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