Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Row Your Boat

Diane Mannion, Row Your Boat, 8x10" o/c

This fellow rowed by while I was painting... knew it was excellent reference material and snapped a few photos.  (Changed his appearance to protect his identity).  About 3 hours.

A few experiments:
 Notan, simple black on white value study to see masses and play with composition.  10 minutes.

 Three value sketch, black, midtone, and white.  20 minutes.

 Five value sketch, scaled from black to white.  30 minutes.

 Fun with weird colors, purple, viridian, and white.  30 minutes.

 #84 Diane Mannion, Row Boater, 6x8" oil on linen
And a 60 minute high value study... darkest dark was the value of yellow ochre. Painted with mid-value black and white as cool dark.  Then lights for the b/w mixture which really look blue!
And the yellow ochre mixed with the b/w mixture look green.  Painting has hazy, foggy appearance.
Fun!

4 comments:

Linda Nickles said...

Diane, I really liked seeing your process for this painting. Thank you for sharing. I also liked seeing the different color combinations. Excellent information!

Diane Mannion said...

Thanks, Linda! These are experiments suggested by a few artists that I'll be reporting on later. And some experiments are made up. I don't do these for every painting, developing "teaching tools" for next season that are also turning into learning tools for me. My usual process is to go from thumbnail sketch to painting.
Thanks again for your comment!
Diane

Unknown said...

I really admire and respect the way you approach your pieces, Diane. It's fascinating to see all the different 'looks' that can be achieved with different color schemes and tonalities. I'm sure that helps you to make decisions when you want to convey particular moods and feelings, too. Thanks for the inspiration, and I love the painting! The water and the reflections on everything are wonderful!

Diane Mannion said...

Thank you, Katherine... I don't usually do this, it's an exercise to show students the value of values and color in a painting. But I did learn a few things, myself!