New Class

Starting the first full week of January, I am in the advanced figure painting class with Mark Daily at the Art Students League of Denver. I took this class two years ago, and decided to go back for more. Mark hammered me on value relationships then (still something I struggle with). It is too early to tell yet if I have shown any improvement as I have missed two of the four classes. I had intended to post my class work, but I am not ready to do that just yet. I am not quite in the swing of being in a class quite yet. Oh, what the heck, I will post it: Just keep in mind that this was done in under 2 hours.

Mark's class is painting from the model two nights, same pose. Monday he is not there; Thursday we can start a new painting or work on the one started on Monday. He did not comment on my work on Thursday until the end of class. He told me to soften my edges on the body so that any sharp edges in the face would have more impact and that if I would do my block in with values/colors closer to what they are (instead of "a random" dark value for the darks, to put the warm dark grey that I actually see) I would have cleaner color in the final painting. Mark is such a stickler for getting the canvas covered as quickly as possible, that my object becomes covering the white of the canvas and THEN mixing my colors. So, lesson learned: mix my block in colors as close as possible to the end product FIRST and then block in FAST! I can do this.