Blog

In Collage I had an illustration instructor (John Clapp) who gave me many analogies to think of. One of his sayings still resonates with me and I still tell it to my students. It is, "when in doubt.....squint." Squinting will help you simplify what you are looking at and help you to duplicate it onto paper or canvas.This will help keep it simple, especially in the beginning. When massing in all of the dark shapes, try squinting down so far to where you only see two tones (light and dark).

                                       
This is how the original scene appears.



This is what you'll see when you squint.
Notice the graphic shapes are easily seen.

Gesture in that dark shape, forget about the details, save that for last. As you progress in your painting or drawing squint less as the middle tones will appear, gesture those in but still keep it as simple as possible.


                                        
Dark-tones are painted in, leaving a                                     
simple road map for the mid-tones
and the final highlights.



The final painting!

Did I mention saving the detail to the very end? Note: If you feel that you are getting lost in the details in a certain area, scumble in a medium to dark tone in that spot and then pull out the high lights, the fix could be something as simple as that.

Last night I painted a quick study at a two hour little league game. This is a pleasurable challenge because it helps my observation skills especially when the players are not staying still. I'm forced to paint quickly. This discipline brings me back to my college days when we were to sketch on location and capture the gestures of the animals or people in their environments. Of course nothing is going to sit still. This really helped develop our skills, though it may have felt overwhelming at the time. 

Last week I took a student out to Duncan's Landing to paint in plein air. My student, “Cindy” is new to oil painting. She came out here from New York for a visit and we met for a one on one workshop at the ocean. This was our first time meeting.

Everything went great. She and her friend (Ellen) loved the location of this beautiful setting and really enjoyed the painting process, Cindy was eager to learn as much as possible. I provided all the painting supplies so she did not have to worry about carrying all of the gear on the plane.





My student came home with a painting that will remind her of a wonderful painting trip on the California coast. Thank you Cindy, it was a pleasure working with you.

Sterling Hoffmann is one of three featured Artists to Watch on page 47 in the latest issue of Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, the September/October issue!  You can see the article here. Pictured in the article is his painting Horse Barn from the Los Gatos Plein Air Paintout.

Check out Debra Joyce Dawson's blogg from the Door County paint out from last July. It gives a detailed summery of the event and is enjoyable to read. Well done Debra!

http://prismatic-palette.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-08-14T09%3A57%3A00-05%3A00