I hosted our first online session yesterday! Part of the class was in the studio with me, watching the slide lecture on a big projector screen, part of the class was online, watching my computer screen-share from home. It worked great! The class was active, we had an age range of 32-78, and people worked in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolors, and collage. Love the variety! It was nice to have everybody back together again. (We’ll be continuing to offer our classes with both in person and online options, so take a look at our website for details on spring classes.)
Thursday class: now online for the team at home
Today was week 7 of this 8 week class series on “Drawing and Painting the Effects of Light.” This series was sparked by a recent workshop with Carlos San Millan that left us all a little lost. I broke down his lessons into bite sized pieces, so that we were able to understand and practice them one at a time, week by week. After looking at a series of lessons on effects of light in a variety of paintings and drawings, today we went back to revisit Carlos San Millan’s demos, to see what we could find.
The premise of the class is that you can get an effect of light from any kind of contrast. At first, we looked at contrast of value (light with a lot of dark). We talked about hard and soft edges. Then we looked at contrast of color (complementary, saturation vs neutrals, and more). In this last session we brought that all together and added contrast of marks.
Carlos San Millan’s palette. He uses a lot of colors! You can see how he doesn’t pre-mix any piles. He uses only small quantities, then changes the color, mixing with a brush, applying paint and cleaning the palette with a hardware store putty knife. The palette stays clean throughout the session, with virtually no wasted paint. In place of glass, I got him two polished porcelain bathroom tiles. They worked great! I hope to find a similar tile for myself someday in grey.
Looking at the Carlos San Millan demos again after studying these strategies, everything came together. He sets up value, directional flow, and strategies of contrast with the very first marks. He never makes the same brushstroke twice. He mixes a color on his palette, applies it, goes back to his palette to change it slightly before returning to the panel. He changes the color in one of four ways: value, hue, saturation, transparency. He also changes his application tool (brush, knife, finger smudge, etc). Every single move is deliberate for contrast to build on the composition, and effects of light. The color changes a little each time, as does the shape of the patch of color, and the texture of the paint. Nothing is blended. No move is repeated. Every time he touches the panel, he makes a deliberate change: value, hue, saturation, size, shape, transparency, paint thickness, texture, edge, leaving the most dramatic moves for the focal point. Every move isn’t just a general addition to the picture, it’s directly next to something of considered contrast. Thick textured paint is next to smooth paint. Opaque paint is next to transparent. Colors are next to other supporting colors for the effects. Painting this way, he sets himself up for maximum contrast, and maximum light effects. The game of contrast starts with his second brush stroke and continues with every move to completion.
Watch the demo in-process pictures for contrast in:
value (light/dark)
hue (blue, green, yellow, etc)
saturation (bold/neutral)
shapes (square, long, regular, irregular)
sizes (big/small)
line (straight/curved/organic, applied, implied, etc)
texture (thick/thin)
opacity (transparent/opaque)
edges (hard/soft)
marks (mechanical glazes & dry brush where the colors interrupt each other in rapid succession, drawing, sgraffito – scratching in, etc)
The first moves: He’s not doing an underpainting, he’s not exactly blocking in either. These first brush strokes aren’t going to be covered up. They’re the foundation for contrast. He’s starting with the supporting dark areas first, painting them in large irregular shapes, similar values, low contrast colors so they’ll support the high contrast focal area in the center. Even though these darks are all neutral, he’s using red and green, setting the painting up with complementary colors right away. See how the colors are similar, but the shape/edges/texture of the brush stroke (actually palette knife stroke) in the middle contrasts with the brush strokes around the sides?
He’s setting up the composition in the first brush strokes. The composition isn’t based on objects, it’s based on directional flow. Notice how the lines and brushstrokes point us up, over, down, and around.
He’s skipping the drawing phase and going right in with large swaths of color, using a vertical and horizontal pencil line as his guide. In these first few strokes, he’s set up the painting with directional flow right away.The demo is complete. He’ll make a few changes to the painting after class. See the note? A list of recommended painters: Hurvin Anderson, Mitchell Johnson, Emil Joseph Robinson, Sangram Majumdar, Stephanie Pierce, Jessica Brilli, Miguel Coronado, Catherine Kehoe. (I haven’t posted about Catherine Kehoe? How could I have let that happen!?)Completed demo painting #2 by Carlos San Millan He’s saved his boldest contrast moves for the focal point, and the composition and brush stroke directions move us around the painting and towards the focal point.
That’s how Carlos San Millan paints glow: by using contrast. Before studying these strategies, I never would have realized quite how many types of contrast he was implementing with every brush stroke. Every move is deliberately considered to produce the effect. And it works!
Launching online classes
We are taking this class online! We will still hold in-person classes for those who wish to attend, while we offer conferencing to those who wish to login from home using the Zoom platform. Given the nature of the crisis in the Northwest, we are reducing the prices of all of our classes and inviting students to join us online. When you sign up we will get your login information to you. It isn’t a perfect system, but we are getting better with every class. We want our community to keep learning, connecting, and making art.
Let us know if you have any questions. We will be happy to talk to you.
[image_with_animation image_url=”8351″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Antoni Tapies, a Catalan painter (1923-2012) added texture to modern abstraction with his mixed material canvasses. His works are defined by the word ‘materico.’ Tapies created new languages around simple objects and rough textures, “unlocking the poetry possible in a sock.” (Huffington Post) Materico: Italian, adopted into english. Textured, …
Day 27 of our 30 day January Creative Challenge was inadvertently a cruel one. Komorebi is a Japanese word for sunlight filtering through the trees. In Seattle, January 27th supplied artists with neither leaves nor sun. Somehow, these innovative artists found their ways.
I love it when a painting is all about the paint. Also color. I love it when a painting is all about the color. And pattern. I love it when a painting is all about the pattern. Aaaaaand texture. Abstract painting class: 7 Fridays for exploring paints for paint’s sake. Also color. And pattern. Aaaaaaand …
In my current series of abstraction classes, each week we focus on a single element of art. Honing in like this allows us to explore different ways into a painting or drawing. By narrowing down, we are able to go farther into an idea. These projects were made in response to a class on line …
Effects of Light: Carlos San Millan’s Demos
I hosted our first online session yesterday! Part of the class was in the studio with me, watching the slide lecture on a big projector screen, part of the class was online, watching my computer screen-share from home. It worked great! The class was active, we had an age range of 32-78, and people worked in oil, acrylic, pastel, watercolors, and collage. Love the variety! It was nice to have everybody back together again. (We’ll be continuing to offer our classes with both in person and online options, so take a look at our website for details on spring classes.)
Today was week 7 of this 8 week class series on “Drawing and Painting the Effects of Light.” This series was sparked by a recent workshop with Carlos San Millan that left us all a little lost. I broke down his lessons into bite sized pieces, so that we were able to understand and practice them one at a time, week by week. After looking at a series of lessons on effects of light in a variety of paintings and drawings, today we went back to revisit Carlos San Millan’s demos, to see what we could find.
The premise of the class is that you can get an effect of light from any kind of contrast. At first, we looked at contrast of value (light with a lot of dark). We talked about hard and soft edges. Then we looked at contrast of color (complementary, saturation vs neutrals, and more). In this last session we brought that all together and added contrast of marks.
Looking at the Carlos San Millan demos again after studying these strategies, everything came together. He sets up value, directional flow, and strategies of contrast with the very first marks. He never makes the same brushstroke twice. He mixes a color on his palette, applies it, goes back to his palette to change it slightly before returning to the panel. He changes the color in one of four ways: value, hue, saturation, transparency. He also changes his application tool (brush, knife, finger smudge, etc). Every single move is deliberate for contrast to build on the composition, and effects of light. The color changes a little each time, as does the shape of the patch of color, and the texture of the paint. Nothing is blended. No move is repeated. Every time he touches the panel, he makes a deliberate change: value, hue, saturation, size, shape, transparency, paint thickness, texture, edge, leaving the most dramatic moves for the focal point. Every move isn’t just a general addition to the picture, it’s directly next to something of considered contrast. Thick textured paint is next to smooth paint. Opaque paint is next to transparent. Colors are next to other supporting colors for the effects. Painting this way, he sets himself up for maximum contrast, and maximum light effects. The game of contrast starts with his second brush stroke and continues with every move to completion.
Watch the demo in-process pictures for contrast in:
He’s setting up the composition in the first brush strokes. The composition isn’t based on objects, it’s based on directional flow. Notice how the lines and brushstrokes point us up, over, down, and around.
(I haven’t posted about Catherine Kehoe? How could I have let that happen!?)
That’s how Carlos San Millan paints glow: by using contrast. Before studying these strategies, I never would have realized quite how many types of contrast he was implementing with every brush stroke. Every move is deliberately considered to produce the effect. And it works!
Launching online classes
We are taking this class online! We will still hold in-person classes for those who wish to attend, while we offer conferencing to those who wish to login from home using the Zoom platform. Given the nature of the crisis in the Northwest, we are reducing the prices of all of our classes and inviting students to join us online. When you sign up we will get your login information to you. It isn’t a perfect system, but we are getting better with every class. We want our community to keep learning, connecting, and making art.
Let us know if you have any questions. We will be happy to talk to you.
Related Posts
Materico: unlocking the poetry possible in a sock
[image_with_animation image_url=”8351″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Antoni Tapies, a Catalan painter (1923-2012) added texture to modern abstraction with his mixed material canvasses. His works are defined by the word ‘materico.’ Tapies created new languages around simple objects and rough textures, “unlocking the poetry possible in a sock.” (Huffington Post) Materico: Italian, adopted into english. Textured, …
30SAL Faves: Komorebi
Day 27 of our 30 day January Creative Challenge was inadvertently a cruel one. Komorebi is a Japanese word for sunlight filtering through the trees. In Seattle, January 27th supplied artists with neither leaves nor sun. Somehow, these innovative artists found their ways.
Lin Chen
I love it when a painting is all about the paint. Also color. I love it when a painting is all about the color. And pattern. I love it when a painting is all about the pattern. Aaaaaand texture. Abstract painting class: 7 Fridays for exploring paints for paint’s sake. Also color. And pattern. Aaaaaaand …
Abstracting Line
In my current series of abstraction classes, each week we focus on a single element of art. Honing in like this allows us to explore different ways into a painting or drawing. By narrowing down, we are able to go farther into an idea. These projects were made in response to a class on line …