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!

Dinner After Class

 Portobello Panini

Spell check needs to move into the 21st century.  It thinks portobello should be "potbelly" and panini should be "panic".  It kind of upsets me that spell check doesn't know what it's doing.  Kind of like going into the fabric store and the girl at the cutting counter doesn't know how to figure your yardage.  Not that that's ever happened.  If someone or something, as the case may be, doesn't know more about something than I do  -  we're in trouble.

I did this sketch in my hand bound book last week after day-one of our book binding workshop. It felt good after a day on our feet to sit down and have someone set delicious food in front of us.  It is really hard to paint it instead of digging in to eat it, but it does make the whole eating and talking with friends experience even more fun.

In the previous post, I mentioned something about buying a larger bag to carry painting things in.  I try to keep the supplies to a minimum, but now I can't stop thinking about buying a new bag.  I'm really not a purse kind of girl (once a girl, always a girl) and I'm not a shopper,  but maybe.  I kind of like those big baggy purses.  I'm always a few steps behind  -  are they out of style?

Value Sketches

More Value Sketches

Value sketches are such a quick and easy way to plan a painting  -  lights, darks. mediums  -  there ya go, all planned out.  Maybe it's me.  Maybe I'm not making it clear enough.  Almost everyone wants to skip the sketches, or make them way too large, or way too detailed.  Someone in class that ended up with a beautiful painting said, "It took me fifteen thumbnail sketches to get that."  Good for her!  That means she could have gone through fifteen failed paintings before she did the one she was happy with.  She stuck with it and planned it out, and the thumbnail sketches really only took a few minutes.

Here's my plan  -  I'm going to hand out paper that has several two-inch squares on it and  felt tipped markers.

I do realize that the process that I find most helpful is not necessarily right for everyone.  However, I do think thumbnail sketches to plan the values and composition are important.  It's one of those things "if you don't know where you're going, you're not going to get there."  My whole life is "I don't know where I'm going" but at least I can control my thumbnail sketches.

Birdhouses

Colorful Little Birdhouses

What fun  -  I got to paint them twice.  Once to really, you know, paint them, and then illustrate them in my sketchbook.  They were a dollar apiece.  That's pretty cheap entertainment. And see, they gave me something to blog about to make up for the previous post's glass of water.
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I may put them on the fence  -  maybe the side of the garage  -  or maybe plant them in the garden on a stake.  Maybe that's a little tacky, but .  .  .

It's raining again and in the 40s.  I am craving sunshine and color!!!  I keep plugging away at my to-do list, getting ready for summer, and those birdhouses were actually on my to-do list.  I have a fun list, don't I?

The Process

 

Class Demo

This demonstration was to show the process I use to get from, in this case, a photograph to a finished painting.  The top image shows the photograph I was using as reference. In the pencil sketch below that,  I have sketched things pretty much as is   -  because I have to start somewhere. I'm keeping in mind the reason that I have chosen to paint this subject  -  the cluster of buildings and their rooftops, and the lights and darks of the sunlight and cast shadows.

The porches and roof lines on the left really complicate things and don't do anything to support my reasons for painting this.  So I play around a little with removing the jumble of shapes on the left, and move on to a value sketch (figuring out my lights and darks) which is shown in the lower right of the top image.  This is what I use as reference as I paint.  I don't refer to the photograph again. 

Eliminating some of the porches and roof lines has changed the "reality", but what I wanted was the "feeling" of the roof tops and shadows.  This would never make it as a commission or a rendering of the actual scene, but we all have artistic license, you know, and we should use it.  It's fun!

Value sketches can be done very small  -  a couple of inches square with no detail - just shapes to show light, middle and  dark values.  If you make them small enough and simple enough, you can do lots of them in a short time to play around with all kinds of combinations of lights and darks until you hit on the one you like.   Once you've planned your lights and darks, your painting is half done.  The process is pretty painless.

Pencil Sketches

Thumbnail Sketches on Steroids

I pulled a handful of random photographs to do some thumbnail sketches. These were intended to be small value sketches  -  just planning shapes and lights and darks.

I hadn't done drawing just for the sake of drawing in a long time, and I got a little carried away with the size and complexity.  Such fun!  These aren't necessarily the value (darks and lights) patterns I would use if I were to do a painting of these subjects  -  the whole idea of doing thumbnails is to give you several choices with the composition and values.

Drawing from photos is not my favorite, but there are lessons to be learned from every attempt at drawing and figuring out what's what.  Besides  -  it's all fun.

New Journal

A New Journal and More Thumbnails

I am so into doing little thumbnail sketches right now.  When I've had enough of that, I'll start painting with a vengeance.

Yesterday my friend, Ellie, was trying out Yupo for the first time.   I wrote her comment on my sketchbook page. "It almost gives you the freedom you desire."  Pretty profound for painting on plastic, huh?  No, I'm not pushing Yupo  -  not a huge fan.

This is my newest journal, on the left. It is a different size this time.  I started out making them kind of square, and I liked that.  However, I do like to make them in a size that doesn't waste any of the 22 X 30 sheets of Aquarius II watercolor paper.  It dawned on me that this 5 1/2 by 6 size would work.

So if we have all this fresh, new, fluffy snow this morning  -  why doesn't it feel FRESH?

Composition

What Goes Where

I was playing around a little bit with composition.  I just grabbed a photograph out of my photo reference  (reference photo?) box and simplified and rearranged some of the objects.  We need to remember that photos are only a starting point and no more.  If I'm working from a photo I usually work out the composition and a value sketch, and don't look at the photo for reference as I paint.

The pencil sketches are some things we were working on in class.  I was trying to stress the fact that objects take up space, and the placement they are given on the page, or painting surface, has to reflect the volume of the object.  Drawing objects as transparent helps us to see how much space they really need.

There is no serious painting going on here. As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm just kind of puttering around, reading some art books, going over old lesson plans, and Friday I did make a text block for my next journal.

Now it is time to get serious with spring and summer class promotion.  We have had some sunshine here now and then.  That helps.  The Bay is frozen solid.  That doesn't help.

More Orchid Studies

Orchid Blossoms in Pencil (left) and Watercolor and Ink (right)

I'm loving the way orchid blossom petals fit together, and how subtle the shadows have to be to keep them white, but still show the gentle curves.  Fun.

In my state of "unmotivation", I can't seem to complete anything serious - anything larger than a sketchbook page.  So I guess I'll just stick to my sketchbook for awhile.

Now I am off to set up a still life for my afternoon class.  We will be working on simplicity and draped fabrics.  I even ironed the fabrics!

Painting from Photographs

  The Old Lansing City Market

This is a demonstration I started in class, and they asked if I could finish it next week, but I don't think I can keep my hands off it.  I could hide it so I am not tempted.  Kind of like sending the potato chips to work in the trunk of my husband's car.

I'm working from a photograph that I took a couple of years ago before they tore the old (beautiful  -  to me) buildings down and rebuilt. With the photograph as reference I did a contour sketch including only the things I felt were necessary to say what I want to say about this particular scene.  I scanned the sketch, enlarged it, printed it out and traced it onto my watercolor paper.

I'm using the sketch as my reference now, not the photograph.  I have pretty much blocked in my lights and darks, and those are more important to me than the colors.  At this point, the photograph has more information than I want.

It's Friday already!  Who has some sketching plans for the weekend?

Green Paint Chips and My Favorite Chair

Green Paint Chips and a Pencil Sketch

This is a sketch of my favorite chair in the world.  It is glossy black, slender looking and sculptural.  She (don't you think it's a girl?) had been in my family before I could remember  -  so long, in fact, that no one could remember what branch of the family she had belonged to, or how old she might be.  Just a few years ago, I came across a picture of my father, about seven years old, posing for the picture on this chair - maybe about 1924.  Back in the 60s I painted it glossy black, made a pink and orange striped cushion, and glued hot pink ball fringe along the edge of the seat.  It was great.

It is COLD COLD COLD here today  -  in the low teens.  It has finally reached 65 degrees in the house and I am wearing several layers  -  and a down vest and wool scarf!  Maybe if I did something active  .  .  .

I am sitting around reading a book about painting figures, sketching the chair, and making notes about painting with, and mixing, greens.  That "fear of orange" comment a few posts back triggered something in my brain about painting greens.  Makes sense, doesn't it?

For anyone reading this who has been in one of my drawing classes, you might be glad to know that I STRUGGLED with this drawing today.

Coffee Table Pencil Sketch

 not TOO serious

Feeling the urge/need/desire/obligation to do a halfway serious drawing, instead of the cartoon-like contour drawings I have been doing, I challenged myself with the foreshortening of this table.  The top book and bowl got a little floaty, but oh well.

We have a winter advisory warning here this afternoon.  It's a nice day to be working on sketches and lesson plans for my new classes starting this week.  This week we are going to be working on breaking up shapes to keep things interesting and, at the same time, cohesive.   We'll be breaking them up with lines, softened edges, variations in value, additional shapes .  .  . Fun stuff.  Stay tuned.

Cellar Door

Gretchen's Cellar Door

This is a pencil sketch in one of my sketchbooks. I have painted this doorway a few times in different sizes, from different angles, and in various color combinations. I never tire of playing around with those shadows. Right now I am trying it on textured clayboard, and I'm finding the shadows don't work real well on that. I tend to paint in layers, and because clayboard allows colors to lift (the good news and the bad news), it is hard to build up the shadows. I'll let you see what's happening when I get a little further into it.

In reference to the previous post - the last of the ziti (at least three servings!) was finished off by a starving grandson after basketball practice. I knew that ziti would come in handy. Never under estimate your need for baked ziti.

Clementine

Clementine, Tangerine, or Whatever

As I was eating this tangerine and looking through an "old" sketchbook, I came across this drawing I had done of a clementine. I should spend a little more time doing pencil drawings - I love doing them.

It is just a little after four in the afternoon, and it is nearly pitch dark. The street lights aren't on, but the lights are on in the houses up and down the street. My studio feels nice and cozy, but I would really prefer another hour or so of daylight. There were LARGE black clouds over the Bay all afternoon. Oh, no - could there be snow in those!!!???

I met some old friends for lunch today - some women I met when we first moved here 20 years ago. It's a good idea to catch up with non-painting friends once in awhile. There is a whole world out there that I am not paying any attention to. We just can't participate in all of it, can we?

A couple of days ago I had lunch with a friend that has written a beautiful book on art, color, etc. We talked about painting, writing, and publishing, and it has me thinking about doing another book. Well, I always think about it, some times more seriously than other times. Writing a book is kind of obsessive, and I guess I just like being in that mode.

See my FIRST book here. My one and only - so far.

Value Sketch

I did a quick watercolor sketch on location back in June, and took a couple of photographs. I printed them out and taped them together, and now I'm working up a value sketch in preparation for a "serious" painting. All that space under the porch roof ( the porch ceiling) bothers me. The value (the lights and darks) is going to have to be just right, and I'm not sure at this point what "just right" is. Well, that's what a value sketch is for - to figure it out.

By the way - we ate the persimmon. I guess it is one of those gender things like zucchini because the girls liked it the guys didn't. We girls were glad the guys didn't like it - more for us. It's gone now. You won't have to hear about it any more.

Scribble Figures

These are very small scribble figures done at a gymnastics class this morning.

Also worked on some compositions and lesson plans for classes and did my grocery list. Not bad for an hour, huh.

It has been a busy couple of days and I'm heading for bed. Maybe sometime during this blogging challenge in November I will manage to do a quality post. We'll see. Right now I am after quantity.

Pears

Pears in Pencil

More art from the kitchen. These pears were drawn on a brown paper (Nideggen) which has a line-y texture to it. I wonder if there is a smooth drawing paper in a brown color. I like the color of Nideggen and Bogus Rough, but I really enjoy drawing on a plate finish. If anyone knows of any, I'd love to hear about it.

We had a little snow here and there this morning. Too much for me! I do live in Northern Michigan, and I don't see myself packing up and leaving any time soon, so I'd better just bake some cookies, make some hot chocolate, and get over it! I DO keep trying to make this a food blog, don't I?

SQUASH

All the wonderful fall colors out there and I am drawing in pencil! I have been very interested in lights and darks / contrasts lately - even more so than usual.

It has something (or everything) to do with the angle of the sun as the season changes. Maybe I am subconsciously soaking up as much light as I can before our dark winter settles in.

It was sunny here today and I worked in the yard a bit - bringing in pots before they freeze and break. My husband doesn't understand how one person can possibly need all those pots, but there is something about them waiting there for me on the back porch that I really like. It seems hopeful - like planting bulbs in the fall.

Okay, now I am off to paint little figures. I watched a Skip Lawrence dvd with some friends today about painting simple little figures. What fun - I can see filling up some spare (?!) time playing with that!

Geranium Cuttings

Since my class on reflective surfaces, I have been trying to pay a little more attention to reflective surfaces myself. Also, because it is winter (VERY winter) I have been trying to pay a little more attention to my indoor surroundings - the winter light in various rooms at different times of the day, the shapes and colors of things in our house, the views out of the windows . . .

This drawing is just a study of some geranium cuttings and the containers they are in. The black Hall Ware bowl (50 cents at the thrift shop!) looks a little squishy, but I was pleased with the shading on it. I find round curvy things much more difficult to draw than straight lines, so I am going to spend some time working on that. Right now I am going to venture out into the snow and cold to get things from the grocery for burger night. Burgers, baked beans, CHIPS. Round curvy things.

Playing Battleship

Oldest Grandson, all comfy on the couch, playing Battleship.

After doing this rather quick sketch of our oldest grandson, it makes me want to do more sketches of the grandkids. I'm just not that good at figures, but practice makes perfect, right? He was pleased that I had sketched him, and even if no one ever sees the sketches, other than the kids, they'll enjoy that and so will I.