Monday, March 1, 2010

A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step.

What's the title of this post got to do with these two paintings? Not much. I just like this old and oh-so-true ancient Chinese proverb! I"m posting these two 8"X12" acrylic paintings of mine, because this is an assignment in my college acrylic painting class that I'm teaching this semester. I promised to post both paintings for my students so that they would have my example to look at as they work on theirs. We are painting from a reference photo that I found on the photo site, Flickr. Last Saturday, I showed everyone how to quickly lay in (with a big flat brush) the sky and field. Then I demoed how to "block in" the foreground trees with a dark violet/green. The trees literally looked like blocks. Then we blocked in a light yellow/green for the sunlite portions of the foliage. Finally, I painted in "sky windows" to "feather out" the trees and give them that natural tree or foliage look. My students have the option of laying in a meandering path of their own design. To finish this scene, they have to add more detail in the foreground and paint in a soft background tree line. Anyway... hereya go, my Art 334 students... something to look at while you are painting. What a pleasure teaching all of you! Every Saturday, you come to class bringing such great enthusiasm!!!

14 comments:

Meera Rao said...

Thanks for the explanation -if only I could 'watch' you paint.....

Autumn Leaves said...

Great job succinctly highlighting the process, David. Love the proverb; it does indeed fit the paintings.

Elizabeth Seaver said...

These are wonderful. Lucky students to have you for a teacher!

David Lobenberg said...

Meera, one of these fine days I need to make a video of me painting and this scene would be a good one.

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks, Liz.

Celeste Bergin said...

I envy your students--I'd love to have seen these painted!

Ginny Stiles said...

I sure wish you would have someone do a short video of you painting!

David Lobenberg said...

Thank you Celeste and Mary.

David Lobenberg said...

On my list of things to do, Ginny.

Sujit Sudhi said...

Can't think of a better title.
Its amazing how you make painting look so simple.

And thanks a ton for the visit to my blog.

Barbara Muir said...

These are great David. Lucky students to have you as a teacher.

Take care,

Barbara

dominique eichi said...

Great demo and class project. Love it.

David Lobenberg said...

My pleasure, Sujit!

David Lobenberg said...

Thanks, Barbara and Dominique.