Andy's workshop and gotcha!

-

I read so many watercolor books and really enjoy all the theory. I understand everything in theory, but until I took Andy Evansen's online workshop in August, I thought a value study was a black and white sketch that you do before your painting. I didn't understand how the black and white sketch needed to be manipulated to arrive at the foundation that would BE the painting, and then followed with more loyalty than the reference image. With his workshop, I suddenly understood how the notan and the value study relate. The notan is a stark black and white graphic, if you will. Andy started by painting all but whites in a medium gray, and instantly, it looked like a notan. I got it! Then he added darks to the grey parts and lo and behold, there was a 3-value value study. I've seen Laurel Hart paint this way (in color), but I never connected her layers to the values as in Andy's value study. He also had us paint the color version alongside the value study, so we could relate value and color right away, and paint the same shapes one after another. Sketch twice, and paint one in greys (saving the whites) and the other in medium (color) tones (saving the same whites). Then come back and paint in dark grey/black for the value study, and the same shapes in dark colors in the color painting. Both emerge together, and both relate, and you are practicing/warming up right before the color version. This also satisfies my long held ambition of doing paintings simulataneously :-)

I love doing my little Payne's Grey studies, but am still having trouble with making the colors the right values. When I pick a color, I forget the value it needs to be, or more often, I don't get dark enough. I feel I am close though - I am almost getting it. 

This is what Andy recommended in an online interview - and I agree! I've been doing just this lately. 

I do need to spiff up my car kit so I have it with me at all times. 

Here are my value studies and one color version for a painting entitled "Covid Commute."

...do nothing but value studies for a while. Can't overstate that. You must learn to simplify, and you have to learn to see color as value. Second, spend time doing nothing but small color thumbnails using a very limited palette. Too many students come in with 60 tubes of paint and spend more time trying to pick the right one than learning how to mix colors. Most of the colors you see in nature aren't found in a tube. That and working thumbnail size will force you to begin seeing the large important shapes first and foremost. And third, have a sketchbook with you at all times and draw whenever you have a chance.


"Covid Commute"




Comments

  1. susanbFebruary 7, 2021 at 10:01 AM

    Yes, that was the essence of Andy's workshop! And I love your value and color studies, Tanvi!
    I like the idea of a car paint kit. I should carry my mini paint kit when I go out for a walk!
    -Susan

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Connected shadows

-
Image
I have often passed by the Campbell Community Center/Heritage Theater and been struck by the beautiful Spanish Colonial Revival architecture with intricate ornamentation. Finally, I had the opportunity to paint it today with the SCVWS Thursday plein air group. I think I should have used a ruler for this as some of my verticals aren't parallel to the edge of the paper! I do like the purple/blue shadows and how the colored shadows blend into one another around all the bright white areas. As always, for me, greens are troublesome - they often look overworked in my paintings. But, I am pleased with this overall.                       “One Ticket, Please”
Read more

Faith vs. belief, and inspiration

-
Image
In yesterday's Gita session, we discussed the difference between belief and faith. I found myself saying that a belief was hard-edged and inflexible, and faith all-encompassing and flexible and always positive - akin to having a big-picture trust in the cosmos. When I heard myself say "hard-edged," it made me realize how many terms and ideas are so interchangeable between the world of watercolor (art) and spirituality (life). When edges are hard, the eye stops at each edge before it goes to the next "item." It's like stop-and-go traffic. You are making progress but it is not smooth, not a flow. When edges are soft, your eyes travel easily, from one object to the next because the divisions between the objects are blurred, and the values do the talking. It is like life, like consciousness. We are all one - not so hard-edged and separate - yet we don't know it, and bump up against one another because of our hard edges, fixed ideas and notions, prejudices an...
Read more

Design- vs. content-driven

-
Image
I've found that strong design-driven art is more attractive to me than content-driven paintings. Of course, the content or subject is there (unless it is truly non-representational work), but it is realized and recognized a split second after one has responded to the design. For this reason, subjects that lend themselves to being more easily abstracted - interiors, close-ups of anything, still life cropped just so - are more appealing than standard impressionistic distant landscapes where the shapes themselves tell you sky-earth-mountains-lake. A landscape can also be abstracted but I feel there is more effort in hiding or veiling landscape features for the slow reveal to happen. I've been working on this still life, and just starting with a notan helped me understand and crop shapes right away. Pushing some of the lighter shapes to the white of the paper helps with abstraction. Like a chess board where each shape is bordered by a contrasting value shape, or the way we typicall...
Read more