Composition Lesson

Still Life Composition Lesson and More Buttons

This morning in class we talked about the placement of objects on our paper.  Not the right or wrong placement of objects, but how they relate to one another spatially.

The lower left pencil drawing was just drawing things as they were  -  no arranging or composing.  We just drew what we saw, how we saw it.  We were trying to place things up and down the picture plane showing the volume of the objects  -  that is, making sure they would really fit where we put them.

The top left watercolor is just a very quick, three object still life, sketched only with watercolor  -  no preliminary drawing.  It was a salt shaker, a bottle of ink, and a spool of thread.  This exercise was to get the objects in place without fussing at all with any detail.

The buttons are just more buttons.  This is the beginning of a new session, and some of the students hadn't had a  chance to see the button demo or try it for themselves.  These buttons could become habit forming.

I see I am really behind with replies to comments.  I LOVE your comments, and I will get right at it!

Library Demonstration

Colored Pencils in a Mustard Pot

White Buttons

I have an exhibit of my paintings at our public library, and yesterday I did a reception/demonstration/book signing.   A really nice bunch of people showed up.  They asked a lot of great questions and were very enthusiastic.  To those of you reading this, that were there yesterday, thank you so much for coming!

As I sit here posting this, I'm watching it snow, and watching the temperature drop on the digital thermometer.  When I sat down to do this it was 16 degrees, and now a few minutes later, it is 14!  We live in a very old house with large windows, and I'm sitting here looking down the street, over the rooftops toward the Bay.  Yesterday the Bay was very blue  -  today it is completely obliterated by the snow.  There are cardinals in the forsythia and lilac bushes, and there are always people walking within sight  -  crisscrossing the street as it goes down the hill.

Okay  -  I could sit here all day watching the snow, birds, and people, but I do have a few other things I want to do  -  like eat something.

What are you sketching today?  I'm going to do those roses I keep talking about.

Ellie's Flowers

 

Contour Drawing Demo

These flowers have been around for awhile  -  going on three weeks.  I salvaged a few for my classes to do a very quick contour drawing and a fast swoop of color.  It doesn't take much to get an impression of an object.   I wish I had timed myself, so I could tell you exactly what " very quick" and "fast swoop" really mean.  Wednesday's class wanted me to set the timer for ten minutes when they started theirs, and they were finished in much less time than that.

It is dark and gray here again!  That's okay  -  I have some class promotion to do, I have a play-date with a friend, and Youngest Granddaughter will be here late this afternoon.  Of course I also have some laundry, grocery shopping, errands . . . . . I don't think I'll do that stuff.

It's Friday  -  plan a date with your sketchbook.

Buttons

Buttons and Clouds

This week in my classes our "warm-up" was painting a few small white buttons.  I can't take credit for an original idea here.  I saw buttons done in watercolor posted on Pinterest and followed  it back to the blog of Jane Minter. 

In yesterday's class, we each took a few buttons, sketched them, and started adding shadows and detail and background.  That's the one on the top right.  Today's class did the little paintings by painting a very wet wash without mixing the colors up too much, and leaving some white of the paper in a few spots.  We lifted some color here and there to leave some lighter spots for more buttons.  This is the one on the bottom right.  When the wash was dry we lightly drew some buttons, and then added a little detail and some darker shadows around the buttons.

The buttons at the top left were done in prismacolor pencils on Mi Teints paper in my sketchbook.
Bottom left -  everyone in the class is working on a different theme, and this was a little demonstration for one of the students doing clouds.

The buttons have me thinking that it might be fun to do a series of very small things grouped together  -  thumb tacks, sticks of pastels, pen nibs, corks, combs and barrettes, pretty stones .  .  .  what else?

I hope this will inspire you a bit.  I think we all need a little help this time of year to keep our creativity going and our brushes moving.

Themes

 Simple Figures

 Often I will have my students choose a theme/topic/subject and work on it for several weeks.  They will work through the whole process of being inspired by a theme,  keeping their eyes open for their theme, sketching, working out the composition, planning the value pattern, and then, finally, getting right down to it and doing the painting.  By the time they get to the painting, they are pretty inspired, have a plan, and it comes together pretty easily.

In my post of November 28th, I mentioned a few themes. This week was the beginning of a new eight-week session, and I handed out a list of ideas or thought starters.  I don't want to bore you with the whole list, so here's the short version:
Passions
Light and shadow
A place
Every view from your porch
Figures
Tea, coffee, cups, pots, mugs, cafes
Interiors
Chairs of all kinds
Gates
Food and anything to do with food
Weather, nature

A few of the students have chosen to do portraits, some figures, one is doing "things around my house", another is doing "portals" such as doors, windows, gates, and another is doing landscapes.  Several are still undecided, but I'm sure once they start looking around and thinking about the possibilities, they'll have trouble narrowing it down.

This is more fun and more personal than painting still lifes all winter that I set up for them.

Wow  -  I made it through November blogging every day, and here it is December 1st.  Of course I'll keep blogging - don't think I'm going to keep quiet  -  but I really don't have anything interesting enough to blog every day.  Thanks for putting up with me throughout November.

Day Six

Very Small Demonstrations

These are a few little demonstrations that I'll stick in my lesson demo binder.  I have various categories  -  figures, color mixing, fabric folds, negative spaces .   .   .  I know you didn't need to know that, but remember, I am trying to blog everyday for the month of November, and I have to say something.  Because I am going through "stuff", as mentioned in yesterday's post, it seemed fairly appropriate to say that.

I just looked at my studio clock and realized I have not changed the time on it, so I have an extra hour.  Fun.  However, I am afraid in that extra hour, I still won't know what to fix to eat.  Okay, I get it  -  it is not that I don't know WHAT to cook  -  it's that I don't WANT to.  So now the question is  -  what do I WANT to cook when I make up my mind that I DO want to cook?  A nap will help.

Day Three

 

Pomegranate

Day three of Blogging-Everyday-In-November.  I know I should be linking to the website that does this challenge  -  maybe tomorrow.

We got a lot of things discussed in class this afternoon  -  everything from the body found in the creek a short distance from here to Herman Cain's smoking ad.  Oh yeah  -  we did discuss triads and color mixing for a minute.

Now I'm going to go try to make a mushroom cream sauce using almond milk.  What do you think?  Is it possible? I'll let you know tomorrow how it comes out.  In the meantime,  sketch some little thing  -  a piece of fruit, a mushroom.

Day Two

 Triads

 Today in class we played around with various triads.  We do this every once in awhile.  I feel it kind of simplifies things  -  gets us back to basics as far as color mixing is concerned.

A triad is the use of the three primary colors - red, blue, and yellow  -  or some variation of the primaries.  A very basic triad is ultramarine blue, quinacridone red, and lemon yellow.  A stronger, more dramatic triad might be pthalo blue, quinacridone burnt scarlet, and quinacridone gold.  Using a triad (as opposed to using the whole palette full of colors) sets the mood of a painting, and makes for a pleasing harmony of colors.

It has been very dark and raining all day.  I have little princesses in sparkly dresses here today, playing Christmas carols ( ! ) on the piano.

Squash

Squash and Hot Peppers

Watercolor on Arches Cover Cream Paper

This was a demonstration in simplicity and color application in my Thursday afternoon class.  I love the colors of fall vegetables, although this would be pretty much nothing without the hot peppers.  We cooked that cut squash for dinner  -  I didn't add the hot peppers.  I don't mind a little kick, but I am not quite sure how to tell what "heat" I'll end up with when I'm cooking it myself.

There was a little ice this morning on some water in a container in the backyard, and then later in the morning it actually snowed - great big flakes for quite awhile.   I am just not ready for this.

Carrots and Onions

Vegetable Demo

These were a couple of very simple demonstrations in classes this week.  We are always talking about composition, and I'm always stressing painting quickly and with a large brush.  I wasn't trying for a good composition with the carrots (good thing 'cause I missed the mark if I was) but just trying to show how to paint a bunch of something without getting hung up on every individual part of it.  Onions are always fun to do  -  the texture, color, and the hairy looking roots.

It's warm here today.  As much as I dislike cleaning up the garden in the fall, I think I'll get myself out there and get a few things done.  Everything is finished blooming, and it's 74 degrees!  Okay  -  here I go.  Where ever you are, is it still warm enough to work in your garden?  Can you get in any last minute sketching in the garden?

Yoga/Painting Workshop

Demo in my Sketchbook

Saturday morning I did a workshop with yoga instructor, Sandi Jones.  She started off with an hour of yoga, and then I did sketchbook journaling instruction for two hours.

It was so much fun  -  everyone was so relaxed and very willing to try new things.  They painted loosely and quickly, and really let go of perfection. Maybe every painting class should start out with yoga.

I had been feeling a little stressed for the past few weeks  -  just a lot of stuff going on.  When I got home from the workshop, I stretched out on the couch in the sun, and I SLEPT for two or three hours.  It was great.  Talk about relaxed!

So here we are, into October.  I'm finally feeling ready for a new season  - was it the nap, the yoga, the beginning of October with fewer things to do?  What are your creative plans for this season?

A View from Hitchcock Hall

A Watercolor Journal Sketch from Late Summer

A sketch from late summer  -  wow  -  that seems like a long time ago.  It is cold, very dark, and raining here today, and the leaves are turning.

It's fun to look through my sketchbook at the summer sketches.  Summer here is crazy-busy, fun, and beautiful.  I'm doing a pretty good job this year of moving on  -  transitioning into the quieter season.  I've been busy with classes, workshops, and family.  I always get into a nesting and organizing mode about now, but that hasn't happened yet this year  -  it still could, of course.  I hope so  -  we could use a little organizing around here.

Now I'm going to go pack up my things for a mini workshop I am doing tomorrow.  I hope you're all going to carry your sketchbooks around with you this weekend.  I hope you're going to open them and paint in them!

Flowers from Joanne

Workshop Demo

This watercolor sketch is of a small part of a huge, beautiful bouquet given to me by friend Joanne during the book binding/journal painting workshop.  That was a week ago, and the flowers are still going strong.  Except for the lily that Rudy the cat got a little too friendly with  -  it has shredded petals and he has an orange-stained face.  Looks good on him.  Ooops  -  maybe not so cute! A quick call to the vet  -  they say he's okay.

Last night we had a freeze warning.  I had intended to go out and cut the flowers in the cutting garden, but I forgot all about them.  From the window this morning, they look okay.  I did bring the geranium pots into the porch.  I just hate to see the flowers get zapped while they are still blooming.

Okay, I'm babbling.  Gotta go finish up a painting that is everything I tell my students not to do. Rules are made to be broken.  Sometimes a painting just happens.

Workshop Demo

Large Raspberries, Small Fuzzy Peach, and Birdhouses

This page was done in my sketchbook on "Arches cover cream" paper.

Cathy Cohen and I just finished up a two day bookbinding/ journal painting workshop.  As always, it was fun!  It was a great group and their books are beautiful!  The weather was perfect for outdoor journal painting.

Oh, wow  -  this is the last day of August!  I can't believe how fast it has gone.  A couple of posts back, I said things were slowing down.  Maybe not.  I haven't noticed it anyway. I think I am filling in the spaces with other things.  If I slow down, I may feel obligated to clean up things around here.  This morning while I was trying to make the house a little presentable for my Wednesday class, I was finding blue paint and dust bunnies everywhere.  For some reason, I feel that the blue paint is a little more acceptable than the dust bunnies.  Am I right? 

Bay View Street Scene

 

Wrapping up the Season

This journal page was done last week, the last week of my journal classes in Bay View.  I hate to see it end. I have plenty to do to get ready for fall classes and workshops, so I'll quit complaining and move on.  I also have a lot of fun things planned for the week  - a volunteer afternoon, two days with grandchildren, a day of painting with friends, my life drawing session, a watercolor class to teach .  .  .    Fun stuff.

Have any of you been doing thumbnail sketches?  I keep a stack of pages printed up with 2 X 2 1/2 inch rectangles right on my work table to remind me to PLAN PLAN PLAN before I start a painting. 

Our sketchbook journals are for fun  -  no planning required.

Terrace Inn Tea

Strawberries and Devonshire Cream

This is a little sketch done in Prismacolor pencil and watercolor on Zerkall Frankfurt Cream paper.  The paper sounds good enough to eat, doesn't it?  It is not watercolor paper, and it does buckle, but I kind of like it anyway.

I did this at my second annual Terrace Inn Afternoon Tea.  Twenty-one ladies attended and they all brought their watercolor journals and small paint kits.  Their paintings were wonderful!  We spent the afternoon in the beautiful dining room (linen tablecloths and watercolors do mix after all) painting in our journals, compairing supplies, and catching up.  We painted a little before we started eating and then everyone painted between bites.

The very fact that the Inn lets us paint at the tables set with linen says it all. The whole staff is gracious, accommodating, and creative.


I love the idea of getting past, present, and future students together, and it's so much fun to discover new techniques, find out where to pick up new materials, and just to share some time with people with sketchbooks in common.

Thanks to all who attended!!!  I'm looking forward to next year already.

Old Birch Tree

Demonstration on Aquarius II Paper in my Sketchbook

This little watercolor sketch was done in last week's journal class.  It was done to demonstrate mixing grays on the paper (the tree) and using negative spaces to pop out white objects (the daisies).

We had a perfect week for outdoor journal painting.  This week we're getting some of that Midwest heat wave. If I had a journal class, it could get a little uncomfortable being out in the heat for four afternoons.  But  -  I don't.  I just have some morning classes and that should be okay.  This morning I have nothing!  In fact the only thing on my calendar for today was "no art in the park meeting".  How often do we have a minus on our calendars?!  Of course my to-do list is pretty long for the week  -  isn't everyone's?  The first thing is to shovel out the house and hose it down. Kidding (kind of). I have art supplies on every surface, and the dust bunnies are taking over.  I am really kind of looking forward to reclaiming our space  -  a little puttering is good for the soul.  I am not even turning on any music  -  just listening to the neighborhood sounds.

The biggest problem is that when I start picking up art supplies and putting them away,  I want to stop and play with them. A few minutes couldn't hurt, could it?

What are you sketching this week?

4th of July Etc.

Pages in my Journal

I didn't get as ambitious with my weekend sketching as I intended, but a couple of two-inch sketches is better than nothing.

We had a nice 4th of July weekend.  We did, however, run out of gas about midnight in the north woods - the gauge didn't work, and that's the truth.  My big brother came to our rescue as he has done for years and years.  I told the grandkids as they were beginning to panic a little, "If you don't have a little adventure, there's no reason to leave the house."  My husband and the kids were in a parade in the morning, and then the kids were in another parade in the afternoon.  After all that walking and sunshine, we LISTENED to the fireworks from the comfort of our own bed.

The journal page on the right is this morning's demonstration using a blue prismacolor pencil for the contour drawing.  I like the look, but I can't take credit for it.  I read about it in Cathy Johnson's new book Artist's Journal Workshop. The class met at a park on the Bay, and it was sunny and breezy.  I think it was the first morning I haven't had to worry about a class meeting in the rain or cold.

Now I have a painting to finish, frame, and deliver, and then we'll meet some friends at the waterfront for a picnic.  Summer in Northern Michigan!

White Geranium

White Geranium Demonstration

This is a journal page done in last week's Watercolor Sketchbook Journal class.  It was to done to show how to make the white blossoms stand out by painting a simple background color.  The petals were also kept simple with just a few shadows.

Yesterday's quirky weather changed my plans for the afternoon drawing class.  We had to find a warm place (it wasn't!) and do indoor-type drawing. The weather prediction was for 71 degrees  -  and it was that warm  in nearby areas.  It was 53 degrees here all day!!!  We should be getting used to the low fifties, but come on  -  don't promise us seventies and then roll in the fog off the Bay that drops the temp by twenty degrees.  Who's responsible for that anyway?     The morning watercolor class stuck it out and did some great paintings.  They had no choice  -  there was nowhere to go  -  we were committed.

Here in the USA we have the Fourth of July weekend coming up!  What are your plans?   How about doing a grid of small squares in your sketchbook and recording a few of the long weekend's happenings? Only a couple of minutes of commitment at a time makes it easier to tackle.

Cathy's Birdhouse

Bookbinding/Journal Workshop Demonstration

This birdhouse is in the garden of my bookbinding workshop partner, Cathy.  Someday I'll go through my sketchbooks to see how many times I have painted it over the years.  It makes a good subject for the journal painting part of our workshop.  It is a good example of how contour drawing (continuous line) can simplify a complicated subject, and how to paint colorful neutrals.

We had a fantastic group in our Monday-Tuesday workshop, and another group begins today.

We've been having so much fun with the grandkids! Things have been relatively calm  -  no more crashing through window panes.  Yesterday we took a tour through the new candy factory!  The kids are at the other grandparents for a few days.   I think I'll be okay with the quiet  -  I have to get ready for three new classes starting next week, and begin and finish a small painting.  All fun stuff, and if it weren't for deadlines, I'd probably never do a thing.  Well, maybe I would.