82. Lilies and Roses

Still Life with Lilies and Roses, 3B Mars Lumograph 100,

in A4 sketchbook

Waitrose drastically reduced the price of their flowers so we got a great-smelling bunch of lilies and roses for half-price and I thought I'd sketch some of them for some practice. As it turned into a drawing (rather than just a sketch), I took my A5 sketchbook and did a quick pen and ink line drawing (below) which I quite like actually.

Still Life with Lilies and Roses, Pilot G-Tec C4 in A5 Moleskine

Have a good day!

81. Colour Mixing - Two More Sheets

Phthalocyanine Blue Lake (PB15:3)

Cobalt Teal (PB36)

Hi Everyone, here's a little colour to brighten your day. I heard a good tip - if when you do these colour sheets you spot the same colour on two sheets, use the cheaper pigment for your mixes.

80. Gallery Sketches: Rubens and Giordano

Sketch of Rubens' Minerva Protects Pax from Mars ('Peace and War'),

Derwent Onyx Dark in A4 sketchbook

This is a lovely big painting full of all sorts of wonderful textures. It's typical of many such mythological scenes that I studied years ago and is worth looking up. However, I didn't know that Rubens had presented this as a gift to Charles 1. 

Over the years, I've always been struck by the ability of these master artists to render different textures and Rubens is no exception; there is flesh, fur, hair, metal, foliage, fruit, fabric, jewellery, fluid, the sky - just lovely.

My sketch includes Pax but I didn't manage to get Minerva or any of the background war scenes done. She is the link from peace in the foreground ('Pax') and war in the background, signified of course by Mars.

I came home and printed out images of both these paintings as a reminder of what I'd been looking at. We had about 20 minutes for each of these; the Tour and Draw sessions last longer (90 minutes) than the Talk and Draw (an hour) to allow time for everyone to travel from room to room.

Sketch of Luca Giordano's Perseus Turning Phineas and His Followers to Stone,

Derwent Onyx Dark in A4 sketchbook

I love this painting! I was so glad Sarah chose this and our remit was to look at how Giordano has used controposto in some of the figures to show energy, particularly Perseus.  

For many years, artists have painted and sculpted all or part of this mythological scene - Sebastiano Ricci did a beautiful one with wonderful classical sculptures and architecture which, I think, more effectively shows the followers of Phineas turning to stone.

Nevertheless, this has been my favourite for a couple of reasons. When you look at it, you see that Giordano thought about the fact that Medusa's severed head could still turn the beholder to stone so he turns Perseus's head away while he thrusts it in the faces of his enemies; I also think the determined expression on his young face shows authority and maturity. Giordano has taken advantage of this to effect the contraposto stance. 

The second reason is just the sumptuous fabric in Perseus's costume. Now you know I love blue and these blues set against the gold, ochre and bronze elements are just delicious.

Finally, look at the expression of Medusa, or no, maybe you shouldn't!! Oh-oh.....

79. Gallery Sketches: Van Gogh and Turner

Gallery Studies, Derwent Onyx Dark in A4 sketchbook

I've been attending some of the drop-in drawing classes at both the Nationals in London, which are led by various working artists.

The groups are huge and every skill level is there but the tutors are clear and helpful, constantly on the move and manage to see how everyone is getting on. They give guidance as well as art historical information. In some of the sessions, all materials are provided and in others you have to bring your own but it is quite clear on each website whether or not you need to bring anything on the day.

I used to do some of these sessions at both the Tate and the Courtauld years ago when I was studying art history with the OU. I remember how effective they were for skill- and knowledge-building.

These sketches are from a 'Tour and Draw' so we sketched four different paintings in various rooms, even going outside on one occasion, to get to another building.

Sketch of Van Gogh's Wheatfield with Cypresses

This was the view from the asylum at St Remy and would have been one of the last views that Van Gogh had before he died the year later.

The subject on this day was 'Energy' and our tutor, Sarah, parked us in front of this painting and told us to use our arms and imagine we were painting Van Gogh's scene. She then told us to carry on down onto our sketch books and use mark-making and line to convey the energy of the brushstrokes; we had five minutes to get it down.

Sketch of John Mallard William Turner's Dutch Boats in a Gale

We then went to another room and were asked to show the energy of this scene using tone. When asked how I was getting on, I told the tutor that I'd chosen the wrong spot as I found myself at an odd angle to the painting. Interestingly, she told me to sketch what I could see, including the diagonal horizon - great idea, why not? I think we had about 15 minutes in front of this one.

We sketched two more paintings but I'll post them tomorrow as I have to dash out now.  Happy painting (and drawing) everyone!

78. Christine's Workshop - Studies

Still Life with Daffodils and Clementine, Mars Lumograph 100 

and watercolour, A3 (A4 sketchbook)

It's Spring at last, yaay! There are daffodils everywhere. Last Saturday, we had an event at work so I went in early to set up then chased over to Christine's for an hour and a half before chasing back to the event. It was worth it even for half a morning.

All I took were an A4 sketchbook, my graphic design pencil case (it contains a miniature of everything), a tin of pan watercolours and a brush roll. Considering the short time available, I'm happy with this sketch and I'm leaving it just as it is because it's an accurate record of my time there that day. Given more time, I'd have stopped all the 'kissing'. The dark in the background was a sheet of coloured paper but it is buttressed up against the jug. Again, the clementine in the foreground should move half its width to the right. Maybe I'd have strengthened the edges of the daffodils to the right. 

As I was packing up Chris suggested I do a very quick colour study so I erased part of the top left and quickly knocked it out. Can you see where I extended it down to show more of the bowl? Comically, this resulted in the orange floating in the air but, again, that's fine for what it is.

In the next few posts, I'll show you more drawings and sketches and a maybe a few more of the colour charts I've done.

Happy weekend my friends!

77. Colour Mixing - Five More Sheets

Magenta (PR122)

Call me crazy, but... I am loving doing these colour charts.  The colours are so delicious, I think I can taste them! If only the camera could capture the sumptuous colour, transparency and vibrancy of some of these mixes, especially on the Magenta and the Ultramarine Blue sheets! The colours are pretty close but the tints below were much more subtle than shown here.

As I mentioned previously, I'm also discovering many other popular colours/mixes whilst doing them such as Burnt Sienna, Cobalt Violet(!!) and Flesh Tint - my flesh is a different tint though, LOL! A big surprise to me was the Magenta/Atrament Black mix to the far right; maybe I didn't use enough AB but I chose not to change it as it produced a column of super violets which are different to all the others on the sheet.

All the tints so far have been created with the very opaque Titanium White No.2 (PW6/PW4) but I'm curious to try them with something more transparent like pure Zinc White (PW4), particularly for these two sheets.

Ultramarine Blue (PB29) - Yummy!

I dropped the Unbleached Titanium, Permanent Orange, Phthalo Blue and Phthalo Green for Napthol Red, Cadmium Red, Transparent Oxide Yellow and Raw Umber as that's what I'm  more likely to mix with UB. It also meant that I didn't need to have 20+ columns. 

 

Unbleached Titanium Dioxide (PW6.1)

Such an initially boring colour but the range of tints produced are just wonderful. I'm so glad I did this sheet as it produced lovely, velvety, dusty hues, again more subtle than shown but distinct colours nonetheless.

Lemon Yellow (PW31) - Dig out your blue gloves!

This has a really low tinting strength so it is perfect for warming and lightening colours when straight white would deaden them. You can easily see the stronger pigments; however, note that Magenta is much stronger than Manganese Violet - I had to use only a smidgeon of Magenta as otherwise its mighty strength would have murdered the Lemon Yellow.

Bright Yellow Lake (PY3)

Looks acidic but it's really a beautifully yellow yellow.  Can I say that? :D  Now I've added Old Holland Caribbean Blue (a favourite of Dreama Tolle Perry) as I use it an awful lot in my Caribbean scenes; not that you'd know as the tube is hardly dented - another powerful pigment.

Please do comment on whether or not you are finding these helpful. I have lumped these five together so that anyone interested can compare them more easily.  I will replace the photographs when we have better weather... and I'll post some real paintings soon.  

Thank you so much for visiting; I'm off to work now. Happy painting!

76. Colour Mixing: RT Rembrandt - Ultramarine Blue

Oil on paper, 9" x 12"

I could have done with using a smidge more of the red in the second column as it looks very similar to the fourth column. In the third column, I discovered Turmeline Green (I was given this in a pack of three free samples a year or so ago; it's by Schminke Mussini). In the fourth column, I got lovely soft greys, a bit like Payne's Grey.

The mixes on the top row are pure Ultramarine Blue, UB with a touch of Permanent Red Medium, UB with a touch of Permanent Yellow Light and UB with a touch of both PRM and PYL; in all of the mixes that particular 'primary' is dominant.  Going down each column, I've used increasing amounts of white to create tints.  I used the same tiny palette knife.

75. Colour Mixing: RT Rembrandt - Permanent Red Medium

Oil on paper, 9" x 12"

Again, I discovered some great mixes, useful for flesh tones, amongst other things. In the third column, I got very good Indian and Venetian Reds and in the fourth column, I discovered taupe, which took me back to the early '80s when I worked for a textile company who regularly used that colour in their fabric dyes.

The mixes on the top row are pure Permanent Red Medium, Permanent Red Medium with a touch of Permanent Yellow Light, PRM with a touch of Ultramarine Blue and PRM with a touch of both PYL and UB; on each chart that particular 'primary' is dominant in each of the mixes.  Going down each column, I've used increasing amounts of white to create tints.  I used the same tiny palette knife.

74. Colour Mixing: RT Rembrandt - Permanent Yellow Light

Oil on paper, 9" x 12"

I've been creating colour mixing charts in oil (as per Monsieur Schmid, even though I don't own his wonderful-looking book); it is feeding my methodical side (nerdy? OCD? :D :D :D). Seriously though, I do these every few years to remind myself how many mixes can be obtained from just a few key colours. This time, I used my bargain pack of RT Rembrandt primaries plus white.

The mixes on the top row are pure Permanent Yellow Light, Permanent Yellow Light with a touch of Permanent Red Medium, PYL with a touch of Ultramarine Blue and PYL with a touch of both PRM and UB; on each chart that particular 'primary' is dominant in each of the mixes.  Going down each column, I've used increasing amounts of white to create tints.

I used a tiny palette (painting) knife to mix and apply the paint swatches. The number of possible variations never ceases to amaze me.  (I will also post the red and blue palettes.)

73. Still Life - WIP

Work in progress, still life, acrylic paint on acrylic paper, 20" x 16"

Hi Everyone, this is what I worked on at Christine's workshop last Saturday. I cropped the last photograph as the background cloth is only partly done and, with the patterns unfinished, is a bit of a distraction. I enjoyed doing it but have had to abandon it and return to a commission I'm doing.

Initial stage - drawing with very watery Burnt Siena and Phthalocyanine Blue.

Second stage - adding watered-down Quinacridone Magenta and Ultramarine Blue.

Third stage - thicker paint (temporarily cropped photograph).

There is a lot more to be done such as correcting and softening the edges of the vase and the background cloth, warming the colour of the vase, defining the cloth around the base of the foremost glass bottle so it is clear, adding a starfish in front of the shell, etc. However, I'm happy with the rendering of the glass bottles so will try to leave that part alone!

72. Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! xx

71. Collage for '30 in 30' Challenge - January 2014

Collage of original oil paintings

Well here it is, my friends. Work, hospital and other things meant that I only managed 15 - I omitted the 'Eggs' work-in-progress (No. 64) as, small-scale, it looked too similar to the final piece. However, I actually did four times the amount I managed back in September and each one is an original so I'm happy.

I've just had a look at the other collages that are starting to appear on Leslie's blog and they are fabulous! Well done everyone, it's been great.

Happy February - I hope and pray we can all keep creating.  xx