August 11--Beginning Critique & Through the Water -- New Location

As I was out walking this morning there was just a hint of a taste of a bit of a cooler feeling in the air, and I realized fall is actually headed our way. We still have a few weeks of warm weather to come, and I hope some more rain, but fall is waiting in the wings! 

So, are you ready to settle down and start to paint again? I know I am.

This week we're going to have a beginning critique. We've come to think of a critique as a way to end a class or workshop but Iet's shift our thinking a bit. What is a critique meant to accomplish? I think it should be a means to keep or get you moving. I often talk about finding the "point of friction", that place where as you let out the clutch the engine engages, so look over the work you plan to bring and see where you think you'd like to go. Usually that means finding the place where you need to know or need to grow. We'll certainly look at each piece with an eye to improving it, if you're still in the process of working on it, but try to paint the 'big picture', too. 

Rock photo to use in class.

Then I'll do a lecture and demonstration about how to paint underwater rocks. If you would like to, you have  permission to copy and print the photograph here and use it for the class lesson. We'll examine the way the colors change in and out of the water, how the edges shift and the values mute when the rock is beneath the water. There's a bit more to it--things like refraction and ripples and light patterns, but come to the class to learn about those! 

Please RSVP (clickable link) if you haven't already. The class is $25.00 and you may pay at the door. 

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Now for the big news: we're going to start meeting in a NEW LOCATION this week!

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We will be meeting in a nice room inside Christ Community Fellowship, 5908 Anaheim Avenue NE, located off of San Pedro north of Paseo del Norte Blvd. So many of you responded positively to the idea of relocating to a more central spot that I’m even more enthused than I was about this change. 

The classroom is quiet and private, has plenty of tables and chairs, a nice little kitchen for coffee and tea (plus a microwave if you want to heat your lunch), and the parking gives us easy access. You can come via Interstate-25 or travel on surface streets. If you plan to come to this class, let me know and I'll email directions. 

Class will be the same time as always 11:30-2:30. I'll open the classroom around 11:00 if you'd like to come and set up ahead of time. 

See you Thursday!
Deborah

August Class Schedule

Starting this month I’m scheduling four-class blocks. I think it will be easier for you to check your busy schedule up to a month in advance. YES, you may sign up for individual classes. As soon as you know you will be able to attend, click the link and let me know. You may pay at the door. I'll post the class announcement on the Monday previous to it. I need a minimum of four students to make the class a go!


The cost of the 4-class session is $100.    Please RSVP for ALL FOUR classes here. < Clickable link 

Beginning Critique & Through the Water

Please bring up to three paintings for the critique. Then we’re going to warm up after our summer away with a look at rocks underwater. I’ll supply the photographs, you bring your materials, and we’ll examine the way that colors change, edges shift, and values mute when a rock is beneath the surface of water.  

August 11 RSVP < Clickable link

Color Wheel Paintings 
Here’s a chance to play with some creative color work. Have you wanted to enhance color? This may help you begin, or move farther along, in your experiments. In this new class we’ll use the color wheel to locate the major color groupings, and analyze how to further harmonize colors from there. I’ll help you select colors that shift away from the photograph to further enhance the painting’s mood and voice.  Please bring some examples of other artist’s paintings that you think use excellent color that intrigues you (books, magazines, photos.)  

August 18 RSVP < Clickable link

The BIG Vista

We’ll be painting the open, vast spaces today in order to be able to see the evidence of how the air affects the landscape. Find a good photo with lots of rich information leading well back into space, including all four value masses: the sky, mountains or mesas, trees, and foreground. We’ll discuss ‘the rules’ of distance and look at how to control values, colors, edges and use effective strokes. Think BIG, at least in scope, if not in scale.  

August 25 RSVP < Clickable link

Cliffsides

In this new class we’ll examine the drama, light and color of rocky cliffs. The challenge often is how to use enough color, detail and line, without overburdening the painting with too much detail. Look for a good close-up with at least as much detail as in the photo at left. This may be a good chance to find out how to approach painting your photos of the Grand Canyon or Canyon de Chelly!   

September 1 RSVP < Clickable link

Class is held Christ Community Fellowship Church from 11:30 to 2:30 on Thursdays. Bring your lunch along and watch the demo for the first hour, then work at your easel. Classroom opens at 11:10.

Summertime....and "rearranging the furniture"

Evening Dance, gouache, 2.5" x 3.5"

Coral Downpour, gouache, 2.5" x 3.5"

Summer has finally come to Albuquerque. Well, at least the monsoons have finally come! Last night we had a good old-fashioned summer thunderstorm. Lightning, thunder, and a real gully-washer. True, the humidity is up high today and the swamp cooler isn't really very cool, but I'm still grateful for every drop of much needed rain.

I'm on hiatus from classes for now, which has given me time to do a few other projects and to paint a little here and there. It's nice to have a break, but I love to teach so I'm planning my classes. As of now, I'm still kicking around ideas and tinkering with some techniques to show you when we resume. Lately I've found myself thinking we need a few changes. I'm in the throes of rearranging things and to see what feels right. It's kind of like rearranging the furniture and recovering a couple of pillows--fresh and fun, but not so you bump your toes too badly when you walk through.

I'm planning to resume our class the second week in August, but I'll let you know when I have more details!

Meanwhile, hope you're painting! Think summer skies. This is most definitely the season for them. Have fun!

Deborah

July 14--How to Use Photoshop for Paintings

I'm going to refer you who are enrolled to this post, which has all the information about the class, and you might also look at the one after that for the results, too. 

Class is from 11:30 to 2:30. Bring your sack lunch. I'll have iced tea and coffee available. The lecture portion is approximately 2 hours, with Q&A follow-up. I'll send direction to my home in Taylor Ranch to those already enrolled.

See (some of) you on Thursday,

Deborah

PanPastel Workshop?

The demonstration painting from last week, done in PanPastels on gray Pastelmat.

I'm considering a two- or three- day workshop here in Albuquerque this fall/winter on HOW TO USE PANPASTELS.  I'd like to offer people a chance to see how to handle this wonderful addition to the medium of pastels, learn some interesting new techniques, and see how I do it. I'd most likely demonstrate several different subjects, so my students would also benefit from information about how to paint the landscape, and then have time at the easel to paint.

My idea is to offer the option of purchasing an introductory set of Pans and tools, and of course some Pastelmat paper, for those who are ready to go for it. 

I have a location in mind that's close to Interstate 25 and Paseo del Norte, which is fairly central and "freeway close". It has tables and chairs, good skylights (and additional lighting), a small kitchen area, plenty of parking, and is nice and quiet. Students would only have to supply a portable easel, although they could bring their Pans, too.

I'd just love to have the opportunity to show you why I love PanPastels so much! Your input is welcome... What do you think?

June 30--Paint the Night Sky

Nighttime paintings can be a lot of fun but rather challenging, too. At this class we're going to explore painting the landscape at night, with a closer look at the mystery and beauty of the night sky. 

First of all, I want you to go outside and LOOK at what you can see. Get away from bright lights as much as you can and notice how dark or light the sky is, what value difference there is in the hills or trees or plants around you. Look at your feet, note the shadow of your car or house. Analyze the value structure... Not everything at night is black! Take some photos, if you're able, and just see what you get. Digital cameras are fairly remarkable this way. 

I find it hard to take a good night photo showing everything I want, although I occasionally get the "lucky shot" that works out. It's more satisfying to me to seek out other interesting pictures and combine several different ones to make a more exciting painting. look around and see if you can find photos to use, perhaps as many as three, and think creatively about how you'll put different parts to use. You might grab the hills or city lights from one, the sky from another, and the closer trees or foreground information from a third.

Do you know that there are websites containing photos you can use for paintings? Naturally, if you copy one of these photographs faithfully you won't be able to enter it in the big shows, so be cautious how you use them, but for our purposes it's fun to find some different resources to use, and combine them into one different place altogether. Here are some from Morgue File that I might use this week in my demonstration:

(And remember, you might use some of your new found Photoshop skills to make a combination you like!)

We'll do a quick critique of work in progress, so feel free to bring your painting along for us to view and discuss briefly.

Our class is at the Paradise Methodist Church on the west side of Albuquerque, 11:30-2:30. Come at 11:00 to get set up, and feel free to bring a sack lunch. I'll have iced tea for us. Please RSVP (<--clickable link) if you haven't reserved your space already, but don't hesitate to come on along at the last minute! The charge is only $25 at the door.

Any medium is welcome (as long as there are no strong smelling solvents), but I'll be doing a demo with my PanPastels for the class.

See you on Thursday!

 Deborah

Photoshop for Paintings class results

As I prepared for this class I realized that there are a lot of tutorials out on the Net devoted to Photoshop Elements, but most of them are for people using it for advertising or photography. Yet in the last few years I've interviewed a lot of artists in my role as writer for art magazines and many, if not most of them, use this program as a tool to manipulate their pictures to use for paintings, in some way or another. Perhaps there's more online about how to do this than I found, but nonetheless this class turned out to be quite interesting to teach and instructive for my students.

Basically I outlined the various functions found in the Options Bar, Toolbox and Palette Well, before beginning to show how each feature can be used. If you're fumbling around in PSE, don't forget to use the online Help menu. It's worth your time to find information on the work area functions. For instance, this photo helps you understand some pretty basic but very important tools if you work in PSE 2.0:

(Adobe Photoshops Help photo)

I mentioned that I'm no expert, but there are certain things I do creatively that anyone can do to revive a dark, uninteresting photo, often making it into a colorful and unique painting subject.

My first tip (not original to me): start with a duplicate copy! Once your original photo is tucked away safe and sound you'll be far more inclined to just play around to see what you can do. I also suggest that you try whenever possible to use a high resolution photo so that when you crop you still have a clear, if smaller, print. I often crop several compositions out of one large photo and play with each one to see how I can tweak it, flipping them horizontally, changing the color scheme, heightening contrast, and even rearranging or adding elements.

Here's the photo we used for most of the demonstration and lecture I did:

It's a pretty dull image but it has some interesting parts to it. I like the variety of angles in the overall composition, from the line of each of the banks, to the angle of the hills, and the implied angle of the clouds, hinging at the slightly leaning vertical tree on the left-hand side. That foreground tangle is blah as it stands, but could benefit from  more color or contrast, and might even add another interesting angle if handled properly. The whole photo would benefit from cropping.

In the course of our explorations, when we reduced the photo using Image > Adjustments >Threshold and discovered that there's a small rectangle of light in the geographical center of the photo. Sometimes the simplest tools reveal something so basic! That will need to be addressed in the composition, either by cropping or by changing some of the values.

Probably one of the most useful tools is the Enhance >Adjust Color >Color Variations function. I routinely push the Color Intensity slider all the way to the right so that I can see the extremes of color.

I simply analyze what the image will look like if I add red, add green, add blue, add cyan, add purple, or add yellow. (The menu uses increased or decreased red, green and blue.) Of course, I can slide it back so it isn't so bright, but this way I know what will begin to happen, even if it's only adding a bit of subtle yellow to the mix. You can do this multiple times, choosing to add a little bit of red, or a bit more blue, or some purple, before saying okay.

After some quick playing around together, we came up with this outrageous version of the original photo:

And another version looks like this:

We just touched on some of the wonderfully fun things you can do in this program, but I hope it launched a few people into their own further explorations!

Have fun, gang!

Deborah