Brushwork and Working with Varnish Washes...

This weekend I will be teaching a new workshop, the first of it's kind. When I decided to make the transition and move up to Truckee last October, along with that came the choice (and opportunity), to change from teaching weekly classes and move into teaching workshops.

At that time I sent out a survey to my regular students and former students. I asked them what they wanted and needed to learn the most.
The two top answers were this:
1. I want to learn more about Brushwork Technique.

2. I'd like to know more about Design and Composition. I have recently posted about the importance of composition. 

Today I'd like to address the idea of brushwork. Here are some of the responses I received regarding this topic:

"I would like my brush to be more decisive, no overworking, to be more confident and free." 

"I want to  understand color and get help finding it in my work and be comfortable with the brush so that I can find the painterly looseness and brushwork that I admire in impressionistic work." 

"To freely express how a subject affects me and to be able to capture the spirit/essence of a subject."

"To express myself creatively." 

"Staying loose and keeping away from too much detail." 

"Mixing, finishing a painting, and brushwork."

As you can see, I have a great group of artists who really want to learn this stuff. I am very excited to be offering this workshop next weekend. I will be offering it again later this year as well.

I've posted a couple of paintings below in order to help demonstrate some of the things we will be talking about this coming weekend.

This piece was really fun. I used a very large soft brush to wash in the color/value foundation. While it was still wet, I jumped right into the thick impasto paint and layered it on! I even dipped my brush into the varnish before I dipped into the paint. Then I cleaned up the edges using a wet brush as well. 

With this piece I started out the same way, thin washes of color - pure and mixed. Then I went straight for the thicker paint. I can't tell you how freeing it can be to paint this way. Let go of the outcome, and just experiment with the brush...

Go to my website to find out more on upcoming workshops....http://randyblasquez.com/workshops

Working with a Limited Palette

This past month I have been working with two very lovely new students who decided they were ready to learn to paint. They both came in with very little experience and a great attitude. They are both very talented and have come to the time in their lives in which they can spend time doing what they love to do.

We spent four full days working together over a four week period. Before we moved from value studies to using a full palette of color, we started the first color exercise with a very limited palette of white, burnt sienna and a couple of the blues.

This is a great way to get your eyes to look for and find the subtle variations of value and temperature. Even though you won't be able to paint pink, you can lean toward a warm pinkish value that may resemble pink for the flowers, etc.  Because in my demo I was forced to use basically blue and brown, I chose a very cool bluish color for the lime to increase the contrast of color and temperature between the flowers and lime. It will really get you to focus on those things that we need to learn to see all the time, but many times we don't because we can be lazy.

Don't be lazy, train your eyes to see as an artist!

From The Heart -- A Better Way to Design Your Paintings

Edgar Payne

Have you ever worked on a painting and there was something that just wasn't right but you couldn't figure out what?

Chances are that it is in the design. Composition and design books used to baffle me and the thought process just didn't come easy when it came to the actual execution of a painting. But, over the years I have come to understand a few SIMPLE design ideas that really do work. AND they really are SIMPLE!

I can now use these simple principals in my paintings while doing several quick thumbnail or "notan" sketches.

I've been teaching the Notan design theory in my classes for several years. I first heard of the term through Virtual Art Academy Online. (A wonderful resource for learning.)
Notan is part of the design element in your painting. You use the notan drawing as a way of finding your design. Design is THE important element of painting.

There are a couple of other simple design ideas I'd like to share with you.....

FOUNDATIONS OF DESIGN 

By Randy Blasquez

The design will determine whether or not your painting will succeed.  This is why I believe that design in the most important element in any painting. We will look at how to design using thumbnail sketches and by identifying big patterns.

There are two main elements to consider. One is the focal point and the other is the dark and light pattern within your painting.

FOCAL POINT

The main focus in a painting is usually found at the focal point. This is the “anchor” in your composition. This is where the viewers eye goes, and in a well designed painting, will return to again and again.

What makes a focal point work? You don’t want another area in your painting to distract from the focal point. Therefore, as the designer you will need to take steps to insure that your central focal point will be more eye catching than anything else in your painting.

You will want to momentarily lure the viewer’s eye to other areas of the painting, but you must always lead them back to the focal point. I loved the way C.W. Mundy said it when I was in his workshop a couple of years ago. “You are the leader of the band, and you get to decide who plays the lead”.

WAYS TO THE FOCAL POINT

Value

Use your lightest light directly next to your darkest dark to bring the eye to the focal area.

Color

By using contrasting color, bright chromatic and dull color, or color temperature vibrations you may bring the eye to the central focus.

Edges

By using sharper edges at the focal point is another way to bring the eye directly to your focal point.

Contrast

Use contrast of temperature or consider the complement of the color you are using and put it right next to the focal point.

*It is always a good idea to place your focal point in the golden area.

DARK/LIGHT PATTERN

Another important aspect of composition is the dark and light contrast that will be the foundation of your design.

The dark and light pattern in a design is an arrangement that will create a lyrical quality of beauty in your painting. This is something that the student will learn to see and appreciate over time, but it is well worth the effort to learn.

This concept started to become clear to me while studying the idea of using a notan sketch to design a painting using a thumbnail drawing.  I think I first heard the word notan while reading through some Barry John Raybould material through the Virtual Art Academy.  The only other artist that I know to use this word to describe dark/light pattern is Peggy Kroll Roberts.

Barry John Raybould puts it this way, “Notan is the harmonious arrangement of the dark and light masses in a picture”.

THE ONE RULE OF COMPOSITION

When I took a workshop with Carol Marine many years ago she mentioned a book that I was already familiar with. “The Simple Secret to Better Painting” How to immediately Improve Your Work with the One Rule of Composition”, by Greg Albert.

What artist could resist that title? It was very good, and I took away from it the following:

Never make any two intervals the same in your painting. So when I design a painting I always look for differences of space. This will make your painting feel more dynamic.

Space must be divided un-equally.

Shapes must be different in size and dimension.

No two areas in your painting should be equal in distance or length.

Create variety by looking for the big differences in the size of your subjects within your painting.

Vary the amount of value to make sure one of them is dominant. Carol Marine says to make three values unevenly divided by using the dominant value, the secondary value and the “smidge”. Your eye will tend to go toward the smidge.

Use a variety of brush strokes and texture. Some areas should be transparent, others opaque, some thin and others thick. You get the idea.

Vary your use of color temperature. Put warm and cool together in such a way as to create vibration and intensity.

Use color compliments and split compliments in the same manner as the values of a lot, a little, and a smidge.

Some reading material to help you understand more about Compositon:

Composition

Understanding Line, Notan and Color by Arthur Wesley Dow

Composition of Outdoor Painting by Edgar Payne

Carlson Guide to Landscape Painting by John E. Carlson

  

I will be teaching the art of the notan in the workshop "Mastering Composition and Design", coming up this March 15th and 16th at the School of Light and Color.

Contact Debbie at The School of Light & Color
10030 Fair Oaks Blvd.
Fair Oaks, CA 95628

(916) 966-7517 sarback@lightandcolor.com

Edgar Payne Sketches