Painting...

I had painting second and this was the important one. The one I had been really nervous about because it was the discipline I wanted to get into.

On the first day we were to put together installations from the items that we had brought in and to paint from those installations. We were encouraged to first draw up some thumbnail sketches of what we intended to paint so as to ensure that when we went to begin the actual painting we didn't leave out any important components.

I did this painting over about a day and a half I think

The next morning we did life painting. I had never tried it before and I loved it. The model was sittin for 3 hour poses which was great. I picked up lots of helpful tips from the tutors; things like trying to alwats use a big brush to avoid drawing with paint and to always paint the background first, followed by mid ground and then foreground.

You  should always consider a painting as areas of tone or colour instead of lines

I spent the last 2 days of the first week painting this with a palette knife. I had only used palette knife a little bit and I had certainly never painted a whole painting with it. I really enjoyed it. It's a lot freer and you don't have to wash the knife, just wipe it clean :)

Laying down the back ground first and then middle ground etc is especially important when using palette knife as the paint is laid on so thickly.

Over the weekend we were given an assignment to reproduce 2 paintings by either Lucien Freud or Vermeer. I much prefer Freud's style so decided to go with 2 from him.

During the second week I wanted to challenge myself more so I decided to paint on a much bigger scale. the composition of the piece was quite complex too with the transparent glass barrier of the balcony and the dip down into the gallery itself along with teh fact that the lamp was so close to me and the reflective nature of the mirror. i had really challenged myself here but I really enjoyed it too.
Above I have only the background painted in using a cool purple grey colour. Using a cooler colour in the back creates the illusion that it is further away - another tip picked up during this elective

This is the finished piece, the foreground was painted in a warmer purple/yellow grey colour which gives the illusion that it is closer to us than the cooler colour.



The last painting I did during the block was this quick colour study of a section of the same installation. I used a lot of the tips and tricks learned up to this point in creating this piece. I added a little blue to the yellow ochre colour of the board to push it into the background and added a little purple to the yellow to dull it down and ensure it didn't compete with the bright orange which is more in the foreground.