Class demo Thursday

Waiting for the "last 5 strokes".

Here is the class demonstration from today's lesson. As I told my students, it's about 98% finished. The first time I confront a new subject I will work out an initial composition, then see where it takes me.  The reference photos are for inspiration but not to copy verbatim.  Usually, I will have made a value plan. Without a value plan, I am leaning on my experience. For a panoramic format like this I will use the steelyard type of composition. 

Balancing the composition: If you imagine visual interest as having weight, the trees have less "weight" than the buildings, so it takes a greater length of them as a counterbalance. I will need a small dark shape somewhere in the lower left quadrant to balance the large collection of buildings on the center/right. Its just like a lighter child who must sit further from the fulcrum of a see-saw to balance a heavier child. The fulcrum is seldom in the middle because most of the time artists are deliberately balancing a heavier mass with a lighter one. That is an artistic balance of unequal parts or asymmetrical balance.

Check back in a day or two for "the last five strokes". Feel free to write and tell me what you would have done.

My Mini Watercolor system

I forgot to post this the other day. But I still plan to put more things on the page, so when I do I will post again.

I am making everything small enough to fit into my compact "urban sketch" bag. This is a section I cut off a sponge, and a tiny travel size hair spray bottle filled with clear water inside the cap from a cosmetic bottle.   (It's a lot more fun to sketch these than it is to snap a photo!)

Plain air Watercolor at the tulip fields

Some of my painting buddies are out there on location today even as I post this. I wish I could be there with you but there's too much class preparation for me to do in the studio today. I am there with you in spirit. Always have been. In fact this photo is from May 1996. :)