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CLASS GALLERIES and PHOTOS Landscape: Basic Drawing and Painting: CLASS DOWNLOADS |
Inside the Landscape Workshop A Sampling of Demonstrations and In-class Exercises My landscape workshops at the Gage Academy of Art explore the essential concepts of landscape painting, while also encouraging students to find their own style. The goal is not to get students to paint like I do, but to expose them to a variety of practices they can implement once the class is over. Because the landscape is so complex and full of detail, a lot of attention is given to selecting subjects, composing, and learning how to simplify. Some exercises are intended to force the student's hand toward simplification; others focus on technique, color, or composition. Students generally work small due to the time constraints of outdoor painitng, and spend one or two sessions on a painting. Classwork is a combination of exercises and free-painting. The samples below are from instructor demonstrations and student exercises. |
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Demonstration:
Stage 1 A great deal of emphasis is given to a solid start that establishes a foundation of composition, value and drawing. This is typically a monochromatic "pre-painting" or block-in. It doesn't need to be very tight, but it must have enough form and value to suggest the overall structure. Massing is key: the subject must be translated into its most basic components, both in terms of the value and the underlying design and composition. |
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Demonstration:
Stage 2 Students are encouraged to begin color application with small touches of color circulated around the canvas, rather than blocking in whole areas too quickly. Allow parts of the underpainting to show through; its color will help unify the light. Don't worry if a color isn't just right; you'll be applying corrected color over this. |
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Demonstration:
Day 3 In the third color pass, many small color and design corrections are made: the sky becomes more developed; contrasts are strengthened; edges are softened or sharpened; the fence is brightened; and the tree at left receives more definition. |
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Instuctor Example A small 10" x 10" study by the instructor exemplifies many of the principles that are emphasized throughout the workshop: simplification and massing; site selection (in this example, a limited focus); color harmony; atmospheric perspective; and composition. |
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Demonstration: Expressive/Inventive Color The class explores several approaches to color, one of which is expressive or inventive color. Here, the color assigned is exaggerated or even entirely different than what the subject suggests. But all the color must still relate to the whole. |
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Exercise: Expressive Color by Carolle Rose |
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Instuctor example: Massing and Simplification Students are encourged to do short, quick studies. These are sometimes done directly on paper, which readily absorbs the oil and allows changes to be made in a very short amount of time. |
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Exercise: "Bullet" Studies Bullet studies, or quick thumbnail sketches, are essential to help diagram structure and composition before beginning a painting. They may be done in pencil, as well; but blocking in large shapes of color tends to help the painter see the subjects in its broadest shapes and planes. Surface: unprimed paper |
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Instructor
Demonstration: "Shape" Painting
Shape painting supports the idea of simplification by attempting to reduce forms into their most basic planes and shapes, allowing you to evaluate the value and color components without getting bogged down in details. |
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Exercise: "Shape" Painting by Dianne Dominguez |
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"Tree Study" by Jodi Gear |
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"Field and Trees" by Jodi Gear Less is more. By working on small canvases — in this example, 4" x 6" — with large brushes, students are able to reduce a subject to its most essential components, as opposed to focusing on detail |
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Exercise: "Color Schemes" by Dolly Sundstrom The class explores several strategies for color one of four color schemes: analogous harmony in which finally, imaginary which uses color that is disconnected from reality, but still works in the context of the painting. |
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Instructor Demonstration - "Alla Prima" "Alla prima" (Italian for "all at once") describes brush strokes that are fluid and loaded with paint. Efforts to work this way are helpful in breaking our habits of using tiny amounts of paint. Some attention to drawing and detail is clearly sacrificed. Often, it is best to strike in the boldest, thickest strokes later in the painting when you are sure that their color and placement are correct. The thin fence lines and edges around the window were added by scratching the back end of the brush through the wet paint. Surface: gessoed watercolor paper Underpainting tone: cadmium yellow |
