Artist Studio
In this jump start I want to work on composition and creating a mood. First I want you to break out your sketch book and work with a shape or shapes that your are really comfortable with, perhaps a simple house, boat or in my case a group of figures. Really have a feeling for
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Composition: Position is everything”
18 x 24 watercolor on Arches Rough, 30 minute practice emphasis on brushwork and light to dark value control In this jumpstart I want to use a complete range of value, lightest to darkest, the entire gamut, at the same time really give your brushwork some exercise, and also I want you to start the
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Pockets of light and Brushwork”
Watercolor is a wonderful medium, both transparent and opaque, but we really should try to use the white paper to create wonderful passages of light and movement through our paintings when we are using watercolor in a transparent fashion. The pure white paper really screams look at me against vibrant colors, and textural accents. Make
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I want to carry on with the expressive theme and begin this exercise with either some splatters of color on randomly wet paper or a few bold vigorous brush marks and then let this action lead to the next action. Try to react to the previous step and just build the painting based on action
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Start With A Splash Part 1”
SourceURL:file:///Users/stevefleming/Desktop/Skies%20blog/Skies.doc In this jump start I want you to use a simple theme like expressive skies as the means to loosen up or restart your painting habit. The goal is to paint everyday even if you have no great idea for a subject matter you want to just develop the routine so the painting muse
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15 x 22 watercolor on arches Start this painting with a nice loose drawing of the flowers trying to get an interesting movement of the flowers across the paperuse a nice contour line drawing and get some really unique expressive flowers. add some raw sienna, cerulean blue and cobalt violet to the shadow sides of
Again in this jumpstart I am using some very expressive and playful brushwork, but using a brush well is a major skill, that can’t be overlooked or practiced enough. It might seem like all you are doing is making random and meaningless marks and the result is a messy painting, but you are really developing
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Think Wash Think Line”
This jumpstart is a really a lesson I work on a lot with my students, it involves trying to make a painting by taking all of the principle subject matter and tying these separate pieces of information into one creative dark middle value shape. If done well you will have considered how the shape works
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22 x 30 Watercolor I am a big believer in the creative use of memory in the artistic process and this exercise will again get you reaching into your brain and pulling out familiar images. This is just the exercise for you, especially when you are searching for new ideas and directions and you’ve misplaced
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This will be a great way to warm up and possibly paint some fabulous very expressive and unique pieces of work. It will require that you have lots of fresh paint on your palette, some of your favorite brushes, make sure you have a wide range of brushes handy big wash ones and skinny liners
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Jamming With Your Brush”
The purpose of this exercise is multifaceted, to think in terms of interesting white shapes, to consider the darker middle values as big shapes which highlight and attach the whites, and to get used to putting varied and interesting colors in your darker values. First I want you to make a loose drawing of overlapped
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Painting the Shadows”
In this exercise I want you to look a very complicated subject and really reduce it down to a very expressive light filled composition. Leave out all of the details and just amplify the light. Really think about what is necessary and what can be eliminated. I think you will see from the photo that
Continue Reading “Creative Jumpstarts: Simplifying a Complicated Subject”