We talked alot about the thinking
that “to make a painting better,
it needs to be more real.”
We focussed on manipulating the four elements of design;
Line, Shape, Color, and Texture
to design our paintings,
instead of just copying what is in front of us.
In the morning we worked from a busy still life
and began by doing zoomed in thumbnails.
(line)
From those, we chose our favorite and designed
two different value studies using only three values.
(shape)
Then we added “made up” color,
matching the value plan in our design.
(Color)
In the afternoon we painted from upside down
black and white images, using a limited color range.
(Color)
Then we painted over an old painting,
manipulating the surface with knifes, scrapers,
chacoal etc.
(Edges/Surface)
We packed a lot in to one day, and only scratched the surface of ways to push our paintings beyond the expected.
More to come.
NOTE:
This was an open medium class and we had
6 pastel painters, 1 watercolorist,
1 oil stick, 2 acrylic, and 1 oil painters.
Interesting to see the exercises
translated to these mediums!
Great work everyone.