Don Andrews Workshop, day 2

I did this barn today, from a photo I took at Winterthur Gardens last summer. The critique suggested that I darken the top of the lefthand tree, somehow connect the window on the front of the barn with the shadow, and one other thing that I've forgotten but have written down in my sketchbook which is at the art center. Don talked today about making these juicy, multicolored washes, about making good neutrals (gray: ultramarine blue and burnt siena, for one), and making mud. We all thought we could teach the last subject! I'm a bit pooped, but this is lots of fun. Do click on the smaller version here to see the larger, more colorful one.

Don Andrews Workshop, day 1

Our local art center is sponsoring a 5-day workshop with Don Andrews. Even after only one day . . . a long one . . . I can recommend him as a teacher.

His painting style is not mine, at all, but it's interesting to try his method. He paints in lots of layers, but I wouldn't call it glazing. He starts with the lightest value (leaving some white of the paper) and works toward the darkest, not necessarily waiting for things to dry but using the same color(s) over each other to build up the value. I tend to be a direct, slap-it-on painter so this takes some restraint on my part. On the other hand, he uses lots of colors, often letting them mingle on the paper which is on an easel set quite steeply. He also talks a lot about various elements of composition such as value, hue, value, placement of elements, value, focal area, etc. So this is what I did today (at the bottom). It's from my head and I see I have a nice, dark worm moving through the middle ground, not an unusual occurrence for me when I make something up. Basically I'm happy with what I did.

Here are a couple of photos I took during Don's demo. The right one is when he has put on a couple of layers of light value and the left is where the painting was when we left today. I assume it's finished, but only he knows.

Rub My Tummy

This was painted on gesso-coated board with the lighter tones lifted. It's Amari in a very familiar position. The title says it all!

figures

I didn't feel too inspired to paint today in our painting studio. I had a bunch of photos of people and my sketchbook, watercolors and Caran d'Ache crayons. I sketched the other three there (snowing today, we we are the intrepid ones) in charcoal in my sketchbook first. There was no effort to make these portraits, just to make them look like people, lol. I also transferred a pencil sketch I'd done previously onto wc paper. For that one, I used the two liquid watercolors I'd taken, an orange and a turquoise and some charcoal. On another paper, I pencilled in the others, washed in some wc paint in a pattern I liked with little reference to the sketch, then used a single crayon to draw the people. Finally, I loosely painted the shapes of the figures in two photos, then used crayons to draw in, or accent, the figure. My goal here was to get the gesture. I could correct a bit with the crayon, too, since the painting was done without lines and loosely. I need to put more obvious wheels on the skateboard. With the kid on the wave board (I don't know the name of this, but it's used at the beach where the water is only a few inches deep), I did the drawing first with orange crayon and it wasn't right, so I just did the drawing again with blue.