Chicagoland has been in and out of HEAT WAVES this past month. This week we finally got 3" of rain all at once...and some very severe storms throughout the midwest. We escaped that...but it was fun to just take art classes, follow my favorite artists on YouTube ....and PLAY!
I did a lot of art playing in mid July---especially making some collage papers. My video below includes :
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It's not a demo, but I do describe how I got some of the effects I did, the materials I used, some tips and well some of the joyfulness of creating.
Any questions on materials, techniques and I will be happy to elaborate. Enjoy!
Below is one of the pieces I showed in the video which will actually become a painting.
This was a palette cleanse on some heavier 120# multi-media paper. I love this weight of paper because you can do anything on it, and it's not horribly expensive like watercolor paper. Biggest drawback is trying to get tape off. I'm using paper medical tape at this point...all the artists' tapes I've used are expensive and even more horrid in trying to get off. Paper bandage tape is roughly a little heavier than washi tape...and on sale is pretty reasonable, ie...Walgreens.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself.
My free Senior Mather Virtual classes offered a Basic Acrylics class with Emily. She's a lovely artist from Ireland who works very small and with multiple layers of thinned acrylics. Her work is beautiful and slow, but I'm a bit more energetic and impulsive.
But, I worked on a painting the first two weeks of the class, and then have been staring at it. The rest of the class is working on different subjects and they are basically still on the background and this week beginning the foreground.
In college...I worked so fast the instructor made me work on three canvases at once in acrylic painting class...and then I muddied all of them up to total messes.
So, I'm trying hard to limit my time when painting, and to walk away.
(I actually switched my major to Psychology because of Acrylic Painting and metalworking....UGH!)
I'm using Blick/Liquitex Acrylics on gessoed watercolor paper.
My Palette is Ultramarine Blue, Primary Red, Cadmium yellow Lt., Raw Umber and Titanium White.
I wasn't trying to duplicate the photo, but use it as a stepping off point.
I thought this stage was a bit undefined and lifeless.
And something I do now, when I'm not happy with a project is take photos and make them black and white to see the values (the intensity) of my colors in shades of gray.
Yesterday, I scribbled a bit here and there with a watercolor pencil in black(horrors--black). I can add some water for shading and either erase it by wiping off or...spray with a fixative. Then I can seal the painting when I decide it's done.
The lower photo is the original photo, now in black and white.
The foreground bothered me and also the land mass sticking out into the sea. I needed to darken or define those areas a bit...and fix the foreground...maybe?
At the top, bits of red are suggestions...and also a little in the sand. I darkened shadows under the trees with all the palette colors mixed together, but white.
You also can really see the gesso marks here...how they are going the wrong way for this composition.
But then again, this is a practice piece.
While the village is pretty undefined and here you can see the gesso marks again, I really darkened the foreground and avoided details...as for me, the subject is the cozy village and the water.
Yesterday, I scribbled a bit here and there with a watercolor pencil in black(horrors--black). I can add some water for shading and either erase it by wiping off or...spray with a fixative. Then I can seal the painting when I decide it's done.
Is this finished? I don't know...but it has been a great learning experience. It's still taped on the easel, so we will see.
Moving on....
Back to that palette paper cleanse in the video. I decided to do an edited version of the photo, this time.
Here again is my subject photo from Pinterest but....I loved the colors and tried to stay true to that with another go and even looser attempt at the village.
My Acrylic colors used above and below are: Yellow Ochre, Cadmium Yellow Lt, Ultramarine Blue, Raw Umber, white and no red in this project. I enjoy working with a limited color palette, and it forces me to mix colors...so the greens are mixed as are the sandy colors and the grays. I went for the deeper shades and the brightest shades first over the existing base.
The above is my first run...blocking out the shapes and basic colors. I used a 12 flat brush..yes, like 3/4" wide on this paper.
This is when it is wet and you walk away.
A second go...I like the looseness of this one, the simplicity...is it done????
I have all these blank canvases downstairs, I think I will try this subject matter one more time and see what happens on a 24"x36" maybe?
What do you think, are they FINISHED???
Thanks always for visiting,
All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.
Thank you for your cooperation,
Sandi
Sandi
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