Night Fishing: Analogous colours & Impressionist technique

This is an analogous painting exercise for my Impressionist painting class. Working from a black and white photo,  the aim is to work with a limited palette of analogous colours and create the gradations of light to dark.  The logic behind the palette is to choose the darkest colour and the lightest colour using colours that are in the same family.  In this case I was using ultramarine blue, phthalo blue and phthalo green.  The sttongest highlight was a cadmium yellow for the moon and water reflections.
The images below show the progression of the painting.  This first stage of the painting was created with just ultramarine blue.  When the paint was dry, I mixed a palette of analogous colours (see on the bottom).

The drawing is kept very simple.  Small individual brush strokes are used to loosely indicate the major shapes of light and dark.

I continue to build up the surface with the different tones of ultramarine blue.  I let the paint dry and then go on to recover the surface with the analogous colours.

I start with the sky, using the phthalo green mix for the moon and then progressively lay in the the relatively darker colours in the sky then in the water.

Once the whole surface is equally covered with the blues and blue greens, I finally add the pale cadmium yellow in the moon and water.

Analogous colour palette:

Here is a close-up of the surface showing the individual brush strokes and the texture created by superimposing the paint:

Impressionist Landscape Video: Lavender Fields in Oil

oil/canvas  11 x 14 inches

Yes, another video from one of my classes.  I can't help it.  When I have a bit of spare time, I really love making these things. Perhaps one day I will do a real movie...when I can afford to get a movie camera. Maybe some crowd funding...or not.

This is a short demo based on a painting exercise in my Impressionist class at the VAC.  The aim is paint in a loose style.  The focus is not on details but on the large shapes and how they are created with colour and tone.  In Part 2 (coming soon), I will add a second layer of colour that will focus on the warm and cool colours to accentuate the feeling of sunlight.

Here are a few of the stages:

And here is the video.  You can also see it on YouTube.

P.S. I often have trouble spelling lavender, probably because of French (lavande). 

Impressionist Landscape in Acrylic

We were working on a landscape in my Impressionist class this week that focused on a limited palette of analogous colours.  It  is one of my favorite painting exercises to show how a limited palette can be used to create a luminous composition.  It is also a great example of how little detail is needed when the focus is placed on colour.
I made a video showing the process.  Here are some of the images from the video:

Here is the video.  You can also see it on my YouTube channel.

 

Painting Class at the VAC

 

I'll be teaching an Impressionist technique class at the Visual Arts Centre for the spring session.  It's one of my favorite classes.  Classes start on April 18th.  Registration has already started!

If you want to know more, contact me or the Visual Arts Centre.  info@centredesartsvisuels.ca.

I am also teaching:

• Introduction to Oil painting on Monday evenings.  A great class to brush up on your basics of color mixing and technique.   

• Oil pastel techniques will be on Thursdays from 1 - 4 pm.  Oil Pastel is a great medium that brings together painting and drawing

Painting Glass

 There are no special tricks or techniques when it comes to painting a still life other than a good sense of observation.  Study your subject and try to focus on  important visual elements that characterise it.  In the case of glass, it is transparency.  The most important thing to keep in mind when painting any subject is to let the work evolve.  Here are some process images from my last post that show how the glass bottles came into being.

1. The basic forms are drawn with paint and mineral spirits and colours are blocked in. The focus is on getting the right shapes and  tonal relationships.

2.  I continue to block in the colour and focus on tonal relationships. The interesting thing about coloured glass is that the cast shadows take on the colours of the subject which  they would not do with opaque objects.  The shadows are also seen through the subject.  This is what creates the sense of transparency.

3.  At this point, all of the colours are blocked in and I can start to refine the tonal structure.  I will also apply paint in a thicker fashion.

4.  The rest of the painting is constant refinement of colour relationships and tonal structure.  The background and foreground colours become more contrasted as I start to darken the edges and lighten the centre.  The bottles have all of their essential details.  All that is left is to strengthen the contrasts of the edges and internal shadows.  I consider this to be detail work and it can be very time consuming.

5.  The very last detail to be added is the highlight on the bottles.  This painting was done wet on wet, which means that I did not wait for the surface to dry before adding more paint.  Please feel free to post comments or questions.  BMF

Scherzo in Blue and Green

     This is a study in analogous colours for my Impressionism class. The cool colours and the misty atmosphere seem quite appropriate for the rainy week-end that we have had in Montreal. It is often difficult to completely finish a painting demo when I am teaching a class so I thought it would be interesting to show how the colours and composition evolve when I work in my studio.  See the video below.