In the previous post, I talked about the last painting in my sketchbook. I was excited about the idea. I almost did it before the last page but stopped myself in favor of sketchbook symmetry.
This is going to be one of those "Just how messed up is your brain and do many artists go through this?" posts.
I painted that last piece on August 12. I painted the carnival piece about a month later. Why couldn't I get myself to pick up the brush again? As near as I can figure, it was three things. First, the idea of finishing my sketchbook with that painting was fixed in my mind as an endpoint. Even though I had ongoing lessons at Schoolism, I had completed the book that started with my first painting of this self-improvement journey I started a year ago. Maybe it was a subconscious stop sign. On the other hand, this was probably the least of the three.
Secondly, the last painting turned out well, much better than my first page, but it wasn't as good as my previous painting of the mountain stream. Any other page gets a critique from me or at least a "Next time I'll try to --" But that stream not only still looks good to me but makes me want to get back in there and play with the illusion of water covered rocks again. I don't think it was a complete fluke. But there are definitely paint strokes that create an illusion I wasn't aware of at the time. Can I do it again? Or better, can I paint something completely different that I can be that positive about? What if I can't? So, it's a bit of a fear thing.
Finally, the next class assignment was completely out of my comfort zone. It was that photo of the County Fair after sunset. One advantage of having a yearly subscription to Schoolism is that you can take all the classes you want or skip around. One advantage of being retired is that I'm not trying to squeeze in classes around work or taking them to increase my employment potential. I love Nathan Fowkes work and learned plenty from his Landscape Sketching in Gouache class. But the goal of Nathan's class is to get you comfortable making quick sketches outside, from life. Between Covid lockdowns and 100˚F+ heat waves, I was not getting out much. And my current focus is not on painting quick sketches. So I had already decided to switch courses. But I knew I had to do that County Fair assignment because it didn't require going anywhere and I was scared of it.
Tons of people, complicated scene, dark, dark values, all things that weren't yet in my skill set. In his critique of other student work, he commented that no one was going as dark as the photo. I guess I could've gone darker but had trouble with the limited palette. There was no magic moment or revelation that got me painting again. Maybe just some internal shame. What was I going to do? Dump all my paints and stop?
The painting came out much more impressionistic than intended although that's exactly what is intended in the class. I did get some of the glow of the electric lights. And the suggestion of structures instead of detailing everything was fine. It wasn't that I was pleased at the end but it meant a lot that I survived.
That second painting is an assignment I gave myself. Although I found the location on Google Street View, it's actually a master copy of a painting by Daniel Aldana whose work I really like. He captures lighting in a way that reminds me of James Reynolds. Reynolds was an impressionistic painter that somehow captured the reality of a scene more than those who blend and smooth their strokes to chase photo realism.
I didn't want to put Daniel's painting on my page in case some sort of internet labeling linked it only to me instead of him. Anyway, I decided to try another master copy because the black and white ones I did a while back were a great morale booster for me. I tried scenes that I would never attempt on my own. I figured that's what I needed.
Except I'd do it in color.
That won't be hard.
It shouldn't have been hard but I made it hard. Master copies aren't supposed to be exact duplicates. Working through one should teach you about approaching the same challenges the original artist did. I learned but spent too much time trying to duplicate the exact tones and values of the original. There are places where I came close but many that I not only missed but put down several layers of paint getting to the wrong result. If I had done this painting from life, I'd be damned proud. You should definitely check out the link to Daniel's page and scroll down to see the original.
But I survived that too. Then James Gurney put out a new video about color triads and started a new Facebook group. That'll be in my next post.
And then this happened in my backyard...
Nice subject but damn. That's a lot of spots! --Tad
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