KEYS...when evaluating a painting by Rick McClure

I. Is There Enough Contrast

Ask yourself, "is there enough..."

• Contrast in Values - for a form to have dimension there has to be at least a light, medium and dark value.

• Contrast in Colors - Is there a range in color?

• Contrast in Temperatures - warm and cool contrasts

• Contrasts in Intensity - bright intensity of color to neutral color

• Contrast in Edges - sharp and soft edges

• Contrast in Simple and Complex busy areas contrasted to calm areas

• Contrast in brush strokes - using different brush sizes and shape

• Contrast in Repetition -- is there variety

Four Planes of Light - Are their values correct?

1. Value of Light of the Sky Plane

2. Value of Light of the Horizontal Plane or Ground
Where is the horizon? Is there more ground or more sky? Do not place the horizon near the middle of the painting. Ask, is the painting scene a mostly sky painting or mostly ground painting.

3. Value of Light of Sloping Planes (example: hill side)

4. Value of Light of Vertical Planes


III. Value Integrity of Masses

• Shadow Masses....are shadows all below a medium 5 Value?

•Light Masses .... are lights above a medium 5 Value?

IV. Focal Area -- is this the place of highest contrast elements on the painting? Are the other areas subordinate to the focal point? Are you viewing the scene and painting it as your eye sees rather than as the camera sees? Meaning, the camera puts everything in sharp focus, your eyes do not. Notice that you focus on an object and everything else is blurred in your peripheral vision. That is how you paint a scene and thus draw your viewer to your focal area.

V. Harmony -- is there color and a key?

These are the suggested check list items to consider for working through a painting to evaluate where the problems are and how to correct them.

Off To Paint Landscapes at Quartz Mountain...

UPDATE: Here is a little color study, a sketch which is one of two I did at Quartz Mountain yesterday (Oct 10th).

I was sitting in the sand on a sandy beach with the mountain in the distance. This image is very difficult to show on-line because up close the sketch is nothing....but the further back from it....it comes together. Therefore, the smaller image "reads".

I determined to follow exactly Rick McClure's instructions from his demo on my first sketch but never got up from my chair before the easel to view it from a distance. I just plugged along for the 2 hour session blocking in and working as fast as I could and never viewed this from any distance.

To my surprise, the instructor came up behind me and announced that he wanted to include my sketch in his critique session which was scheduled at the end of the day.

I thought nothing about except he wanted to maybe show how the work needed to be improved which is fine with me. He presented it at the end of the critiquing session ... about 9 other sketches with mine being presented toward the end.

Rick's method of critique was very instructive, asking the group, "what is good about this sketch and also how could it be improved" .... going from painting to painting. It was instructive. I didn't feel anxious about mine but prepared myself for possible constructive negativity.

Then he presented mine and said, "this is really a good painting and there is so much right about it and the brush work can't be taught it is just something you innately have ...." asking the 20 artists attending, what was right about it. I was shocked and started feeling really a bit embarrassed because I had not expected this. The artists gave some wonderful positive feedback. Then Rick said, "there in nothing wrong with it at this stage .... a few minor things." I was truly stunned.

Am I a landscape artist? That is the journey I'm on to find out by taking these workshops. Could it be I have some natural ability in this direction I never knew I had?

The looseness required in painting fast under the gun in plein air painting was good discipline. A brevity of strokes that often is missing from studio painting is interesting in itself.

The day was a bit warm at 84° and hardly a breeze, and sand wanting to create some havoc with my gear and walking, all in all this was a melodious spot but I dreaded lugging the gear back and forth, setting up and tearing down and stowing ... but oddly enough it did not take away the harmony of my day. It was a pleasant experience except when I had a tumble from the a step at the top of a ramp landing into unstable sand .... and fell into a rather large bolder with my hands full of gear. Oddly enough as I began to fall thinking, "wow I'm going to be badly hurt" and surprised I did not hurt anywhere (except my pride) with just a little bruise on my forearm appearing a few hours later. I'm fine and feel I had a few angels present. :O}.....

Being outdoors was surprisingly refreshing and I found myself reminiscing about my childhood; a time when I was out doors every single day playing as a kid that I rarely thinking of but should for I had a happy childhood. Maybe I will blog about that more or even paint a series on those days. Hum...is that inspiriation.

Good feeling.

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ORIGINAL POST:
For the next two days I'll be on location outside painting with a good artist friend.

This time, I think having worked on the little sketches (see previous posts), I feel more confident and in control especially of my palette. The trees are just beginning to turn golden fall colors and it is cool and lovely even chilly in the morning.

My friend and I will paint on our own the first day and be in the workshop the next day.
I'll update when I get back.

Sculpture come to life.

This is a bas relief about 10 x 13 inches, stoneware, with one firing that is almost finished. I need to put on a final finish on but I'm pretty pleased with this one in the over-all feel.

Two more bas reliefs are in progress besides this one although I had a bit of a disaster with one when it was accidentally pushed off the shelf by another artist while in storage. Unfortunately the plastic bag came open that was keeping it moist allowing it to dry out. Unfortunately it buckled and did not dry flat. Last night, I re-hydrated it but cracks appeared.

Today, the cracks will be repaired and hopefully the work finished...keeping my fingers crossed. This is a nice series and I have learned a great deal working from 2 dimension into 3 dimension. This is very much like drawing since the gesture is drawn at first.

Other sculptures are nearing completion also. This is still a work in progress...nearing completion...

This work is from a one day portrait workshop created from a live model. I'm planning on a session with Glen, my instructor at his private sculpture studio on Sunday. I need to hollow the head out before firing.

I doubt if anyone would be interested in buying this piece but it will be a good example of my portrait work.

I've been invited to join the Sculpture Society of Oklahoma. I think I will.

Meet Mike

Slideshow http://s260.photobucket.com/albums/ii3/padurrett/?action=view&current=7782b4dc.pbw

Meet Oklahoman, Mike Wimmer...what a talented and successful artist!
It was a productive and informative two day portrait workshop. For the first time in a workshop, I actually got my painting blocked in with the underpainting. Using a very limited palette, the ground work was laid.



The second day, I worked mainly on the face and had there been more time, I would have built up the values in layers. I was a little disappointed that Mike did not get to my easel to instruct me personally. It could be that the class was just to large to do that but it did seem that he spent most of his time on the other side of the room.

Anyhow, he is a charming man with a very pleasing way and great broad smile that is infectious. His ideas are clever and I can tell he is very intelligent.

The only thing is that I worry that he is using Liquin which the artists I know have had problems with. It peels sometimes and in lots of discussion on the Cennini Forum about plastics and how they break down with age, I fear Mike will one day have a whole lot of ruined paintings. That would be tragic.

Another thing I could not agree with him on is his fear of turpentine. Yet, mineral spirits has just as much toxicity. Expensive triple distilled turpentine is VERY expensive and does not have as strong an odor as hardware store cheap turpentine and every studio should have adequate ventilation ... period. Mike didn't seem to have a problem with fixative spray and that is far more dangerous to the lungs than turpentine's fumes. Everyone knows that turpentine is used drop by drop as an additive to oil paint that causes a chemical reaction whereby the paint will dry from the inside out not the other way round and thereby lessening the possibility of a skin to form. Turpentine is NOT used to clean brushes; mineral spirits is for that.

As Rob Howard, moderator on the Cennini Forum says, some artists have drunk the cool-aid on this matter from the environmental wackos and this fear is not based in reason.

In the studio an artist must....

• develop good, safe habits working in a well ventilated studio

• NEVER ever put brush handles in their mouths ... whether using turpentine or mineral spirits and especially when painting with cadmium paint colors
  

• always properly washes their hands before leaving the studio...always

• NEVER eat anything at the easel

• NEVER allow children in the studio
  

• always uses PAINTER'S SAFETY SOAP in the final hand wash which is designed to react to the toxic chemicals and release them from the pores of skin.

Painter's Safety Soap® along with the greatest brush cleaner ever made ... Ugly Dog® Brush Soap may be purchased at Studio Products, a professional boutique paint manufacturer. www.studioproducts.com. Ugly Dog...I would never be without it!

ALSO, I learned that to put a protective finish on a painting, you must use a special fine quality varnish and on top of that a thin coat of wax that may be polished to a absolutely gorgeous sheen which is museum quality. The wax may be removed as the painting ages and gets dirty ... back to the varnish and then a new coat of wax applied. THAT is how you do it.

Anyhow, this only shows how valuable my training was at the Cennini Boot camps, especially the Technical Boot Camp.

The other issue is just a preference. I was taught to paint the eyes last while Mike paints them first...just a preference and not as critical. I don't know whether it was just time for me to go to another plateau of learning or if it was Mike's simple presentation and method but I've improved and felt like I knew exactly what I was doing. It was just a great workshop and I am so proud that a native son has done so well as an artist.

One other thing. Mike is a Christian and it is evident in his the portraits of his children. He placed them in heroic fairy tales and Bible stories ... painting them throughout their childhood. How clever.

Life Drawing Class

Out of my artist funk...finally beginning to draw fast and effectively. It's been a long few weeks. This one is 20 minutes and it has the gesture and captures the pose and model fairly well.


Earlier the class did fast 1-3 minute gesture (below) drawings. I am seeing how important this is to get right. It is difficult and frustrating to do. This one the instructor liked very much. He let me know that he thought I was "getting it" and so I felt like a little kid getting patted on the head. Embarrassing good feeling.






This was a drawing exercise (below) from last week is designed to make the student "see" the nuances of the shapes in the human figure. It forces the artist to look at the model instead of focusing on the drawing. We were to draw for 20 seconds at a time focusing the eye on the model and drawing the shapes slowly . . . before looking back at the drawing for orientation. this is VERY slow drawing . . . a 20 minute drawing.

Cennini Artist Technical Boot Camp - Haverhill Massachusetts

This is the Artist Boot Camp Studio with Rob Howard.

Located in Haverhill (pronounced Hayv•rill - long "a" and not too much "r") a very quaint New England town of about sixty thousand. It was a beautiful sunny autumn day in the middle of a picturesque downtown. (pictures take up one way and down the other.)




Meet Rob Howard, Master Painter and Instructor. A brilliant man and fine instructor. His knowledge of the chemistry of painting is phenomenal.

This is one of his paintings that he used to demonstrate how to apply a finish using Gallery Varnish and Wax Medium.

Meet a few of the boot camper, fellow artists…a really diverse group from all of the US and Canada. All of us agreed that this experience definitely improves our skills and abilities.
Personally speaking, this is to me a turning point in my life. I learned so much that I am trying to absorb it today. It has given me some self-confidence that I have never had with regards to actually moving to a (horrors) white canvas with much more deliberation and less experimentation. I learned about all of the different supports available rather than wood and canvas; how to properly stretch and prepare a support, what all the mediums actually do and where to use them, what the brushes are actually made for, how to guild gold leaf properly, how to properly finish a completed painting and pack it for transport to a gallery, the importance of lead in paint, how to do a verdaccio and glaze it, how to glaze under painting, tips and tricks I had never thought of, what is silver point, how to grind emulsions with egg yoke, how to tube paint, etc., etc., etc. (I could go on...)

My plan is to attend the Art Camp and the Portrait Camp...meanwhile, I'm painting!!!!

EDIT UPDATE: Just finished the Art Boot Camp in February 2008. Visit my new review. This also delivered another growth spurt in my abilities and I highly recommend it. See my slide show.