WINTER 2011 – ACRYLIC Demo – Clouds and figures.
Torrance class: We finished up the Poppy, the only thing I did different is I showed how if you need to gray a color – in this instance the blue/purple – you can use a thin mix of color called a glaze and paint over the color you want to mute. Since this was a blue/purple I needed a yellow/orange with a lot of water, remember it is just a glaze, I didn't have any extra color on my brush so that it didn't drip as I put it on and scrubbed it on the areas I wanted to put it. You need to wait until it dries before you know if it gave you the look you were going for, you may need to do it again be each layer should be a thin, transparent glaze, this is only to alter the color underneath.
Before I start the narration on clouds, I want to talk a bit about "getting in the mood" to paint. Painting should be almost meditative. If you are in "the zone" when you are painting you should be startled when you look up and see the time and realize an hour or two has passed. As I look around the class most of you look dismayed that only a few minutes have passed since you last looked at the clock. This is not the mind set you should be in when you are trying to create.
I have mentioned before the Betty Edward's book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" it is a wonderful book for many reasons, the best being explaining to you how your mind works. The two side of your brain have different functions. The left side is concerned with Time, logic, math, language to name a few, the things you use in your everyday-get-through-life state of being. The right side of your brain of you brain is more concerned with spatial things, face recognition, esthetics, emotions sort of the background program that lets you walk through a room without watching every step – everything the left side is not. Together, they make up who we are and how we see the world around us.
One of the key things she talks about is how the left brain relates to the world. It has its own short hand for everything so that anything that looks like a chair no matter how ornate, it names it as a chair and moves on to the next thing, it is very impatient, it doesn't care. Your right side is the side that can tell the difference from a garage sale folding chair and a $1000 gilded antique, it does care.
There is another important fact she discovered and that is when ever you stopped learning art such as drawing, whether it was in grade school or college or whenever, that is where you start your journey again. This is a hard concept for adults, I think we assume that because we are adults that we have absorbed this knowledge or have access to it just by living and experiencing art. Well, I've flown on planes and watched countless movies and TV of pilots working all the controls, but I don't think you'd want me flying any plane you were on. You need to have not only the knowledge but also the skill and that comes through practice and patience.
Most of you are coming from this combination of being an adult and assuming you should be able to do this, plus, for a lot of you, you are in your instant gratification, left brain. Not a real good combination for learning. You will find you have trouble getting things to look like the pictures in your mind, they will tend to be more child-like (this would be more your left brain's shorthand version) or you get frustrated and start mixing mud. You need to slow down, picture the subject in your mind, sketch the subject either on your canvas or on paper and concentrate more on the process than the end result. You will hear that little voice in your head saying "Are we done yet?!" Ignore it and see how much detail you can see in your subject. Whether it is clouds, rocks or whatever, look for shapes, colors and patterns. You will start seeing things you never noticed before and the more you practice this, the easier shifting into that state of mind will become, you just need to ignore that voice when it switches to "This is stupid! Let's move on!"
I can't teach you this, I have tried. This is something you will need to find on your own before you will believe me, I know this from experience. The ironic thing about the left brain is it is also your own worst critic. It can see the picture you have in your mind and if what is on your canvas or paper doesn't match, it is quick to point out those "faults". Again, don't listen to it because it will drag you down until you finally give up which is what it wanted all along. Find something in your painting or drawing that you like and concentrate on the positive. I have had my "SHUT UP!" moment when I got so tired of the self criticism I about had myself in tears. It felt like I was being attacked by an internal pack of wolves and I didn't deserve it because I was still learning and art was a part of me I wasn't about ready to give up. It was my epiphany. From that point, my art took a dramatic turn and I've never looked back. Cut yourself some slack and enjoy the process, it will come with time, patience and practice.
::::She gets off her soapbox and puts it away::::
Clouds – Before you paint a cloud, go out and look at them or find pictures of different clouds. I take photos of interesting cloud patterns so I have a reference file with just clouds. See how they move across the sky, how the boil up and look like big soft pillows or wispy feathers. Have these images in your mind before you start to paint (see above). If you need to, you can take your charcoal and sketch in some basic shapes of clouds, have a plan before you start.
Clouds, like everything else needs to be under painted with a darker color, usually a soft gray for big fluffy clouds or a darker blue gray for stormy clouds. Remember that a gray color is a mix of complimentary colors such as blue and sienna (it is in the orange family), purple and yellow or red and green, I would like you to experiment with these mixes so you can see the differences.
I load my flat, bristle brush up with a good amount of color, then I start in the middle of the cloud area and with circular scrubbing motion, I start forming my cloud. As I get to the edges of my cloud I lighten the pressure on my brush so it is more a dry brush technique so the edges are soft and undefined. You can even take you finger and smudge the edge to soften it.
While you are applying the gray, don't be afraid to pick up other colors and add them to your clouds, add some red or orange and lightly mix into the gray or add white to soften the color. Be sure that you are using a circular motion if you are making big fluffy clouds so they look like they are boiling up.
When you are done with getting the shape of your cloud, let it dry before adding highlights.
It may take several layers of lighter colors to get the look you want with your clouds, each time you will use more white and less other colors (I usually mix in the same pile I used to make the clouds, I just add white). You will use the same circular motion but this should be more dry brush meaning your brush will have only a little paint on it and you will scrub it on lightly. Remember to leave pockets of your under painting showing through each time. You can even add some of those other colors like the reds or oranges during the highlight step especially if it is a sunrise or sunset.
The final thing you can do is to take your liner or a small round sable brush and mix your white with a tiny touch of yellow to tint it slightly and just on the top edge nearest where the sun should be you can add a "silver lining". This is not a solid line but "dashes and dots" to suggest that the sun is catching high spots and sparkling off the water vapor or ice crystals in the clouds. But this is only near the sun.
I think I am going to make a page for the figures so if you need to look at it they will be there anytime, I just need to create them in an orderly manner so I can get some good photos of them, I will post the page when I can get it done.
We are on our final week, I will show you how to finish a painting and we will have our critique.
Keep painting.
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