Class Instructions for 3/23

Next week is the last class of the session and we will be painting outdoors again.  The exercise should be doable in several hours and we will move back indoors.  The following week is the first class of the next session and we will be starting a "personal" still life ... one you design, paint at your own pace and take to completion.  A studio painting!  This will be a chance to apply everything you have practiced this session.  I know it has been outside your comfort zone to not take this session's exercises to completion.  But, they were not paintings!  So, let it go.  I am very, very pleased with what you learned.  That was the goal.

So, next week bring in 5 or so objects that you would like to use in your still life.  I will bring all of my drapes and we see if you have the makings of a good still life set-up.  You will be ready for a quick start, then, on 3/30.

A few things to keep in mind.

• Nothing intricate, tiny or multi-colored(a busy, floral pattern on a plate).  A green apple with a rosy blush would be OK.

• Look for objects that have simple form (sphere, cube, cylinder or a combination).  No cuckoo clocks!

• Nothing incomprehensible to the viewer (crumpled paper, rock, your grandmother's knit booties, etc).

• Not too many objects.  Three to seven.  I would prefer you do two small still lifes over one large one.

• Consider variety of one color so you can relate and differentiate them, such as a bright yellow object, a low chroma yellow object, with a dark yellow drape.

• Think about color.  Use a complementary scheme (red/green, blue/orange or violet/yellow with one side of the pair dominant) or an analogous scheme (three colors next to each other on the color wheel) with one object that is the complement (blue/blue-green/green with an orange object or violet/red-violet/red with a blue-green object).  Use your color wheel to figure this out.

• Don't split the still life half and half with temperature (half warm and half cool).  One side of the color wheel should be dominant.  You can usually solve this problem by the color of the drapes you use.

• Keep in mind that the goal is to paint the color spots on each object (color is form or a plane change means a color change) and relate them to the background or object next to them.  Or what the past eight weeks have been about!

Have fun!  Have FUN!  It is a studio painting and you are going to work it to completion, but at this stage (and really forever) whatever you paint is always practice.  Sometimes it works out and you have a masterpiece.

Remember that this week, 3/23, is our long day.  We'll order tacos from Wahoo's or sandwiches from Submarina (or you can brown bag it) and I will do a still life demo. I will set up an overhead blue light with a warm side light - to simulate the double light source outside from the sky and the sun.  I've never done this before, so as usual I am flying by the seat of my pants.

Finally, have an idea of your schedule for the coming session.  I will ask which days you will be out of town and we'll see if we can choose the two long days to fit the most schedules.