are Raw Sienna and Yellow Ochre and Jaune Brilliant (a nice alternative to White), White and Raw Umber. And then we get to my fun colors...Lilac, Lavender, Pink, and Lear Green.

BUT...despite an array of colors, Misty Morning shows that color can still be controlled for impact and not garish. More about mixing colors later.

Backdrop...Pastel

I love to paint pastel nudes. It is an opportunity to be very creative with color. As long as the values and intensity work, there are so many different possibilities for colors. Pastels especially afford the opportunity to overlap warm and cool colors of like value to turn form in the subtle ways of the human form. I also think it can illustrate the concept of lost and found...by focusing in on the part of the figure where you want the attention to be and letting the rest support the painting but not compete with it. In this case the most vibrant colors and the most detail is at the hair and the cascading fabrics and fades in both value and intensity as we go towards the legs.