Hello 

Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #103,  Different Color Approach

Last Friday I had the pleasure of judging an exhibition put on by 2 local high schools. It is wonderful seeing young students take interest in the arts. At the exhibit I was told by some people at the exhibition that they liked the article that was written up about me in the local paper. At first I didn't have a clue as to what they were talking about. Later that evening I went on the internet to see the article they were talking about since I couldn't find the paper in local stores in the area. After I found it and read it I then remembered that 4 months ago I gave an interview to Sandra the writer. I didn't realize that she was writing the article for that local paper.
You can see the Article HERE ....make sure you put it to full screen and then you can scroll.

This weeks newsletter is all about experimenting and trying something a little different.

My Dillman's Most Important Workshop is coming up real soon, sign-up ASAP. Bring a group of friends like many of my students do and if you don't have a group then you will be joining in and becoming part of my group. Once a student of mine, always a student of mine... I let all my former students ask me any questions even after they have been in my workshop. It's just something I do for all my students, past and present. Get my Dillman's Workshop info HERE

Do you want to try and get into the National Watercolor Society's exhibition in October.... Prospectus is HERE

Happy Experimenting!

David

Yes to Class at the Civic Center in Libertyville on April 27th 
Yes to Class at The Studio in McHenry on April 29th

This week in my watercolor classes I will be talking about trying something a little different.

I always try to push my students out of their comfort zone so they can always learn something new.

In my classes I don't like it if my students are not learning something new every time they attend my class.
I know many students like to come to class because it gives them time to paint, this is great but I also want them to learn at least one thing every time they come to a class.

This week's lesson is to try to paint a scene using colors that are not the actual colors of the objects you are painting. Let me explain..... if you are painting a scene and the sky is blue, I want you to change the blue to something totally different. Use a color that doesn't make sense to use or use your favorite color just because you like it a real lot. If you were to paint a still life with an orange and a banana, I don't want you to make the orange orange and the banana yellow. try to be creative and try a different approach to picking your colors. This would be a great time to try totally different colors that you have never tried.

Now I have a feeling you want to know why you should do this, especially when I am always telling you to keep on painting until things become very natural for you and you don't have to think about how you are painting but you are thinking about what you are painting. Trying new things is never a bad thing and is something everyone at every level should try, if they want to grow as an artist. You could stick with the same style your whole life and that isn't a bad thing, trying something new will sometimes take your style to a new direction and make you grow even more as an artist.  

I am always trying new things, sometimes new colors, new papers but that doesn't mean I have to ditch what I already love using. One doesn't have to change what is already working for you, but make things interesting and try new things just to make things a little different once in a while.

David

This video below shows how I took a scene from my workshop in the Greek Islands last year and I am using colors that were not actually there. The sky was a rich blue like you would expect in a scene of the Greek Islands, but I tried to change all the colors and just work with values in this painting exercise.​​​​​​​