The final pieces of the workshop, each a 3 hour study. I could definately do this all day, everyday. My senses become acute and alive while painting! I feel I have so much to learn – I’m just scratching the surface of where I want to go and how I want to evolve as an artist. This was such a wonderful learning experience! I’ve got to get back soon.
We did a 3 hour closed grisaille today and a couple of hour and a half long color studies. I think I made a breakthrough in my understanding of the grisaille. Stephen Early gave me some pointers that really helped. First, instead of just relying on blocking in detailed structural lines, he suggested massing in the light and dark right on top of the initial gestural stucture. The actual dark and light masses help with finding the proportions better than a simple drawing. I think I was too locked in to my initial lines and contours and stuck on perfecting the drawing before moving on to massing in dark and light, when in fact moving forward helps in understanding how to correct the drawing. In addition, massing in and then wiping out using the brush prevents the outline “coloring book” effect. I found that I had better control and sensitivity to the shapes with a brush than with the paper towel. Hopefully you can see a difference between this closed grisaille and the one I posted previously. Of course, I’ve got to keep doing these studies in order to make the concept concrete in practice.
Today’s emotions are a complete turnaround from yesterday’s. The only way to handle those feelings of inadequacy are to continue the work. It is only by working through the frustration and struggle that progress is made!
I can’t believe tomorrow is the last day of the workshop. I’ve learned so much in these two weeks. I was feeling a bit sad on the drive home. I will have a hard time going back to my work-a-day world on Monday. I am thinking seriously of applying to attend full time for the 2008-2009 year. It is my dream…
Yesterday and today we began with 20 minute gesture warm ups, then hour and a half closed grisailles, and finished with hour long color studies with the full figure. I’m posting yesterday’s color study and will post more from today when I have the chance to take photos.
Update: Day 8 color studies
I am getting physically and emotionally tired. I’ve been feeling a bit insecure about my work and skills lately, but took small comfort when it was mentioned that this workshop was filled with the most advanced level of painters as a group that this workshop has ever had. So I have valid reason to feel a little inadequate.
A few tips from fellow students I want to jot down before I forget:
1. Cleaning brushes – use goop from the automotive shop initially and then clean with Ivory soap. Baby oil, vegetable oil also works for the initial paint removal.
2. Never use turpentine or detergent based soap on brushes because it makes the bristles brittle and stiff.
3. To remove paint from clothing, use Murphy’s oil soap. To remove paint from skin, use petroleum jelly.
And, some goals I want to set for myself after this workshop is over:
1. Finish setting up a studio space in the apartment.
2. Keep a still life set up.
3. Aim to do 2 small studies a week. (Head toward the painting a day habit, but start with something within reach)
4. Begin a self portrait from life.
Tonight Nelson gave a demonstration from 6-9:30, so I was late coming home. Time for bed now…
Today we returned to the figure and the closed grisaille. We began adding lighter values over the initial duo tone. Here’s an example from the day’s work.
Day 3 we continued working on the concepts we learned in the first 2 days. In the afternoon we had a treat – Nelson came in to demo a closed grisaille and one of the instructors, Natalie Italiano, provided water ice (sort of like Hawaiian shave ice). Here’s the grisaille I saved at the end of the morning session.
Day 4 we began color studies. We started with a simple still life set up of vibrantly colored boxes against bright backdrops. This exercise trains our eyes to see color relationships and is an opportunity to experiment with the extent and limitations of our pigments.
Day 5 a figure was put in among the still life boxes. We treat the figure as a part of the still life in this exercise and train our eyes to see the flesh tones in relationship to the other colors surrounding the figure.
Here’s the final painting of the week.
Today we started with 1 minute gestures for warm up and proceeded to 5 minute block ins. The block in style where we wipe out the highlights is called open grisaille.
The teaching staff then demonstrated a closed grisaille. For a closed grisaille the highlights are painted. We used white with a dab of orange cadmium and a pinhead of green cadmium mixed in. Some instructors chose also to add a pinhead of scarlett cadmium. We did these for the rest of the day for 5 minute poses progressing to 10 minute poses and ended with the final pose of the day that lasted 20 minutes.
Here’s my final painting, which I kept. The rest were wiped out along the way.
Tips I learned today:
1. I shouldn’t feel locked in to starting my angles with the midline of the torso and the standing leg (even though this was a helpful starting point yesterday and works for some poses). Instead, I found a freedom in making instinctive lines of direction, even if the lines didn’t necessarily correspond to given body parts. I found that lines connecting opposing hip and shoulder worked for many poses.
2. I shouldn’t let time constraints make me rush. I actually need to mentally step back and slow down. When I feel all rushed and panicky I waste more time trying to get the right marks than when I pause, take time to really look and then economize the lines I make.
3. I need to take into account (for tomorrow) hands, feet, and smaller angles within the larger shapes. I need to zoom in a step more than what I am doing and articulate the shapes to a greater degree.
Today we spent the day on gestures and blocking in. We used burnt sienna mixed with a dab of ultramarine blue and a dab of white, thinned with odorless mineral spirits. The first hour we painted 1 minute gesture drawings concentrating on the major angles of each pose. The second and third hours we blocked in for each 5 minute pose, again concentrating on the angles but adding in the dark and light masses by filling in major shapes and wiping out the light areas. Here’s a photo of my canvas during these exercises.
After lunch we continued with blocking in exercises, progressing from 5 minute poses to 10 minute poses.
Instruction included a demonstration of each concept by 2 teachers at a time prior to our practice sessions, as well as individual coaching by roving teachers during the practice time. I found that I really enjoyed watching each demonstration, seeing how each “plan of attack” was a little different even though the concept demonstrated was the same. I found myself gravitating toward watching instructors whose investigatory marks followed a pattern similar to my own – their process made sense to me and I found I could learn readily from observing them.
Tips of the day:
1. Stand an arm’s length from the canvas to give yourself freedom to use whole arm movements.
2. Hold brushes toward the back of the handle.
3. Both 1 and 2 help facilitate looking at the whole and prevent getting cramped up in the parts and the details. 1 and 2 also facilitate loose marks rather than stiff/mechanical ones.
4. Step back often to better assess proportion of the figure and the angles and their relationships to one another.
5.Draw using only straight lines – no curves.
6. Mix the paint a medium tone (the paint I used in the above example was too dark). The reasoning behind this is to allow for deeper shadows to be added later in progressive stages of painting.
7. A great starting point for placement of the major angles is with the weight bearing leg and the torso.
I only saved one painting – the final one of the day. The day’s learning culminated in this piece.
I feel tired from the day, but in a very good way. I am so happy doing what I love! I can’t wait for tomorrow’s lessons!
