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Day 11 (28/10/21)
- I watched An Introduction to Mark Making of the Russian Drawing course, with the idea of spending more time drawing. I spent about 30 minutes doing the recommended exercises.
- 1.5 hour sketch of a mountain scene, reasonable size (~A3). I struggled with the value relationships and the subtle shifts that make for convincing depth of field.
Practice Time: 2hrs
Day 12 (29/10/21)
- I watched Huston’s second chapter of Creative Compositions.
- I spent a short amount of time practising mark-making from the Russian Drawing course.
- I painted a small sketch from yesterday’s sketch. The day is getting dark so early now that it’s making photographing these pretty difficult!
Practice Time: 2hrs
Day 13 (30/10/21)
- I watched How to Measure From Observation from the Russian Drawing course.
- I read the chapter on painting inside from Landscape Inside and Out
- I drew some thumbnails, a rough value study, and then mostly painted a still life:
Like last Saturday, I had a lot of fun with this far more ambitious still life. Last week was just a single pear; this week involved more objects, the transparency of the jug, plus the reflection of the mirror, all on a larger ~A3 size. It was definitely a stretch and a challenge, at one point I thought I had ruinously bit off more than I could chew. The main idea of the sketch was to create visual interest by having a yellow/green squash atop a red book – complementary colours – and the various analogous colours the reflective jug/mirror would create. I thought this would carry over into landscapes well.
For me, I like the composition, the abstract quality of the jug, the mirrored effect, and the thick application of paint. Overall, it sort of reads that someone enjoyed the process of making it – if you don’t look too deeply into any one item, then the overall impression works. Its main weakness, in my opinion rests with the book/squash. It was a challenge to make a plain red book visually interesting; and I scraped away and retried the squash a couple of times. They just don’t sitwell together. I also relied on a lot of broken brushwork and near-random mark-making throughout simply because I can’t easily depict the folds or text of the cloth. It was a cop out of sorts. I probably could have saved time, and paint, with a more fully realised value sketch.
Practice Time: 3.5 hours
Hi Jac,
I like the color and brushstrokes.
I think the main problem is the drawing … perspective of the book is off so squash is hanging over it ( the colors are nice tho).The pink round shape (handle?) on the jug is looking odd ( I would loose it).
If the jug is transparent, see through (inside of it) should be darker, that will help with highlights as well.And there should be more shadow from jug.
Overall, very nice.
I am a student as well, so take my suggestions with the grain of salt 🙂
Very helpful, thanks Julia! I appreciate the feedback immensely, it’s priceless. I’m glad you’re keeping an eye on the thread 🙂 what gives me a bit of confidence is that I’m starting to recognise some of the errors you noted. The floating squash being one of them, ha. The drawing/perspective of the book worsened as I kept reworking it to try and make the plain red-ness of it more harmonious and less garish. I also think the squash floats because the form doesn’t darken in value enough as it turns – but I tried so many times to improve it, only ever making it worse, so I eventually just succumbed to leaving it as it was.
Weirdly, the lack of shadow from the jug and the pinkish handle, was actually how it looked to me. The room was south-facing, but the mirror threw a lot of light back into the jug that just seem to eliminate its shadow and reflect the red into the jug. I was tempted to “fix” it by painting how I thought it should be – I exaggerated the squash/book shadow for instance – but ended up just going with how it looked for the jug. This differing treatment does create a lack of unity.
Thanks again, keep any thoughts coming! 🙂
Day 14 (1/11/21)
- I watched the third chapter of Huston’s creative compositions on Affinity, Contrast, and Pacing in Landscape Composition.
- I watched how to draw geometric forms from the Russian Drawing course.
- Eh, I tried to work on a landscape sketch – going into it with three specific goals, but it just seemed to go wrong straight away. So after an hour or so I called it quits and wrote it off. I’m not really sure why it went badly. I have been struggling with thin wispy forms (e.g. branches); big structural masses seem to come more easily than fine detail. Anyway, I need to reflect on it some more. I might scrape it off and try again.
Not a productive day!
Practice Time: 2h
Day 15 (01/11/21) (The real 1st Nov, the last post should have been 31!)
Very little time to practice today…
- I watched how to draw geometric forms from Russian Drawing.
- I practised drawing simple shapes; boxes, cylinders, and cones – filling a handful of A3 sheets.
- Number one thing I learned was that ovals and ellipses aren’t the same thing **mind blown**
I’ll probably spend more time over the next few days with some of these fundamental exercises – my hope is that it’ll carry over into better landscapes. How exactly? Not totally sure.
Practice Time: 1.5hrs
Day 16 (02/11/21)
Another quiet day practice-wise. I have felt unproductive since Saturday with a few stresses at work draining my energy. I’m trying to remember that doing something is better than nothing; that the learning process isn’t linear.
- I watched Russian Approach to Light and Shadow, I’m enjoying the course though I’m not sure I’ll stick with it for all ~100 hours!
- I practised by filling a few A3 pages of cubes in perspective + shadow. It’s really quite relaxing, but I need to get back to landscapes!
Practice Time: 1.5h
Day 17 (03/11/21)
- Watched a section of Russian Approach to Light and Shadow on drawing prisms.
- Drew some cubes and prisms, filled a sheet or two.
Practice Time: 1h
Day 18 04/11/21
Have I officially broken my 100 days of landscapes goal with all this drawing simple forms?! I’ve done as much as I can today as I have language lessons on a Thursday. Truth be told, my energy levels have been really low the last few days. I’ll hopefully get back to painting / landscapes on the weekend.
- I drew a few pages worth of cylinders from the Russian Drawing assignment.
Practice Time: 1.5h
Just wanted to say ‘Hi’ and let you know that I’ve enjoyed reading your notes and looking at your paintings – many lovely works! I know it can feel unproductive when the results are not what you expect, but it’s all part of the learning experience – you are figuring out what doesn’t work. Not sure what size of canvas you’re working with. I was just introduced to creating little 4″x6″ oil sketches (“quick studies”) based on photo references you pull up on your phone. The small format forces you to forego detail, and the effort is so minimal that you don’t feel that bad if things don’t quite work out. It’s a nice way to get exposed to a variety of landscape challenges. If the photo is decent, you pick up on things like value composition, interesting color combinations, texture, etc. Anyway, keep up the good work, and I hope to see more of your landscapes soon!
Hello Vera, thank you for stopping by and your kind words of encouragement!
I always enjoy the process, regardless of whether the results turns out as planned. The only time I really feel unproductive is when I simply don’t make the time to practice, which has been the case the last few days 🙂
I see you started Todorovitch’s portrait painting class. I only did the first unit on monochrome painting, I’d love to move onto colour at some point.
Best wishes, thanks again!
Jac
Day 19 05/11/21
- Finished the chapter of Russian Drawing on light & shadow
- Worked on a few pages of spheres.
Practice Time: 1.5h
Day 20 06/11/21
- Finished the last chapter of Landscape Inside and Out. Great book, highly recommended. There was a final section on ‘assessing your work’ which I think could usefully be an entire chapter (and NMA lesson!). It listed a selection of objective and subjective criteria to self-assess. I thought them so useful, I’ve written them next to my colour wheel for quick reference.
- Path – how does your eye move through the painting?
- Centre of Focus – D0 you find yourself settling on the area you intended as the focus? Do other areas content for your attention?
- Composition – Does the painting hold together as a balance arrangement of values, colours, shapes, and movement. Turn the painting upside or view in a mirror to check.
- Edges – Does the edges describ the physical qualities of the objects represented?
- Unity – Is there a dominant idea, shape, colour, value, or direction of visual movement that expresses your idea?
- Variety – is there ample contrast that adds vitality to the composition?
- Idea – does the painting communicate your vision, the idea that make you want to paint the subject?
- The Hunan Element – Does the arrangement evoke the senses, move the spirit, reveal the soul?
- Emotion.- how did you feel about the subject? Does the painting reveal this?
- I challenged myself to complete a dozen composition thumbnails before starting a landscape from a reference photo because I’m a bugger for just diving into the first composition I think of. I used the templates in Edge Payne’s Composition of Outdoor Painting for ideas.
- I sketched a landscape from a reference photo I took of a nearby farm.
Practice Time: 3h
Day 21 0 7/11/21
Three weeks – not bad going!
- I watched a lesson on creating meaning in your composition from Creative Compositions with Mr. Huston. It’s brilliant stuff, too much to take in during one passive viewing.
- I got outside and painted my third landscape en plein air. Thoroughly enjoyed it. It’d be good to apply some of the self-assessment criteria I listed yesterday, but I’m much too tired now to think straight.
- I also snuck in a portrait study ahead of doing a monochrome painting tomorrow. It’s been a while since I’ve done any portraits, so it was a good reminder of some basics.
Practice Time: 4h
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