For our final assignment, Dick has “removed the fence posts” constraining subject matter and technique. He said, “My goal is to make you more independent. With each assignment I’ve given you more flexibility. You have the opportunity to push your boundaries.” He offered the following guidelines and checklist. Look at what’s happening Look at your…
Chris brought in a photo of fruit on a reflective surface, which Dick used to point out visual cues of surface qualities. Critique: simple watercolor compositions focusing on surface Tips for painting surfaces A number of tips came out during the critique: Water and glass have two qualities in common, transparency and reflection. Use them…
Class started with Dick talking us through, and demonstrating, how he builds a painting as “a conversation,” responding to what he sees, unifying disjointed areas of color, “addressing issues” of unresolved [too raw; primary or secondary] color, and choosing what to leave and what to emphasize. He explores and experiments and asks, “What if?” because…
Critique of last week’s exercises Illusions of white and colored spotlights Watercolorists have an advantage over artists in other media when it comes to shadows. Since light affects all objects in a scene equally, you can mix a single batch of color for your shadows and apply wherever needed. Dick loves using light and shadow…
Homework for this week is exercises 5-7 on the assignment sheet from last week (Visual Phenomena & Painting Strategies): Illusion of a white spotlight; Illusion of a colored spotlight; 3D still life/landscape with cast shadow and ambient light. An example of exercise 7 in work is shown below. If you’re having trouble visualizing where the…
We critiqued class solutions for exercises 1-4 Paint the illusion of two transparent films over a colored shape. Using the identical format to the first assignment, paint the illusion of a white veil over the original colored shapes. Think of the veil as a piece of tracing paper. Create the illusion of 4 white index…
Strategies for painting films and veils, illustrated and annotated!
We started the third class with a critique of the homework assignments – layering rectangles, aiming for more nuanced and complex colors and interactions – “fine French cuisine”. [gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/WC-Painting-Strategies.pdf”] [gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/VanBoundariesWC.pdf”] [gview file=”https://dicknelsoncolor.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ColorReview.pdf”]