There's a thread in the images of this post. It's hands. Much of learning to draw and paint is first learning how to see and secondly, how to transfer what you see to what your hands do. Somehow your hands have to make the shapes look like your reference material. Somehow your hands need to make the lights light enough and the darks dark enough and every other tone in between look like it should. I am happy with what our Wednesday evening class's hands are accomplishing.
The portrait below is a true study in tonal values. This artist is now going to attempt to understand the tones on the child's face. It takes courage to make the shadows as dark as they should be to make the baby's face look three dimensional. I have full confidence that this artist will rise to the challenge.
Fishnets and buoys below. The artist below has used masking fluid to save the white of the paper. The nets in some areas show white and in other areas show dark. When this painting all comes together it will look very nice. The artist here is very fortunate in that her reference photo is broken into sections that can be worked on separately. She could paint the blue background in each section independently.
Looks like we've got a blue theme going this week.
The hard work is done! The reference photo has been copied. The artist below loves the style of Erica Hawkes' paintings. Erica is a west coast artist with a wonderful graphic style. One day, I imagine our artist will step out and interpret a local landscape in this style. For now, she seemed to be having a lot of fun with colour mixing and colour choices. And, her hands and brain got to take a break from the hard work of interpreting and drawing the shapes.
I love it when an artist pushes herself to explore new combinations of mediums. This artist has a small selection of watercolour pencils and a small selection of coloured pencils. So, what to do? Well, you put your base colours in with watercolour and wet it with clean water to mix the colours. When that is dry, you go back in with the colour pencils, blending them to find the natural greens and yellows of the foliage. She may want to frame this one.
Making art is very therapeutic. I see that in every class.
“Take responsibility of your own happiness,
never put it in other people’s hands.”
Roy T. Bennett
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