ALL CLASSES WEEK BEGINNING 18TH MARCH 2013

My drawing class were challenged to compare lights and darks in relation to the whole again this week but with a different subject.

This week we had to represent the stones under the water at the bottom end of the tonal scale, Ie all dark, and making sure there was sufficient contrast between them and the stones out of water.

My watercolour class were challenged to paint wet on dry with a large chisel head brush,  which forced us to simplify our colour shapes, and establish value mass before launching into any detail.
All seemed to enjoy this approach as it was a more relaxed and slower pace, however each brush mark had to count, and therefore carefully considered before  economical marks were made

Below are the 1st marks we made, keeping them separate until dry.

The summer term starts back on the week beginning 22nd of april, and we will be continuing this block technique approach, and work towards doing landscapes outdoors, weather permitting.

2 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO PORTRAITS

This week we worked up the portrait we started last week by adding more layers wet in wet of a more warm ochery and sienna type. we were still adding purples and blues but predominantly browns, by adding a clear wash first to get a smooth finish.

We alternated this portrait with another one which we worked up with small blocks of colour wet on dry, after we had created a wet in wet foundation colour.
Our blocks of colour had to be translucent to show the previous colours beneath to form an interesting hemogenous mass of colour

Here is a sample sheet of glazes built up.
Some of us did a quick exercise in wet in wet in preparation for washes on the smooth portrait.

One learner chose to do a landscape with the same technique as the black man portrait

DRAWING CLASS

Last weeks drawing class was to scale up sheep, identify texture and create tonal contrast relative to the whole picture plane

STILL LIFE WITH STRIPES

I decided to hunt for objects in charity shops that had a relationship with each other in terms of form, tone, colour and subject, rather than trying to cobble things together with the objects I have at home.
I'm also trying to apply some reserve and discipline when it comes to colour!
So I tried 2 secondary complementaries all mixed with cadmium red, cad yellow, and ultramarine, no other colours at all.

The object of all this was to paint a picture I would like to have on my wall at home, rather than have a self indulgent festival of colour.

PORTRAIT IN COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS

This week we started a portrait chosen for it's complimentary colours.
We were still using any red blue and yellow, and mixing our washes on the paper instead of our pallets to give us scope for differentiation.
First we scaled up our reference and gridded that up using diagonals before transferring this to our WC paper.
We did a test wash on a separate piece of paper to test out how to represent the skin tones in our 1st wash.


In my demo, I kept the first wash fairly light for the highlights, and mixed my colours on the paper, after mixing the pure pigment to water ratio in my pallet.
For those of you that mixed your colours up 100% in the pallet, can you please have another go, and mix on the paper before next week on a separate portrait, so you can compare the difference next week.









My first wash below looks a bit scary at this stage, because I have identified the features without darkening up the skin tones, but by doing the 1st wash pale I have have left room for darkening it down with warmer colours.
This 1st wash was to identify the highlights






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Next week we'll have the chance to build up our washes in soft, or hard edged layers, like the example below.

FILM OF A WATERCOLOUR PORTRAIT SPEEDED UP!

Hello learner!

I have made an actual film of me painting this actual portrait from scratch speeded up!
The film is too big to post on here, but click on the links below to view the film in whatever application you have on your computer for viewing films, it should download in the download box on the top right of your screen, this is a little box with an arrow on it pointing down, click on this, and you will see the downloaded film, double click on the film and the film should appear on your screen in front of you.

the first is bigger than the second one, and will take longer to download, but is clearer quality

This is the 1st film I have ever made, and I learnt how to do it from scratch yesterday, so please forgive mistakes.

I hope it opens for you and that you enjoy it,

from your hardworking tutor,

Gilly ; )

http://www.goodworks.myzen.co.uk/GillyMarklew/Site/video.html

http://www.goodworks.myzen.co.uk/fullsizefilm.m4v

http://www.goodworks.myzen.co.uk/mobilesizefilm.m4v



DISTANCE LEARNING WITH GILLY AT ART TUTOR.COM
http://www.arttutor.com/artists/gilly-marklew

AND POWHOW LIVE ONLINE CLASSES
http://www.powhow.com/my-classes

DRAWING AND PAINTING BUILDINGS IN PERSPECTIVE WITH COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS

THIS WEEKS CLASSES BOTH DRAWING AND WATERCOLOUR WERE ABOUT SCALING UP, DRAWING BUILDINGS IN PERSPECTIVE, AND CREATING COLOUR BALANCE WITH COMPLIMENTARY COLOURS

WE SCALED UP WITH A GRID, THEN FOUND THE VANISHING POINTS BY LOCATING THE MAIN FEATURES IN THE GRID

THE DOWNING COLLAGE CAMBRIDGE EXERCISE ( ABOVE ) WAS QUITE TRICKY, AND THIS EXAMPLE WAS INCOMPLETE, BUT THE CABING IN THE WOODS BELOW WAS A BIT EASIER, AS WE WERE PRETTY MUCH INVENTING OUR OWN SCALE AND VANISHING POINTS.

BELOW ARE 2 DEMONSTRATIONS I DOD FOR BUILDING FEATURES INTO A PERSPECTIVE FRAMEWORK, AND ADDING FROSTY TREES WITH A SALT RESIST EFFECT FOR THE TREES.

THIS IMAGE IS NOT COMPLETED, AND IT IS THE INTENTION TO MAKE THE CABIN WARM OCHRE OR ORAGE WITH A SHADED SIDE IN PURPLE WITH BULE SNOW FOR A COMPLIMENTARY COLOUR BALANCE

HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF STUDENTS WORK

THIS CLASS WILL BE REPEATED FOR THOSE WHO MISSED THIS CLASS ON FRIDAY 22ND FEB 10.00 A.M., VIA LIVE WEBCAM CLASSES, CLICK IN LINK

http://www.powhow.com/classes/gilly-marklews-arts-studio

CONTACT GILLY WITH ANY QUERIES

Gillian Marklew <gill@gilly-marklew.co.uk>