Saturday, September 19, 2020

Susan S.—September 19, 2020

 Two from Susan today:


Title: Phangnga island, Thailand. The original sketch was done plein air on Valentine's day, 2 years ago. This is the James Bond Island which I painted before with bikini beauties. This time, I painted over the sketch lines of my travel book & tried to recapture the tropical heat & the blue sky & the green ocean! Upside down, it looks like a mini volcano ready for lift-off! 

 


Title#2: GOOD MORNING FEET! My husband Tony was diagnosed with elevated hypertension in May. Among his medical protocols is the reduction of sodium or fluid to regulate heartbeats plus vigilant checkups for swollen feet. So our nurse cousin told us to greet our lower extremities every morning & check for "dimples"! This is my attempt to start a value drawing. I am just a starter! I do not know how to differentiate the black color of  my leggings with Tony's red shorts. And the shadings of the legs are inadequate! It is easier to paint in watercolor. Thanks for any advice!

4 comments:

  1. The "re-do" versions of your vacation pix seem deeper and more richly colored than the originals. I like the idea of re-visiting memories.

    I like the sketching, too. I've been meaning to do more pencil drawings myself. This could be an inspiration. I don't think you can define color in a pencil drawing, just value. So, unless you use red pencils, there's no way to indicate red shorts, for instance. But I don't think that matters in a value sketch. Keep it up!

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  2. I like how you’ve painted the land and the cloud of green and yellow. The painting has an abstract quality with all these colors swirling about. It definitely feels tropical.
    Your sketch is great but the reason it’s called a value sketch is you have to forget about color and focus on values, ie, light versus dark. So chances are, Tony’s red shorts are lighter in value than your black leggings, so you vary the light or darkness of the pencil marks to create the value and the form. Value sketches are hard for people like us who see everything in color! But It’s worth it to practice them, because you know what they say: colors get all the credit, but values do all the work...

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  3. Your tropical painting does look very dramatic in your repainted version. And your sketch looks good. Look at your beginning drawings from class way back when and you'll see the difference. Even the negative space looks considered. Just what Elaine and Sara said, it's the value changes, rather than the colors that make it. Think of it as a black and white photo or a black and white film and how color translates into different values...

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  4. I would suggest taking a photo of what you are painting and then converting it to w black and white photo. When I got my laser printer I saved fifty bucks by getting the black and white, and now I do all my paintings based mostly on black and white photos.

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