February 29, 2010

Happy Leap Day! What are the odds it would fall on one of our class days? Not to waste the opportunity, we launched into one of our "art question" discussions  and we'll be sharing some of our insights throughout the blog. Here, for instance Elaine T. offers a prime example of How to Start A Painting/Next Steps. She was inspired by seascapes of a 19th century artist, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky. Determined to figure out how he did it, Elaine began a few studies with various brushes, various colors—just a series of studies with no goal other than to figure things out. Keep watching what she does. From small studies, mighty paintings grow.

Elaine O. is another fierce proponent of doing studies. She did this rough sketch in a cheap sketchbook with one goal—to figure out how to blend between two strong complementary colors without leaving an ugly gray demarcation zone. Mission accomplished.

Ken is the poster child for another of our suggestions—come up with a simple routine. Ken paints every day at the same time and regularly works in series. As a result, he's finished this large painting from his Julia Cameron series. 

Habte finished this floral painting. It's a view into a room. We can see the space divided up into inside/outside and the layers as we peer beyond shrubbery, past a planter and through gauzy curtains. This is a thoughtfully planned composition.

Here's another beautifully composed painting by Habte. (Did we mention that we considered strong composition to be one of the top 5 elements of a good painting?) This is colorful and densely textured, with every inch complementing every other inch and revealing new things to see.

Sara is a huge proponent of sketching, and she's very good at it, too. This year, she's upping her game and going for ultra-realism. Below, for instance are sketches in pencil of folded/creased pieces of paper (these are NOT the actual papers!)

Incredible, isn't it?

From there, Sara tried to achieve the same results in a different medium and tried in watercolor. It's crumpled paper, not creased, but this is an excellent value study, isn't it?

Tom is another avid sketcher. He began the "Fabric" exercise with a pencil sketch....

...before moving to paint. We love it and can see how a preliminary sketch works to acquaint the artist with the subject.

Berivan's delicate nature painting features a luminous sky and grassheads that seem to move in the wind. The color choices are superb and the eye and horn of the subject lead us to discover more every time we look.

Nadia did the fabled Three-Way Fruit exercise, but with bands of color. Left to right are wet-in-wet, drybrush and a combination. Her favorites are the extremes, particularly the wet-in-wet version...

...which lead her to paint a cloisonne-like lamp surface, then try it again, wet-in-wet. 

Finally, Nadia finished painting the collage she created in the first week. The colors on this are spectacularly subtle and cohesive. And she's captured the layers of a collage.

We're off for the next two weeks, but we'll be back on March 21. One more key takeaway from today's discussion is this: Use the Good Stuff! You're Not Wasting Anything. So we'll be back with our good paper (the stuff we've been saving for when we're more accomplished) and our best artist-quality paint. See you then!

February 22, 2020

We begin by extending congratulations to Sara on her new granddaughter. Yes, the baby is not even a week old and Sara's already sketching and painting her! Below is the new baby with her older sister "reading" to her. We foresee many lovely pictures of the sisters in the weeks to come...

... like this sketch of Nora (formerly baby Nora, now graduated to big sister Nora) cradling her new little sister. It's a sweet pencil sketch and Sara's added a delicate color wash to complete the painting.

More siblings. Elaine painted this brother/sister combo, caught in an atypical moment of quiet.

Ken is moving quickly on his latest portrait, which we're temporarily calling The Miner (because of the lamp on her hat). We love the mood he's created and can't wait to see what he does with the hat... and the nose, of course. 

Habte is doing portraits too. Here, he's finished the woman he began last week. His decision to frame her and add an asymmetrical floral border is brilliant!

Here's another portrait by Habte. He's boldly filled the canvas with her head and shoulders. If you notice a similarity in the womens' garb, it's because they are both wearing choir robes. This is going to be an interesting series.

If you've been following along with our newbies and their exercises, you'll recognize one of our favorites.... the egg. Nadia has created a more colorful version than usual by beginning with a brown egg. She's also added a plate beneath the shadow.

Berivan used the very same brown egg to complete the exercise, but it looks somewhat different. Notice how she's used warm neutrals for the egg and cooler ones for the shadow.

You may recognize this as the fabric study. Berivan really challenged herself with this scarf—and she's created a richly textured and sophisticated painting. Look closely at the fringe, the stitches and the folds of the fabric. Then look at the very subtle shadow, perfectly suited to the subject.

And if the homework wasn't enough, Berivan painted this extra-credit painting. From the wintry sky to the bare branches and footsteps in the snow, this is all about winter.

Berivan moved to thoughts of spring and summer with this seascape. She's observed the different blues in sea and sky and the reflections in the water.

Ever wonder what happens on the open sketch outings we invite you to? Last week was the Open Sketch at St. Gregory Church. Some of us attended, as did a number of Chicago Urban Sketchers. Here are our sketches. Elaine concentrated on the baptismal font area in the back of the church, using pen and ink.

Sara used pencil to sketch and added color later. Here is the intricately-carved wooden pulpit with the stone arches and painted angels in the background.

And here is Sara's sketch of one of the side altars, with carved wood alterpiece, an arched ceiling and hanging lamp.

Ken also joined us for the outing, but we didn't get a photo of his sketch.... next week, maybe! Meanwhile, consider joining us next time. There's so much to sketch and paint and the atmosphere is wonderful.

February 15, 2020

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day! We certainly did...as did our loved ones. Here, for instance, is Sara's gift to her husband. He's shown reading to his granddaughter. We think it's the perfect gift as it's all about love—between the painter and her subjects, between the subjects and as a fat-free token of affection.

But there's more to the story! Sara isn't completely satisfied, so she's going through her typical process to get to exactly what she wants. She begins with a sketch which captures the likenesses of the sitters and nails down the lovely composition. This is a great drawing.

Sara loves the way the subjects and their activity flow across the page, but she found the background slightly distracting, so she tried a quick sketch, simplifying the background...

... and another, where Sara is planning a new background idea. Meanwhile, notice how she's accurately getting the difference in skin tones and textures between the sitters. Come back to see what Sara's going to do about the library racks in the background.

Elaine O. is also painting two adorable little subjects, softly modeling them as they nestle in a neutral colored sofa. Come back next week to see even more of these sweet kids slowly emerge. Also, we assure you that they are not from some episode of Twilight Zone, as you'll see when the eyes appear.

Habte is also doing portraits. He begins with a detailed drawing before he adds color.

Here is another woman Habte's started. Notice how he's framed her to improve the composition and boldly position her to fill the frame.

We're all into people! Ken continues his series of portraits based on Julia Cameron photos. He's tweaked the colors in the sky and field mosaic pieces to make the sun shine more brilliantly.

And then Ken moves away from the mosaic technique to his more typically textural style as he begins another portrait in the series. We're already fans of the hair and are eager to see what he does with the face and hat.

More of our favorite beginning exercises! Berivan chose a lemon for her "giant fruit" and it's a beauty. Notice the texture on the skin and the soft green shadow. And she's done a great job of observing the little stem end.

Reluctant to stop there, Berivan painted this portrait of her lemon. The shadow looks like a throne and is full of rich and beautiful colors.

After the bold, rich lemons, Berivan started this delicate landscape. She's used very little color to skillfully paint the glowing sky, the mountains and the reflections in the water, reserving the darker values for the focal point.

Tom chose a carrot for the three-way fruit exercise. He paints the same carrot in three styles: wet-in-wet, drybrush, and a combination. All three are exquisite and full of glowing color—even the shadows.

This red pepper is Tom's giant fruit exercise. He's done a great job sculpting the shape of the pepper and the stem.

And, if that weren't enough, Tom painted a most realistic apple with a lovely shadow. You'll notice that he begins by sketching, too. And, if you look closely, you'll see how precise he is, both when drawing and painting.

Nadia is painting the collage she created the first week. It's an exercise in color matching, with a goal of mixing and matching colors accurately. These subtle colors are very difficult, indeed.

Nadia also brought in this painting of a carnation from a previous class. She's painted this on tinted paper, but she's still achieved clear, beautiful colors.

Stay warm ... and see you next week.

February 8, 2020

As is our wont, we're battling the grey winter days with bright color. Here, for instance, Ken has added brilliant color and texture to a black and white photograph by Julia Cameron. This painting also provided the theme for the day—noses! Ken took a lot of heat for waiting until the end to finish the nose on this. We all offered advice, examples and even a plaster cast of a nose and, as you can see, Ken came through on what we consider one of the most difficult features. We especially like the way the smooth, realistic face and hand contrast with the stained glass treatment of the rest of the painting.

Elaine O. did another version of this stone head. Unlike Ken, though, she opted for only three colors, resulting in a subtle, serene painting. She's nailed the nose, though!

Elaine T. also did a head in a subtle, monochromatic palette, but this one has no nose! Also, no skin. Nonetheless, Elaine has managed to capture a lot of information from a small, softly carved glass model.

From there, Elaine T. went through an old sketchbook and finished this nature study. While you can't really tell from the photo, the buds are incredibly 3-dimensional and the background has a glowing center light. It's truly beautiful.

Habte also revisited a landscape from a few weeks ago. The sky is even more magnificent than the photo shows, and he's fine-tuned the delineation of land and sea.

From there, Habte painted this colorful and finely textured rooster. We were so enamored of his personality, we had to name him...Reggie. Also, we thought Habte did a great job on the nose!

Sara also revisited her amaryllis painting, treating it very differently. In this painting, she's softened the flower and added bright color to the background...and then, she boldly went back to darken and soften the background elements, highlighting the flower even more. 

Nadia finished her advanced color wheel, featuring tones, tints, shades and hues.

From there, she explored complementary colors, blending complementary colors to create a wide range of colors. Look at all the colors she gets from blue and orange...

...red and green....

... and purple and yellow.

Feeling very productive, Nadia began the popular three-way fruit. She's only done the wet-in-wet version, but it already looks promising.

Berivan completed the three-way fruit exercise, as you can see below. It's the same deep red apple, painted (from right to left) in different styles: very dry, very wet, and in a combination of the two. She's got the color spot on and we love the white specks.

With time to spare after finishing three paintings, Berivan did this lovely little portrait. You can see how she's skillfully using the drybrush technique on the hair, dress and bouquet. You can also see that she chose a back view to avoid painting a nose... but we're quite sure she'd do that well, too.

Upcoming Events

Open Sketch date. You're invited to join us on Saturday, February 15 for an open sketch at St. Gregory the Great Church. This is a great opportunity to see, sketch, paint or photograph  some magnificent architecture, so bring your cameras, sketch pads, pens, pencils and paints (no oils, though). This is also a Chicago Urban Sketchers Event, so you'll get some inspiration.

     Where:
     St. Gregory the Great Church
     5545 N. Paulina
     Church entrance is on the corner of Gregory and Paulina;
     one block west of Ashland and one block south of Bryn Mawr

     When:
     Saturday, February 15
     12:00–3:00pm