Thanks to everyone who attended these online classes and demos, I do hope you enjoyed them. I certainly enjoyed running them although at times the technology was a little challenging. It was certainly a challenge finding topics to fit into this 2-hour time slot.
Hopefully, real classes and workshops will continue after September. I intend to run some outdoor painting trips over the summer. Let me know if you want to be on my mailing list to be kept informed.
Monday evening
This time I will be demonstrating painting folds in cloth from this still-life arrangement. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board.
This is last night's demo painting. The secret with folds in cloth is to keep the edges soft and blended. Mix warm and cool grey strings for painting your whites. As you can see I didn't get time to cover the whole painting.
Painting stage 1
I finished painting the mug and I lightened the cloth where appropriate.
Painting stage 2
This is the palette I used for the painting, most notable is the warm and the cool grey colour strings that I used for painting the cloth.
Folds Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
This time I will be demonstrating painting clear and shiny objects from this photo of strawberries. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board.
This is last night's demo painting. My aim was to show the painting of the reflections and refractions in the glass and jug. As you can see I didn't get time to cover the whole painting.
Painting stage 1
I continued to finish and refine the areas already painted.
Painting stage 2
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
By popular demand, this week I will be demonstrating painting figures in the landscape. It is quite a complex image and I don't plan on having a finished painting at the end of the night but what I hope you will find is that figures shouldn't be avoided they can bring life to your paintings. As you can see I have doubled up on the grid because of the detail, If you use the grid be careful not to get lost as you are drawing. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board I wouldn't recommend any smaller than this.
This is last night's demo painting. My aim was to show my approach to painting figures. I mixed a simple flesh tone out of mainly burnt sienna and using this I worked across all the figures painting all their flesh. Then starting from the left-hand side I painted their hair mixing colours as I went along. Then I repeated for their clothing. All the time making small adjustments to their heads. Then I started to work on the elements surrounding them. This is not my normal approach, if not demonstrating I would work from background to foreground.
Painting stage 1
I continued to paint the background and foreground keeping it fairly simple and editing out alot of the detail.
Painting stage 2
This is the palette I used for the painting, using just a simple 6 colour palette plus phthalo blue because I wanted to get the more aquamarine water colour. This is a messier palette than usual.
Figures Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
This week I have been asked to demonstrate painting trees. The key when painting trees is to look for the big shapes and textures. Also to observe the differences in hue between the various trees. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board.
This is last night's demo painting. As you can see I didn't intend to try and make a faithful copy but used the reference photo as inspiration, making the background simpler and darker to bring out the foreground trees, showing more of the water and changing the colour of the Left-hand tree.
Painting
This is the palette I used for the painting, using just a simple 6 colour palette.
Trees Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
This time I will be demonstraiting a still life arangement of oranges. I will be working from big shapes and gradually refining them. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board.
This is the result of last night's demo. At the time I thought I might rework it the following day, as it isn't a very faithful copy of the photo, but in the cold light of day, I quite like the spontaneity and roughness so I may keep it as it is. What do you think?
Painting stage 1
I decided to make just a couple of minor corrections but got a bit carried away as I decided the orange was a bit desaturated, mainly because I had used burnt sienna in my dark orange mix so instead I used magenta instead and came up with a much more vibrant dark orange. (unfortunately the stage one photo hasn't really captured the desaturated orange faithfully.) Whereas in the first session I used No.3 and 4 long flat brushes with this second pass I used a No. 1 long flat.
Painting stage 2
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
This time I will be demonstrating painting a London nighttime scene. Nocturnes present a few challenges, the value range is quite extreme it is mostly very dark with a few very bright highlights and very little in between. Hopefully, I will be able to adjust my camera to show the full range of colours in the painting this time. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstrating on a 10 x 8 board.
After last night's demo, the painting wasn't to my satisfaction the main problem was the sky was too dark to show off the buildings it also needed more refinement. This is the result of the first session.
Painting stage 1
I continued to overpaint a second layer, lightening the sky and adding more detail and refinement to the buildings. Whereas in the first session I used No.3 and 4 long flat brushes with this second pass I used a No. 1 long flat and a No. 2 rigger.
Painting stage 2
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
Last time I was asked if I could demonstrate a subject with a regular complex structure so this week I will be painting this thistle. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstration on a 10 x 8 board.
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. For this demo I used the following palette of colours Phthalo blue, Winsor Yellow, Magenta, Dioxazine Purple, Ivory black and Burnt Sienna. As usual, I premixed the colours and stuck with these mixes rather than trying to get a perfect match with the photo. I started with the big textures/structured and gradually worked to smaller details gradually refining the form.
thistle Painting
thistle Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
I demonstrated painting this wave alla prima. (It is one of my photos, you are welcome to print and paint from it.) I will be demonstration on a 12 x 8 board. (Not a standard size.)
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. For this demo I just used a simple 6 colour palette I diverged from my normal palette by using Raw Umber and Phthalo blue. As usual, I premixed the colours and stuck with these mixes rather than trying to get a perfect match with the photo. I wanted my brush strokes to mimic the direction and texture of the waves.
Wave Painting
Wave Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
I demonstrated painting this Landscape scene alla prima. (Photo ref Pixabay.com Valdas Miskinis). This scene you will be able to paint on any size you prefer. I will be demonstration on an 10 x 8 board.
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. For this demo I just used a simple 6 colour palette, looking at the colours I mixed during the painting you will be surprised how few colours I actually mixed. When I set out on this painting I said:- I wanted to capture the soft glow in the sky. - Because of the small scale, I would omit the turning mechanism. - I would struggle painting the foreground reeds alla prima. I was quite pleased with the glow in the sky I achieved. Painting the reeds wet in wet didn't really turn out how I would like, I think I would have got better results to let the painting dry and then apply the foreground reeds over the dry water. (I may touch it up at a latter date when dry.) Windmill Painting Windmill Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
I will demonstrate painting this Sunset scene alla prima. (Photo by kind permission of Pam McFarland). This scene you will be able to paint on any size you prefer. I will be demonstration on an 10 x 8 board so that I can get it done in the two hours.
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. For this demo I just used the three primary colours and tried to keep my colours as vibrant as possible. Sunset Painting Sunset Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
I will demonstrait painting this ostrich in an impasto technique, alla prima. (Photo by kind permission of Jan Kelly) I have placed a grid on the photo to aid drawing. These paintings are suited to the 6 x 6 inch boards but you can scale to any size you prefer. I will be demonstraition on an 8 x 8 board just so it is a bit clearer for the camera.
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. For this demo I simplified the couour strings I used so that all the colours worked together to produce an harmonious painting. Ostrich Painting Ostrich Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint this picture or your own project.
Monday evening
I demonstrated painting a sunflower in an impasto technique. (It is one of my photos, please feel free to copy it and print it.)
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo. Impasto painting is applying the paint thickly to produce a thick textured brush strokes to give a sculptural 3D quality to the paint surface. Sunflower Painting Sunflower Palette
Tuesday Morning
I will be running an interactive class, you can paint the sunflower or your own project.
Monday 6th April 7pm I demonstrated painting this woodland scene. (It is one of my photos, please feel free to copy it and print it.)
This is the palette I used and the painting I produced at the end of the demo Bluebell Painting Bluebell Palette
After letting it rest for a couple of days. I decided I didn't like it, it lacked depth and light. I modified my palette adding the purple grey greens plus expanding my range of bluebell colours. I then preceded to repaint the whole painting, which probable took another 2 hours. I'm still not 100% happy and if I were going to sell this I would make some further changes.
This is the painting I demonstrated on Tuesday. Oil on board 8x8 inches. Photo Ref. Ellie Kirkman. After the demo I carried on working at it:- I realised That I had the nose in totally the wrong place. So I corrected that. Worked some more dark into the dark areas which had got a bit greyed. Added a bit more of the cool string in the fur.
What have we learnt:- The big lesson was, the beauty of oil painting is, our painting isn't ruined unless we give up on it. The main aim of the lesson was to show how colour strings help solve the problem of making black objects not appear like a grey object. On a practical note I realised my webcam doesn’t do well at the extreme ranges of value i.e. Back and white I'll stick to more middle value topics in future.
You can see a clearer photo if you go to my facebook page. (Button on the bottom of this page).
This is the painting I demonstrated on Monday evening. The following morning I took a few minutes to dry brush a light white/orange to bring out the lights. This little oil painting (8 x 10 inches) is of Barney and Benji photo ref. Lola Roberts.
You can see a clearer photo if you go to my facebook page. (Button on the bottom of this page).