Open Studio - Tuesday, Mar 02, 2010

I had lots of questions to ask Gay today. Did this quick watercolor doodle of her while I was waiting for her to work around to me.Gay has a certain "interestingness factor" that compels me to try to draw her. She is not...of Arkansas. I think that's what I find so interesting. Everybody else looks like a relative and it's like looking in a mirror. Boring. Been there, seen that. This is the third attempt and probably won't be the last.

She saw the doodle and I told her I was still trying to figure out what color her hair was. (I meant what paint color was appropriate to represent her hair.) She laughed a big laugh and said, "Oh! I'll have to ask Rebecca what color she uses!"

My burning question of the day dealt with color selection. Often I'll paint two complimentary colors on a sketch, then realize I need a third and have a dilemma. What's the appropriate color?

Gay launched into a discussion of color theory (I think she was thinking out loud, trying to remember the basics which no one had asked her about in eons), most of which I knew but didn't hold the answer I needed.

Rhon ra-rhon ra-rhon (Charlie Brown teacher voice; I had to smile) ra-rhon rhon rhon, split-complimentary.

What what what? Wait wait! Go back to that. What's split-complimentary????

Suck suck suck suck (<--me sucking knowledge from her brain.)

Tell me everything you ever knew, forgot, felt, thought, sensed, learned, or experienced about split-complimentary. Must. Have. More. Information.

Here are the notes from that discussion:



My thought at the time was, "Why haven't I heard about this before????" Have I just ignored it in my quest for knowledge or is this something that is rarely covered in art books and on-line tutorials? Hummm.... Must do more research.

So when I got home I looked up some stuff and decided to do a color wheel using the paints in my palette. My purpose in doing this was to find two or three "go-to" triads I can use when sketching so I won't have to do the brainwork time and time again.



I think the color painted in the Red-violet spot should go in the Violet spot. The paint color in the Blue-violet spot is Winsor Violet which I would think should go in the Violet spot. Now I'm just confused. If I can't get the paints I have situated correctly around the color wheel, I can't apply any color theory to them. I feel like I'm back where I started.

Sigh.

Open Studio - Tuesday

Appeared in the doorway of the studio and was met with a chorus of "There she is!" and "We know all about you!" Ack! My anonymity was shot before I even opened my mouth, so I just dove right in like I had known these folks all my life. They were a very jovial and welcoming group.

Everybody had *huge* palettes full of yummy colors and they were nice enough to let me poke in my waterbrush and try them out. Tippy even gave me a squirt of Daniel Smith Quin Gold for my palette. Luscious! Must. Have. Some. Everyone was fascinated with my Niji waterbrush. They had to see all about it, take it apart, fondle the bristles, and take it for a test drive. It was fun watching their expressions.

Spent very little time drawing, mostly table-hopped and chatted. Woo Hoo! New stuff to look at and learn. After seeing how these folks work, I now fully understand Ramona's gasp yesterday. It wasn't that I draw in ink, the gasp inducing statement was "There is no next time." They go through several iterations of pencil drawings, trace stuff on the light box, then begin to paint, and paint, and paint. It takes weeks apparently to produce a single piece. But these are big gallery works, not sketches. I was the street graffiti kid amongst the atelier denizens. Yep, a stranger in a strange land once again.

I did a show-n-tell of my sketchbooks about halfway through the studio time. Gales of laughter at the hotdogs, ohhs and ahhs over some pen drawings, exclamations of delight at daily journal entries. After that I think we all began to realize that sketchbooking was a totally new and foreign concept around these parts. By the end of the two hours a glimmer of understanding was beginning to show. What I do is so new and different it will take some time for the idea to sink it and them to grasp it. I even got the question, "What's a blog?" Yep, a little time.

About the drawings:
The lady on the left is Gay the instructor. She was sitting still for a few minutes doing a critique of Tippy's painting. Unfortunately Tippy kept leaning back and blocking my view so I lost her face. She has the most delightfully curly hair. Love it.

The guy on the right is Joe working at the light box. I'm loving the light box addiction because it gives me a sketch target that doesn't change position. Showed the sketch to Joe and he laughed and said, "Yep, that's me!" Whew. Good-natured sketch victims are a Good Thing.

I need to work on drawing people so I'm thinking future studio time with this group will be spent drawing the members. Hopefully they will all be good-natured about it and won't toss me out.

It was a very good day.