Starting to add tones and set form with values.
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Tag Archives: private art lessons
Oil painting, portrait painting
I painted to this point. The hands are wrong and letter, but it will be okay!
portrait painting
Oil painting is easy when you have knowledge about drawing forms. Realism in any medium is about layers and lighter layers of building forms. I will add more on this later, don’t have the time now, but stay tuned. This is titled, “The Un-sent Letter”. It is about a young woman sitting getting ready for her wedding day. She is holding a letter she never sent to an old love. It is about life decisions and “Letting Go” of the past’ heart wrenching. There will be several clues painted to add to the story, which line up with my recent photography. More to come.
Oil painting
Here we go again…..second canvas ready for new painting. I am working on an oil already titled, “The Un-sent Letter”. It is about a young woman reading the letter she never mailed to an old boyfriend on her wedding day. Second thoughts about walking down the aisle? I can’t answer that, but she is beautiful. Sometimes life decisions are made not knowing the end results, love I guess? Anyway; I started this first oil with the intention of painting looser than realistic. Good luck with that! Why do I beat myself up about my painting, drawing style? I paint and draw realistically and that’s how I role as an artist.
Here are pictures of the beginning work and the mannequin that is freaking people out in my wedding dress in a still life I put together for the painting. It is better to work from a still life vs. a photograph. 
The face is nice in the first oil but I painted over it thinking I was going to approach this with an Impressionistic style. I ended up wiping the paint off and well, it didn’t come out so well.
Art lessons in Easton, Pennsylvania
Notice the material on the smaller mannequin, the gray, silver color of the dress. A shiny material can have Refracted light which causes a Reflection in the valleys or deep parts of the folds. These folds are darker in tonal values on cotton for example. Drawing shiny material are small stokes, tedious lines of smooth value ranges. So, shiny material is classified as 102 level.
I added a few mannequins to my studio to help me and artist friends with Life drawing, foreshortening views and so on. I want you to notice how the eyeball is a sphere in a socket! Drawing spheres well will help you later on with drawing ans shading portraits.
Inktense pencil and oil painting.
Here are two new examples of artwork; Inktense by Jordan and oil painting by Olivia. 
Terrific job ladies!!!
As an artist and teacher I try to inspire and help the creative process with learning unrealized. Learning in your element is a joy to say the least.
Rose’s finished painting.
Beautiful job! There is a slight glare from the final gel wash.
Fine Art Studio
The header I currently have the pictures are not as clear as in shop? When I have more time to play I will work on it.
I have been busy working on my own portfolio as well as working with my artist friends when I could. Summer has flown by and here it is mid August already! Time for school and getting back to a regular routine schedule.
As far as my artwork goes I finished the large black and white watercolor shown in the center of the header, which I like. Plus, I do need to matte it yet. Now, I will start to put thought into action on the photography series that I was working on last spring semester. Not one hundred percent sure where this art series is going, but I have several ideas. I will know when I get there; plus in the duration producing some beautiful photography. Over all it has been a really great experience thus far.
In between the darkroom come Fall, studio time and family my hours will be filled; just the way I like it. I will make time though for my artist friends. I like to be productive and moving in the right direction.
Wanting to learn to draw and paint.
I want to share a few thoughts with you about drawing and painting. If you are becoming frustrated with your painting skills and it seems like you can paint to a certain point, but you know something is wrong? Something just doesn’t look right or you wish you just knew how to proceed and improve your skills. This is why you are frustrated, you do not have a solid foundation to work off of. Remember: VERY IMPORTANT; also draw in the direction of the form. Once you are a master of drawing then you may shade in opposite and various directions. Once you completely understand drawing and your skills can hold their own and understand form and shapes {how to bring them to realism} then painting will be easier and you wont be as frustrated. Trust me with this.*********
***********TRUST ME::::::::once you learn to draw and control value and use the warm and cool tones to your advantage the painting and form will be easier. Always draw in the direction of the form or shape of the objects you are drawing. I will be adding video demos in the next few weeks which will help.
I suggest and recommend you go back to learn the basics and fundamentals in drawing. Drawing 101…….I have several post regarding drawing and improving your skills, in the search tab in the menu. Also, in the menu there are tabs regarding drawing and papers.
Start with re-learning the values in graphite; the H graphite pencils, [warm tone] and B graphite pencils [cool tone]. Make a value scale from one to ten; the first block is just paper white and the tenth block is the darkest you can get the block. Number five is middle tone; therefore number two block light until block five and block six to ten shaded in gradual increments.as seen in the graph. Learn what each pencil can do for you. Notice the hardness and softness of the graphite. H’s are hard and B’s are soft.
Then work on perfecting a sphere. Use a 4H to begin, once drawn well, then add a 2B to the core, the darkest part.
Updating Rose’s progress.
Here you can see Rose added brighter greens to the geranium leaves and the plant is starting to pop.
Notice the difference between the door glass reflections; the difference from just making the panes darker. The first picture is the recent; we added a cool black [Mars black] with a dot of a navy blue. This allows and counts for depth in the glass refection. Now, look at the bricks in the wall closest in the left picture; notice how they do stand out and or pop more in the left or first picture. Just by adding the black has an effect on the brick [left picture]. The goal is to play lights and darks against each other. The highlights on the brick may not even need a lot of lights to make them more realistic. All that is painted from depends on how far you would want the painting to be realistic. For myself, I need to take it to the next level. Also consider lavender as a base for shadows, add a bit of lavender for a cool or warm shadow. Lavender works very well with grays and browns.
************Very important you need a full range of value in your work. Most people are afraid of using 9′ and 10′ dark, but you need the entire range for realism. Plus this goes for the light values as well.
Roxanne 