Friday, November 21, 2014

Keep away from the edge.


Morning Glimmer, oil, 8x10

I taught two classes in oil this week at my studio, and the focus was on painting subject matter with lots of sharp edges and lines. The tendency is to paint this type of subject matter too stiff, and we end up with certain elements within the painting having that 'cut out and pasted on' look.

My students know that I'm all about starting with big connected shapes. And sometimes I'll set things up to include a variety of hard and soft edges as I'm getting my block in started. But for this exercise the challenge was to try and keep all the beginning shapes from having hard edges. (Or at least as little as possible.)

My block in and one further progression step for "Morning Glimmer," my demo from my Friday class, is shown below.



The light coming from behind the trees is more effective when carved out of the big shape rather than drawing in the individual tree trunks and branches. After setting up the three sides of the barn shape in the underpainting, I then chose only the necessary edges to include.

reference photo for Morning Glimmer

Below is my (not quite finished) demo from my Thursday class.





The demos shown on my most recent blog post (especially the oil demo) are also a good examples of blocking in without stiff edges.


Upcoming Workshops:

PASTEL Workshop - Stevensville, MD - 3-day 
Workshop - February 6, 7 & 8, 2015 (Fri/Sat/Sun)
Demo - Thurs., Feb. 5, 5:30 - 8:30 pm, $45, $55 at door
Chesapeake Fine Art Studio 
609 Thompson Creek Rd.
Stevensville, MD 21666
(about 40 minutes from downtown Baltimore)
$400
410-200-8019

PASTEL Workshop - Bonita Springs, FL - 3-day 
Feb. 25, 26 & 27, 2015 (Wed/Thurs/Fri)
Center for the Arts of Bonita Springs
26100 Old US 41 Road
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
$350/members; $400/nonmembers
239-495-8989

See my workshop page on my website for details and complete schedule through 2015, or email me with any questions.
www.barbarajaenicke.com
barbarajaenicke@msn.com

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