Teaching Project

Demo

6" x 8"

oil

Painted this while teaching a class.  Students were given small, horrible, black and white copies of a sandy path that I shot at Venice Beach.  The challenge was to create their own version, changing composition, elements, and design.  Color had to be imagined... and painted using only red, yellow, blue and white.   My demo was first sketched with red, then painted rapidly, leaving bits of red showing throughout the painting.   The exercise also demonstrated the three main tonal areas of a landscape.  Darkest tones, brightest colors in foreground, middle values and colors in mid-ground, and coolest colors, lightest tones in background.  The sky tones reflect the lights on the ground and highlights on leaves.  The sky also moves from dark to light towards the horizon, and cool to warm as it leans towards the sun.   It was interesting to see how each student created a completely different painting from the same snapshot.  Good practice for when they finally go outside and paint on location.