Face The Wall

Untitled

Painting in Progress

My intention is not to show you a work in progress but notice the little photograph on the wall about 8 ft from where I stand when painting. I have found that when I place my photo a distance  away from me (in this case, approximately 8 ft ) at the beginning of a painting, I become freer, my composition is more accurate and I lose any anxiety I may have at the beginning of the painting process. It really works. After a brief initial sketch I jump right in concentrating on shapes, not the objects within the shapes. I keep the photo on the wall until all areas of the painting are filled in. Usually at that point I bring my photo up closer to me to work on the next layer of smaller shapes and so on until I end up with the photo attached to my easel.

Here is Today's class doing the same thing.

Note - It's important to position the photo in a place where you can comfortably see both the photo and you painting without moving your head. I lose an important connection if I have to adjust my head each time I paint or look at the photo. So that means I scan either my painting or the photo while looking at the other for example If I concentrate on the photo I scan my painting and my application of the pastel at the same time or vice versa. I hope I haven't confused you. Just give it a try, I think you'll see what I mean.

Bye, Bye for today,  oh by the way we got some snow today. It was great while it lasted.