Tonight, students experimented with various ways to tone primers. Next week, they’ll begin a two day process of color.

In just a few minutes I’ll be teaching one of my favorite new mediums - silverpoint! I’m mixing up Rublev’s Traditional Silverpoint Ground right now (You can find it on the Natural Pigments website.) Tonight, we’ll work on toning ground. Photos to come!

Value scales, seeing and representing shapes, value scales and drapery (counting) are essential skills I work on with my beginning painters. We have a tiny bit of time every week to pack in a ton of information. At the end of the day it’s all about practice!

Narrative portrait Painters are back in action with the goal of completing two paintings this semester. I’m a fan of documenting work as it’s being created. Here are some process shots from tonight’s class.

I love everything about this class. Today was our first critique of the semester. For those new to “Crits”, they are a great time to learn while looking at other people’s work. I think critiques can oftentimes be the most important part of the learning process.
We ask basic questions:
What are we looking at?
What palette are you using if you had to define it in terms of color theory?
What is working in this painting?
How is the narrative part of the story reading to the painter vs. the audience?
What isn’t working? How can it be better?
what technical aspects (often drawing, color or values) need to be altered to accommodate the painting?

At this point, none of these works are complete. Instead they exist in various stages of problem-solving and we get fresh eyes and recommendations during the process to help better the outcome.

Sometimes critiques have their challenges because they’re exposing a personal process, but when students are open to engaging in them, the speed of their learning is clearly expedited. As an instructor, I learn new things from my students all the time. They keep my eyes trained.

This class in particular is really funny (could be all the wine?). I’m pretty certain a comedy show, or stage play could easily be written about it based solely on the random conversations we have. Their work is pretty stellar too. 😉

what do you get when you mix painting students from all skill levels with instructions to paint copies of amazing paintings? Fun. You get lots of fun! Tonight, we even had wine, cheese, cheesecake and grapes during our first class critique.

While many students shy away from critiques, I embrace them because every single painting has a lesson to teach. Little golden nuggets of reminders that seep slowly into our painting practice...

This is a GREAT group, working hard and pushing through. I can’t wait to see the finished works!

p.s. Color charts make me want to cry with joy!

i love week 3 Intro to Drawing class! It’s the moment of truth for students to allow themselves the confidence to move forward fearlessly, understanding practice make perfect. Working the grid upside down is the best thing since sliced bread. Though, I think it pre-dates sliced bread, but I wouldn’t put money on it...

Rock on, art stars! Your hard work looks fabulous! 💕 #ProudGloatingTeacher

In preparation for my upcoming #silverpoint #workshop @wash_houston I made a quick #sketch of #alphonsemucha ‘s #portrait of his #daughter #jaroslava.


Materials included: #metalpoint with a #sterlingsilver tip, #Japanese #graphite, #gouache and #watercolor


I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about traditional uses of art materials. While my methods are a bit untraditional, I’ve fallen in love with my combo of materials.

I’ll be sharing info on how to get rich drawings with layered surfaces revealing a variety of textures and finishes. ✨✨

I 💖 how #sparkly silverpoint makes a #Drawing.

Using these materials, drawings can range from matte to velvet to shimmering. Silverpoint adds some #magic that I don’t get when I just sketch with graphite. I also 💕💕 my prepared #paper that I had flown in from #florence.
​

If you’re in #houston there’s still time to sign up and join me for 4 classes, starting next Thursday!

My painting students at Glasscock School for Continuing Studies at Rice University are well on their way to starting color on their paintings. They’ve just about finished their tonal underpaintings (raw umber or burnt sienna). Once the underpaintings are mapped out with correct values and drawings, they’ll begin creating a chart for a limited color palette. This will help maintain some simplicity while painting in color. Art history is very helpful at this point since we know Vermeer had a very different and more earthy palette than some of the early 20th century painters who had access to more inexpensive and accessible pigments such as ultramarine blue. We’re off school next week. I can’t wait to see everyone’s homework!

I adore my Narrative Portrait painters (I love ALL of my students, but I get to let my freak flag fly high with this particular group.) It’s no secret that I’m always trying to impress them with awesome models to work from. Tonight, they photographed a fire dancer. I’m not quite sure how I can get more impressive than a fire dancer. Maybe an acting troupe? A rock band? It’s going to be tough... I can’t wait to see their paintings from this photo session! 💖