Part 4...it's good to remain humble

Oh, Over-confidence, you are not our friend. After two solid days of absorbing artistic truth from a Master, I felt so happy and confident to tackle a lovely, bucolic country scene. I think my heart got ahead of my hand and I was quickly brought back down to earth. But, lest you think it depressing, I must tell you about the community of students I was in. Everyone was so great and so eager to learn and grow. There truly were no "ego trips" or critical attitudes. We ranged in experience and skill levels and came from many different areas of the country. We all struggled with our supplies, we all forgot or lost something, we all succeeded and failed and kept soldiering on. It was wonderful!


This is my final workshop post...except for the big reveal of my work...and I want to share the "limited stroke exercise" (cue dread and doom music.)  Here's how it works: first make an initial drawing of the subject using thinned paint (Anne used burnt sienna.) Get your basic shapes, lines, and relationships in place

Step 2:  Amp up the values with at least 3 values apparent, light-midtone-dark. Oh and also to leave about an inch of margin on the right side where you can tick off your brush strokes.


Step 3: Mix up some colors on the palette with the value range to them.


Step 4: ready, set, go! Do the painting in 20 brush strokes. What??  Fortunately, a brush stroke is loosely defined as whatever it takes to get the load of paint off the brush. In other words, you might go back and forth in an area filling it in with paint and count it as one brushstroke. 

The goal is not a finished painting, but an exercise of seeing, decision-making, and executing. It's an excellent way to do a plein air sketch of a subject to help you evaluate the composition and form interest. On the right margin you can see Anne's marks to log each lift of the brush. I think it was 17 or 18. Squint down on the painting and you can see how she maintained her light, mid, and dark values with the colors she used. Even though there are minimal details, you can still see perspective and identify the subjects. 


I intend to put this exercise into practice, but it feels kinda risky to do without supervision. (haha) I also have to overcome that feeling that every painting I do must strive for perfection. It kind of feels like the more I improve, the more I venture into unknown territory.