Today, during the Introduction to Painting class that I am teaching at Southern Oregon University, it became obvious that I could post the demo on the blog and it would assist the students in completing their homework, as well as possibly stir up some discussion about the best way to teach painting. It should be pointed out that I am completely skipping over the question of whether the blog is an effective arena for a painting class. (Click here to see Jacques de Beaufort's student-teacher-blog relationship, and here to read about Chris Jagers' proposal that his students keep blogs, rather than sketchbooks.)
We started with the basic color wheel. Twenty-five students created a perfect bell-curve of quality. I can't stress how much sloppy work does not mean expressive work. Anyway, these are two mixture squares that are to be completed for next Tuesday. My advice is to start by painting the mixtures between the given colors along the edges, and then the progressions along the diagonals. The tricky part is filling in the missing chromatic colors.
What we are doing is mixing our colors on a palette and applying them to the surface. We are exercising our eyes. We are learning the nuances of paint mixing. Matching colors is like tuning a guitar, after awhile, you don't even think about it. We are also learning about the qualities of a #4 flat brush. I've segmented the color mixing to an off-the-surface experience, while the third study (also due on Tuesday) will be mixed on the surface. It will be a surface that the students prepare themselves. I have supplied small panels of luan and they simply have to prepare them with gesso or eggshell white house paint.
Ah. . . the black to white polarity. Fish or Cut Bait? Fundamental stuff. An infinite scale exists between the polarities. This exercise is done on the surface and is a lesson in how one polarity can easily contaminate another as well as begin the appreciation for blending.
3 comments:
I tried having a blog for my drawing fundamentals class a couple of years ago. I had devised a cornucopia of visual resources, links, writings, etc, along with posting the assignments and lectures. At the end of the semester, I asked how many students had regularly visited it- 1 student out of 25. Lame. I had been so excited about the possibilities. Good luck.
I think this will prove to be a useful resource for us. I intend to look at it frequently (alright, I'll cut the brown-nosing).
Its obvious that its really hard to express everything that needs to be said about any given concept we cover within the three hours we have together in class. This is how I look at it: when speaking, its easy to unintentionally leave things out because the moment forces our thoughts forward and there isn't much room to look back at what already been said. I guess thats what I like about writing. The things that I try to communicate are much more static and can be analysed, reworked, or even shit-canned all together in order to get what I want across.
Anyway, I hope you continue to post these sorts on things. Thanks.
ಠ_ಠ
Steve,
Thanks for teaching our class at SOU, and for making your art blog accessible to the class --- well, in general, just the planet!!!
:-)
i'm going to make the monochromatic scales in color; as posted here. I have no idea how it will all turn out -- but i can say, that the tint (color) is perfectly discernable, by monitor, from here on my end.
Thanks!
ps/ i'm going to massively share, with my online friends, your online art collection. *yay*
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