Forum Replies Created
-
Day 97 27/06/2022
Not exactly in keeping with the 100 day challenge of practising from life, but I started on the head cadaver lesson from Russian Drawing. Hopefully will finishing watching the lessons and the drawing assignment tomorrow – then finish the last couple days of the challenge properly 🙂
I’m still spending some time reading some art history, having finished Constable by Jonathon Clarkson. Thoroughly enjoyed it. There’s something about Constable’s stubborn grumpiness and uneasy relationship with the art establishment that appeals to me. I have moved onto a book about the Barbizon school. I’ve also started reading ‘John Constable’s Skies’, which is half science, half art; and looks to be full of useful information about the science behind sky painting. Some notes have already gotten me thinking:
- Deepest blue in sky is at an angle of about ninety degrees from the sun to our eyes to the sky. Thus there is a bright region around the sun and opposite it, with deeper blue between.
- Shades of blue correspond to dust and water in the air. Deepest blue occurs after rain when the atmosphere has been cleansed of dust particles.
- Palest, whitest blues occur when cirrus clouds develop or when hot dry climates throw up a lot of dust.
- Sky is at its bluest at sunrise and sunset, when the dome of the sky is at 90 degrees to the sun.
- The sky appears a deeper blue at lower latitudes because the sun climbs higher in the sky as the day progresses – therefore further away from the deeper blue at the horizons.
- Water vapour tends to whiten the sky; hence high humidity in Britain leads to paler skies.
- Skies also reflect off the ocean, so bluer skies are made more so when reflected off the Mediterranean – and paler, in Britain.
- Questions to ask yourself regarding the blueness of the sky:
- What time of day is it? Noon or sunset?
- What time of year, winter or summer?
- What is the location, is it Italy or England?
- What are the weather conditions, recent rain or dry/dusty?
- Which part of the sky are you seeing related to the sun?
Practice Time: 2h – must do more!
Day 96 26/06/2022
After a week off from being on holiday, I gave over a bit of time to reworking last week’s outdoor sketch. Not a massive change; invented a shadow on the left-side foreground to create a shadow shape that made a big S. I also emphasised direction and movement with the foreground brushwork. Compositionally, this is the only thing I really like about the sketch – it’s a got a sense of whoosh about it that makes the tree seem more calm and serene.
I still failed the capture the glow of the tree, or it’s monumentality. It doesn’t look as it did in person, perched on top of a high bank. The scene lacks this sense of height. Perhaps more form in the tree, with foreshortening, would have helped. Something to chew over for next time.
Practice Time: 1.5h
Day 95 17/06/2022
Work-in-progess started outdoors, worked on a bit more at home. Away now for a week, unsure if I’ll circle back to complete it.
Practice Time: 3.5h
Day 94 16/06/2022
I keep putting the wrong date in… last entry was the 15th. This entry is the 16th.
I got outside for a lovely 2.5 hours by a sunlit field and a nearby river. The result was an outdoor sketch that just wouldn’t work. I had my doubts about the composition from the start, and I don’t think it even warrants any studio time. I might give it one hour, see if anything decent comes out of it, before scraping it back to re-use the panel.
It’s important to diagnose what went wrong, so here’s my best guesses in my particular order:
- I was situated too near the subject, it leant itself to an almost ‘fisheye’ effect when measuring things.
- Struggled to get the values right, the shadow isn’t unified and the bits of light sneaking there way in are too prominent – it’s just as light as the field in places.
- The end of the river is almost exactly midway through the
- Highest contrast (stile and field) is off to the side, whereas the major lines are taking you off in the other direction.
Practice Time: 2.5h
Day 93 14/06/2022
- I did an initial sketch of a Constable master study, which I intended to work on for the rest of the day, but then…
- I got distracted trying to alter the previous day’s painting. It just irked me sitting on the shelf, looking all twee. I don’t know that it looks much better, but I’m happier seeing less grass-coloured green. I’ve chosen a Constable painting with a tree catching light that I hope will inform future pieces like these.
Practice Time: 3h
Day 92 13/06/2022
Good day today.
- I finished off another set of skulls for the Russian Drawing Course.
- Then I worked for a fair while on the previous painting. I tried to ‘resolve’ it and give it a greater sense of finish, but I think I just made it more sentimental and cute – which was not my intention.
Practice Time: 5h (woohoo)
Day 91 13/06/2022
Reasonably short session from me today – I rewatched the lessons on cephalometric points and ‘tumbling’ skulls from the Russian Drawing Course and took notes/did the exercises.
I’ve also started reading through Kearn’s blog again, some reminders for landscapes:
- Always face canvas so it’s in the shade
- Hunt for a good foreground, walk around and check out angles, look for leading lines
- Laying down red in the sky before applying blue tones on top – don’t mix.
Practice Time: 1.5h
Day 90 12/06/2022
- I sketch the ash tree in front of the house. I wasn’t too happy with how it came out, but comparing it to a similar effort from 6 months ago does show some improvement.
Same tree, six months of learning apart.
- I’m also hoping to do 30 mins of Russian Academic Drawing before going to bed, just some anatomical diagrams.
Practice Time: 2.5h
Day 89 11/06/2022
Had a productive day, mostly spent outside working on this sketch on a fairly small panel. Very challenging to get the values right as the weather was changeable, with fast moving clouds. Skies were always my weakness, but now I feel they’ve overtaken my foregrounds – which need a lot of work. The magnificent trees of the valley catching momentary bursts of sunlight is definitely a subject I intend to return to.
Practice Time: 5h
Day 88 10/06/2022
Spent an hour or so on the outdoor sketch of an oak tree I started a few days ago. Not a particularly successful end result, but definitely good practice depicting backlit trees – not sure I’ve quite got it though. Need to dig out master studies to see what I’m missing.
Practice Time: 1h
Day 87 09/06/2022
Most of the time today was spent on the previous day’s outdoor painting. When I brought it inside I was surprised how bright it was, but I wanted a more dramitically lit picture, so it was a matter of darkening shadow shapes.
The plan is to let it dry and then see what a bit more time can accomplish. I definitely want to revisit a few bits, like the foreground field, the trees on the far right (which are just smudges atm), and middle-ground bush area. I have little experience of trying to refine and resolve paintings, so it’s a little experiment.
Practice: 2.5h
Day 86 08/06/2022
- I watched a bit more of the skull anatomy lectures for the Russian Drawing course – the plan is to tackle the assignment shortly.
- I got outside for 2 hours to start a landscape, and I’ve worked another 2 inside. Here’s how it looked outside.
Practice Time: 4h
Day 85 07/06/2022
- I watched a good hour or so of the skull anatomy lecture from Russian Drawing and spent most of the day just taking notes.
Practice Time: 2h
Day 84 06/06/2022
I got home after a night away, but managed to sneak in a good session outdoors. I wanted to try and capture a local tree catching evening light – nowhere near that at the moment. Scraped it back and tried a few times, will continue to experiment tomorrow, see how it goes…
Practice Time: 3.5h
CONNECT
New Masters Academy
16182 Gothard St
Huntington Beach, CA 92647
Contact US