I set up a colourful still-life yesterday but it was the white objects that we discussed at the beginning of each class. Colour selection and simplification were the elements I covered with my demonstration. I used grey for two of the jars and a blue/violet for the other.
Everyone was encouraged to spend some quality time on their thumbnail studies. Our lessons on the thumbnail process and composition from last Tuesday and Saturday are already paying off. I prowled around and pounced here and there with feedback as the students sorted out their compositions.
At one point in each class, I presented one of my favourite books on drawing; READING DRAWINGS by Susan Lambert. We looked at drawings that exemplified a solid understanding of light and shadow, or chiaroscuro.
The thumbnail studies do take time. There is concern about having less time for watercolour painting. However, the process will go more quickly with practice and repetition and stronger compositions are always a worthy goal.
Tuesday AM Critique
Tuesday PM Critique
Tags: Barry Coombs, Canada, Ontario, still-life painting, Studio Classes, Toronto, Toronto watercolour class, Toronto watercolour classes, watercolor demonstration, watercolour painting
Barry Coombs Art Workshops 
08/02/2012 at 4:24 pm |
Nice work; I can see some unfinished paintings, but the emphasis on strong, perhaps more abstract, composition is paying off.
I can see where someone was really thinking about colour as well, in the PM group, with the violet b/g and complementary yellow fruit (lower right); very nice piece.
11/02/2012 at 7:23 pm |
[…] challenge to convey whites in watercolour in Barry’s Tuesday watercolour class was to maintain the relationship between core and cast shadows, while developing the shapes of the […]