a class project

Today I worked on a painting for a class I am taking that I hope to be teaching in the future. In this beginning class students will learn about the primary colors and how to lighten and darken them; eye level; shines on different surfaces; reflected light; reflected color and much more!

Tomorrow it's back to still lifes! I'm not sure what I will be painting...hmmm...better take a look around the house...

color

I'm getting set up for still life painting tomorrow. It's been a while since I've painted one, so I'm a little nervous.

I have been working on a series that I call "Long Neck Beauties". These are painting from my imagination and hope I will finish one soon, so I can show you.

Today, along with working on the long neck beauties, I have been enjoying studying about color. To actually achieve correct secondary colors you need two different sets of primary colors. THE OIL PAINTING COURSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED suggests using a warm primaries of cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red hue and thalo blue and cool primaries of lemon yellow hue, permanent rose and French ultramarine blue. This is the proper way to mix your secondary colors. I'll show you my results in the near future!

I've also been enjoying Vicki McMurry's book, Mastering Color: The Essentials of Color Illustrated with Oils.

There's so much to learn about color!

Theory

Do you know what I've been missing in my life? THEORY! Yes, there are some guidelines to painting and drawing and you should get to know them.

Today I was working through one of my lessons in THE OIL PAINTING COURSE YOU'VE ALWAYS WANTED and found that taking the time to do some exercises in the "illusion of three dimensions" very helpful.

For example I learned that when drawing a sphere there is a cast shadow, general light, highlight, reflected light, halftone, core shadow and lost edges. WOW! All these elements are identified and when placed in the correct areas give the "illusion of three dimensions".

Now I have a general idea of what to look for to give my work more dimension.

Tomorrow I'm going to be working with mixing paint. AND I'm gearing up to paint some pumpkins.