Another go at the fish oil bottle. I set this up as a color problem also, using the complement of blue, orange, and an analogous color to it, pink. Sometimes I can make things work in the set up and I can't quite get it in the paint. This sort of works overall though, making an orange painting with some blue in it. Soon, the reverse.
Another exercise using a white ground. Also I used hog hair filberts on this, a couple of small ones and a medium. The paint goes on differently and has more of a drawing quality to it when I use these brushes. The brights and flats force a plane and I like this too. I feel I shouldn't be drawing, though. It's probably all in the head, how you see the shape of the space and then get that down with the brush. Just thinking out loud here... Van Gogh's paint and the way it went down is generally with a smallish brush and there are lots of marks which follow the form. I love the vitality of this! Oh, and the feel of the paint, with ridges and valleys and scumbling, still apparent after a hundred years. You can get more paint down with that hog brush, for sure.
OK, a really good painting day today, stress free and quick execution of everything, no agonia.
So....this is ever so slightly under exposed, but I am making progress with the Dslr camera. I have figured how to navigate within the vast menu but have to be completely calm to do it. Have mastered white balance, aperture and shutter speed, but am stalled on metering a mid tone. I do have a book on the way, DSLR for Dummies, isn't that the most infuriating title, but whatever, I have to have it to move ahead. I used to think that one should acquire a doctor and a lawyer as a life partner but I was way wrong. It should be a carpenter and a photographer.
A quickie painting. My first one, which was an attempt at Hodgkin inspired abstract realism, went the way of all flesh.
Blogger was down ! I didn't think that could happen, it has been forever just there, like gravity, doing what it's supposed to do and costing nothing. Amazing.
OK, more of the Balkan rules: no medium, hold tail of brush. I'm getting used to it. For those who are interested in using thicker paint, the trick is to thin the paint slightly with turp, just enough to get it moving. Then it's no problem, you are sort of forced into it. I painted all day today and wiped everything (aaaugh!) but this one. I like the abstract quality of it, that masking tape at the bottom flattened the surface out.
So exciting -- I am taking a class with Jennifer Balkan and we had the first meeting last night. We did value studies, quick 5 minutes for each one, in oils from a model -- aaauuugh! So much info, but that's the point, simplify and reduce. I need a tee shirt. I am hoping with practice my brain will adjust itself to this method of seeing. Fear and panic are helpful, when you hear that one minute left call and you don't even have your lights in, you cowboy right up as they say here in Texas. One of the most helpful things we discussed was the actual holding of the brush. I am ashamed to say I have been holding mine like a scalpel and worse, toward the front of the handle. On the above painting I held it by the tail end as if I were holding a stick. And we are not to use medium, so the paint gets thinned with a bit of turp, but stays pretty thick. Therefore, it goes on thickly - which I love, except for the faint sense of $$$$ alarm, but this just has to be overcome. The results of all this, so far as I can tell now, is that it makes for a more vigorous painting that is clearly stated. So good!
I'm trying to work out how the plaid can be painted without anal retentativeness and still be plaid - wanton plaid, maybe.
This plaid thing is starting to feel Steve Martin-ish. Didn't he wear those plaid pants in "The Jerk"? In any case, it's been fun. I tried to keep the color very quiet here and I guess fish are the best subject for greys, so many variations. I am off for a few days to celebrate a birthday with a sister and maybe break the plaid cycle.
This plaid is a lot to grapple with. It is silk taffeta, so it has sheen and shadow right next to each other that are different colors altogether which is maddening. Then it has LOTS of up and down stripes that are regular. I think plaid is such a strong element that it has to be softened somehow otherwise it shouts over the rest of the painting rather than being integral to it. I tried various methods of softening them, one over the other, therefore, lots of paint. I learned a lot though, and am getting more comfortable with it. When you can get plaid to work ---bashment!
Today I did not do a value plan before painting, I spent some time after the drawing stage identifying similar values and blocking in the darkest ones with a wash. I did this one above quickly without too much trying to get it right. I also took one of the dvd covers that had a painting on it (Patricia Kroll Roberts) and smacked it down in front of the set up so I could refer to it. After I finished this one, I took a nap. Then I set up the second painting (top, above) and speedily dispatched it. I am becoming aware of lots of different things in this experience, things other than value patterns, such as how PKR gets that luminous color. I can see it is a combination of many things - for instance, when and where to use bright pure color and color very diluted with white. I am not familiar enough with it all yet, but I can see it from here.
It was my intention to do this according to the rules of the DPW challenge, mixing fresh color for each brush stroke, but the pastry was so intricate that I soon fell off the wagon. I have been mixing color with the palette knife lately - big batches of the general color necessary - rather than mixing only with the brush. I think the color is better when mixed with the knife, then small adjustments are mixed with the brush from that batch. The color seems to retain its strength better, each application of it. Anyway, I guess this new idea blew out my organizational neurons on this exercise, so I'll have to try again. I do like the feel of the background though, laid in with a large brush and slight color variations.
