Winters Workshop was a HOOT!

This past weekend I conducted a plein air painting workshop in Winters, Ca. The workshop was specifically about painting streetscapes and solving the problems which are typical of this genre.

Street scenes, store fronts and architecture present challenges like perspective drawing and simplifying and organizing visual clutter. It's hard enough to paint them in the comfort of your own studio, but outside, from direct observation... it takes the challenge to a whole new level. Not to mention dealing with the elements (the sun, the wind, the noise...) and spectators who want to tell you about their aunt who also paints. But in watercolor. She paints flowers mostly, but she did this beautiful portrait of her grandkids one time and won an award for it. Do you use photographs? (Hello, we're painting en plein air right before your eyes!)

No, I'm exaggerating. People in Winters that we encountered were all very nice and pleasant, and they really seemed to enjoy having a bunch of artists paint their town. 

Anyway, but yes, painting the streetscape  is difficult and I did what I thought was the best way to help the students tackle the problems; Simplified value studies. I had them pick out a scene that they wanted to paint, then had them do a two value b/w study, and then a three value b/w study. Really understanding the difference between the two and three value studies was key to organizing the painting's structure, as well as having them realize just how little information you really need to include, in order to convey a sense of place and light.

I know some of them didn't want to do the b/w studies but I hope they saw, by the  time they got to the full color version of the same scene, that indeed the value studies were enormously helpful, not just in designing the a painting, but in learning hot to see and think about a complex subject such as a street scene.  

I certainly saw that the value studies helped, because they produced some very good final paintings which were organized and simplified with intent. Not sure if the students realized this, because just about none of them had ever painted a street scene before, and certainly not en plein air, meaning they had no prior experience against which to compare their results and experiences.

Nevertheless I felt the workshop was very successful. I hope the students had a good time too and they went home with new knowledge~ 

Below are my paintings that I did earlier in the week (before the workshop). I went out to Winters to scope out locations and did a few paintings to familiarize myself with the views and the light.

Finding a good location for workshops is not an easy thing. If I were by myself painting, I could set up just about anywhere. But when you have a group, the requirements for a suitable location is more stringent. We have to have safe parking close by, (preferably free), good views appropriate for the workshop subject matter, good vantage points, open shade under which to stand,  open shade under which to sit/ stand during a lecture/demo, restrooms, some place to do a group crit, lunch spots, and a plan B for adverse weather. 

Our Winters location met nearly all of these requirements, so I really enjoyed conducting a workshop there. I will definitely look into doing it again~

Color Exercise

A couple of weeks ago in my beginning oil painting classes at SLC we learned more about mixing color. Most everybody struggles in the beginning to get their mixing skills to a point where they can easily mix a value and color for the painting they are working on. This usually comes with just lot's and lot's of painting, but you can do a few color mixing exercises to help you learn.
This exercise is one of the many simple tools out there to get you started. In some art schools you do this kind of exercise using many colors, for weeks and weeks, before you even begin to paint. We used the everyday paint tube colors that are out on our palette, starting with the warm and moving around to the neutrals. You can do it any way you like. Just begin at the top with white, then, using your first color (yellow) paint the block along the top in the same order and along the left side. The idea is to meet the color in the middle, then add white. Continue with the next color, only this time and on all of the following colors, you will be mixing the color next in line, going across and down first. Then again mix the colors down the left side with the ones along the top, only this time you add white to the mix. You will find that the lower colors at the diagonal line from the starting point and below will be your tints and above that pure color mixes.
After a while you will really start to enjoy the process and look forward to what the next tube color will do when mixed with the next.
You will find yourself getting to the value and color you are looking for faster the next time you paint. Try it! **If you paint your graph on a piece of loose canvas you can roll it up after it dries and easily carry it with you to class.

Recent Figure Sketches

Between taxes (got hosed), the flu (got beat up), and the kids being home from school for Spring break (got milk?), I really haven't done any real work in the last month.  When I don't paint, I get cranky. But this time I was kind of resigned to my unproductive state (after all, there wasn't much I could do about it) and I managed to not stress out so much. Still, each day that I don't draw or paint, I can feel my chops atrophying so I was eager to get back to the easel.

These sketches I'm posting today are from open sessions and also my figure class, all fairly recent. All are between 30 minutes and an hour, and painted on 9 x 12 sheets of Duralar.

The top two poses are the same. I just moved my easel to a different spot. In our open sessions, we usually have just one long (3 hr) pose, so I just move around to get my short poses. That way everyone else can have his / her three hour pose.

Mylar takes some getting used to, and it force you to paint thicker. Or rather, the painting looks like it's painted thicker than it actually is. Because the surface is smooth, none of the paint is lost to the texture of the surface as it does when painting on canvas.

This also means you can't utilize the texture of the canvas to your advantage. It's just a very different feel. Best to work with materials' characteristics and not fight it.

Duralar  is very similar to mylar or acetate, but made of polyester. Painting on it is also very much like painting on vellum, but unlike vellum, it doesn't tear or buckle so I prefer it.

This here is the initial stage of the sketch, just a brown transparent block in of the darks/shadows. It's the same pose as the painting directly above it, but it's not the same exact painting. I did two from the same spot and stopped this one after the initial block in because I liked the look of it and thought to use it as an example for my students.

Often I leave my sketches unfinished because...well, because they're just sketches. I'm usually studying some specific aspect, (color relationship between light and shadow, for example) and once I got the information I need, there's no point in going further. 

This model has very striking features. As my driving force behind figure drawing or painting is gesture, it is second nature to accentuate, emphasize, or exaggerate gesture in every line. Not just the overall flow of the body, but in small parts (curve of the pronator, the angle of the brow, etc) as well. And when I paint heads, it approaches caricaturing. 

I used to think this wasn't a "proper" way to paint likenesses (after all most caricatures and cartoons we see in the media poke fun at the person's features and are far from dignified) until I came across a Sargent portrait juxtaposed against a photo of the sitter, uncannily from the same angle. I realized just how much Sargent pushed the character of the model's features, sometimes to a undeniably to a point of caricature. And yet, the painting was perfectly dignified, not an ounce of irony or ridicule was detected (at least not by me).

I learned that exaggeration was OK, and that many a great portrait painter were in fact great caricaturists, and that it's possible to paint caricatures without compromising the dignity and humanity of the sitter. The great ones are able to do it, anyway.

The other important "tip" for painting heads I learned in school and I in turn emphasize when I'm teaching, is this; "Don't render the features. Sculpt them."

That is to say, try to think about the process as if you were carving out the structure out of a piece of wood or clay. Don't make it a collection of small "named"parts. (eyes, lips, etc)  We do this carving thing by modulating value, and we go from the general to the specific. Big shapes to the small. It helps to use as few values as possible, and make variations within big shapes only after "the big sculpt" looks like a head.  Sounds like what I did with the cityscape simplification? That's because it's exactly the same. In fact the subject matter is irrelevant. This applies to the general way of seeing and thinking about interpreting the visual world, so it makes no difference whether you're looking at a busy traffic scene or a pretty head.

One of my instructors often said "bake the cake first before you decorate it!" In other words, don't belabor over a perfectly realistic eye before establishing it's structural context. A beautiful eye doesn't look so good if it's an inch below where it should be, or if the head in which it sits is painted like a flounder.

Here's another sketch of the same model. The gestural lines of her pointy features are mimicked (imposed upon the design) in her body / shirt. This is not an accident, but a conscious decision on the design.

Some other sketches pinned to my "wall of studies".  I have good ones as well as bad ones on my wall. Even the bad ones are useful and instructive, as they serve as a reminder of what not to do. They helps me to identify bad habits because after a while, patterns develop and I can see what I'm doing consistently (good and bad) whereas I may not notice them in each individual sketch. 

Recognizing "trends" in my painting is one of the key ways of understanding my own identity.

Homework from Landscape Class

A couple of months ago (has it been a couple of months already?!) I posted a challenge on my blog whereby I provided a reference photo and invited readers to do a painting from it. Much to my surprise and delight I got over sixty responses from all over the world! I decided to do something on a smaller scale (until I figure out a more efficient way to manage such a large volume of communication), and so I did a similar thing for my In-studio Landscape painting class.

I gave them the above photo, and asked everyone to do a painting from it. They had one week (although, true to form, some were done in a few hours just before class. Brings back memories of my school days haha~)

Anyway, the students brought them in last night, and I have to say, everyone did a fine job of analyzing, interpreting and executing their own solutions to the problem. I'm prouda yous guys and gals~

It's always interesting to see how others solve the same problems differently, and having all these paintings side by side and comparing solutions was extremely insightful and I think, instructive. Many have expressed how they'd do it differently if they had to do it again, and that kind of mental exercise  contributes to improving one's skill surely and steadily.

The very last image is mine, which I did as a class demo after everyone did theirs. I didn't want to do my demo before everyone did their versions because I didn't want anyone to try and just copy the execution. It's important to distinguish solving a problem on your own and merely copying someone else's process. The former requires you to really think about what needs to be done and why, and the latter only requires a steady hand.  If you develop your thinking skills you can apply them to other paintings, but if you're just focused on how the instructor did a specific painting, chances are you will only be able to do that particular painting, because you didn't need to think about the whys of the decision making.

Of course, for the beginning painter, nothing is more instructive than copying a process so I'm not categorically denying that way of learning, but at some point one needs to start solving one's own visual problems and if you don't develop your "solving skills", you'll be a beginner forever. Nobody wants that!

If you're not in my class but would like to try this exercise, go right ahead~  You can post your efforts on the school's Facebook page.

I'm planning to do this type of homework for my class more often, may be even regularly.  Come back to the blog or the Facebook page often to check in on our progress!

California Art Club 101st Gold Medal Exhibition

City Dwellers, 24 x 36 inches, oil on linen

I'm headed down to L.A. this weekend for the gala opening of the California Art Club's 101st Gold Medal Exhibition. 

I must admit I haven't been very active (OK, not active at all) in various clubs and associations in the past, and I've been told that I need to step it up. So I decided to get off my butt and start entering some juried shows. 

I'm actually very excited about being in this one not only because the prestige associated with the California Art Club, but I get to go and meet a lot of great artists whose work I've admired for a long time, but never have had the chance to meet. Plus I get to see their wonderful paintings all in one place, up close and personal. I'll be sure to come away inspired and with new ideas, too. 

On Sunday, I'm planning to watch Steve Huston's demo, which is going to be a real treat. Steve was my first teacher at Art Center way back in the eighties, before he was a famous fine artist. I had just been rejected from the degree program at Art Center, and decided to take some night classes there to tighten up my admissions portfolio. Steve was the instructor for the first class I took, which was either rendering or a portfolio workshop. (I can't remember)  

Back then he was doing a lot illustration work, and he would bring in his work sometimes to show us students. I remember my jaw dropping when he brought in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 video cover art. It was just so freakin' cool and really defined for me the difference between a wannabe (me) and a professional.  

A year later I got accepted into the full time program, and I had him again for a head drawing class. I wasn't even close to being ready to absorb all that he taught, but still I learned a ton and was constantly inspired.

Anyway, I am looking forward to watching him do his thing again. 

Just us and the Fair Oaks Village chickens (everywhere!)

In my Tuesday "Controlling The Flood" watercolor class this week, we sketched outdoors in the village park. I think the five of us sketched some keepers with pencil, Sharpie, Tombow, and Waterbrush. What a GREAT way for us plein air watercolorists to practice our craft and do prelim. painting studies! I will be offering a Tombow/Waterbrush workshop this summer.

Plein air sketching here we come!

Rain, rain, rain, and do we need it! Next Tuesday, however, my watercolor class heads out to explore Fair Oaks Village and to watercolor sketch it, chickens and all. Weather forcast? Sunny! We will be sketching using a Niji Waterbrush, Pencil, Sharpie and Tombow pens. Some of the sketches will be in blazing black and white and some will be in technicolor like the two above from my archive. I'll post the results in two weeks.

Collector's Insights - Eva and Gerry

Here's Eva and Gerry's take on the art of collecting. It's fascinating to hear and understand how a collector and a painting find eachother.  Thanks Eva, Thanks Gerry~

My husband, Gerry, and I have purchased several types of art through the years including: pottery, fused glass, oil paintings, acrylics, pastels and watercolors. We normally purchase only original art that is signed. 

What attracts us to the pieces? It could be several things.  We like the art. We know and like the artist.  We like the style and subject.  I have even purchased several pieces to study the artists’ technique. 

For example, we purchased two of Susan Sarback’s original oil paintings.  I wanted her art because I have followed her work for years, we respect her as an artist and instructor, I have taken classes and workshops with her, her prices are extremely reasonable, and we know she is one of the best colorist painters today.  We also believe her work is collectable and will increase in value.  

It was difficult for me to decide what I wanted since I think all of her work is beautiful.  Therefore, I thought it was best to let my husband decide.  Susan worked with Gerry to find a piece we would both enjoy.  He chose a landscape from the American River bicycle trail.  It was a place where he and our son had spent weekends riding bicycles together so it was special to my family.  

The second piece I purchased was specifically to help me study and improve my art. Susan worked with me find the right study piece.  It is a landscape with trees and water on a cool day very similar to the Oregon coast where I spend time painting.

After taking classes with Terry Miura, Gerry and I purchased two of Terry’s works. Why?  We both know Terry is a talented artist, we think his work is amazing, he has an impressive resume, we believe his work is collectable and will increase in value, his prices – again- are extremely reasonable, and we love his cityscapes.  Gerry picked two scenes that he felt had a calm feeling.  One featured a small church with steeple on a small town main street; the other was a coffee shop store front in what appears to be a quiet neighborhood.   

Now, for anyone who hesitates to buy art, you shouldn’t.   If the cost was more than I could afford at the time, I worked with the artist to make payments.  Once I wasn’t sure about how I felt about an oil painting and the artist let me hang it in my home.  I ended up exchanging it for a larger painting.  We were both thrilled with the purchase.  

Have we ever had buyers regret? Not yet.  Each piece holds a special memory of the life we share together.  To me and my husband, that makes them all priceless and we can always make a little wall space for more.

Cityscape Challenge - Where's Yours?

You still have a week to do the cityscape challenge that I posted earlier. Give it a try and send it to me - terry@terrymiura.com

Too challenging? Don't feel confident? You're not alone! Check out my blog to see what all the other artists are saying about the experience. And see all their efforts HERE.

If you're reading this, you must be interested in getting better at this painting thing, right? Well, do this challenge, and I'll guarantee you'll learn something!

Sea And Rock

This painting was last week's demo for my in-studio landscape painting class.

To become good at this painting stuff, you have to practice. A lot. There's no way around that one... sorry folks, there are no formulas or recipes.

However, we can learn a tremendous amount by watching how it's done, and that's what the demos are for.   You know the old adage, a picture is worth a thousand words? I dare say, watching a picture being made, and hearing the explanation for every decision made in real time, is worth a lot more than a thousand words!

Here at the school, there are a lot of opportunities to "see how it's done". Not just in my class, either. Take advantage of them!