I took part in Enid's https://www.enidwood.com/ pastel class (Zoom) yesterday. September assignments dealt with Notan sketches and values.
Notan is a Japanese term which literally means "light dark harmony". Artists use "notan studies" to explore different arrangements of light and dark elements in a painting, without having the distraction of other elements like color, texture and finer details. I took this from:
https://drawpaintacademy.com/notan/I missed a couple of classes so I did a page of 2 value sketches to see what I thought of my photo to paint from.
The class had progressed to using a value study for the start of this painting. I usually do an under painting if starting on a white canvas and then put down my light and dark colors for my sketch. That is my value study in a nutshell.
This is an 11 x 14 inch white Pastelbord. I put on a watercolor under painting. I did it shortly before class. I would have liked to make it darker in value but didn't have time for the water to dry.
I put in my basic colors placing the dark and light values. Usually in a landscape the sky is the lightest value and is in this painting.
We worked about 30 minutes. I hoped to have my dark areas linked together, this unifies the painting. This is a minimum start.
Where will I go from here?
- Place more dark values.
- Work all over the painting. Concentrating on one area tends to create more detail than necessary and I get bogged down and overwork an area. I was already working too much on the window which I will most likely move toward the tree and have that as the center of attention.
- Keep in mind to have some orange in the greens to keep them natural looking.
- Put some of each color family in all parts of the painting.
- Try to have some variety of color/value or items to lead the eye around the painting.
- I think I would like to have distant mountains instead of the hills in the painting. See how that goes. Maybe that would remove the other buildings behind the tree. Hmmm.
- Have a light touch with my pastels
I can still make changes without starting over. I'm liking the colors so far. As you know I would rather paint from life and since I am not doing that I can have free rein of my background or changes, right? Well, you can do that even if you are painting on site. Artists' license.
*** ** **************** ** ***
We went to live music on Sunday afternoon/evening. Bastrop had a music festival. We went to see Libby Koch. She is a neighbor down the road that we met through Joanna who as you know follows live music almost daily. Libby played and was accompanied by fellow Bastropian Ben Zuniga. Pat Byrne closed out the festival. We stayed for a couple of songs by Pat Byrne but it was the late evening and the volume was ramped up past my limit. We were at the Old Town Restaurant and Bar. Food was good. It was so nice to get out and about and visit and see some folks. Libby's spouse is Chuck Hawthorne, also singer songwriter.
Go out and eat, see some music, go to a play or museum. Support your local businesses. Amazon doesn't need our help.
Gene and I refuse be afraid to live.
6 comments:
I didn't realize you were taking a zoom class. That could be fun!
I'm glad you got out to hear some music. That sounds like a nice treat!! I'm with you about when the volume is too loud. I appreciate it better when it is lower.
Joan, thank you. Zoom to me is not good. We have slow internet and I would have to rearrange my studio to really have a camera over my shoulder when painting, etc. I am not patient to take my turn to speak. Ha.
The music was fun. Libby and Chuck are very nice neighbors. Our neighborhood is becoming musical.
nope, not going out to eat here for awhile, not worth the risk to me. would love to but my health comes first. not being scared, just being sensible since my immune system is crap (and really didnt go out much before anyway, we are more go to the beach/forest away from people anyway lol
Jennifer Rose, your situation calls for staying safe and away from the maddening crowds. We don't have any problems so are trying to be out and about when we can. Trying not to be dependent on Amazon and buy local. For us hard to be away from people. Although, I've never had a problem entertaining myself. It is good for Gene to be out while we can do it. Stay safe. Looking forward to your October sketches and drawings. Hugs.
You have a really good start on the pastel. I like the colors and the lights and darks - especially the light out front of the house. I think you should paint the singers that you took the photo of. the color is really nice.
Bag Blog, I think the pastel is finished as of today, checking it as soon as I finish here by photo and black and white. It felt good to paint. I thought the same about the music photo, it is nice and colorful.
Post a Comment