Seeking Freshness
After not painting steadily for some time, working on the new book, I found myself struggling mightily as i returned to my painting about three weeks ago. Talk about frustration: I overworked, overpainted, and ruined all of my efforts. Why? Too determined and thinking too much. So what to do?
And happily, I kept painting and made a breakthrough that has helped me return freshness in color and composition to my paintings. How? I stopped drawing and painted directly onto the paper with no underlying sketch. Wow!! What a difference as i began focusing on color and value patterns and not on shapes.
I reserved the drawing and sketching for the value and composition studies, doing numerous studies to familiarize myself and my mind with an approach. Then i proceeded to paint without any pencil guides and I in my opinion was able to break out of my mental trap. Give it a try by just committing to do a number of quick painting sketches without pencil shapes (after a series of composition and value sketches in your sketchbook).
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Approaches to painting
Approaches to Painting
Sorry I have been absent. Have been working on a new book with Routledge Press, Oxford UK, entitled "Urban Design: the composition of complexity" being released in July 2011. If you are interested in design composition, check it out.
Back to painting. There are many approaches to painting. Years ago in a workshop with Eric Weigardt in Ocean Park, Washington, I told Eric that I had a crisis of approach, having taught watercolor for years and found myself confused as to what approach to use. He laughed and understood and said: "start where you are the most comfortable". and of course it worked. Some standard ways of approaching watercolor include: top to bottom; light to dark, painting shadow shapes first, starting with the darks, and starting at the center of interest.
They all work and I now find myself begining at the center of interest to see if i can initiate some drama with key contrasts. If i can then the rest of the painting is easier to resolve. a few tips at the center of interest: the principle of contrast is a good place to start--color opposites such as a purple next to a yellow; value contrast: the more value contrasts at the center; bright and muted colors; hard and soft edge combinations. in most cases leaving strong whites at the center can draw the eye of the observer, strengthened by value contrasts.
i use merging and mixing colors on the paper a lot as i am a fan of Charles Reid in that regard. I paint differently and enjoy the freshness of merging colors on the paper, getting variety in the very first washes.
if you are a beginning painter, i suggest you approach your work by applying the lighter local colors (apple is red, sky is blue) first, dry, then work your mid values and bright mid values into the painting, dry, then key darks. remember that to achieve bright colors i need to put them on white paper, not over another color.
more later and I am back. Enjoy and keep painting.
Ron
Sorry I have been absent. Have been working on a new book with Routledge Press, Oxford UK, entitled "Urban Design: the composition of complexity" being released in July 2011. If you are interested in design composition, check it out.
Back to painting. There are many approaches to painting. Years ago in a workshop with Eric Weigardt in Ocean Park, Washington, I told Eric that I had a crisis of approach, having taught watercolor for years and found myself confused as to what approach to use. He laughed and understood and said: "start where you are the most comfortable". and of course it worked. Some standard ways of approaching watercolor include: top to bottom; light to dark, painting shadow shapes first, starting with the darks, and starting at the center of interest.
They all work and I now find myself begining at the center of interest to see if i can initiate some drama with key contrasts. If i can then the rest of the painting is easier to resolve. a few tips at the center of interest: the principle of contrast is a good place to start--color opposites such as a purple next to a yellow; value contrast: the more value contrasts at the center; bright and muted colors; hard and soft edge combinations. in most cases leaving strong whites at the center can draw the eye of the observer, strengthened by value contrasts.
i use merging and mixing colors on the paper a lot as i am a fan of Charles Reid in that regard. I paint differently and enjoy the freshness of merging colors on the paper, getting variety in the very first washes.
if you are a beginning painter, i suggest you approach your work by applying the lighter local colors (apple is red, sky is blue) first, dry, then work your mid values and bright mid values into the painting, dry, then key darks. remember that to achieve bright colors i need to put them on white paper, not over another color.
more later and I am back. Enjoy and keep painting.
Ron
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Value Sketches
Value Sketches
The following value sketches illustrate the visual thinking process described in the previous blog on value patterns. The process is one of discovery and experimentation. Keep a sketch book and experiment with various compositions in conjunction with value patterns. If the value pattern is troublesome, change the composition.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Value Painting
It is almost spring time and I begin teaching watercolor for the design and art students at the University of Washington once again. I always look forward to this quarter because the watercolor course is fun and challenging and it gets me revved up again to paint. I have been busy working on a new book for Routledge Press out of the UK and the manuscript is due in June. OUch! But it is a fun challenge. the book is entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity". which brings me to our lesson of this week: value painting and its relationship to composition.
Value painting as i have discussed involves designing a value pattern within your composition that dramatizes the light and dark relationship between and among shapes. The value pattern helps structure or assemble the composition into a coherent whole. Then and only then do you want to begin adding color.
My Process of Value Sketching
Either from field sketches or photographs or both, I begin doing small 3x5 inch Pentel Sign Pen sketches in my sketch book. I try a number of compositional configurations, sometimes zooming in on a subject for more drama and sometimes highlighting a certain feature of the subject. I then begin playing with various value patterns around a selected center of interest to see how the mood of the value pattern is emerging. For example, if i am using middle and dark values at the center, the mood may be subdued or diffused in the lighting, much like my sky today looking out of the studio on Whidbey Island--rainy and cool. i might want to go with more contrast in the light and use a light value with a dark value, essentially using strong dark shadowing around the center of interest.
One important aspect of this sketching process or process of visual thinking: it is a process of discovery. Meaning that by exploring and sketching various combinations of value patterns i discover other directions and approaches. There are times when i begin painting with a value pattern and have a really tough time making the painting work. I then go back and change the composition to provide a different and more dramatic value pattern. It is really a cyclical process of discover like design. Do not try to intellectualize the painting in your mind before you begin. Dance with it as it evolves through your hands and eyes and mind. I will add some sketch examples soon if i can figure how to import them. More later, gang. Keep painting and think VAUES.
It is almost spring time and I begin teaching watercolor for the design and art students at the University of Washington once again. I always look forward to this quarter because the watercolor course is fun and challenging and it gets me revved up again to paint. I have been busy working on a new book for Routledge Press out of the UK and the manuscript is due in June. OUch! But it is a fun challenge. the book is entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity". which brings me to our lesson of this week: value painting and its relationship to composition.
Value painting as i have discussed involves designing a value pattern within your composition that dramatizes the light and dark relationship between and among shapes. The value pattern helps structure or assemble the composition into a coherent whole. Then and only then do you want to begin adding color.
My Process of Value Sketching
Either from field sketches or photographs or both, I begin doing small 3x5 inch Pentel Sign Pen sketches in my sketch book. I try a number of compositional configurations, sometimes zooming in on a subject for more drama and sometimes highlighting a certain feature of the subject. I then begin playing with various value patterns around a selected center of interest to see how the mood of the value pattern is emerging. For example, if i am using middle and dark values at the center, the mood may be subdued or diffused in the lighting, much like my sky today looking out of the studio on Whidbey Island--rainy and cool. i might want to go with more contrast in the light and use a light value with a dark value, essentially using strong dark shadowing around the center of interest.
One important aspect of this sketching process or process of visual thinking: it is a process of discovery. Meaning that by exploring and sketching various combinations of value patterns i discover other directions and approaches. There are times when i begin painting with a value pattern and have a really tough time making the painting work. I then go back and change the composition to provide a different and more dramatic value pattern. It is really a cyclical process of discover like design. Do not try to intellectualize the painting in your mind before you begin. Dance with it as it evolves through your hands and eyes and mind. I will add some sketch examples soon if i can figure how to import them. More later, gang. Keep painting and think VAUES.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Value Painting
Value Painting in Watercolor.
Hi painters! I just talked to a good friend in England as he settles into his new painting studio in their wonderful garden. Time to paint again. I have been sidelined working on a new book entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity" about the elements and principles of design composition applied to complex urban settings. Having fun.
Value Painting. Why is it so important?
The next couple of sessions will involve what I think is the most important aspect of painting: value relationships. Why? As you arrange shapes into a larger pattern or composition, you begin telling a story in the composition. The color adds mood through temperature (warm or cool dominance) and local colors (an apple is red, green and yellow). but, the drama of a painting and how the composition is structured or assembled is done through value patterns, the relationship of light to dark. essentially, the eye of the observer will go to the point or area of highest contrast of light--lightest next to darkest. To soften a mood, i may have values in the mid range next to each other that reduce that contrast, reducing the effects of the light--middle value next to a mid-light value.
Value Scale.
In printing, a nine value scale is often used. In painting, a five value scale is more common and is actually a derivation of a three value scale--something like this: (1) lightest, (2) middle value, (3) darkest value. Let's expand that to the following: (1) light, (1.5) mid-light, (2) middle value, (2.5) mid-dark, and (3) dark. So we will use a five value scale for our exercises and experiments.
Recommended Preparation.
What i have learned through practice, reading, self-teaching is that the value pattern of your painting and the composition are inherently entwined. In my sketchbook, i rough out a number of compositions, around 3x5 inch sketches until i start to get a compositional relationship that i like--that has some strength at the center of interest with movement, direction, etc. Next, i do quick value studies of each composition using the value combinations below, emphasizing the center of interest as the place i want the observer's attention. Here are the combinations:
(1) light next to (2) middle value for a sunny and hazy affect;
(1) light next to (3) dark value for a bright and strong sun with strong shadow affects
(2) middle next to (3) dark value for a moody, overcast or darker affect.
Skip Lawrence in "Painting Light and Shadow" helped me greatly through his writings and examples with a nice concept: the majority of value change (assuming three values 1, 2, 3) occur in and around the center of interest with the remaining value occuring predominantly everywhere else. Watch out! Your head will hurt as I did not say that everywhere else is the same color, simply the same value.
For example, for a moody day, i choose to put the mid and dark values at and around the center of interest and everything else is a light. where the light value is can be many colors, local colors, but they are all roughly the same value. Yahoo! Mood. With Skip Lawrence's approach, you can arrive at a matrix of nine moods for the SAME COMPOSITION WITH THREE DIFFERENT CENTERS OF INTEREST.
Exercise.
sketch nine small studies in pencil approx. 2x4 or 3x5 largest three per row, three rows
in row one, select a center of interest and with one color paint three value patterns using that center of interest: 1/3, 1/2, 2/3.
for row two, select another center of interest in the same ccomposition and do 1/3, 1/2, 2/3
repeat of a new center of interest for row three.
ask your eye to tell you which sketches have more drama, which less? and do i need to alter the composition to improve the value patterns?
Try these and get back to me as I am back in the saddle again.
Ron Kasprisin AIA
Hi painters! I just talked to a good friend in England as he settles into his new painting studio in their wonderful garden. Time to paint again. I have been sidelined working on a new book entitled: "Urban Design: The Composition of Complexity" about the elements and principles of design composition applied to complex urban settings. Having fun.
Value Painting. Why is it so important?
The next couple of sessions will involve what I think is the most important aspect of painting: value relationships. Why? As you arrange shapes into a larger pattern or composition, you begin telling a story in the composition. The color adds mood through temperature (warm or cool dominance) and local colors (an apple is red, green and yellow). but, the drama of a painting and how the composition is structured or assembled is done through value patterns, the relationship of light to dark. essentially, the eye of the observer will go to the point or area of highest contrast of light--lightest next to darkest. To soften a mood, i may have values in the mid range next to each other that reduce that contrast, reducing the effects of the light--middle value next to a mid-light value.
Value Scale.
In printing, a nine value scale is often used. In painting, a five value scale is more common and is actually a derivation of a three value scale--something like this: (1) lightest, (2) middle value, (3) darkest value. Let's expand that to the following: (1) light, (1.5) mid-light, (2) middle value, (2.5) mid-dark, and (3) dark. So we will use a five value scale for our exercises and experiments.
Recommended Preparation.
What i have learned through practice, reading, self-teaching is that the value pattern of your painting and the composition are inherently entwined. In my sketchbook, i rough out a number of compositions, around 3x5 inch sketches until i start to get a compositional relationship that i like--that has some strength at the center of interest with movement, direction, etc. Next, i do quick value studies of each composition using the value combinations below, emphasizing the center of interest as the place i want the observer's attention. Here are the combinations:
(1) light next to (2) middle value for a sunny and hazy affect;
(1) light next to (3) dark value for a bright and strong sun with strong shadow affects
(2) middle next to (3) dark value for a moody, overcast or darker affect.
Skip Lawrence in "Painting Light and Shadow" helped me greatly through his writings and examples with a nice concept: the majority of value change (assuming three values 1, 2, 3) occur in and around the center of interest with the remaining value occuring predominantly everywhere else. Watch out! Your head will hurt as I did not say that everywhere else is the same color, simply the same value.
For example, for a moody day, i choose to put the mid and dark values at and around the center of interest and everything else is a light. where the light value is can be many colors, local colors, but they are all roughly the same value. Yahoo! Mood. With Skip Lawrence's approach, you can arrive at a matrix of nine moods for the SAME COMPOSITION WITH THREE DIFFERENT CENTERS OF INTEREST.
Exercise.
sketch nine small studies in pencil approx. 2x4 or 3x5 largest three per row, three rows
in row one, select a center of interest and with one color paint three value patterns using that center of interest: 1/3, 1/2, 2/3.
for row two, select another center of interest in the same ccomposition and do 1/3, 1/2, 2/3
repeat of a new center of interest for row three.
ask your eye to tell you which sketches have more drama, which less? and do i need to alter the composition to improve the value patterns?
Try these and get back to me as I am back in the saddle again.
Ron Kasprisin AIA
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Greens Revisited
Greens Revisited
Hi gang, have been busy with new artist in residence studio on my property and a new book project. A reader had some concerns about the green exercise I last gave so will clarify.
The basic idea is to practice making greens in each family of colors (transparent delicate, intense, and opaque) with the basic blues and yellows. you will be able to make lots of greens just by varying the amount of yellow or blue that you mix.
then, add the red in that family to the green mixtures of yellow and blue and you will create a green gray, very useful green colors. you will see the mixtures going from orange-brown (too much red and yellow) to blue gray (too much blue). practice.
then, you can do the basic mixtures and try some of the staining or intense colors, the pthalos, to the basic mixtures and see how you can enrich each of the green mixtures.
essentially that is the intent of the exercise. practice and i will have another section for you at end of next week.
keep painting, ron kasprisin
Hi gang, have been busy with new artist in residence studio on my property and a new book project. A reader had some concerns about the green exercise I last gave so will clarify.
The basic idea is to practice making greens in each family of colors (transparent delicate, intense, and opaque) with the basic blues and yellows. you will be able to make lots of greens just by varying the amount of yellow or blue that you mix.
then, add the red in that family to the green mixtures of yellow and blue and you will create a green gray, very useful green colors. you will see the mixtures going from orange-brown (too much red and yellow) to blue gray (too much blue). practice.
then, you can do the basic mixtures and try some of the staining or intense colors, the pthalos, to the basic mixtures and see how you can enrich each of the green mixtures.
essentially that is the intent of the exercise. practice and i will have another section for you at end of next week.
keep painting, ron kasprisin
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