Tuesday, May 24, 2011

whats going

so i read and re-read again the notes compiled by those who knew and learned from sargent, you know the one in .pdf format floating around the web...he said this in regards to a study one of his students had left him for critique:

"I think your study shows great progress -- much better values and consequently greater breathe of effect with less monotony in the detail. I still think you ought to paint thicker -- paint all the half tones and general passages quite thick -- and always paint one thing into another and not side by side until they touch. There are a few hard and small places where you have not followed this rule sternly enough."




I considered this in my paintings and decided to try out this "rule". It's a little unnerving at first, painting the hair right into the face and the face right back into the hair, but it puts you totally in control of your edges. It also works wonderfully with considering your largest masses first; I'm not worrying about whether im 'staying within the lines' or not, im just painting the shadow shape under the nose in one stroke and then painting the light around it back into it, then out again until I get the look I want. He also said not to starve your palette, so...SPLIRT, thats way more paint then I'll need i think...I do have paint left but when i have that much at the offset it makes you wanna mush it around and make lots of it. Sargent said to paint passages "quite thickly", so, i did, and painted them all into eachother; its great fun, much more fun then just rendering...

anyway, i dont know why i chose those colors, i was bored mainly so i wanted to make it interesting
i want to try this from life, i didnt have any reference for this "study", if you can call it that, just out of my head unfortunately

i think ill make a new post with a better image that isnt lopsided, thats the only way i could get as little glare as possible

goodnight

1 comment:

  1. welcome to the dark side, where paint runs thick and fast.

    this is how I do my oils now. I can't look back. get into George's classes, hang around the man as much as possible!

    he made me fearless with oils. with all my art really.

    you can't screw up when you paint this way. so long as your temperature and value is right, there is no such thing as "mud"!

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