Day Two - Tuesday

I have some catching up to do!  Last night and this morning I could not get connected to the internet.  This cabin is off the grid, but they have a solar-powered dish for internet and TV.  So I better be quick!  Sun is going down and then it will be on battery!

Here is my underpainting and pastel overlays:

What my lesson for the day was:  see the dark green edge (drips) that leave a hard edge above the lower level grass foreground?  You have to glaze over both areas with a like color to soften it. 

Add a zing of bright blue in the dark trees to catch the eye to make it go over there for a moment.

Leave mystery - area where viewer gets to figure it out

Leave the outer edges of the paper more "out of focus" or less textured so the eye isn't attracted to it and off the page...

Put a "ping" in a dark area with a lighter color to suggest light hitting a rock.

Orchestrate:  the paper is an orchestra - certain areas are the (i.e.) first violin, other areas are the support string section...  pump certain areas up, subdue other areas.  I know this is an abstract idea, but, you had to be there...

I was working with shade on my panel and palette, yet I was in the sun.  It looked a little dull to me because my eyes adjusted to the shade.  When I was done he turned it around into the sunlight.  Whoa!  It looked so much brighter and more colorful! 

It was a great day.  There is nothing that comes close to seeing the artist in person go through his/her process.  Books and DVDs are helpful, but I really get more from the real deal.

Bye!

Let's try this again....

Yay, this picture uploaded.  On this field sketch here I have made the corrections and made my dark shapes (the trees) grouped more together instead of fractured the way they were.

Here is the photograph I took for reference later:

And, here are my value sketches:  the top was the first, then, the lower got progressively more defined as I perfected my shapes:

For those of us that finished before 6pm, Richard suggested we try value sketches in a square format.  I did the same scene for comparison.  I'll have to post what I learned about this later!

So much information, so little time to post it all!

See ya later!

Workshop - Day One - Faith Valley

Hello from the Sierras!  We are up here taking a workshop from Richard McKinley.  Our base camp is the cabin in Hope Valley, California, where we started on Monday with a talk and hand-outs and plan of the week.  Then we went out to our first location at Faith Valley (the next alpine valley up the road), where Richard demoed value sketches and then a field study on a small belgium mist kitty wallis piece.  He gave us all a piece of red acetate that we could put behind a view finder or use alone when we determine values. 

The first picture above is Richards completed field study.  Below is the series of mine - first blocking in the value shapes (in the basic color scheme), then we were to smoosh it and push the pastel into the paper with a piece of foam (pipe insulation).

Next step - definining with additiona layers of pastel.  When he came around to mine I got the pointer that I should join my darks into larger, simpler shapes because my little strokes (though consistent and impressionistic) made the darks fragmented.  I did the correction here, but tentatively.  Hope it is enough.

Oops - blogger photo upload stopped loading pictures.  In case I loose this entry, I will post this now, go down to breakfast, and try to do the end of my post then...

3rd Place in Floral/Still Life Category!!!! Wooohooo!

I ran by the Balloon Races later this morning, after many were in the air and some were landing.  I had entered two paintings in the Sierra Watercolor Society's Annual Art Show there at the Museum at the Balloon Race Park (Rancho San Rafael).  I was so surprised to find I had earned a 3rd Place ribbon for my "White Roses" painting.  Wow!  I'm stoked!

My other painting "Lion Pride" was in a catch-all category called "Other".  Here is the wall of that category.

It is a really beautiful show.  I met the lady who won first in "Other".  She did a really neat abstract.  We talked art and I got to ask her a lot of questions about abstract art, how the artist does it, is there a plan, is it accident, what makes one abstract painting better than another one.  She had lots of good answers - she is from a design background.  So I understood what she was talking about.  It is the same principles I've been learning in my pastel classes - shapes, values, balance, color, arrangement, movement, composition.  I enjoyed picking her brain and learned a lot about abstract.

Here are some balloon race pictures.

Garden Lace - a pastel painting

I finished this today.  Since it involved so many delicate little shapes, I decided to call this Garden Lace, because it was like painting lace! 

Time to clean up, sort out my supplies to take to the workshop, shop for the food I plan to bring, dig out warm clothes in storage.  So, I won't be posting any painting this week.  So I may post my first Newsletter (if I can figure out how to import it).  I've been reading a book on MS Publisher 2007, trying to find out how to make my own e-newsletters and one page brochures.  Just trying to be techie in a techie world!

I am bringing my computer to the workshop.  Hopefully there will be a little time to post about it.

Getting closer ...

I know the light colored flowers look stripey, but I was just blocking in the value and color note.  When I get more done on the lower half, then I have to balance everything and bring out the focal point.  There is a lot of negative painting in this (painting the spaces between objects).  It is actually fun for me, and keeps me from overdoing the objects.

As we approach autumn, we sadly clean up and cut back spent blooms.  My hollyhocks are mostly done and cut back.  The weather is a little cooler (but still hot - in the 80s) and the rosebushes like that a lot and are blooming for us to ease the pain (we love summer).  Maybe that is why I am lingering while painting this scene...

Continuing on...

I like to build this up gradually.  Must be because I am a control freak ... also, because it is nice to not be in a rush, listen to relaxing music ... There is a benefit (I tell myself) to not having an actual studio.  You can eat, drink, watch the news, feed the fish, clean the birdcage, vacuum the carpet, prepare meals, read a magazine, and view your work-in-progress, maybe add a few strokes ... all in the same room!!!  You get a great sense of multi-tasking!  OMG, I am wonderwoman!  LOL.