Weeks 4-6 at FAA summer program focuses on painting. The painting portion of our curriculum the week started out fairly well. Using umber paint, I transferred drawings and master copies onto linen panels and then proceeded to wipe out the light areas.
I wish I could have stopped with just the wipe-out. First of all, I really like wipe-out paintings, but more importantly, it went rather downhill from then on. I didn’t even want to share this week because I felt the work was really rough, but I was encouraged to share by my sister and also by a good friend who is also a student to lay it out. And as a student myself, I like seeing how instructors make mistakes and what they do about them.
Being a student is quite a humbling experience. I’m constantly reminded of something my husband often says to me: “Be comfortable being uncomfortable.” And to keep this in perspective, no one is going to get hurt or need an ambulance ride if my paintings and drawings don’t work this week. 🙂
The lesson on both of these paintings was about turning form. Turning form is why we see dimensionally. It can be achieved using just value (lights and darks ) but color adds a more nuanced dimension with warmer and cooler colors as well as more or less saturated colors. A color (hue) can have the same value as one next to it, but if one of the colors is more chromatic, the less chromatic color will appear to recede. In addition, and at the same time, we have to take into account the planes of the forms. So form is visually described using hue, value, and chroma.
We have to note if the form is facing the light, turning away from the light or in the dark. These three planes are the simplest way to think about turning form, but edges, temperature, speed that the form is turning has to be taken into account. And between each plane is another plane so the form turns can get very, very subtle. Bouguereau was a master of subtle turning of form .
Breton Brother & Sister – William Bouguereau
Metropolitan Museum of Art
I felt I had a rather good drawing of Tory. This is a working drawing where I wanted a good likeness and to give myself the information of the major and some minor planes.
I tried transferring the drawing with charcoal and then going over it with a permanent pen, but the transfer didn’t work as well as I had hoped. We had the model so I thought I would be OK. Below is the image from day 3 or 4 of a 5 day morning pose. You can see the palette arrangement and the painting. I lost the drawing, which happens, but I wasn’t able to get it back in the time allotted. At the same time I was learning a new mixing technique and method that our instructor, Gregory Mortenson, uses when he paints. It’s a good method, but a lot to juggle in a short time.
My second painting of the week was a master copy of Elizabeth Nourse Head of a Girl. I love her painting and I liked my drawing of it so it felt reasonable to try painting it. The challenge, at least for me, was that the forms were turned in a more brushy, a la prima, way. I think Nourse may have painted this in one sitting.
Her strokes are more expressive and work with the forms. Mine got ‘mushy’.
I did a 3 hour a la prima painting at home where I wanted to make stronger notes of the colors she used. I also changed my palette colors from a basic 3 color red, blue, yellow ochre, sienna, to a secondary palette plus burnt umber to see if it would be possible to match her colors. I could, to a degree, but the jury is out as to whether or not it works even as a series of color notes.
If you like paintings of still life and interiors I want to recommend an artist who is new to me but revered in his homeland of Westerendem, Netherlands. Henk Helmantel is sublime at capturing beautiful light. You can get a beautiful book of his work on Amazon.
Sorry I can’t seem to upload any images, but click on the links to see his work.
I hope you find these Art Tips helpful and informative. Feel free to pass them on. In case you missed previous Tips, you can find them here on my blog
Until next week!
Lizz
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