Ok so this week I tried to add more value to the strawberries and their shadows and paint the leaves. I tried to do it in one sitting which went pretty well, but then I tried to add a layer of bright red today which led to me taking off the darker value underneath of the front strawberry which was frustrating. I think for my next step, I'm going to have to block out an hour to put finishing touches on them, because then I can apply enough paint to not have the color be removed Also, in the video, the artist goes back in with a thick layer of white which I want to try too. According to Coach, red paint dries really slowly so that's why the glazing technique didn't work. i also haven't played around with the linseed oil yet, but I might try it on the shadows. I would like to make them a little lighter at the edge and add some more red to accentuate the reflecting light off of the strawberries.
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Since i just finished my taste series, I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I did some thumbnail sketches of food from my childhood and thought about doing that as my theme, but Coach suggested instead I just work on painting looser. I found a youtube video, and decided to to try to practice my technique using the same photo. I also switched back to oils. So far it's going okay, but I think I might need some cadmium red light and a stiffer brush.
Here is the link to my interview with artist Colleen Phelon Hall: https://youtu.be/tO5-PBk_5ds
I really enjoyed watching the interview with Kelly Alder. I was surprised by his journey into teaching at VCU from never teaching before, but I thought it was interesting that he said he probably should have started teaching earlier. I also appreciated his commentary on how illustration has changed since the introduction of technology. On one hand, students and teachers have many more influences and information available to them, and on the other hand, photoshop and online design is very important in the field compared to when all illustrations were just hand-done. I thought it was interesting that he still advises that people work outside their field and mentioned that he still does observational drawing and oil painting outside of just his illustration style I also previously was not aware of the old way of getting your work out where you find a person you want to work with and would send postcards of your work and hopefully they would respond to see your entire physical portfolio. His specific project with the Richmond Folk Festival was also informative as he said the framework limitations they said (can't be about one type of music but has to mention it and has to incorporate all of the band names) actually helped challenge him to create a unique piece. He also touched on the process that goes along with the design where he submits usually three thumbnails, waits for a response from the art team with minor variations, before making his thumbnail a complete refined piece (usually bigger than it actually needs to be) before turning it into a digital file and adding computer coloring and shading with photoshop then. Overall, I appreciated hearing his story and learning more about how an illustrator works.
This week I finished the second project of Q2. I had difficulty getting the skin tone right as it kept showing up almost gray, but I tried to increase the saturation and use more burnt sienna which I think helped. I think the blending could be a bit better, but it was much more difficult to keep the acrylic paint wet compared to the oil paints I worked with last time. Because of this, I'm leaning towards using oils next project. I am pretty happy with how the lips and teeth turned out. I tried to emphasize the highlight and the red in the lips to match the red background. I still want to add some more highlights to the hair and possibly add visible folds to the fabric of her shirt. The placement of the mushroom was also something I struggled with as Kennedy didn't have one when she took the photo so I kinda had to super-impose it and hope it didn't look weird. I think it turned out okay, but it does seem a bit small. Overall, I'm pretty happy with how this piece and the series in total turned out.
This week I got to work starting to paint. I'm having some difficulty getting the skin tone to not look too gray, so I may need to do some research on that. I went ahead and started painting her hair and lips which i think made the skin tone look a little better. The next step is to paint the fork and figure out where the mushroom will be. I don't love the idea of not having a real reference for it, but I'll try to make it look realistic anyway. I also have to think about the background color. I'm leaning towards red right now, but I'll probably try a few options once I get to that point. Definitely still have a lot to do.
This week started out a little too slow. I decided to finish my series about food and taste, this painting being umami. I did some research and decided on mushrooms as my umami food. When doing the thumbnail, I kinda struggled to figure out a composition that was different than my other four pieces. Once I decided on a composition, one of my friends took the photo (I'm going to superimpose the mushroom), and I did the sketch on the canvas.
This week, I first finished my brunei and then added some highlights. I was originally going to attempt an only glazing method, but I think I'm going for a more direct approach now. i also wasn't sure if I should use linseed oil or liquin for my "glazing" medium. Liquin dries quicker, but is less traditional, but I ended up going with it. This is my second oil painting, but my other one was done in Art 3 and we never actually added color so this is all new to me. I went ahead and did the cup with a more direct method. I enjoyed the process, but got confused over the proportions of the plate which I can hopefully fix next time. I'm trying to paint from life which is challenging because I keep feeling like things are too big or too small. The benefit of glazing over direct painting is that it creates a sense of depth that I was hoping to achieve. I think even if I go for a more direct approach like I did with the background and cup, I'll go back and glaze to add more nuanced hues. I definitely feel like the background is much cooler than it appears in real life which is probably because I painted it as the sun was setting, so my colors were off. Next week, I have to wrap it up rather quickly, so I am going to favor the direct painting style and hopefully have time to add details before critique.
This week I finished the independent project. I first went back over the skin, trying to add more contrast. The hardest part was the edge of her chin where there was a blue shadow which I found difficult to recreate. Also the lips were very challenging and I’m still not completely happy with how they look. Then I repainted the fingers and struggled to make the knuckles look right. The right-most finger I pretty much had to change from the photo because it was looking really weird. Then I painted a purple shirt to play off of the yellow lemon. Then, I started painting the background a red-orange color, but that didn’t look very good, so I repainted it lime green. I think the skin still looks a little weird, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. For my in-class project I finally finished my sketch and mostly finished Brunei underpainting. I personally struggle with painting from life so this is definitely a challenge for me. I think it looks pretty good. Next step is to add some highlights.
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June 2021
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