This is the beginning of a collection: examples of painted grass.
When I paint grass I usually start with large shapes first, light swathes of masses break the canvas into smaller segments. I use a rag sometimes to form the first shapes, then a bristle brush so the bristles scrape away the paint as much as they apply it, leaving hair-like light lines in the color. Upward strokes starting from the top (the farthest away) and working down the canvas helps the lower grasses cover the blunt feet of the brushstrokes higher up, and the overlap gives the illusion that the lower forms are closer. Masses, or swatches, vary slightly in color so I don’t end up with a wallpaper effect, and grass in the background is heavily mixed with the sky color so atmospheric perspective can help me get some air in there. The second layer has a bit more definition, here and there an upward stroke in dark (shadows), then color (bold), then light (highlights) on top. Foreground has the most contrast. Don’t do every blade. Let the viewer’s eye do the work. When it comes to detail like this, less is more.
[image_with_animation image_url=”10920″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Lendy carving a big peach, for our Steamroller Printmaking event I’ve been using the words “woodblock” and “woodcut” interchangeably, but I noticed some artists use woodblock to delineate a different type of printmaking. I keep getting confused about which is which, but everyone still knows what I’m talking about. …
Yesterday I posted my sketches; some fun ideas we are exploring in “Abstracting the Image” on Thursdays. Each week we’re taking a masterwork and exploring it with approaches inspired by contemporary abstract painters. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to lean on, and learn from the composition of the masterwork, while exploring …
Tuesdays are memory/imagination day in our 30 day creative challenge. Drawing from memory can be a great way to keep your brain active and build up observational skills. Strictly speaking, if you’re drawing from observation, as soon as you look away from the subject and down at your paper, you’re drawing from memory. This exercise …
Chinese-American artist Jeffrey Cheung’s hairy and intertwined queer and trans figures gave me a lift today. Playful and positive, and sweet as ice cream ads, Cheung’s 2016 exhibition featured comfortable peach and pink figures in couplings, but with some minor adjustments to his palette and the numbers of figures, his recent paintings depict multicolored figures in sexually …
Painting Grass
This is the beginning of a collection: examples of painted grass.
When I paint grass I usually start with large shapes first, light swathes of masses break the canvas into smaller segments. I use a rag sometimes to form the first shapes, then a bristle brush so the bristles scrape away the paint as much as they apply it, leaving hair-like light lines in the color. Upward strokes starting from the top (the farthest away) and working down the canvas helps the lower grasses cover the blunt feet of the brushstrokes higher up, and the overlap gives the illusion that the lower forms are closer. Masses, or swatches, vary slightly in color so I don’t end up with a wallpaper effect, and grass in the background is heavily mixed with the sky color so atmospheric perspective can help me get some air in there. The second layer has a bit more definition, here and there an upward stroke in dark (shadows), then color (bold), then light (highlights) on top. Foreground has the most contrast. Don’t do every blade. Let the viewer’s eye do the work. When it comes to detail like this, less is more.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”10920″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Lendy carving a big peach, for our Steamroller Printmaking event I’ve been using the words “woodblock” and “woodcut” interchangeably, but I noticed some artists use woodblock to delineate a different type of printmaking. I keep getting confused about which is which, but everyone still knows what I’m talking about. …
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Yesterday I posted my sketches; some fun ideas we are exploring in “Abstracting the Image” on Thursdays. Each week we’re taking a masterwork and exploring it with approaches inspired by contemporary abstract painters. The purpose of this exercise is to be able to lean on, and learn from the composition of the masterwork, while exploring …
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Tuesdays are memory/imagination day in our 30 day creative challenge. Drawing from memory can be a great way to keep your brain active and build up observational skills. Strictly speaking, if you’re drawing from observation, as soon as you look away from the subject and down at your paper, you’re drawing from memory. This exercise …
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Chinese-American artist Jeffrey Cheung’s hairy and intertwined queer and trans figures gave me a lift today. Playful and positive, and sweet as ice cream ads, Cheung’s 2016 exhibition featured comfortable peach and pink figures in couplings, but with some minor adjustments to his palette and the numbers of figures, his recent paintings depict multicolored figures in sexually …