Lesson 45 - Fruit Close-Ups

The challenge for this lesson was to compose a design of bright colored round objects. We each brought in bright fruit, plates and mats and set up small still life arrangements. We used view finders and made several small colored sketches to try out possibilities. We were looking for interesting division of space, repetition of circular shapes and bright, saturated colors. Here are four of Karen's sketches.


And here are three larger studies.

Kacie chose to zoom in extremely close to the grapes and cherries around the base of her apple.

Emily also found a small portion of her fruit set-up to focus in on. Small sections of various fruit give enough information to tell what is going on.

Marge included portions of her dark mat and table with the plate of fruit. The white plate and dark mat enhance the strong colors of the fruit.

Lesson 44 Flat and Graded Washes

One of the first lessons in a beginning watercolor class is how to lay down a flat and a graded wash. This is actually a tricky thing to do in watercolor, particularly on the cheaper watercolor papers. In this lesson we revisited the subject. The biggest challenge in preparing for laying in a flat wash over a large area is to get enough color mixed up before you start. We used paper cups to mix up at least a couple tablespoons of rich color. Dampening the paper first helps, as does keeping the paper at an angle so it dries from top to bottom. Here are two examples of skies done with a rich flat wash. Both Barbara and Leslie contrasted the flat sky with a loose, textured treatment of waves.


Next we practiced laying in a graded wash working from dark to light and at the same time from warm to cool hues. Graded washes give the painting a sense of depth. In these two examples Brian and Nancy create a sense of deep space using graded washes and bring the foreground even close with accents.

Back in Class with Lesson 43

We began a new series of classes with a project involving sunflowers. The idea was to lift sunflower shapes out of a saturated wet background. We brushed colors on very wet paper and let them grade into each other be tipping the sheet various ways. Flowers were lifted out by dabbing with paper towels. Yellow color was added back into the petals while the paper was still damp to create soft edges. When everything was dry we brought out some of the edges by darkening the background in places. Here are some examples by Jean, Carrie, Carla and Rita.

Summer Class Space

This summer I am offering classes through the City of Los Altos for the first time. There was some confusion with the registration process and people were told that the classes were full. There is still room in both classes - particularly in the afternoon class - and I would appreciate everyone passing the word around. Register at www.losaltosrecreation.org Thanks.

Lesson 42 Still Life on Reflective Surfaces

This lesson was inspired by paintings of Charles LeClair, particularly ones he included in his book "Color in Contemporary Painting". LeClair used plexiglass and other reflective surfaces to create variations of an image and to bounce color around a composition. In class we set up small still life arrangements on plexiglass or shiny plastic sheets and also experimented with propping up these reflective surfaces vertically behind the still life.


Sheauli set up her objects on a sheet of blue plexi on a brown table. Her reflections show the fruit's color tinged with blue.

Rita's yellow flowers are reflected on the shiny plastic sheet below and also on the glass vase behind.

Emily used the blue plexiglass and reflections to create a striking arrangement of predominately horizontal and vertical shapes.


Brian used clear plexiglass and plastic both under and behind his setup to create a pleasing play of blue and orange shapes.

Carrie added shiny metal to the challenge. She has reflections on the tray and bowl as well as under and behind these objects.

No Class

I was not teaching this week - instead I was participating in the Los Altos Rotary Fine Art in the Park. It was a HOT weekend but the Rotary folks who run the show are so well organized and they treat the artists so well that it was an enjoyable weekend.

Lesson 41 Self Portraits

Every so often we review the placement of features on a face. The easiest situation to deal with is a face in straight front view. After determining the general size of the skull on the page, the oval is divided into quarters with the horizontal mid-line representing the eye line. An eye width is roughly one quarter of the eye line and there is approximately an eye width between the eyes. Once the eyes are located other features are placed using eyes as reference. We went through the guidelines for placing features step by step checking these against our own faces using a mirror.

Here I am checking my face with Dan working in the background. Everyone complains about having to draw themselves but we came up with some great paintings in the short class session. Here are examples by Emily, Selma, Nancy and Kazuyo.