Intermediate Oils - July 2017

Back to class - this week we worked on complementary colors. Karen came up with this exercise on her own. She said she uses this as a refresher for herself. It's also helpful to practice value studies.

She set up the still life scenes - random objects, as usual :)

I hone in on my subject:

And get to work:

Once I complete my drawing in vine charcoal, I spray it with Fixate, which is kinda like hair spray. It sets the charcoal so that when you apply paint on top, the charcoal does not mix in with the paint.

I learned that it is very hard to obtain a hot pink color with mixing paints. After class was over, I stopped at Blick's and picked up a tube of hot pink. I dreaded admitting that to Karen in the next class. She completely surprised me by saying, "That's the exact kind I bought and use!"

Once you have your main color blocked in, you move to the second phase of the exercise, which is to find the complementary color in the same value and apply it around the edges.

This is not intended to be a painting you want to frame. It's simply an exercise.

I have made several changes to this painting since class and who knows - maybe I'll make a few more!

In the meantime, I will enjoy Karen's bow paintings, which are a.ma.zing.