Rules of Oil

Day two was a day of rules.  

It started with a new type of "rule of thumb" for scaling images so they have the same proportions.  Typically, sizing your work space so it matches your reference means measuring and multiplying and the dreaded math that makes your art students' eyes glaze over.  These new methods however, focus on the simple premis of "When two rectangles have the same proportions, their diagonals line up".  Therefore, to scale an image to an existing canvas, you can first align your corners, then draw diagonally through the rectangle you want to keep(canvas) and crop the image where they intersect.  

So simple! So genius!  Where has this method been all of my life!?  
You can also use a modification of this method to add made up area to a reference rather than cropping, or scale a painting surface to an image(by creating the diagonal through the image and cutting the canvas/paper/surface).  
Kit expressed that while many artists and teachers rely on the grid method, she finds that it becomes a very mechanical form of art making and there is little use of intuition in the art making process.  I asked Kit where she saw this scaling method being used and she said her mother(also an artist) had taught it to her.  Attached to the helpful diagrams Kit gave us was also a formula for assembling your own stretcher bars.  I am TOTALLY using this in my classes.

Kit demonstrating how to utilize a viewfinder

Following this explanation, Kit demonstrated to us how to begin a still life painting as she worked to paint the old projector equipment left in the art room.

Kit explained to us that the beginning of a painting starts with asking 3 questions related to placing and sizing:

• Where is it?
• How big is it?
• What shape is it? 

Notice our painting exercise from day 1 in the background

 Using these three questions, artists work from larger objects to smaller objects.  Also, she told us that still lives are made up of constant comparisons.
Kit reminded us that since you work from back to front, if you don't work up to where the foreground objects are, there may be blank space in between the two later on.

The rules for oil painting were astounding to me.  While I had always heard bits and pieces of the rules from my teachers, I don't know that they were ever explained to me in depth, or if I had really understood them in the same way.  

The rules for oil painting(and for Acrylic) were as follows:
Work from:

• Big to Small
• Back to Front
• Dark to Light
• Lean(solvent) to Fat(oil)

Kit explained to us that the reason we use more solvent on the early layers on your paintings is that it dries faster.  Since oil paint oxidizes, the solvent must be on the bottom of your painting with the oil paint on top.  Otherwise, if oil paint is underneath a layer of solvent, the solvent layer may crack on top of the oil level as they dry.  

After the demonstration, we began our next paintings using the layout method again.

 I decided to paint this beautiful picture of my niece, Sarah.  I was drawn to the questioning look on her face.  I had taken this picture after Sarah had ran around in a sprinkler.  I called her name and she turned around and it was such a pure expression(no cheesing at the camera), I just loved it.

Kind of creepy progress

After some time laying in my layout, we had a break for lunch.  I really appreciated the lunch breaks here with inspiring and excited teachers of art as well as other subjects.  I appreciate the ideas, the stories, and the pure comradery I had the opportunity to experience with these educators and artists.  I found that I never wanted to go to lunch without a notebook because I am always learning from these people!  They are all rockstars.

After lunch, we started off the workshop with a color theory example using oil paint.  Kit gave us an awesome color wheel that separates prismatic colors(bright colors like you see with kids' plastic toys and laundry detergent bottles), from muted colors, to chromatic greys.  This chart can certainly help explain to students why orange is going to be a brighter color coming out of a tube or a bottle than when you mix yellow and red, considering that when red and yellow are combined, the line falls within the muted color range.  Below, you can see how Kit mixed a number of oranges, greens, and purples using different warm and cool primary colors.

In this image, Kit demonstrates how each green reacts differently
as it is combined with white, and green, and orange.

One of the exercises Kit usually has her students complete is a color chart of what happens when you mix each color with each other color and black and white.  As you can see, Theresa completed her chart after class last year, and it looks beautiful,  Wendel White, the photography teacher, was nice enough to print each student a copy of the chart and I look forward to completing mine and sending him a thank you picture!

Following the demonstration, I developed the face a little bit.  Kit suggested I add a new color when I wanted to add changes over top of the yellow ochre so I added burnt sienna(another warm brown).  I worked to develop the trees in the farthest back area of my image.  Again, I worked from dark to light and worked to create a soft textured appearance.
I had plans to meet up with my family in AC for my godfather's birthday, so I knew this day I would not be able to stay late.  Kit suggested to me that I cover the grass area of my work with a base color to return back to the next day, and it immediately made my work appear more complete.


To the left, Kit continues to work on her painting of the projection equipment to use it as a future example!

Here's my progress at the end of day 2, day 1 on this painting.

And so concludes workshop day two!!!  I was off to the Borgata Casino for a free (really great) comedy show.