Francesco Fontana Day Three

After the usual buffet breakfast with lots of fresh fruit, we went back to the village of Xativa.  We found a nice spot in a kind of town square where we painted.  The scene was white umbrellas against some old buildings and a glimpse of a car headed away from us.  Here's my sketch:

I got the car a little too big, and fell short of a good value pattern, but I began the painting. This is the result:

Lesson learned:  I needed a good thumbnail value sketch to work from, and I really didn't have it.   As Francesco Fontana says, if you have a good sketch, you can use it to complete the painting.  I probably could improve this one by adding some details---or cropping, but I think I will just say it was a valuable lesson and not spend any more time on it.  I also never really captured the darks under the umbrella.  It was pleasant, though, to be out and painting in Spain!

In the afternoon, we worked in the studio on color schemes, such as developing a painting from a prevailing color, its complement and one other color.  Francesco again talked about how to improve dark colors.  Mixing a color with its complement will darken it, but it will not be black.  Francesco had to tell us this many times!  I am still working on it.

Art Holiday in Spain, Day Two

In the morning we went to the local village Beniganim to work on site.  We walked around and enjoyed the village flavor.  Our hostess Loli seems to know everyone, so that was fun.  We settled on painting a church that is historic because it began as a Mosque in the 14th Century.  The name I wrote down was Christo de la Sangre--Christ of the Blood.  I did the above sketch and I am pretty happy with it.  Francesco explained tonal drawing, which is sketching in the various values as areas and then drawing the lines of the subject.  I like that idea and plan to use it more.  He also showed us how to place a perspective line and vanishing point.   We also saw Loli's art gallery in town.  Again, I didn't get to doing an actual painting, but I did a watercolor sketch:

 

I love the idea of the value sketch when painting on site.  If the sun moves, you can refer back to your sketch.  I didn't fully succeed, but it is progress.

We went back to the villa, ate a huge lunch of paella with chicken and rabbit and took a siesta.  In the afternoon, we went to a castle in Xativa that also dates back to the Moorish occupation.  It was a beautiful location, and very peaceful.  We found a comfortable spot to make our tonal sketches.  This is mine:

I started a painting, but didn't get very far with it when it was announced that the site was closing and we had just ten minutes to leave.  We packed up and left.  I hoped for a time when I could actually paint that scene....which might be difficult from the sketch.   However, I did get some photos, too.

Art Holiday at Dalvaro Art with Francesco Fontana: Day One

I recently attended an amazing art workshop.  Although I didn't produce anything worth posting, I got a lot of good ideas and feel that my art will be improved....significantly.  The was  location was Las Orquideas in Beniganim, Spain.  Our hostess was Loli Alvaro, and the workshops are Dalvara Art Holidays.  There will be more about that in my travel blog   http://carolynstravelog.blogspot.com, though it isn't there yet.

Francesco Fontana was the tutor.  He is a classic watercolorist with an interest in painting plein air.  I had been familiar with his work and been on his mailing list for a few years.

The workshop began with an overview of Francesco's work.  He demonstrated how to plan a painting using a value sketch to simplify the subject, suggesting that the value sketch should have three to five values. Of course, I have been told to make a value sketch many times, and sometimes I do.  This demonstration and the exercise following it showed me why it is so important.  As Francesco pointed out, a good value sketch provides a plan to evaluate progress.  If it is done well, a painting can be made using the value sketch without regard to the subject.   This was a little hard at first but, but the end of the week, I was a believer. Above left is Francesco's demonstration of a thumbnail value sketch of a vase in the window.  Another tip was that cell phone camera in the monochrome mode can be used to clarify values.

The next phase is to determine whether the colors are predominately warm or cool and then, using a limited palette (more about that later) make the painting. Francesco made the small watercolor sketch on the right, using his value sketch rather than the vase itself.  He explained that the fewer brush strokes you use, the more effective your painting will be.

We then had a big beautiful Spanish lunch and a siesta.  When we reconvened, we went into the garden to practice value sketching and painting a composition with five elements.  I did some passable sketches, but didn't get to the painting stage.   I didn't keep the sketches.  I felt I would do better as the week progressed.

Something Kind of Fun

My art group, Capital Hill Arts League, has a fun show coming up.  We all signed up to do a painting based on the cover of a song.  My song is "On the Road Again."  Since I had been reading The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test, I decided to paint the bus, "Further." This is the bus Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters took across America.    The driver is Neal Cassady, who evidently did most of the driving.

This painting is 22" x 28," so it is pretty big and kind of "in your face." I think, though, that was how it was when the Merry Pranksters were on the road!