Two tree paintings

I love trees; they are so varied and beautiful.  Late last year Carla Sonheim offered Diane Culhane's online class, "For the Love of a Tree".  I signed up immediately :-)

One of Diane's assignments was to create two small 5" x 5" paintings focusing on value. 

The first painting began with a warm base color to which was added its complementary color:

Blue-violet overlaying Yellow-orange

After much layering of opaque and transparent colors, the finished painting:

The second painting began with a cool color which was overlaid by its complementary color:

Vat orange overlaid with cobalt blue.

Final painting:

I enjoy the spontaneity of this approach.  I have to suspend judgment and to go along with what happens, respond to the previous mark or color, allow for accidents - very liberating :-)

"Complementary colors" painting

The next "Elements" lesson was about color schemes and value which also included mixing colors to match favorite paint chips.

I used a complementary color scheme (red-orange and blue-green) plus black and white to create this acrylic painting:

18" x 24"

This is the value study:

Improvise

No color this time, simply graphite line work and smudging - and still life, an assignment from Diane Culhane's online class, "Table Top: Drawing and Painting":

I love to sketch.  Vellum is a fabulous surface.

This drawing was fun.  First placing some objects, playing with a variety of line weights and levels of intensity - basically improvising the foreground and background :-)

Take away

One of the drawing techniques I learned in Carla Sonheim's "Draw!" online class and then used again in the currently running "2014: Year of The Fairy Tale" is eraser drawing. It is great because it really shows the importance of paying attention to value (black and white tones).

I think of the technique as "take away" because your eraser is the "drawing" tool.

In the "Draw!" class I made my first attempt:

The eraser didn't feel like my friend at this point...

 So this time, I worked larger and because the technique had been altered slightly I was able to infuse the drawing with more intensity. So this is the eraser tortoise*:

I use all sorts of erasers; some leave behind a LOT of "crumbs".

It's a messy, smudgy technique but I enjoy it.


* Aldabra giant tortoise photo reference by Peter Chadwick