Working bud detail

Just a couple of hours on the bud. As I tried building detail, I noticed that I'd lost the overall form. I'm learning to move in and back away while brushing.

Another session today of fruitless searching for oil processing supplies. The Internet to the rescue! Canning jars arrive Friday. And the local hardware store is ready to help--they will take an order for pool filter sand.

Rhody work continues

Although this image probably looks quite similar to the previous post's, there are hours here of cleanup and light glazes for the leaves.

This evening I've focused on the bud, trying to develop form and detail. I've been taught to apply unifying washes of very light titanium white and white glazes were applied a few times. But also, a light verona green earth helps to pull form together. I'm finding that dry brush stippling is helping me reach  the texture.

More work on the rhody

I'm enjoying my sable filberts with egg tempera. From a point or line to a wide swath, this brush seems to work well for me. I'm itching to get to the detail, though I know I must take my time and work from the large to the small with color and form.

Filling In

Here is a progression of work from late last night and again this evening.

Starting a new piece

It's so hard to get started. I mean really hard. And so I feel great tonight, finally deciding to take a chance on a rhododendron closeup in egg tempera for the Flower Show.

Here's a peek at my initial masking. The panel on the left is my second gesso refurb and it came out just as nice as the first. There's something quite liberating knowing that I can always renew a gesso board when things, as they sometimes do on my easel, go very wrong. This evening I'll be sponging in initial layers of the background. I'm trying to hold the camera close by so that there will be lots of work in progress shots.

I like this design--such interesting negative shapes. And, sharp and soft edges are already appearing.

A Warmer Green

I found a bag of lemon ochre and that with Bohemian Green Earth brought me a warmer green. A Verona Green Earth from Natural Pigments is a similar pigment and with a smoother grind. It's the sample to the right in the image.

I will need to mull the Bohemian as it is rather clumpy and takes a lot of palette knife work to work smooth. (I still seem to miss some clumps that only become apparent as the paint settles.)

Kremer has a couple of yellow ochres described as greenish so there is soon to be an order for these and more.

Pigment Testing

These minerals, yellow ochre and green earth, simply will not reach into high chromas and so won't match up with the hosta photo or actual leaf. I may give them a go any way.

Just before I stopped I remembered a new green earth, Bohemian, came in last week. It's on the yellow side. The Russian green earth I used most of this evening was definitely bluish--probably good for shadows but not for local color.

I think my yellow ochre leans warm. I'll dig through my box of pigments for a lemony ochre but I think it may be time for another Kremer order. Good excuse to pick up a few more pigments!

I'll play around more with color while I get off a few shots with proper lighting, something with Old Masters properties. That scanned image won't make it here.

Green earths, yellow ochre, titanium white.

Lily Framed

I'll soon meet with a local gallery owner for his last exhibition of the season. Each artist can present up to three paintings. I plan to go in with this painting and yesterday's crabapple.

I've ordered up all the needed framing equipment: FrameMate, points, wire, hangers, and dust cover paper.

Crabapple Framed

I couldn't wait. Last night I spent a few hours on the painting and today picked up the frames. It's not mounted yet, just dropped in to see the look. I like it! There's still some cleanup and signing. It will need a bit of shimming to keep the panel properly in place.

Dried Rose Study

Here's a little exploration with my dried roses. This was so enjoyable--I've really missed my egg tempera.

Retracing My Steps

As soon as I peeled the masking off last night I knew the  frame was too cool and dark. Today on the road for a few hours I saw stone everywhere, and most of it was of lighter values than my work. I noticed a lot of warm colors too.

Tonight's work is a bit too pink but I think I'm working into better hues. Next up is to lightly incise any edges, mask with acetate so the leaf shows through, and then blast the entire frame in one operation. Later I can work in overall shading and bevel details.

Tomorrow I begin my first in person botanical art class! Actually, this would have been my second weekly class... Somehow or other I botched up the schedule. Is this what happens when one retires? :-)

Stone Starter

Here's a start on the stone, with a couple of lessons learned:

• Don't place masking tape on egg tempera--it dulls the surface. I may need to redo the front-facing surfaces. 
• Keep the razor knife away from the board. I actually cut through the gesso and created some chipping. Trying to fill in with white.

I like the reflected light look on the bottom rail and want to apply that to the right side. I think that might pull the leaves and frame closer together.

Will there be a background? Hmm...

(If the frame looks ever so slightly twisted, it's because my scan was a bit off.)

Stonework Begins

It won't look like much for a while but there's already a good bit of work here, measuring and masking. Next I sponged in a starter layer of vine black and titanium white. The poison ivy is masked out with a sheet of heavy paper as there will be some serious toothbrush splattering coming up.

Next up is to tape over the bevels and finish the front facing surfaces. Then a flip of the masking to the front surfaces as the bevels are finished.

I'm planning to simulate carved lettering into the bottom surface in one line: Leaflets three, let them be.
Font design and placement will take some time.

Once this is complete, I will return to the poison ivy for wrap up. That's the plan! :-)

Dry Brushing Technique

This evening rather than glazing per se I applied thin layers with a dry try technique. I found that I had to get the brush nearly void of paint like I do when glazing. I could drop in details with concentrated paint and strong glazes with slightly watered down paint. I think I'm catching on to the balance between glazing and stronger applications--they both have a place.

This might appear obvious, as it now does to me, but it's something that I seem to have overlooked.

My Easel Setup

I thought I'd show off my new setup. That's my iPad on the left, strapped in with its shoulder harness. ;-) A couple of strips of artist tape keep it from sliding off the ledge. I can gesture the surface and kick up the image size too. This setup works really well for a guy and his bifocals!

Of course, working from life is the way to go. I wish I'd been able to better light this subject but I was boxed in by the roadway and without gloves and proper packaging so I wasn't taking this specimen home.

From this side by side comparison, it's easy to see that I need to warm up the subject considerably. That's for tonight's work.

Glazing Away

In the spirit of glazing I spent a few hours this evening building color and form. There's an art to understatement, to using very light glazes and holding a cautious eye. It's easy to get carried away and push just a bit too far. Once all these layers set up, perhaps a light scumble with white to pull in some of those dark greens.

Mix or Glaze?

I'm usually a daily poster but yesterday was one of those days--flat tire, cat sitting for the neighbor getting a new hip, and rescuing my sister from the airport. Airlines (initials are United Airlines) that overbook suck.

What began as an experiment in glazing various earths against green earth quickly turned to an obscene mess of a chart and already in the rubbish. Okay, that's what learning is all about. I gain most from my mistakes.

So rather than glaze I decided to push the blueish leaning green earth around, mixing with a yellow and a red ochre. Obviously there weren't  going to be any high chroma colors but how many greens really are that screamingly intense green any way?

With yellow, the greens pulled nicely warm. Same for the red.

Now to the question that's been gnawing at me for some time. Mixing versus glazing. Egg tempera is about glazing. It loves to be glazed. Twenty (or forty for that matter) layers a day is easy. It hums with depth and luminance. Can I get the same color in glazes that I can in mixes? And vice versa?

The first two rows of stripes are mixes. Just quick mixes: top with yellow; next with red. I left out plenty of gradation. The last row is glazed. Gradated yellow or red. As I glazed along I occasionally dropped on another layer of green earth. There are something like twenty layers at the top of each stripe. (The stripe in the middle is the pure green earth control.)

I guess I've always gone on the assumption that mix and glaze can provide the same result, at least as far as base color is concerned. And, I think there's a fine richness that achieved only with glazes. I wonder... Would there ever be occasions when I wouldn't be able to mix or glaze to achieve the same base color? Is it dependent on the medium?

Earths Color Chart

It's simply amazing the colors available from natural earth pigments. I tried to match up values to my Munsell chips by mixing the pigments with titanium white. My favorite colors are the top row delicate pastels and the bottom swatches as they are clear pigment and offers some degree of transparency. The middle tones have a slight chalkiness that might lend well to peach fuzz or plum bloom.

As I work these exercises I wonder how often I might mix white heavily. I suppose it could be frequent if I was looking for a very specific look but even then I expect that I'd be glazing to add depth and luminosity.

This work is only in part about Munsell and really more about just taking the time to play with and explore my pigments.

Crabapples Redux

Following encouragement from Dorothy on my crabapples painting, I've put in some effort the past two evenings. There's more work ahead but I'm liking where this is going.

More Ivy Work

I got in some work on this last night and again this evening.

More munsell coming soon. I am assembling color charts. Three down, seven to go.

Poison Ivy

I've been wanting to try out poison ivy for some time so last night and into the wee hours of the morning I began this test piece. I'm practicing brush control with light washes while experimenting with complementary layers.

Neutral Refinements

Yesterday we saw how the yellow of the yolk fades quickly. I think it's still fading, becoming whiter! Later this evening I'll paint up another white chip for a three day comparison. I think I've read that fading does occur over a few days--wish I could find that reference.

Gretchen asked if I compensate for the inevitable whitening of egg yolk yellow. At this time, I haven't tried. I think this will only become clear when I can accurately mix a Munsell neutral and then see if it holds. Granted, in white the yellow is obvious. As the value decreases, will the yellow be as prominent? How about when I begin introducing color? I think only by experience will I be able to answer these questions. (Note: The Munsell kit call for using acrylics for these exercises. I decided to use egg tempera to challenge myself and become more familiar with my medium. Also note: the rational painting recommendation below for burnt umber is based on oils.)

Although it doesn't present properly, the Munsell chip is actually a darker value than my first painted chip. You see, the Munsell chip is N9/, a value of 9. Munsell values theoretically go to 10. Titanium white can present as high as 9.75 and I am certainly seeing a lot brighter white than that N9/ chip. I forgot all about this and somehow associated pure titanium white with N9/. What this means is that I must tone down the pure white for the true value of 9.

Early this morning I finally arrived at a hue close to neutral! The Munsell Student manual suggests using either cadmium red or yellow to warm up a hue or cerulean or phthalo blue to cool it down. Well, I just couldn't seem to pull my hues to neutral until I remembered another source mentioning to use burnt umber. That works pretty well!

On my lower set of chips above, the chip on the left is the bluish hue I was trying to neutralize. That's the Munsell chip in the middle. On the right is my mix with burnt umber, the bottom part of that chip with slightly more umber than the top. See how it's pulling in closer in hue? The value still needs work, though.

I found this method on rational painting.org where Graydon Parrish recommends mixing the proper value using black and white and doing the same with burnt umber and white. Then with both mixes at the same value, mix them to achieve an exact neutral. The thought is that one must deal with only one property (hue, value, chroma) at a time.

So you can see that I have some work ahead of me. And yet, I've already learned a lot and starting to pick up an eye for real neutrals. I'll be working on my neutrals while forging ahead on the remaining exercises in Chapter 1.

Munsell Neutral Value Scale

The second Munsell exercise calls for creating value chips using the student kit's chips. In the image below the Munsell chips are upon my own painted in egg tempera on Bristol Board using natural black oxide and titanium white. Some chips I hit pretty close; others need work. Also, notice the mid values, how my paint leans to the blue. (I'm working that out now.)

Exercise 1.2

Inevitably when I describe what egg tempera is all about, the question of the yellow of the yolk comes up. Doesn't it color my paints? Usually, it seems not very noticeable at all. Pigment colors hide any yellow and often the paint is quite diluted.

But white is another story! Can you see the slight yellowing of the chip on the left? I painted that just an hour ago. The one on the right was painted last night. This is a great example of how any yellowing does indeed fade out quickly.

Titanium White
Fresh                             One Day Old

Bringing It Back

I felt a bit of regret after blasting this painting into darkness, but although I did like the delicate look I still wanted to push the tonal range. This evening I'm working on bringing it back and I'm starting to get comfortable with this new look.

Today I signed up for a botanical art course! The Friends of Horticulture on the Wellesley College campus hosts a whole botanical certificate program as well as a bunch of fascinating workshops. Read all about the curriculum here.

I'll be taking this entry level course:

Foundations of Botanical Drawing and Painting

Learn the basics of botanical art with our lead instructor and Education Director, Sarah Roche. Under her guidance, realistically render botanical forms in pencil and watercolor. Through demonstrations and tutorials Sarah will introduce you to the traditional art and science of botanical drawing and painting. Instructional focus includes observational skills, drawing, composition, design, and watercolor techniques.

My interest in art came about through botanical. These days I am not sure where I am going or even which media I  might settle on. Yep, I'm confused. I figure that I will simply explore everything I want and see where this all leads me. I'd like to feel that I have solid direction but it's just not there at this time.

But in the meantime, I am so lucky to be studying with Sarah Roche. Check out her website here. And also very lucky to be tied with NESBA and their incredible talent--I'm humbled and motivated.

And speaking of exploration, more on Munsell soon! :-)

A Different Look

The background is developing. I dropped in the illusion of leaves and then overlaid many layers of various pigments. On the last layers using dioxazine violet I also went over portions of the two front fruit for some shadowing. Next I will go back it and redevelop detail and highlighting. I want to work on soft and hard edges weaving in and out.

On another note, I'm starting a new project! The New Munsell Student Color Set, 3rd Edition arrived today. I will be working through the exercises, blogging as I go. More later.

More Crabapple

Here's a start on a background. The gold ochre is not quite so yellow here but it'll be changing any way, to what I'm not sure. Smoothed out the shadowing and added highlights and reflected light. I'm taking a break now before developing the light. First I must decide on the background.

Crabapple cont

Building up color and form. Overdid the shadowing a bit with prussian blue glazes--hoping to pull it back with some white stumbles and red glazes. There's just a bit of highlighting at this time. I'm having a good time with this piece.

Crabapple

Rather than continuing with the Buckthorn, I'm turning to a crabapple setup. I feel that I pushed intensely dark values too quickly and also had a lot of trouble with layer lifting.

So here I am trying a larger image (6x8") and working with subtle values. And most importantly, I am working hard to hide brushstrokes. There is some blotchiness but I'm learning to stay out of trouble. Patience and attentiveness are key.

Buckthorn

It was a fine day for a walk about the lake. Got a few pictures of buckthorn and a pocket sample. I like the chewed up dancing leaves.  Just hope I can do them justice.

Cherries Wrap

I'm feeling that there's two sides with this exercise--proper technique and accurate seeing. The more I look at these cherries, the more detail appears, especially in the subtleness of the reflections. Practice...

Cherries Study 2 closing in

 There's about 6-7 hours work here today. I really enjoy dropping in highlights and reflections.

Cherries Study 2 cont.

Here's a couple of hours work, slowly and lightly building up layers. Tomorrow I'll glaze viridian before going back to blues and reds. Then, a bit of highlight work to help out the form.

Various earth glazes.

Red and blue glazes.

Cherries Study - Start of Second Round

Here's the very beginning of another try at glazing all kinds of pigments. I'll try to remember to take scans as the work progresses. Got a very late start this evening so there's less than an hour's work here. I'm practicing brushstrokes, trying to lay down just a hint of color with each stroke. You'll see some blotchiness where I was a bit too heavy-handed. I enjoy the practice; it's a meditative exercise.  When I get in the right zone I can pay attention to every stroke, and that's when I can work in a nice softness of transition.

Cherries Study

I took Dorothy's advice (see her comment in Sunday's post). I see a lot of potential with her method and will work this study over a few more times. Thank you Dorothy! This is fascinating stuff!

The board really is this yellow as it's a leftover from a sorry mistake that ended up being scraped off. Just couldn't get all the color out easily but  it's a good practice board.

Work Continues

Sponged in the background with glazes of burnt umber, ultramarine blue, and viridian. Mixed ultramarine blue and irgazine red to try homing in on the cherries--that is, rather than simply glazing. Finally, stubbed in the stems with white, just to place markers.

Simply dropping in the background and firming up the shadows seemed to lend a sense of it all pulling together. Soon I want to model the cherries particularly the stem hollows--that bit of shape that sings cherry.

A Bit More

It's slowly coming together. Some days it's tough to get started, but it's all in the getting going. Once under way, I can go for hours. I've been working mainly with glazes and although there's nothing wrong with that, there are times when some opacity with a bit titanium white is helpful. I'll be getting to that next.

That's A Wrap

I've learned so very much with this piece. I suppose I could continue on, maybe with a bit more cleanup, but if that happens it will be down the road.  For now, I'm happy.

Closing In

Tonight was about a little here, a little there, a little all over. And repeat for over four hours work. At this point, I'm not sure if I might give it a rest. I do have more ideas but am cautious of overworking it.

I think my scans are picking up a bit of haziness. I'll need to do some photos for comparison.

Pushing the Lily

Working with titanium white with just a hint of yellow ochre, I dropped in highlights and lighter areas, and later glazed with transparent yellow earth. Then some glazing with orange earth and finally with Burgundy Red Ochre Deep.

I think I can push the darks darker and bounce up the contrast. At some point, I'll probably scumble a thin veil of white and then push out again. I'm getting some good feelings from this exercise.

Starting On Lily

I transferred the lily with white Saral and built a base with orange earth and titanium white. Then came light glazes of orange earth, followed by transparent yellow ochre. I'm treating this as a practice so I'll keep exploring possibilities.

I am thinking that I could have used a grisaille underpainting and glazed. In workshop we sometimes scraped to the gesso, or we sometimes masked.

A Good Board

I continued work on the board shown yesterday and managed to take it along without picking up a greasy surface. I feel so great about this! This scanned image doesn't really show the surface very well but it's not at all greasy and has good depth. I'd say that in the future I can do better with gradation, etc, but for now to achieve technique is just fine by me.

Next I'll transfer the lily and begin building up an opaque base.

Here's a peek at my kitchen table workspace. I've just switched over to the lamp holder clamped to the arm of the chair. Works great--nice and bright and no glare at that angle. Once I retire and have more time I will again set up a dedicated studio space.