The artful copy student at work

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!