Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Painting Class 2.2.10


Happy February! So I guess this really is the month of love because we finally got to paint a model tonight in my painting class! Charles has been a big help. Here is my latest in progress.

Things to remember:
1) Skin is luminous: add a little bit of white in shadows to really make it glow. Rules are made to be broken.
2) As the shoulders go further back into the distance, add some of the background color to show atmosphere.
3) Paint the basic shapes first, and if something is mostly in shadow, paint it all in shadow and add the highlights later.
4) Don't paint highlights too yellow. Add some blue. We are using a cool light, so highlights must be cool.
5) DON'T GET CAUGHT UP IN THE DETAILS. Treat it like you would a vase or a pot. People recognize overall shapes, values and tones first.
6) Don't paint shadows brown. Add some cadmium red, ultramarine blue and/or alizarine crimson to get some saturation going.