Sunny at 3Kicks Art Studio

Our term has ended at 3Kicks Studio. I wanted to sign up for the next term, but I would miss too many classes to make it worth it. Sunny has  helped me a lot. I felt so awkward and unsure of myself at the first class. I didn't know how to lay out my palette or to begin to design my painting. In the ten weeks of the class, I have definitely gained confidence as well as skill. 

I painted these flowers on the last day, getting the painting this far in one session. Actually, the vase had a pretty lopsided arrangement in it, with the flowers in a circle poking toward the outside. I added the large flower in the middle when I got home. It was just greenery and stems in life. This is a 9x12 canvas. I think the apple is the star of the show. Like many students,  I have probably painted more apples than any other subject! Doing this still life made me realize I need to paint more flowers, and fabric folds too!

Sunny helped us by commenting as we worked. He also would show students techniques by painting on their canvas, with permission of course. It really helped to see exactly how to do something. I look forward to signing up with him again in January. I love it that we can do both still life and portraits in his class.

 Sunny can make sense of anyone's painting! He goes from one canvas to the next, looking, evaluating, and moving the piece forward somehow.

Portrait of a Pensive Girl

I am really enjoying my Sunday morning classes with Sonny Apinchapong. I can tell that I am growing and learning. He believes that still life studies are the key to good portraits and landscapes. I love being able to go straight to the portrait with a live model. I learned a lot from doing this portrait. It looks a bit boring as a piece of art, but I have to recognize that this is my time to learn, not constantly evaluate. Despite its flaws, Sonny pronounced it "a good likeness".

Back to the Drawing Board

   

Left: Value study of twins from a photograph

Right: Copy from a Sargeant drawing of Mrs. Horace Webber

Here is my drawing board. Both of these were basically quick studies, done in less than 30 minutes (I think). The Sargeant portrait is from the Dover book of his drawings which are black and white studies. It makes it pretty easy to copy exactly what he did, although if you compare mine to his you will see how many places need to be fixed.  I need to work on how to do the nose and mouth, so this is really helpful.

The value study from the photograph presents a completely different set of challenges and learning. First of all, I had to find a photo that lends itself to becoming a portrait. Then I realized that I don't have much experience drawing from photos. I chose this one because the two boys are identical twins, but don't actually look exactly alike. I wanted to see if I could capture the difference. Shane is pretty close but Nathan got lost back in the shadows. Those shadows again!!

It is also interesting to put these side by side. Clearly Sargeant had an eye for composition and contrast. He knew how to accentuate the features that he wanted to describe. Striking.

Flowers in a Blue Vase

 Flowers in a Blue Vase

I had fun with this painting done in class. The challenge was to represent the bright light. The colors were all over the place. I thought I wasn't going to like the set up - I was itching to reposition the flowers into a better arrangement. But as I painted I found I liked the balance and the confusion of the huge blossoms. Sonny, the teacher, helped me to simplify the shadows on the wall behind the flowers. It reminded me of Anne's caution: "Don't stare into the shadows!'

The teacher's overall comment was to continue to paint more and practice better drawing skills. Hmmm. I thought drawing was a relative strength. I guess it is, relative to anything else I can do! 

So, I need to work on my drawing and hope it will draw the rest of my skills along with it:)

Fruit with Pitcher

Cropped to show the part that I like best

 I have started a workshop class at 3Kicks Studio in Pasadena. Here is the first still life set-up that I painted. There was another still life choice and also a live model. I will do those in future weeks.

I got good feedback from the teacher. The challenge, of course, was to paint gray on gray, with very subtle value and temperature differences. He wasn't too impressed with this, but not too critical either. He guided us along, suggesting ways to keep it simple and focus on what was important. Mostly he said to "just keep painting and you'll be able to train your eye..." I feel like my eye is okay, it's my ability to render what my eye sees that is the problem!

Classwork

 

I may still go back and fix up the parts that are weak, or I may just move on and paint something different. I haven't decided yet.

I did two homework paintings of a gray on gray set-up. The teacher liked the set-up with the silver tray, and liked the solid feel of the objects. But the fruit looks flat - not enough light contrast - and the bottle highlights are too much. You can see that I kept this in mind as I finished my painting in class. Nice round fruit and not too much on the bottle. As for the wobbly lines, such as the edge of the plate, that's just me getting used to oil paint. It doesn't stay where you put it! I started with a nice even curve, but by the time I got the shadows in there and added the print to the fabric, the plate was a wobbly mess!

Homework

I will definitely move on in class to the next still life set-up. Enough of the gray on gray.

Color and Light

Ugh.
I am glad this class on color is over! I did learn a few things. But mostly I wasted a lot of paint.

Color Blocks

My art teacher was a student of Henry Hensche. It was his teaching method to have students paint colored blocks in different light as a way to study color. So our assignment is to collect and paint wooden blocks to represent the different color attributes: value, intensity and hue. Then we paint them over and over in different lights. I can see that this will really help me to SEE the colors and the light more accurately. It will also give me the practice and discipline to mix paint efficiently and effectively. It's like playing scales on the piano. Sigh.

I finally found a way to get a little bit more excited about this. I did the study, using cool colors on a cool cloudy morning. There really were no shadows at all. Bowing to the importance of simultaneous contrast (please be impressed), I carefully found the color of the cool, dull cloth underneath the blocks. But what about the rest of the background? It defines the color, too.

And so, kind viewer, can you guess what is at the top of my composition? It is the lovely camelia branches hanging down over the dewy wet garden bed. The color of the soil is accurate, and the three blocks of color for the leaves are very close. I'll see how my teacher reacts to this before I dare to paint in the hummingbird.