3. HOMEWORK FOR 31.05.2021

PALLETTE FOR THIS MONTH:

  1. Cadmium Yellow light hue – Daniel Smith( which is a mixture of PY3, PY 53 and PY 138. I bought it by mistake instead of pure PY3)
  2. Indian Yellow – QOR – (mixture of PY154, PY 150 and PR 206
  3. Quinacridone Red Light – W&N – (PR 209)
  4. Quinacridone Magenta — Rembrandt (PR 122) and by Schminke (PR 202)
  5. Cobalt Deep – Sennelier (PB72)
  6. Cerulean – Rembrandt (PB35)

Actually I always end up using also a couple of other colors: yellow ocre, burnt sienna and a dark mix I make with indigo and black together, almost like a Payne’s grey. These I find useful to give some natural tones, grey or warm darks.

Important inputs:

  1. Try and stay a bit longer also with the things that do not work out. Before moving on, wait and see what can be learned from the “mistakes” and how it can be improve.
  2. David Bomberg: speechless at the gigantic talent (In the Hold at 23!?!???), love how he evolved and changed, and a bit enraged that he did not live to enjoy his fame. Reminds me a bit of Cezanne, van Gogh and many other (Bach!).

Questions for Frances:

What to do with work which should be destroyed: how to re-use the support (for instance if tinting colors have been used and there is stll too much of them even after washing the board). What material to use to cover the support and re-use?

Is it OK if her handwritten notes appear in this blog?

How to save almost pure white areas in a graphite or charcoal drawing. For example, in this case I had to add white acrylic to have the statues and the swan again, which is very ugly. What should I have done? Also, there are much lighter twigs over a dark water…how do I get such thin light streaks in a pond of charcoal? I used a white soft pastel in the case but I hope there is a better way.

With reference to the last image with the multicolor bark, is there a medium I can use under the paint so to make the veins and the shadows of the bark cracking i the bark? I tried to make them very tediously with a very thin brush but they look very rigid and artificial

Do you have a couple of favorite grey mixes? I make it mixing ultramarine with burnt sienna, but maybe there are others? I know you can get grey by mixing anything, but I would like to have 3-4 “go-to” greys I do not have to think about and create again all the times

How to work from a photo

How to stay focused when there are too many things you would like to paint?

What are the absolute musts when thinking about choosing a space for a painting studio?

Repetition of shady bark
These are th tings which I should have done differently but after 5 versions I have no more ush to work on this again…. 1) I did not put enough red-purple in the shadows, The leaves are reddish, that should reflect also in the shadows, which are not so dark grey. 2. The twig in the foreground is too dark. It is in full sun, so it should be lighter and warmer 3. the shadow on the left is not a straight thing, It is made of several objects and the result should be more “puzzly” Other things could be improved but these are the first 3 that come to mind. But for the first time I was able to somewhat make the contrast “fuzzy-sharp” in the shadows and real leaves. Of course the color of the top left leave is wrong…

this is one of the rare ones for which the picture is worse than the real thing. From a distance is really interesting. There are more shadows inside. Charcoal.
Watercolor and gum arabic version

ugh!!
Maybe if I print the actual long version of the picture instead of the standard 15 X 20 cm, this will be better
I did not realize how strong compressed charcoal can contrast graphite….I had to take it down a notch or two. This is closer to what I had in mind. Black and white is simpler that color. The white dots are grated pastel
Ink and ground pastels – I have not been able yet to develop this from the original picture. I have a mountain landscape in mind somewhere but I can not detach enough from the original picture to make it happen. Frustrating. Will try again.
pueblo
first attempt, interrupted because it is not working out. I made the reflex lines with candle wax and since it is transparent I had no clue if they where straight or whatever and could not really give them a “project direction”. Bottom line, they do not make much sense. The idea is, they should be the top of straight walls of the “pueblo”, so next time I am going to put an entire wash down and then remove the color, or maybe I will use gum arabic with a bit of color in it so I know what I am doing.

What I can use from the above though is the idea of a pueblo with a beach and the sea behind!

washed out version of the above, and added some ochra
The reflex on the right is not made by me but by the fact that the sheet is ondulated and the actual sun from the outside did that. It fits in though!
I have not been able to really focus on this subect (or on much else) this month. I think preparing to go on “vacation” is stressful in itself especially with Corona. But I need to get out of Berlin.
First sketch experiment. sprayed the sheet with water and salt, grated compressed charcoal in it and then painted some parts. I I like the dots, remind me of spots with vegetations. Tones could have been more varied.
rooted
No wonder trees and woods are sometimes part of scary children fairy tales!
will work on this again after Frances gives me a few suggestions.