Tuesday 16 September 2008

Art Class - Week 2


Last nights art class seemed a bit more useful. This time I took something in to draw from life, these horse chesnuts (we call them "conkers") which have dropped a bit early, although Autumn definitely feels like it's here. So I did this small watercolour study which I was reasonably pleased with, with my usual "not quite there" feeling. Then Keith our tutor came over and explained about neutral black and using it as a 'glaze' - if you get the three primary colours in balance you achieve neutral black (and I didn't know that, so I've learned something at least!). So Keith comes along and demonstrates on my painting...and suddenly it looked so much better, it was kind of a revelation which sounds a bit extreme but it impressed me. I've often struggled with my work looking 'flat' and the shadows being somehow 'off ', particularly in painting which I'm not so confident in, but this helped. Now I need to practice it more so I'll be trying more painting out soon...

2 comments:

Kari Gibson said...

Mmm, it works well - I just love the colours we get at autumn and so fun to paint too!

Stephen Gardner said...

Nice one Andy, you've kept the colours very clean, I have a tendency to get a little muddy with watercolour. I look forward to seeing your next posting.