April 28, 2018

As you know, we love to experiment—and we have a cool new tool to show you. As you've seen, we often begin with a sketch and we love a nice line and wash painting. Tony's been doing a lot of drawing lately, concentrating on portraits. Look at the self-portrait below. He's been using a water-soluble marker to draw with. But when he adds water, the ink separates into incredible shades of blue, green, red and purple. And the effect works as well when he uses a sepia wash (the shirt) as when he uses water (the face). Isn't this great?

We're also showing you some of Tony's earlier work with this tool. Here, he's used the pen more heavily and added a blue wash. See how much more color separates from the ink?

 And here's an even stronger reliance on the line. We're also including a shot of the pen Tony uses. We love the colors in the black ink.

Here's a shot of the pen—in case you are interested in playing along with us. It's a double-ended calligraphy marker, made by Itoya.

Madeleine is also known for line and wash work, but this delightful family painting doesn't include any line at all. Instead, she relies on amazing composition, subtle color and touches of watercolor pencil. We really like this painting, especially the character she's managed to capture in each of the three subjects—not an easy task!

Madeleine has also made progress on the second of her Washington family portraits. Again, the composition is notable. Her grandson looks like a superhero in front of the Washington monument.

 

Sara is also boldly working on a dual portrait. Yes, that's baby Nora with her proud uncle. The preliminary sketches make this seem effortless, but the actual painting is stunning. The colors glow, the subjects' likenesses are dead on, and the hands in the foreground tell the story. This is going to be a family heirloom.

Steve may not be painting relatives, but his merman looks like he could be. Here's another fine example of composition as the subject is framed beautifully and the complementary colors draw the eye. The water and sun look real and make us want to be there.

With results like that, it's no wonder Steve is continuing with his merman series. Below, he sketching his next subject. 

Bill's also painting people, but these are strangers in a courtyard in Bruges. The architecture frames the people, who also lead the eye to the true subject.... the buildings and the tower in the distance.

Bill also painted this allegoric seascape. We're intrigued by the composition and the unique viewpoint he chooses. 

Elaine is painting a place, too. This is just the beginning, but we can already feel the sun on the garden.

Susan has gone back to add a few touches to her garden scene. We approve! The people pop even more against the lush garden background.

Yes, it's the season! Our thoughts are turning to gardens and plants. Like Susan and Elaine, Yi's brush is turning to nature. She's making tremendous progress on her morning glory. The intricately patterned leaves are both strong statements on their own, and a delicate frame for the lovely blue flower.

And what says warm weather more than red, ripe tomatoes? Ken is adding a mosaic background to his tomato plants and it reflects the season. The colors are soft and convey a sense of fun.

It's time for the giant fruit exercise and Tal has done an incredible job with his eggplant. This is a perfect image of the gradated, striped model he brought in. And we wanted to go home with Tal when we heard how he was planning to cook up the eggplant later that day. It sounded as delicious as the painting.

Tal did two versions of one of our favorite homework exercises.... the egg!  This one looked great to us, but he got a comment that it looked like a jellyfish.

...so he tried a different version. This one looks like it's carved out of ceramic, doesn't it? Tal captured the shiny highlight perfectly.

Dates, exhibitions and classes you should know about

The Ten Cat Group Watercolor Show.  We are still at Ten Cat! The paintings are on display in the windows for another week and you can still stroll by and see them. Details on the postcard below.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: February 18–April 30, 2018
    

Celebrating Diversity Exhibition
Susan Silvano is exhibiting at the Walker Library, celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Stop by if you can.

When:  May 1–May 31, 2018
            
Where: Walker Library
             11071 S. Hoyne Avenue, Chicago, IL 60643
             312-747-1920

Next Class
Want to join our merry band? The summer session of Watercolor begins on June 9 and goes through July 21. Save the date and, if you're at all interested, register! You'll be glad you did.

April 21, 2018

Happy spring.... for real this time! It was a bit grey, but we think we've really turned a corner on this winter thing. Remember how we were all about nature and big skies last week? We're still interested! We begin with Yi's finished sunset. She's added the foreground mountain, house and treeline, but the focus remains on the incredible Maxfield Parrish-like sky. Look closely. This is exquisite.

And then, Yi moves from the fiery sunset to a delicate morning glory. She's only begun, but the drawing is in place and she's beginning to add soft blue washes. 

Isa is working on flowers too. These lovely roses are made of fabric and attached to a ribbon. You can't tell, but let us assure you that the brilliant color is spot on. What may be helpful is that Isa is using cold pressed paper instead of the hot pressed paper she used before. She likes it much better.

Ken is painting nature, hoping his tomato series will last until he gets real tomatoes growing. Notice that the mosaic elements on the tomatoes are circles instead of squares. This combines mosaic with pointillism (or maybe even printer dots ala Lichtenstein) and gives the tomatoes a whole new feel.

Susan paints people in nature. This is a garden resort from her recent trip to Asia. People come to these theme gardens to propose and take romantic pictures. Here, Susan and her husband share the ambiance with friends. It feels warm, friendly and tropical.

So does Steve's painting. He's added his merman to the water, removed the masking fluid from the wave froth and added reflections and depth. This is another one to zoom in on. You can actually feel the sun on the water, see the curve of the wave and hear the surf splashing.

Like Steve, Sara is a big fan of multiples. Here is a preliminary sketch for a painting of Uncle Andrew doing his Rafiki/Lion King bit with baby Nora. The gridding allows for perfect proportions when resizing. Notice the hands. These are some of the hardest things for artists and this pose is all about the hands. And Sara has them nailed!

Painting the same models or poses gives an artist comfort and familiarity—and makes for a better painting. Madeleine is working on two paintings simultaneously, but they both feature relatives that she is very familiar with. This beautifully composed painting is of her husband, daughter and grandson....

...and here's her grandson in Washington DC. We know it's early yet, but even the light washes look great. Come back to see how these progress.

Just as we paint people we know and love, we paint places to memorialize them, remember good times, and re-live vacations. That's just what Bill is doing here in Bruges. He's captured the grey day, along with the distinctive architecture.

Elaine is also painting a cityscape, but hers is much closer to home... and uses a totally different style. This is an eye-catching facade on Clark Street in Chicago. It's done in a loose illustration style, which started when she experimented with an ink brush pen (after she had to give up on a dried out Sharpie). It's not photo-realism, but it captures her memory of the crisp, sunny winter day.

Mae is also into architecture. Look carefully, though! This isn't painted out of whole cloth. It's an exercise where we clip a bit from a magazine, paste it onto watercolor paper and expand the scene from the clipping. The goal is color matching, but this is so much more than that. Most of us couldn't tell where the clipping stopped and the painting began...

...so we outlined the magazine part for you. Mae is good, isn't she?

Here's another of our favorite exercises—the paper towel and skin. Mae has a page of lovely swatches as she does the exercise. 

And then, just  for extra credit, Mae used this page to play with colors and scenes. We love the panels and the feel of a graphic novel, not to mention the individual panels. We can't decide which we like best.

Tal is also doing extra credit. This is an avocado tree he's grown from seed. It's only a year and a half, so it's still years from a guacamole harvest, but it's perfect for painting. The leaves are well observed and painted and the pot is nicely rounded, but the most interesting effect is the way Tal has created a spotlight to highlight the tree. 

And here's another of our favorite exercises—the three-way fruit or vegetable. Tal has painted a zucchini three different ways. From the top, very wet; then very dry; and then a combination of the two. They all look great and we're always surprised to see the different feel each style produces.

There's still time to catch our show at Ten Cat. It will be up another week or two and here are the details. Now that the weather's getting better, what better destination for a walk in the sun?

The Ten Cat Group Watercolor Show.  We are still at Ten Cat! The paintings are on display in the windows and you can stroll by and see them. See the postcard below for details.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: February 18–April 30, 2018
    

April 14, 2018

Happy Spring! On this blustery, blowsery spring day, is it any wonder our thoughts and paintbrushes turn to nature?  To start, Ken is eagerly awaiting the day he can plant tomatoes... like the ones from prior years he's memorialized in this mosiac style painting. Yes, he's finished and we are impressed by the combination of energy and serenity (okay, energized serenity, but still...).

Here, Ken's taken a step back to do a study of a budding tomato blossom. We bet you thought it was corn, didn't you? Nope, it's a tomato blossom that will be part of his next tomato painting. Come back to see more.

 

Then, there were some truly magnificent skies. Bill painted this scene of a rusting boat on the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. While the boat may have caught his eye, we are entranced by the lovely sky. It's full of motion and color and weight—just what a sky feels like.

 

Madeleine was also attracted to a derelict building in Cuba. We love the vantage point, the texture, and especially the glimpse of sky between the crumbling wall and the beam.

Yi's focal point is also the sky.  The brilliant sunset deserves a close-up look. And the beautiful big sky is a perfect counterpoint to the mountain and trees below.

Sara is also painting mountains. Like Yi, she's reducing the mountains (the Grand Tetons, in this case) to a small card-sized painting. Notice how she begins with value sketches, then adds color...

... in several incarnations, before she switches to a landscape view. In all of these, we love the way Sara carves the mountains using just a few colors and well-placed strokes. She's used the same economy of color and brushwork to describe the aspen trees.

Steve was almost a theme of the day himself—we asked for help and consultation with all of the botanicals above, along with some plants you haven't even seen. Still, he chose to focus on water as his natural element. The yellow is masking fluid, used to reserve whites. It will come off next week. Meanwhile, we can't praise his water enough. We love the curl of the wave, the sun shining through it and the colors and depth.

We noticed Susan's sketchbook last week. This week, she's added color to the sketch of hungry travelers. But she's also added a frame, placing both diners in a Chinese restaurant. Notice how the flat framing contrasts with the dimensional diners.

Elaine's been experimenting with watercolor pencils again. This is a portrait using basically two colors (and a lot of water). We discussed watercolor pencils and how best to use them. The jury is out but we continue to be attracted to them, so watch for more to pop up now and again. By the way, this soft portrait is of Pauli Murray, a brilliant priest, writer, activist and lawyer well worth looking up.

Tal did the color matching homework, but took it to new heights. This is the Chicago skyline, painted from Montrose beach. The buildings are the assignment, but we are even more attracted to the colors in the water and sky.

You'll probably recognize this as the complementary color exercise. Again, Tal has gone above and beyond the task. And he had a little extra time, so he added the exercise at the bottom right. Look closely. It's a picture from a magazine in the center and he's expanded it with paint, matching colors and scenery.

Save the Dates!

It's time for Open Sketch at St. Gregory Church—and our group show is still up at Ten Cat. We hope to see you at one of these.

You're invited.... Open Sketch date
It's an open sketching/photography session on Saturday, April  21 from 12:00–3:00pm at St. Gregory the Great Church and you are invited! Bring your cameras, sketch pads, pens and pencils. A docent will also be on hand to answer questions.

     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, April 21
     12:00–3:00pm

The Ten Cat Group Watercolor Show.  We are still having a group show at Ten Cat! The paintings are on display in the windows and you can stroll by and see them. See the postcard below for details.

      Where:
      Ten Cat Tavern

      3931 N Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL

     When:
     Exhibition: February 18–April 15, 2018