Monday, September 29, 2008

painting lesson... day 2

Back to my demonstration...
Now it is time to get some paint on this drawing.
I build my color using a series of washes. A wash
is when you have water on your brush and add a
little color. When applied it adds thin layers of color
which I dry with a hairdryer in between layers.
If you rush this step your painting turns muddy! So
the hairdryer allows me to dry it thoroughly, quickly
so I can keep adding washes. Look carefully at the photo.
You can click over the photos to enlarge.
Step 1 I started with the walls and celling, using
yellow ochre. Can you see the warm wash I used?
Next I went to the
moulding and floor.
This time I used yellow
ochre and burnt sienna.
I have good brush control
so I paint around things
like the pegs on the wall
moulding. I am using a
#6 round brush for all the
underpainting.

Step 2
The floor requires a special
touch. I added some guide
lines to show me where
the warmest area will be.
This is called negative space.
I will save it for later. I also
added a wash to the bench.
I used a bit of naples yellow
and cad. yellow - reddish hue.

Step 3 Can you see how
I am building my richness?
I am using the same set of
color washes over top, drying
between each layer. It gets
warmer as I go along. I
put a wash over the window
frame and the bench is
getting darker. But notice
how I am working around
the lighter spots where
the sun will shine. Be patient
when building color.

Here is a close up of
the floor. I added some
miskit here and to the
the bench seat. It helps
go a bit faster where
I have larger areas to
wash over. I mix a
soapy solution in my brush first to keep the miskit from
sticking. I applied it like opaque paint and let it dry.
That's it for tonight. This is hours of work and is simply
my process. Questions so far???

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This is just very helpful. Your explanations are clear and understandable. I am looking for the next post.