Artist Studio
Today was another day of just getting myself ready for the workshop. I painted with a nice group of painters in Rockland, Maine at the city marina and I painted multiple pieces. The painting I am posting is a nice example of concentrating on the foundation of the painting, the contrast of lights and darks.
Yesterday I was painting in Camden, Maine at a very familiar location. I am getting ready for my annual Maine workshop. This years workshop I am teaching transparent watercolors, opaque watercolors and oils so it will be quite the interesting schedule but I am so up for it. I spent the day working on opaque watercolors and after realizing I had left most of the required colors at home in my studio, I finally got back in the game and started to paint. This is not a very interesting scene and it takes some looking to come up with a good concept and composition. I wanted the lake to really be the star of this piece and it is painted with Cheap Joe color Sky Blue and Titanium White.
I am posting some demonstrations from my weekly watercolor classes. I think they turned out well and it seems like the class enjoyed the lessons. I do most of my watercolors as demonstrations; it seems like I rarely ever go into my studio a paint. It seems that given the opportunity I will play my
Continue Reading “In The Studio: A Few Demonstrations from Watercolor Class”
In this demonstration I will present the process I use to make a figure painting using transparent, and opaque watercolor, and a lot of graphite.
The 5 figure painting are all in distinctly different styles, using combinations of tinted paper, charcoal, opaque watercolor, white watercolor and a strong graphite line. Try to find your own voice in your paintings and not just strive to copy what you see.
Tape your paper into 4 rectangles or squares, whichever format makes you the most comfortable. I find it easier to make a composition on a rectangular page than a square but the square is much more fun to deal with, especially if you are looking to create something a little out of the ordinary. In
Continue Reading “Jumpstart Repost from 2011 “Same Subject Different Light””
Give Some thought to the Color Palette and the Effect Can be Remarkable Every time you decide to paint, a major decision is going to be how to use color. This is not as simple as using a dark blue for the sky or making a red piece a purple piece; those are selective choices
Keep up the gestural line and color and work you way back to a state of interest and excitement.
I find myself in a corner, thus the title, the dreaded can’t get the juice going, can’t get the creativity turned on, and really not in the mood to paint. I gave myself a few days to sit in the corner, that is a metaphor for those who know me well, I couldn’t sit anywhere
In this jumpstart I want you to again start by dividing your paper into four sections, and then sketch four simple subjects into each square, think of subject matter that can be assigned a representational color feeling, nothing too complicated. The goal is to get the colors both light and dark correct not paint an
In this exercise use a simple straight-forward design with a well indicated light pattern. Do a value pattern and work directly from the value pattern. It will be really hard to work from a photograph since the goal is to make up the colors while still keeping the strong feeling of light source. Tape the
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstart: Different Colors Same design”
This will seem daunting at first but there is no time like now to begin to think about the direction of light as something you, yes you, can manipulate to create a different painting while using the same shapes. I know we did this once before but I think it is a very important skill
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstart: Direction of Light Changes the Scene”