Glazing and The Rules

Thursday began with a discussion of completing a painting.  Kit introduced us to the "rule of least doneness" and how it applies to your work.  For instance, in my painting, my hair was not even started so Kit insisted I plug the hair in before I did anything else.

This discussion was followed by a demonstration on glazing.  What a cool way to change your color.  Glazing is typically done with Liquin now.  Liquin dries quickly and has a glossy sheen to it.  If you are not seeking a glossy look, a little bit of wax could be added.

Glazes can be used to:

• change a color
• darken an area
• add color
• soften details
• add details

Glazes are most often done with transparent pigments, and Kit explained to us how to determine how transparent the paints are using the boxes on the tubes.

Important things to remember about glazing:

• a small amount of wax added to the liquin will produce a satin finish
• use very little paint
• dark over light works better than light over dark
• wait 24 hours before adding another glaze on top

Below was my favorite quote of the day, or perhaps the entire workshop.  One of my classmates asked Kit a question about glazing and her response was this

 "I gave you all of the rules you needed to hear"- Kit Sailer

I just absolutely love that quote.  I find that I am a serious culprit with wanting more and more clarification on the way something should be done, and I often have students that ask more and more questions to clarify until the answers may put them "in a box" creatively.  The concept of only needing a couple rules and determining the rest for yourself was very meaningful to me.

This picture was taken after lunch.  I had just started adding a little bit of the bathing suit due to the rule of least done-ness.  

After lunch, Kit gave us an explanation on painting surfaces available for oil paints.  There were some that I recognized, and others I had never heard of.  I had never considered gluing canvas onto hardboard, and I really like that idea.  I am also interested in painting on unique materials, and I was very interested in how my classmate Colleen was progressing on her wood panel painting.  

I also had never heard of Arches oil paper, but that sounds like an awesome surface to try.

Following this conversation, I was back to the canvas.  Once the hair and the bathing suit were plugged in, everyone was still very upset that Sarah had no eyeballs, so I plugged those in.

It was suggested to me that I needed more warm colors in Sarah's hair so I went back in and added layer after layer.  I found that I kept staring at it and saying "What is the next lightest color!?" 

 Sometimes art can be much more like a math equation than you'd think.  I felt like I'd wind up with a close answer in my color mixing but it wasn't the right answer.

Throughout this process, I put a lot of pressure on myself.  I love portraiture and I work on portraits probably more than anything else, but I had never created a portrait with oil paint, and I had not been all that confident in oil painting back in college.  I found that I wanted to make it as close to "right" as possible, and it wasn't happening fast enough for my liking.  On my way home, this day, my mom spoke to me on bluetooth and said to me "you do know that it's going to take you more than four days to master this, right?"  While absolutely true, it was a lot to take in.  I had wanted to move onto painting 3, maybe do a palette painting, but I did not feel as though I would feel satisfied if I moved on too early from this challenge.  

It was this night that I had a heart to heart with a couple of my classmates.  I was greatly blessed to be offered the opportunity to meet and learn from these wonderful, passionate, women.  The comradery I experienced with these artists and teachers has grown lasting relationships and I truly appreciate the insights and input from these brilliant people.