There! You all have crowns because you are Paint Princesses. I think you all are beginning to see results, especially those who practice. It takes a while to learn to handle the paint and understand the arcane language of a painter. Value, complements, washes and brushes........now you are beginning to understand.. You are novices in an ancient guild of craftspeople and artists who speak of these mysterious attributes and understand each other.
Maybe we should have class sessions where we invent secret handshakes and have meetings where we wear feathers in helmets and have mock battles with large brushes! Sort of like the Knights of Phythias or Daughters of the Nile.
Enough. Here's the fourth lesson.
Class 4.
Look at pg 112, then page 124....How did she develop the iris? Lightly paint with water and then lay in an
intense indanthrone blue. Allow some of the paint to crawl a bit over into the yellow green. Don’t cover it all!
1. Look at and discuss (a.) uniform values and (b) Painting on a slope .
2. Gently peal off masking paper....taking care not to touch the still damp background. Look again at 112. Where did she use masking fluid? Choose your areas of water drops, etc. that are pure white on your iris and apply masking fluid. Small areas. Squint!
3. Discuss and look at your water beads exercise. What challenges came up? How does this exercise apply to your iris. Monochrome”beads” but....your iris is not.. Look at 124. Where did Elizabeth place her first pale flush of yellow? Now look at your iris. Where would you place your first pale flush of yellow? Of pink? How can you make it purple later Of pale green?
How would you keep the edges soft? Paint into watery shapes and lightly blend or let the colors move out. Tip!
YOU PAINT VALUE BY VALUE, STARTING WITH THE VERY LIGHTEST.....VERY VERY LIGHTEST.(DAB ON A PAPER TOWEL TO SEE IF IT IS LIGHT ENOUGH) Start at the top so you don’t smear the new wet paint lower down. Skip around. Work in large shapes....over glazes will change the colors, ie. pink and yellow...later on. You can also mark out darker areas as well, but I thought this approach is less confusing.
4. Go to brighter yellow and pink....Soft edges! Amost all of bottom is the brighter pink. How will you turn that purple later?
Assignment.
Read chapter 6 on color...........Re-read pgs 30 to 31 VERY CAREFULLY
1. Intensify your yellows and pinks on the iris if you think you need to....use clear water to keep the edges soft. If you like, start on the very heart of the iris...the yellow ....auroelin and Indian yellow (or a little cadmium red or vermillion) Build up the value and intensity of that fuzzy area slowly, letting it dry between glazes. Two or three glazes should do it.
2. How do you “fix” small mistakes.....see page 120 and 121...use of masking tape to maintain sharp edges....then you can scrub away your small mistakes with water and scrubbing lightly and dabbing with a paper towel. Don't scrub too hard!
3. In the 30's and 4o's, Mondrian started painting severe and beautiful paintings consisting of rectangles and squares and primary colors. Many of his paintings were based on the Golden Section, a Euclidean method of dividing space. (but that's another whole ball of wax, or dollop of paint, as it were)
I want you to make a small Mondrian of your own, and take the colors a bit further. Read page 41. Divide a rectangle, lightly with a ruler and pencil, ( about 8" by 10") on a piece of watercolor paper. Then paint most of the squares auroelin yellow or alizarine crimson. (or Quin red). Paint the remaining squares or rectangles thalo blue, and, if your yellow or red squares are dry enough, glaze over some of them with a wash of thalo blue. Then glaze a yellow over a thalo blue, and a yellow over a red. What happens?
Glaze a red over a yellow....and a thalo. What happens? Experiment!
(Finally, you get to use the ruler I kept telling you to bring!)
Glaze a few sections with all three primary colors. What happens? What happens if you glaze a thalo blue over a thalo blue? Experiment! Bring this to class for discussion.
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