Homework

Welcome to the Homework Page, where you can be reminded what the homework actually is!

Current:
Hi All....

This is to remind you that the assignment is to do several, like one a day, self portraits using whatever medium works best and easiest for you.  Charcoal or Conte' are usually the most forgiving but the good old pencil is also excellent, even though the toning part can take a little more time.  

As you look in the mirror (best) or at your photo (sort of OK) remember the many versions of 'YOU' you have seen in that mirror over your lifetime.  They have all built the image you/we are currently seeing so if you end up with a younger or very younger 'YOU', not a problem.  You might just be looking back to another time.

By now you should have received the stuff I sent.  We will be using it in the next, and last, class.  I will be asking you to paint a portrait using only a "black" and a white.  The black can be Ivory Black but you can also mix a different black like hue from other colors.  Examples are: Cad red and Ultramarine Blue, Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna or Burnt Umber, Thalo Blue (or Viridian) and Alizarin Crimson.  How you mix these will result in a spectrum of colors so I suggest that you mix a nice pile of it and then use that pile to mix with white as needed to make the various values.  I you have a tendency to try and paint EVERY value nuance then mix into five separate and evenly toned piles from White to 'Black' and only use those piles to make your painting.  No extra mixing.  This will force simplification and clear up confusion.  Remember, Sargent only used 5 - 7 values in most of his paintings.

If you don't use oils that's just fine.  I'm good with any medium for this except for watercolor as that adds some extra skills to the process and I'd like you to concentrate on likeness.  

Nicolas Uribe did a portrait of his mother this week using only a largish flat brush and two colors.  He goes into a long description of why he picked those colors but it doesn't matter...interesting but ignore it.  What I'd like you to take notice of is how he describes the form using just that one brush.  He also used the warm and cool qualities of the hues he picked but I don't want you to do that.  I'm looking just for values.  So if you don't use black, mix the colors you pick into just a big pile and use that.  The complexity of color comes next.  Nicolas can inform you on how to paint just the values and the use of one brush to do a portrait.  Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LtnOyLugcE

See you on Tuesday.

darrell

Here is the blog link for our class: https://learnatwac.blogspot.com/

Last Week:
This week, using your own sources or the photos of our Asaro Planes of the Head model, draw as much and as often as you are able using pencil, crayons, charcoal, conte' or even paint.  Make your heads 3 to 5 inches tall.  Soften your edges, exaggerate some lights.  Anything to make an attractive but closely accurate piece of art.

Jan and others have asked be how to draw more impressionistically or loosely.  This is my answer to her email about that.  I thought it would be worth sharing:

Good Morning Jan.....

   Nice work!  

Were you the one that asked to know how to do loose portraits on our first day?  It may have been someone else.  So many ways I could answer this. 

 Staying within the use of a pencil, begin smearing and softening some edges.  Use your finger, a paper stump, a paper towel or a hard plastic eraser...sometimes called a plastic 'sponge'.  Each does something slightly different.  Drawing accuracy, values, color, composition and edges are keys to being loose.

Secondly, begin to draw without using lines.  Think in terms of large shapes that move into one another with hard and soft edges.  I often use a conte' stick or a conte' pencil for this.  Charcoal also is great.  I will have some examples of all this on Tuesday.  (Pan pastels are also good for this)

Thirdly, begin doing your work with a brush and a tube of paint.  Stay monochrome by using one dark hue such as Raw Umber, Ivory Black, Ultramarine Blue and white or just solvent...you get the idea.

Lastly, continue learning about how the face and features are constructed.  Working from life is always the best but, right now, photos are all we have (unless you have a willing family member).    We will be looking at the nose, eyes and mouth this week.  Knowing what is there helps to actually find what is there.  Drawing what you see is great, but it gets stronger when you understand what you are seeing.

I'll be talking about techniques in drawing also.

Looks like a good day.

darrell