Color Has Value

"Cantaloupe Slices"

9 x 9 inches, oil on Arches oil paper

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If there's one thing I say over and over again to my students, it's this: you can paint something any color you want, as long as you nail the value, it will work! 

The single most important element of realistic representational painting is value: how light or dark something is on the gray scale. And that's relative to everything else in the painting - so our goal as painters is to train our eyes to perceive that hierarchy of values. 

Sketching is great for this, but black and white oil studies are even better. You kill two birds with one stone, really - focusing on values, and also practicing your mixing and brushwork.

The Opposite of Alla Prima

 

 "Two Orchids, Out of Bloom"

18 x 14 inches, oil on canvas

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I started this one ages ago - at least it feels that way. I posted the oil sketch back in February, and have been slowly chipping away at this larger piece since then. That is not the way I prefer to work -  I'm usually alla prima all the way. I'm glad I saw this one through, though. And it's fitting that it finally gets posted this week, following two newer paintings featuring this little dish.

All Questions, No Answers

 

"Two Orchids, Out of Bloom (sketch)"

 8 x 10 inches, oil on canvas

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As promised yesterday, this piece segues me nicely into a topic I worry about periodically - how to do preparatory sketches for a piece without burning myself out on a setup before I even get to the large canvas?

Well, I don't have an answer, but one thing seems clear: even if I enjoy and feel really excited about the sketch, if I'm still dreading starting the larger version, it really shouldn't happen. 

In this case, I have a totally different composition in mind from the same setup - vertical, so I can incorporate all the lovely green leaves of the orchids, and plenty of the negative/shadow space that I love. Sounds good, right? So why has the half-begun canvas been sitting on my easel for days? I keep telling myself that my dread of the large canvas is just some kind of stage fright, and not an issue with the painting itself. 

But I'm worried. I'm intrigued, as an artist, a mom, and a human, by the things that kids make. How fascinated they can be by jumbled strings of random beads, such as this one that my daughter made at preschool awhile back. But is it good in a painting? Does it work automatically because it interests me, and I'm the artist here, after all? I didn't set out to say anything with this piece, besides 'These are beautiful objects from my life that I love looking at together.' But as much as I try to deny it, meaning keeps sneaking in. I've discussed it before: my dread of artist statements: my dread of making any statement at all, beyond 'It's beautiful,' but a setup like this appeals to me more and more on a personal, narrative level. Either I'm getting old, or growing as an artist. You heard it here first!

Whining, Crying, and Painting the Nude

"Male Figure Study"

14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas

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After a ridiculously long session break, Tuesday figure painting night at Maude Kerns is back! I painted this as an anatomical study, mixing my colors by value rather than the skin tones I actually observed, and not focusing on the head much at all. I even partially decapitated him just to show how much I don't care - a particularly good exercise for me, since I usually cry when I can't capture a facial likeness.

☺