Hello
Welcome to the FLOAT-YOUR-PIGMENT Newsletter #222,
Spent this last weekend in the town of Duluth, Minnesota taking photos, teaching, and painting. I can see why some of the top name artists are from Duluth, this place has everything a watercolorist needs, Cityscapes, Landscapes, Water/Boats, Waterfalls, Bridges, Beaches...you name it they have it, including, one of the best dentist/artist in the country, Dr Renier my new dentist who just so happens to be a watercolorist. It must be something in the water.
Starting this morning there will be a workshop by the amazing John Lovett in my Studio/Classroom in McHenry. The Mainstreet Art Centre in Lake Zurich is using my studio/classroom this week until Friday. I welcome both John and Frankie to my studio and hope my studio will work well for them.
I looking for a few more students to join me up at Dillman's this September for my watercolor workshop that will have a lot of new things happening in my teachings. You will get a chance to work watercolor on the new Black Stonehenge watercolor paper, You will get to try the new Holbein Ballpoint Masking Fluid pen, I will give you a chance to try 2 different Yupo papers. I will be letting you try a bunch of new colors that I have from Holbein that I bet you will love. All these extra
materials I will be giving you so no need to go out and get them for the class.
Go HERE to sign up for my Dillman's class this coming September.
Yes to Class at the Civic Center in Libertyville, Thursday, August 29th1pm to 3:30pm
Yes to Class at the BeckerArt Gallery in McHenry, Saturday, August 31st 9:00 am to 11:30 am
|
I was recently asked what a high key painting is and it dawned on me that I have never really explained that term to my students. One reason I don't bring it up very often is that is a harder way for an artist to paint. When painting a high key painting you are painting with values that range from a #1 value to a # 5 or 6 value. You are eliminating the use of really dark colors. If you do this kind of painting right you can get an amazingly soft feel to your paintings.
One master artist I always recommend to see what high key paintings look like is Sorolla, he did so many beautiful high key painting, like the beach scene below of the kids on the beach. In this painting, you will see a lot of soft, light colors and hardly any dark's which makes this an excellent high key painting.
To make this work you have to have a simple value pattern but just not have the contrast of a really dark dark. If you squint at this painting below you will see that even though it is high key the value pattern is there, with the children and the reflections in the sand being the dark's and the background being the lights, it's a simple design.
Many pastel artists use a high key in their works because they work with soft pastel colors and opt to use soft colors instead of contrast to get their center of interest to stick out.
Go ahead and try a high key painting!
David
|
WORKSHOPS and DEMOS in 2019
Cheap Joes WORKSHOP, Boone NC, Sept. 9th - 13th CANCELED
Dillman's Watercolor WORKSHOP, Lac du Flambeau, WI, Sept. 23d - 26th
For Information Click Here
McHenry Community College CLASSES October 2, 9, 16, 23 Class is SOLD OUT
LaGrange Art League WORKSHOP, LaGrange, IL, October 18th - 20th
For Information Click Here
Products of the Week
Grey scale finder you could use with trying to paint High Key!
|
The product I'm posting this week is a greyscale finder along with a few other things that will help you to find greyscales and colors and a viewfinder to help you when painting plein-air
HERE on AMAZON
|
|
|
|
|
|
Asked: How many colors should I have on my palette?
Answer: I had an instructor once that said you really only need 3 colors on your palette, Red, Blue, and yellow the three primaries and with those three you can make the secondaries and many others. That's okay to try once in a while when learning but with all the wonderful colors on the market I say get as many as your palette can hold.
My palette holds about 24 colors but I just recently saw a Holbein set of 108 watercolors, how cool would it be to have a palette that holds 108 colors... I would feel like a pastel artist who always have 100s of colors out to use.
I do recommend trying limited palette for beginners starting to paint in watercolors but when you have the basics covered I say get all the colors you love and put as many on your palette as it can hold.
|
|
|
|
|
John Lovett is an artist from Australia that is teaching in my studio this week. I will write a full report next week to let you know how it went.
|
|
|
|
Shop Amazon by clicking the logo below to help me fund this newsletter... Thank You! For any other info please email me at david@davidrbecker.com
|
|
|
