In case of bad rain we head for Maude Kerns -- bring a photo to work from.
I intend this post to be about color mixing, the subject for the third class session. But first and until I can get to that, let's discuss the idea of alla prima, painting wet into wet paint. If you were in class tonight (August 14th) you saw me painting in this manner -- and I was recommending students give it a try, which most did. Here is the idea:
Use an underpainting (imprimatura)of Titanium White and and Burnt Sienna -- mix it into a light pink consistency and apply it with a brush using either pure thinner or the mix of linseed oil and thinner. The latter may give the best results because some oil seems to help the process.
The general idea is that the wet into wet technique helps unify the painting and makes the sketch more like a "finger painting", namely loose and free. Here you can see the beginnings of a sketch made with a #1 filbert brush using a slightly darker sienna mix.
Next, carry out your sketch:
Further elaboration:
A more finished version (re-started):
Although this wet-in-wet approach can produce more "painterly" results, one often has to pay close attention to colors, which can get too muted when too much sienna is present in the primatura. By using less sienna in the underpainting and the proper amount of medium (not too much oil) one can get exprssive colors as well as expressive brushwork, but it takes some practice to get it right:
The theory of color pool mixing comes from Charles Movalli and Roger W. Curtis, two east coast plein air painters, who wrote the book "Color in Outdoor Painting" (Watson-Guptil c. 1977). Their idea was basically this: analyze the colors in the scene you are painting, select pgments from your paint box to produce those colors you are seeing, arrange these colors on your palette using overlapping rings of colors that form a "color pool" in the center of the palette, slowly working the colors together but not blending them into one color.
Assignment: Prepare a color pool as indicated and attempt to paint from it. Arrange your palette like this:
Notes: Place your colors across the top of your palette with warms to the left and cools to the right...ultra blue will go to the right and burnt sienna will go to the left. You can place white down the side.
Then in the middle, select the colors you want to use for the pool. If your subject is mostly warm (say a lot of warm greens) then try to paint the scene with just the three pigments indicated plus white. Pick up yellow with the brush and place it in the center of the palette as indicated. Clean the brush and do the same with ultra blue and also with cad red. It is recommended to start with th "weaker" colors first. These are the ones with little tinting power. For example Alizarin Crimson and Verdian and Burnt Sienna are strong and dominate other colors.
Slowly working the colors together they will mix accidentally (do not blend them into one homogeneous color) and the result will be a variety of different colors (for example many different greens if you mic yellow and blue). The colors nearest blue will be blue-green and the colors nearest yellow will be yellow-green.
The Importance of color: I have already stressed the importance of value, that is, darks and lights. Next in importance to painting is color. Colors will differ depending upon the season and the time of day. Therefore the color pool will come to be domainated by different colors depending on these factors. After establishing the macchia (principal masses and values) you next need to establish the warm and cool relationships of the colors.
When blocking in the big divisions (zones) of your design, use broad areas of color:
Beginning oil sketh of Fiesole, Italy
As the painting progresses, these main areas are changed by seeking out the variations within each zone through careful observation and painting from the color pool. Often trees are painted last, worked into the wet background and sky. Here is an example of a finished wet-in-wet painting:
"Tuscan Winery" oil on canvas 2008
Thanks to all the students who were able to come to class last night (8-21). Here are some additional notes regarding what we discussed in the field:
Note that in my actual demo I may have modified this a bit, switching the locations of the red and yellow. Also note that you can have yellow ochre and alizarin crimson on the periphery as needed. Also you may need a separate place on the palatte or a separate palatte to mix sky color to avoid any muddiness.
My work done on site yesterday:
-- Jerry
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