Composition revisited

This blog has been on hiatus, another word for just plain lazy. Let me quote Michael Jordan when he returned to basketball "I'm back".  

I redid the exercise on composition - one object some pieces of paper and  well make different compositions.

We all have the habit of just wanting to quickly get to painting.  This exercise suggests that taking the time to work out the composition might make a better painting.  In Mike Svob's workshop, he emphasized the same thing.  Carol moves her objects around, Mike did pencil thumbnails, but they both spend a lot of time on composition


Something to think about.

Composition

Tips for still life composition

1. keep arranging your props until you feel good (it sometimes takes her quite a long time)
2. make things uneven - spacing between things colours number of objects, edges, direction of strokes, warm and cool colours
3. avoid awkward kissing of objects (2 apples just touching)
4. the rule of thirds (divide the canvas into thirds (vertically and horizontally  and the sweet spot is where the lines meet
5. fool around with the light

And most of all don't be afraid to break the rules.

Exercise: "Take a simple object, some pieces of paper and make different compositions. 

NOTE: she said take a simple object so I pulled out a salt shaker.  Salt shakers are quite complicated but I really enjoyed doing this exercise. It just took me longer than I would of liked.  I am having a show and in conjunction gave a talk.  The title was painting in a series.  This little project shows that even with a one object you can see me getting more comfortable painting it.

No salt was spilt in the making of this art. 

 

Double Espresso

I wanted to try to paint 2 mugs - one inside another.  Carol does it all the time and of course she makes it look easy.  There are a lot of angles and ovals that are hard.  I started with drawing lines at the edges, filled in the lines, and the shapes.  A little more paint and I am done.  Now I see something wrong with the upper handle, but I am pleased.  I really learning a lot from her book. I would continue to work on it if it was for a complete painting but this is an exercise learn and move on.

Connecting the dots

Today's lesson is setting out your composition on the canvas.  First mark dots on the midpoints on the canvas.  Second put dots or little lines on the edges of each object. Third start rounding.  Here is my setup

 Then I added mid dots (I confess I drew a line to make it easier for me)

 I then connected the dots.

My first pass

 2nd pass

 And my painting.  I could have gone on for ever but this is just an exercise.  It was fun painting the teapot because at first glance it is black, but as you stare at it the colours come out.
Besides which I would really like my pot back as it is now time for tea.  - Lady Grey tea hot.

Here is Monday's weekly hint - yes I know it is Tuesday but consistency is not part of my vocabulary - don't even know the meaning of the word.

David Kassan is an amazing artist who is now having a Kickstarter fundraiser for a palette

palette kickstarter

If I were an oil painter I think I would get it because I love new things for my art.  His palette is unusual in that it is vertical.  His point is, a vertical palette means the light falls in the same manner on the palette as on the painting.  I am not comparing myself to him and I really don't think that having vertical is going to instantly make me as good as him but then you never know.  I have a little palette which I now keep vertically and it is easier physically so you don't twist to get at your paint.  I am now very aware of how repetitive motions come back to bite you.  

Watch the video - I think the palette is a  brilliant design. And before you ask - no the paint does not drip down but the glaze does so I just put that on the bottom.  

View Finder continued

Here is another one I made with a view finder,  She uses the viewfinder throughout the painting but I made a sketch to use instead.

and then painted this work. If nothing else I am working from life

Use your viewfinder

She uses a viewfinder and then draws in the big shapes.  I did this but it didn't look as great as her paintings.  I think I will try a simpler cup.  I did notice that I worked on the composition more because I could see it didn't look good through the viewfinder and I rearranged it quite a bit.

It's a draw

Carol Marine must have talked with Bert Dodson because they both want you to sketch a lot and both of them start with drawing your hand. She suggested drawing your hand holding something.

She also recommended carrying around a sketch book to draw while waiting for things like oil changes.  Funny I just had to have my oil changed.  This wasn't the first time that I sketched in public but it was really creepy.  Every time I looked up this guy was staring at me and I wasn't even drawing him.  Usually when two strangers glance at each, they take a quick look and turn their heads, but this guy was just staring at me.  Unfortunately our cars were ready at the same time, but I waited to get mine - I was really creeped out.  The sketch below is from the library - a great place to sketch because people tend to return to the same position or they sleep.  Either way it is a good thing. 

Lean to the left, lean to the .....

I love this book.  The more I read it, the more I want to.  After saturation, came the fact that colours have a lean.  For instance Cadmium yellow leans blue while  Cadmium yellow light goes red and so on. I love this hint she gave  - put the colours you use on a piece of paper and which way they lean.  This is so important and just this hint is almost worth the price of the book.
You should know which way your colours go because if you mix them you could get grey unexpectedly.  If this doesn't make sense buy the book.

Paint what you see.  She had a problem with egg yolks because everyone knows they are yellow, but really they are not the  bright yellow out of the tube..  I had a similar problem with candles (cheesy plug for my other blog   5minutesfromcool.blogspot.ca ) and the colours of flames.

She warned about using white because it makes things chalky - that is what my evil teacher Suzy always says- maybe I should listen to her more. She talked about burnt umber - it sounded so good I may go buy a tube.

The next exercise was to do colour charts and maybe one day I will do them but not today.  My inner child is having a tantrum and my outer child says she can`t make me.

She did suggest using paint chips.  The exercise is to mix a colour to match the paint chip.  This isn't the first time I have done this but a good exercise is always worth repeating.

I think I am pretty good at this and if the painting career doesn't work out I can always get a job putting drops of paint on a paint chip. You can`t even tell the beige ones I did - I am that good.

The orange one does show but if you squint it goes away.  Squint really hard.

The colour card is from Farrow & Ball.  I keep their card because the names of the colours amuse me.  I would love to paint a room Wimborne white or cat`s paw but the winner is elephant`s breath. Say no more, say no more.  (from monty python it seemed appropriate).

I knew it

Value does the work but colour is more fun.  First subject is saturation.  The exercise is to mix 2 primaries and then slowly add the other primary to desaturate the colour.  I used cadmium red, cadmium yellow and Ultramarine blue. The first column is an orange (from the red and yellow) and blue is slowly added.  The next is green added by red and the last is purple adding yellow.  The purple didn't really change that much - I guess the yellow is weak in comparison.  The final column is cadmium red desaturated by equal amounts of blue and yellow.

I mixed it with a palette knife and I was quite careful to keep the knife clean which is a habit I should develop.  

Grey or Gray - I never know which one is right and the spell checker isn't helping it accepts both.  I have always argued with teachers that it makes no sense to worry about complements.  For example to get the a red grey you have to  mix red with its complement  - green which is blue and yellow.  So you are mixing all the primaries.  I never understood worrying about the complement just mix all the primaries and you add more of any colour to get it to lean to the colour you want.  If you want a bluer grey just add more blue.  Carol agrees with me.  She just mixes red, blue yellow and sometimes white to get a grey. 

I told you so.

How fast can you paint if you had to

This exercise was to arrange a still life and paint it in 20 minutes 10 minutes and then 5 minutes.
Can you guess which one is which?

They are in the order painted - 20 10 then 5 minutes.

Five minutes was a a fight but the others were enjoyable.

White on White

I have figured out my problem or at least one of them.  I usually work on Carol's book after I've done everything else and usually at the end of the day.  I am now changing it to a priority and going to work on  it first thing in the morning - after the dog, breakfast, a load of laundry and a couple of bills.

Still working on values - this time a light painting with secondary midtone and a smidgen of black.

I don't think we will eat the egg that has been sitting under a lamp - the dog is about to get lucky.  

 

Black on Black

I figured it out.  I mean I figured out how to get the dark values.  First cover your canvas with black paint.  I think it would have been better to let the paint dry but who has patience.  Put the subject in a box and then turn of the lights and paint in the dark.  Works for me.  The majority of the painting is black the midtones is secondary and the white is just a smidgen.

Just like the books says.  Tomorrow I will try to have a white painting - at least I don't have to paint in the dark.

Value (1)

This is a very short chapter but it is deceiving.  It is just like learning chess - the rules are simple but the game takes a lifetime to learn.  Values seem so simple it is just dark and light but training your eye to see them is not as easy as it seems.  

It is simplified to 3 values - obviously dark, medium and light.  Highlights are not included in the value scheme. Each painting should have the values divided into "dominant, secondary and smidge amounts".  Sounds easy doesn't it, well its not.  I tried a couple of paintings that, well excuse the expression, sucked.  

This one isn't bad but it still doesn't obey her rules.  Mid tones are dominant, light is secondary in theory and black is a smidge.  In reality it seem to me that white  and black amounts are equal. The background was toned and is peaking out.

I tried a painting with black dominant and I couldn't get it to work.  

At least I am painting in acrylic and can easily cover the work and try again. And in the imortal words of Scarlet O'hara, "I'll think about it tomorrow".

Poppy

The next exercise was to walk around your neighbourhood and take pictures.  I am a little incapacitated right now so I just hung my jacket  on my easel and worked on that.

I am so excited to be working on this book but painting for me is really hard right now.  I am not used to sitting while painting so I am finding it frustrating.  Oh well.  

It is poppy season now.  I make a poppy painting every year. I am a sucker for all those veterans who sell them and I am incapable of walking by without giving a few dollars.  So each of my jackets has a poppy.  One soldier I was talking to said this year the poppies are being bought up.  All of us are distraught over the events in Montreal and Ottawa where soldiers were murdered. Just buying a poppy doesn't seem enough.

That is it for chapter 3.  The book is full of beautiful paintings and I am wasting a lot of time looking at all the artist's websites.  Tomorrow is chapter 4 on values.    

Selfie

Carol`s next exercise is a self portrait.  Boy did I have a tough time with this one.  I hurt my knee badly and I had to paint sitting down.  I just could not get comfortable, everything felt off.  I also didn't wear my my glasses.  I have heard of artists painting without their glasses to make everything a blur but between my knee and glasses I just couldn't wait until it was over.

Where did all those wrinkles come from.  I need a hair cut.  

I see you

Today's exercise is to draw your eyes but not straight on.  Try doing a 3/4 view, this way you are forced to see the differences between the both eyes and not draw what you think you know.

Here are hints

1. Do it front lit not back lit.  If your head is back lit everything is in shadow
2. Wash off your mascara that you have rubbed so that you can actually see your eyes 

Now excuse me  I have to go wash my face

Is it real or is it....

The point of this exercise is to highlight the difference between what we think we know and reality.  It is pretty easy to do.

1. Draw what you think a pepper looks like using your imagination
2. Draw a real pepper 

I just happened to have a red pepper rotting away in my fridge.  I really have to stop wasting food. An apple or a pear would be just as suitable..  I think anything would work that wasn't too complicated and you could visualize it in your head.

When I first drew this I thought it looked okay but really doesn't it look like a weird apple? Hmm. 

Then I drew it really looking - do they  look like peppers to you?

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?

I think I may be dating myself by this joke - how do you get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice practice.

Bert, I am taking the liberty of calling him by his first name, suggested drawing things with an unusual shape or not in  the position you are used to.  This is to get you out of the habit of  drawing what you think you know and instead drawing by actually looking at it.  He suggested a book of matches which really dates him because I can't remember the last time I had one.  I don't think restaurants give them out anymore, which probably ruined a lot of mystery stories but I digress.

Can you figure out what this is?

Or does is this version a little clearer?

It's a ladle.  Don't worry I'm not insulted I think you can guess from these pictures I am not working until I get it perfect or pretending to be great - this is a blog for me to learn and I hope you will too.

What do you think this is

Does this one help?

I'll just tell you - it is a tape dispenser.  This is a great exercise just draw things in an unusual position so you really have to look - try it you have nothing to lose.

The Devil finds work for idle hands

Working on hands now.
Exercise :
Draw your hand from an unusual view point -  straight on. His instructions were to hold your hand 12 inches in front of you - looking more at the hand than at the paper.  Pretend you don't know you are looking at a hand but at something new. It is okay to redraw lines because that makes the drawing more interesting. Don't worry if it doesn't look like a hand - it is hard to get it right away.

After I did his exercise I did a whole bunch of other unusual positions

The next one was tough.  From my view point, I could only see the tip of my pinky but I still kept drawing it.  I knew a pinky is longer so I was drawing what I knew not what I saw.

Enough shoes

Enough with the shoes - what woman ever says that - but I have had enough.  Today is my last one. Notice the holes on the side I must be the last person in the world that still has some continuous form paper from, well let's just a really, really long time ago.  I have enjoyed doing these more once I stopped worrying about the time.  I think that doing drawings like these are a great way to warm up.  On to hands tomorrow.