Dunlop Street, Little India - Daily Painting #22

"Dunlop Street, Little India" 6x6 Oil on Canvas, click here to Purchase

Wow.  This week has been crazy.  Not just kind of crazy, but totally crazy.  This was my first week of actually intensive plein air.  So far I've been out painting for 3 mornings.  The painting above is actually inspired by my plein air misadventures this morning.  I've decided I absolutely LOVE Little India in the early morning.  First of all, the buildings are all these delicious colors, and with the morning light, you can find the most interesting shadows.  Secondly, (this is a bit of a double edged sword) the people are just so friendly.  By the time I was finished painting my painting this morning (not the one above), at some points, I had between 5-10 people gathered around watching me paint.  It was totally nerve-wracking.  But they were all just such lovely people.  Totally respectful and very complimentary - which was awesome, because I definitely did not feel like a master painter.

I have my painting from this morning on another camera card, so I'll post it tomorrow, but this week has been quite the misadventure.  A couple things I have learned:

1. No matter how well hydrated you want to be, don't drink too much water.  Not many places are open before 10am.
2. You have to be finished by 10am, but the sun isn't up enough until 7:30 or 8, so work fast.  It is just too hot.  I'd guess it is easily 90+ degrees in full sun by 10am.
3. Create a checklist of necessary items.  Follow it.  Live by it.  Don't forget anything on it. (I went out one day, lugged everything to the place, realized my carrier wasn't quite big enough.  Which was awful because I had to carry everything on my shoulders.  Then I realized I forgot my painting medium, dirty rag bag, and a snack.  Grumpy Shelby.  Paint was getting gloppy.  Painting was a mess.  Not a good day.)
4. Don't take yourself too seriously.  This is for learning, not for a gallery.

Okay, that is all.  I'm planning on heading out again tomorrow morning, so I should have a couple of Plein Air pieces to show.  Think I'll hit Little India again.  I'm also thinking about doing 100 shophouses over 100 days.  I'm kind of really enjoying this.  

Back to the Tropics - Daily Painting #19

"Back to the Tropics" 6x6 Oil on Panel click here to Purchase

In going through still life class and getting back into daily painting, I kind of forgot why I was originally doing this blog.  Or not why, but some of the things I wanted to talk about - besides painting, of course!  I realized I've been doing a lot of apples and oranges and cups and plates.  Which, don't get me wrong, can make beautiful still life setups.  And then I remembered - I live in Asia!  This is Art Adventures in Asia!  I should be doing still life setups with things unique to the region, at the very least, right?  

So above you have something I had only ever heard of as a Bath and Body Works lotion - Papaya.  It is the most gorgeous orange/pink/salmon color, and it can just glow when light hits it.  So this is me, getting back to the "tropics."  It was an incredibly therapeutic piece for me to paint after my first day out in the sun painting on location (more about that below).

Last night when I was preparing my supplies for my plein air adventure, I decided to make a viewfinder, similar to the one our professor is using.  Since it is Chinese New Year today (Gong Xi Fa Cai!), everything was closed.  With limited resources I managed to pull it off and make a handy dandy viewfinder out of some mattboard and tape.  That's it!  I was pretty proud of myself.  I've included the instructions below if you want to make one of your own:

1. Cut viewfinder out of mattboard.  I used a nice gray so that I would be able to compare values.  For a 9x12 equivalent scale, cut 2in x 1.5in rectangle out of the middle.
2. Take some packing tape and pull off a piece.  Then fold it over on itself so that it creates a plastic sheet.  (Or if you have a Michael's nearby, you can just buy a sheet. This is totally a poor man's viewfinder)
3. Tape down tape on back side of viewfinder.  Then take a ruler and draw lines going both diagonals, as well as one going down the middle vertically and horizontally.  
4. Done!  I have one of the moveable viewfinders, but it didn't have the lines which help you setup your composition on a canvas later.  Like I said, everything was closed, so I had to improvise!

And finally, if you have made it this far through the post.  Here is my first attempt at plein air.  It totally kicked my proverbial.  I was standing in the shade (as directed) but I had a horrible time trying to see value and color.  Then, because I hadn't done it before, all my confidence and brushwork kind of went out the window.  But since I initially said I would share the good, the bad, and the ugly, here is how far I got before the rain chased me off (I will tighten some parts up and add some details in the studio before turning this in):

Hup, Two, Three, Four - Daily painting #8

"Hup, Two, Three, Four" 6x6 Original Oil Painting on Canvas click here to Purchase

In keeping with the anti-rain and gray skies, I had some more fun with lemons today. These guys are looking a bit disorganized,but give them a couple more seconds and they will fall into line.

I really love all these colors together. After looking at it closer, I realized this was a split complimentary scheme. This is often a very pleasing color scheme for a viewer. The primary and most pure color os a yellow/yellow orange. I then used a red violet and a blue violet in less saturated hues. The blue violet was the color that I desaturated the most, as it is the most dissimilar from yellow. By using the split complements rather than the true complement, violet, the piece is more harmonious. You have to be careful with a straight complimentary scheme. Putting two completely opposite colors together can be really jarring to the viewer.

- Posted from my iPad

Anatomy of a Painting

I thought I would give you some insight on how I wind up painting, and how I am being taught to paint.  This is the first 50% of this project, and all in all, it took me about five hours from start to finish.  

First, you start on a toned canvas.  I combined black and white acrylic gesso to come up with a mid-value gray.  We are using a full palette, so I mixed up a combination of burnt umber and ultramarine blue for sketching the composition.  I figured out the arrangement I wanted in a thumbnail sketch, and then looking at the still life from life, started to sketch.  I've learned to basically use triangulation in order to get everything proportionate and in the correct positions.  Needless to say, I got as far as the sketch above before I realized I had the completely wrong proportions from my thumbnail.  So I dipped a rag in turpentine and wiped it all off, to start over.

An hour and a half later, the finished sketch.  Sometimes the drawing is the longest part of the whole process for me.  Last semester I had several drawing classes, and I have seen a huge improvement, but it is still an effort.  The triangulation lines make it look a bit like a mess, but you can easily paint over it, and by checking all of the angles multiple times, I can get a much more accurate drawing.  My drawing skills aren't so good that I can wing it yet, so this helps me a lot in the meantime.  Another method some artists use is a grid.  That involves many more lines and that explanation is more detailed, so I'll save it for another day.

First major step is to establish the background, shadows and mass tones.  I started with the farthest background and the foreground because then I can compare those hues and values to the rest of my painting.  Similarly to the angles I drew, you walk through the entire painting process by continuously comparing.  As you can see, the angle lines disappear easily underneath the mass tones I am laying in.  

A mass tone is the overall average hue and value of an object.  Basically you try to paint in about 3 values cast shadow, form shadow, light side.  You don't worry about the highlights or reflected light at this point.  Right now the painting is about 50% done.  I know I need to adjust some of the shadows, they are a bit dark, and the book needs to be less of a warm blue and more of a violet color, but overall this is a good beginning.