Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Black and White In-Class Studies (Part 1)

Sorry I've been away so long. Things have been rather challenging at school, plus my kids and I have been playing dueling illnesses. But, I'm back and purpose to post more regularly. To that end, let me share what has been going on at school with my high school painting students.

I start my students out with basic exercises: studying simple geometric forms and translating them in black, gray and white (first) and color (second). The first image presented here actually records two different in-class demonstrations I quickly did prior to the students beginning their work. I'll post student samples tomorrow.

Despite the extreme difficulty in helping my students see and successfully record a believable black and white value scale, I have to admit some of them did the first assignment well. None of these students has ever painted so please bear that in mind when I show you a couple student examples tomorrow.

My classroom setup includes a large rectangular table in the center of the room. I cover this table with one of my felt cloths. I have a 1/2" pvc pipe that I clip another piece of felt to and suspend it the length of the table. It works well in permitting me to set up an additional still life on the other side of the table. I'll try to include a picture of this table setup for you tomorrow, as well.

What materials do you use?

I was originally trained with traditional oils. I moved on to alkyd oils because I liked the fact that they dried more quickly but still pro...