French Mademoiselles and Jim's Pitcher

WOW! Great painting day. Good thing, too because tomorrow I work my last day at Poor Richard's Co-op. Don't know if I will leave any paintings there or not, it could go either way with the owners. Artist Leslie Newman came over this afternoon and we painted together.


I am still enough of a beginner to be amazed when a painting looks really good and I am not sure if it is finished or not. I'm beginning to learn that they rarely are finished...and what to do to take them to the next level. Jim's Pitcher is a great example. Tim emailed me the next day and said the following:

Vicki, well here's what i think judging from pictures which you know I hate to do. I think the answer is to add warms only to the part of the pot where direct light hits. I'd say, let the rest stay or move more into the cools despite the effects the warm(brown) box must play upon the pitcher. Essentially, just fiddle gently to warm and paint thicker that upper portion where hard light hits. I like the pot by the way-that must be your friend Jim who made it? 

 

As usual, it's warm/cool thick/thin soft/hard edges that are the answer for the "the next" level.

 

TT

I understood what he was saying, but had no clue HOW to do it. So I packed it up and took it to class last week. After a great discussion Tim asked if he could do a demo using this painting...Uh, YEAH. First thing he did was to scrape down some of the background darks that had gotten icky.

Then he did a light glaze of Van Dyck Brown to re-state the strong shadows on the pitcher...then keyed the light spots. 15 minutes! Look at the difference... 

Stage one

Stage two

I worked today on it, trying to remember his instruction. Here is the end of the session:

On to painting session #4 (I think) on the little French Girls Flemish method. Here is where I left off last session:

And where I left off today...just working on the main character's skin tones...

It's coming along! AND, I'm enjoying the process immensely. Next session begins with little butcher girl's face and hands. And then fix that nasty apron.