Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Day 2 of Ted Nutttal Workshop

Day 2 of "Bertina on Her Wedding Day"

Today Ted did a great slide show to discuss ways to paint features and body part -- eyes, noses, mouths, and hands. Then he demoed how to begin doing the background. He does many transparent layers.

When I left off on Bertina, I had knocked back the white background with watered down ivory. Today I added some detail on the dress, and did two layers in the background -- first I laid in a thin layer of Cerulean Blue. Later Ted suggested that I do the next layer in it's complement, orange, that had been grayed down a bit. There will be at least one more layer of cerulean blue, and perhaps more. I also need to darken her hair on the left side. Some of you commented on Bertina as a free spirit. She truly was. Bob always says his grandmother stopped hitchhiking in her 70's when she got in a car and the driver with long hair had a deep male voice. I never had the pleasure of knowing her.

Ted keeps advising patience and not putting paint on the paper unless we know what we want to do. Seems simple, and it's not. With layers, you need to allow each layer to dry thoroughly. So I decided to start my second piece, Baby Bob, so I could await my turn for feedback from Ted. I've done this family photo before in Myrna Wacknov's workshop. This one is different and I made a lot of progress.

Jeannie and I were surprised and pleased when Ted told us to pick out a giclee print as a thank you for coordinating the workshop. Go here to see the painting I selected. I was surprised when I got to the workshop and saw that Ted had painted a woman from the same era as Bertina. The artists are always very nice to us and some are downright generous. This is the second painting I've received. The first was a full-sheet demo painting that Gerald Brommer did on a piece of paper I had provided. It was complete with the exception of adding a few darks -- Gerry jokingly suggested I finish it, but I treasure it as is.

3 comments:

Autumn Leaves said...

Mary, I love the print you chose! What a perfect complement to your own Bertina piece!! She is coming along beautifully!!! If you ever have a moment, I'd love to hear ideas on how to start up an artist's group here. I know there is one already but they meet during the day hours and I work. I need a local nighttime group!

Margaret said...

Lovely. It has a lot of personality. I'm impressed!

Mary Paquet said...

Sherri, I would be happy to share some ideas.

Margaret, thanks so much for checking in!