Background reference and an old trick

I love this trick of finding the center of a circle: Draw two chords. Mark the center of the chords and draw perpendicular lines from each, extending them inward until they intersect. And then, viola! The center!  

Phone Call with the Dean Doodle

More Photoshop

Okay, I think I'm doing the moon. 

I changed this to greyscale in Photoshop to see if I might like it if the background were a moon.

A Wrinkle

    This isn't exactly a stellar example, but I've figured a few things out. I wasn't looking at an apple when I drew this, so it isn't like the photo real pieces in the how-to books, but I'm getting the hang of the color application. By the time I got to the leaf, I realized that the trick is to vary the complements by light and dark, according to the light and dark areas, because it is difficult to layer lights over darks. It can be done, but there is a limit, depending on how dark the first color is and the opacity of the top one. So, I'm starting to get an order of operations in mind for the process.

    The wrinkle is that at the school bookstore, they want to charge the students over twice the commercial amount for a set of 24 colors. I'm probably going to have to settle for a set of 12 colors, which will mean the students will have to mix a lot of the colors they will want to use. 

      I think I'm going to supply them with a list with the Dick Black order numbers so they can order from there instead. It's kind of treasonous to my school, but geez. College is expensive enough.

   Having a limited palette isn't all bad, though. When I started painting, I only had five colors to use, and I learned a lot about color mixing because of it. With colored pencils, since they are a dry medium, mixing really means layering. It is a little harder than squeezing out two colors of paint and swirling them together. 

    Because my students will probably only have 12 colors, I'm having to stick to those twelve myself. That denies me some of my favorites that I use in painting all the time, but, sometimes simple is better. I like the Steinberg book, Masterful Color, because the color theory is in line with my process. But, she must own every color Prismacolor makes! (I'm jealous!). We'll see what we can do with just 12!

New One

Lately I've been going back and re-visiting some of the images I made early on that were sold or unresolved in some way. This one is based on a painting that was sold before I had a chance to live with it for very long, and I've always wanted to do it again. There are two elements still missing, and I promise she will have hair. It's just easier to save that for after a few other things are in place.

    This is meant to be a companion for the painting below, which was also based on an earlier painting. I always liked the idea, but not the execution. I'm much happier this time:

Also, it is lovely to work on a commercially prepared canvas this time. Except I can't get the darn thing to hold still on my easel!

First Try

This is one of my first tries at colored pencil. It is not a model of control. 

About a year ago, I wanted to do a series of pieces based on the child buskers at Wheatland. I flirted with colored pencils then, but gave up to paint instead. This time I'm going to stick with it, and this little image will be my marker for improvement.

I just read that Wheatland is cancelled this year, so maybe I can help keep the Happy Wheatland spirit alive in this small way, until we can all meet again.

Plan B

Well, it's June, and while I'm usually in the mental state of my 9 year old self (making art, going outside and playing music like no one is watching), this year my mind is on the fall already. 

     Switching over to all online classes this spring was not a pleasure. Not having face to face lessons really sucked the joy out of teaching art, I can tell you that.

     Now, assuming I have classes to teach and we figure out ways to do it safely, I have to build in a Plan B for my classes, in case we have to go into quarantine again. Which means I have to have a way to teach color that will suit everyone, and it has to be sa medium students can easily do at home.

     To that end, I hauled off and ordered colored pencils for the class, instead of our normal route of pastels and watercolor. 

      Here's the rub: I don't know a lot about them. And, the books and videos I've seen don't discuss color theory, and so how they are creating the values doesn't match up with the rules I use everyday.

    Until, Ta Da! I found this book:

  The description says that it uses color like the Old Masters, which means there is an underpainting and shadows are constructed using complementary colors. Just what I've been looking for! I have to wait six more days to get it. But I think it will be my ticket to a coherent teaching strategy. And maybe a whole new medium for my personal work :)