Steven

Steven - 1.5 hour life study - 9"x12"; oil

Here is another head study I did for my head painting class. This one took a little over an hour and a half and once again used the Anders Zorn palette that I described in a previous post. I premixed a number of hues and values with the three color palette Focusing on the "secondary" colors and hues and then went at the painting very directly. This model was painted under natural light and the subtle warms and cools were an interesting challenge. There are things I wish I had time to refine such as the eyes, but this was a fun exercise.

Color Blocking Exercise

 

In my head painting class I had the students (and myself) undertake a color blocking exercise. The canvas was marked off in a grid of one inch squares. Rather than worry about the drawing of the head, the goal was to mix the average color and value for the zone that fell within each square of the grid. If you squint, you can see the face. I was surprised how much more I concentrated on creating the exact color and the painting took nearly as long as I usually spend on an actual head study. Once again the color palette was the Zorn palette of cad red light, yellow ochre, ivory black and white. This was definitely a hit as far as exercises go and several of the students have opted to do it on more than one day. If you have never done this, give it a shot.

Zorn Palette Exercise 2

Malaysia - Oil; 9" x 12" by Greg Newbold

A few posts back I talked a bit about the palette used by Anders Zorn. I explored this palette a bit more last week during class and was much more pleased with the result this time. I pushed the color further to see how much more range I could pull from the limited colors of Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre, Ivory Black and White. It was also interesting to practice painting a more ethnic model. I focused on  premixing my colors a little more and putting the paint down very directly. I spent about an hour on this study as I have about a dozen students I am helping during the three hour class block. Even given the time restraint, I am pretty pleased with the result. The range of color continues to surprise me and I am looking forward to playing around with this limited palette more in the future.

Zorn Palette Exercise

I am teaching a head painting class this summer and after about of week of monochrome exercises, we moved on to limited palette. I decided to introduce the students to the possibilities of color that Anders Zorn's limited palette.

 I have always been impressed with the color range Zorn was able to achieve with just two colors, Yellow Ochre and Cadmium Red, plus black and white. There is some discussion as to what were the exact colors on the palette (Vermillion or Cadmium Red for example) as well as if additional colors were used, but for the purpose of this exercise, I used just those four.

I mixed up a number of hues for the benefit of the class before we got started in order to demonstrate what is possible. Above is a Richard Schmid style grid palette that shows the range of color you can get with these four colors including a surprising greenish gray arrived at by mixing the yellow ochre and black.

I gave it a shot in class, never having used it before and enjoyed the process. Between helping the dozen or so students, I managed a little more than an hour on this one. I think I will push the clarity of color a little more in upcoming classes, but I really liked the subtle shades of green and violet that I got in the shadows.