Workshops in Iowa

My love for Iowa is well known and documented on this blog. If you are in Iowa, you are probably getting ready for my return which is less than a week away.

A handsome shot of me in Iowa, with a John Deere cap, in front of a field of corn.I shot a lot of photos in Iowa and everyone of them had a John Deere hat and corn it somehow.

I am heading north by north west again to do a few workshops: The first is an Illustration Workshop. I think this will be mostly for teens and young adults. 

The second class will be an Evening of Figure Drawing- the classical approach. Teens are welcome, but will need a permission slip from the parent to attend.

I thought I would post a bit about the classes here with a rough supply list for both.

Illustrative Iowans 

January 28 - 29- Friday from 6pm-9pm,
Saturday from 9am 5pm
A workshop on illustration where we will learn how to draw and paint:

·         -Stuff that doesn’t exist, like Dragons

·         -Events that you wish you had seen, like the time Lincoln sucker punched Zombie Napoleon.

·         -And things that will only happen in the future of your dreams, like a self portrait with a mustache. 

We will look at illustrators of the past to see how they worked.
Using these techniques we will create some illustrations of our own. These pictures will include:

·         A small pen and ink illustration.

·         A series of thumbnail sketches for approval

·         A finished drawing from the sketch and reference photos  or drawings.

·         Color study for a finished picture.

·         To finish on your own will be a final picture based on all of the previous work.

Topics covered will include- basic composition, drawing in line and mass, traditional materials, new technologies in illustration (working digitally), what to read and how to continue your studies.
Each student will receive a few illustration assignments to complete during this course.

Friday- Discussion of Illustration, it’s history, the job, and basic techniques. There will be a slide show. The assignments will be handed out.

Saturday- Assignment 1- Pen and Ink spot illustration: assemble your reference, do a sketch, ink.
Assignment 2- The cover illustration: sketch out ideas for approval, assemble reference, final thumbnail sketch, Finished drawing, color study. The overview of the class, discuss how to transfer the drawing to the painting, and start with a rough lay in. Discuss how to move the work to finish. 

Basic Supplies: 

-A sketchbook. It can be cheap paper for working out ideas. 

-A drawing pad with a good heavy paper- I like Strathmore medium Drawing paper- 80lb. 9"x"12.

-A variety of pencils, though a simple #2 pencil will work. 

-A kneaded eraser and a white rubber eraser.

-A tray of water color paints. 

-Drawing pens, I recommend  Sakura Pigma Micron Pens. They have sets which are nice, the Pigma Micron Pen Set of 6, Pigma Manga-Comic Pro Set of 8, or just get a few 005, 01 and 02        size.

-India ink

-A good drawing brush- I like the Raphael #2  -they are expensive but last a long time if you care for them. A similar but cheaper brush would be fine.

-Some Quill pens will be provided

-Gel Medium 

-Oil paints, a palette, and brushes.

-Deoderant

An Evening of Figure Drawing

the Classical Approach

January 30^th, Sunday, from 3:00 to 8:00

At the Eclectic Eye, in Moline.

$40 / person (includes cost of model)

Contact me or Pat Bereskin if you would like to sign up for the class. mrsbsart@gmail.com

Learn the greater art of “seeing” as practiced by the Boston School of painting and how it is applied to the figure.

Working from a live model, students will learn the basics of the pencil sketch and then move on to a finished charcoal drawing.

Participants will begin by learning the basics of the visual language, the craft and order of drawing in traditional media.

Focus of class: to provide initial or further introduction to the steps taken and principles applied to the art of drawing.

This includes:

i.         the basics of composition and gesture.

ii.       setting up a pleasing pose.

iii.     using the tools available (charcoal,  good paper) and creating a comfortable setup

iv.      the execution of a start, the idea of  the light and dark, and flat shadows    

v.        Main focus that Drawing is the interpretation of form

vi.      The use of these drawings as a means to completing finished paintings.

for more information:

Call (513) 479-3322 or email: richard_luschek@yahoo.com

See more work at Richard’s Website  www.richardluschek.com

Basic supplies (Some supplies can be shared):

• Some sort of easel- I would prefer you stand an an easel rather than sit
• Drawing pencils- you can use what ever you have. A perfect set would contain various soft and hard pencils.  4H, 6H, & HB would be plenty.
• Sketch book (8x10, 9x12, or 11x16)
• A hard rubber eraser- for pencil drawing.
• A drawing board made of a flat smooth sided material that will hold pushpins. I often use a ceiling tile for a drop ceiling as a drawing board. Get the smooth kind. They are cheap and can easily be cut to any size.
• Pushpins
• Three grades of vine charcoal (Hard, medium and soft)
  -you will mostly need hard, so I recommend a few packs
• Medium-fine sandpaper on a small board ( I will bring a few with me), you can buy the pad, but I find them too small. They will work if that is what you have.
• Kneaded eraser- for charcoal
• White charcoal paper (I like white or ivory colored Ingres Fabriano)
• Plumb bob (basically a small weight on a string- fishing weight, washer, or a key.
  
  Optional:
• A 24 inch ruler
• Mirror
• Black mirror (Claude Glass- glass with back painted black or black plexi) I will have some with me. 
• A mahl stick. A simple dowel rod will do. It keeps your hand off the paper surface when drawing.

Crossin' The Mississippi

You may remember the post about the group of fine ladies that came to Cincinnati and did a Still life workshop with me.
Despite this experience, they invited me to come to Iowa to teach a 3 day Landscape painting workshop. The organizer, Pat Bereskin has an art school in the Bettendorf area of Iowa. With over 100 kids and some adults taking her classes at any given time, she is offering some amazing exposure to the arts, with various lessons, trips and guest artists. I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth, but I get the feeling that I am their absolute favorite guest artist from the Clifton area of Cincinnati who has a beard. I can only assume they like me because of the vast amount of information I bombard them with, or it may be due to my rugged handsomeness and charm. We'll assume it is both.
So my wife and I drove to Iowa.

I am ashamed to say that this was my first time crossing the Mississippi. I have been in most of the states east of Cincinnati, but I have rarely ventured west. Being my first time in Iowa, I must say it is a fine state. While it is very flat, there are some wonderful vistas for landscape painting- miles of corn filled fields and farm houses. John Deere tractors are everywhere. My first 'job' when I was a kid was to work in my great uncle's John Deere dealership in Hillsboro, Ohio, so while I was in Iowa I bought a JD hat just to show my loyalty.

Here is a photo of my lovely wife and I being welcomed to the 'Food Capital of the World'.Please note: this photo has been adjusted in Photoshop because I blinked.

I am not sure I would suggest organizing a landscape painting class in the middle of October. It was unseasonably cold in Iowa for early October. One thing you don't want hear on the radio when you are driving into a city you are visiting is the phrase "Arctic Blast". Even with the cold, the class went quite well. It helps to have a smart and attentive group to work with. I did a lecture and brief painting demo- during which I did the best painting of a stuffed turkey I have ever done.

Stuffed Iowa Turkey, 7"x5", oil, 2009

Even though there were tons of lovely views, it is hard to find a spot for 10 people to stand that happens to be near bathroom facilities. We ended up working in two local parks. The second day was a bit more successful. The weather was better, and the view was more typically an Iowa landscape with a long, open horizon. It was a much simpler subject for the beginning landscape painters. The class was mostly beginners, some had never painted before.


This class was pretty much about doing landscape sketches rather than finished paintings. The idea of a sketch is to get the basic value, color and look of the day, with a little bit of drawing that is relevant. A sketch can be done with some skill to have the look of a finished work, but often they either need to be worked on again, or are to be used a reference for larger, more finished works.
Pat and her group of painters plan on working on their landscapes from the workshop after I have safely left the state. I am going to offer some suggestions to them and to anyone that might be interested in how to work on a painting after the initial lay in. I know they plan on working on them in the warm of the studio, finishing them up from photos they shot before we left the location.

Let's discuss the desire and tendency to work on the sketches after the fact- from photos.
Of course I generally do not condone working from photos. It is easiest to get the look of nature by actually being in front of it. Photos are big flat liers. They lack form, good color and accurate values. You will get false results if you rely on photos.
I suggest you return to the vista, same time of day, same kind of weather (it can be warmer) and same light effect.

But......
If you are going to use photos, think of them as tools, not as a replacement for nature. Use photos as a reference or slight reminder for the impression that you hopefully have some memory of. The sketch was your attempt to get the impression, now you need to keep that impression and improve any issues that the sketch may have. Your notations of color from nature are going to be more accurate. The photo may show you some proportion errors. If the photo is shot well, it may hint at some value problems as well, but be careful as often a photo will exaggerate the value range- darkening the shadows and brightening the lights. A camera will also exaggerate edges by seeing them all equally. Standing back from a tree, a camera will record all of the leaves, whereas the human eye can really see only a few dozen with any clarity. The rest evaporates into a blur. We can see that leaves are there, but can not make out any detail. Most good painting will replicate that effect. If one goes in and renders all edges equally, it destroys focus, evaporates atmosphere, and makes the image appear harsh and photographic. So, when working from photos, make sure you do your best to not stupidly follow a print-out of a photo taken by a machine that happened to be pointed in the direction of your motif. Look at the photo with a squint or blurred eyes as you would the actual scene and maybe you can keep yourself from being a photorealist.

How do we go back into a painting?

It seems most people think paintings are done in one session. Rarely is this the case. To get any kind of finish on a painting, one must keep going back in, correcting and refining. I would say the typical portrait may have as many as 20 or so 3 hour sittings with the model. When working on a painting think of it as if you are doing a series of 'coats'. You can of course finish a sketch in one session or one coat, but most fully realized painting have a number of coats.

It is not recommended that you do not work on a sticky painting. It's an unpleasant surface that is like painting on glue. Make sure the painting is either wet from the previous day, or wait to go back in after the painting is completely dry. In the summer I often set landscape paintings in the sun to dry so I can be sure I can work on them the next day. The dash board of your car can be useful for this.

The most important thing I want to mention is the idea of painting wet into wet. If you are not painting wet into wet, you are not painting. If you are working on a painting again, you have to work with all wet edges. Meaning, when you stand with your palette before a dry painting and you decide to work into an area that has a blue mass adjoining a red mass, if you realize that the blue mass needs to be moved to over a bit, you need to get both the blue and the red areas wet to really paint that edge. Don't just paint the blue edge into the dry red area. This is not painting. You want the edge to be wet so you can accurately render it.
Once you start in on a dry painting, you should of course attack the 'back straggler'- the thing most off or lagging behind. Go into that area, restate all the major color units by getting them wet, making sure to do any correction to shape, value, color and temperature while you are there. Once the area is wet you can start pushing the painting forward- correcting and improving.
This does not mean that the entire painting will get wet every time. The first day you goal is to cover the canvas. The second day you must improve on the first day, which may involve re-wetting everything again. As the painting most ahead, smaller and smaller areas will need attention. You may just wet a quarter size area of the canvas that needs some adjusting, but in that area, you have to get all relevant areas and edges wet.

My final suggestion actually came up recently during a studio visit with one of my private students while she was working on still life painting. She had been working on her painting that day, and when I grabbed her palette to make some corrections on the painting, I realized she had only put out a few colors, in the 'local color' family in which she was working. To explain that better- she was only working on the orange flowers so she only had yellow and red out. This is a major no no!
Always work with a full palette. I already recommend a pretty limited palette, but it has everything you need to hit the "note". Think of it this way, if you are going to compose a musical composition in the key of F you would not just work on a piano with on the F keys. You need all the other keys to compose a song worth listening to.
Any given color that we paint may have some amount of red, yellow or blue in it. So, you should at least have those three, with white. To decrease the intensity of a red- a blue, a black or especially it's complement- green may be just what you need. Without them you are just making it harder on yourself. Fully loaded does not mean you need all the blues and all the yellows and all the reds, but you should at least have one of each of the primary colors.
Make sure you always paint with a fully loaded palette!

Go Big or Go Home!

To be truthful, I am kind of an old curmudgeon. My mother claims I was born that way. I came out of the womb and immediately had issues with most of what was going on around me. Being the old bastard that I am, I was a bit nervous about doing a workshop with a bunch of teenagers. I did not really get along with teenagers when I was one myself.

Despite all of that, I just had a great time teaching a class with seven high school kids from Iowa. Mrs. Bereskin is a wonderful art teacher that works very hard at making sure they see a wide variety of art, have lots of opportunity to visit museums and even organizes trips abroad.
She decided to organize a 4 day workshop on traditional methods of drawing and painting with me, and they drove all the way in from Iowa to do it. I didn't know much about Iowa other than that it is a mystical land to the West- and they grow corn. From this experience I discovered they are a clever and hardy people.

I have been asked a few times, "How in the heck is it you came to be teaching a class for a group from Iowa?"

Well, as it turns out, I am huge in Iowa! They freakin' love me there. I am a house hold name practically-
at least in 7 or so houses.

I did my best to introduce them to traditional methods and some bigger ideas concerning drawing and painting. The first thing was to define and explain some basic terms.
Now, of course it is crazy to believe anything life changing is going to come out of such a short class- other than the fact that it will introduce them to a more traditional way of working not available in most college situations. I treat a workshop like this as if it is a CliffsNotes version of full time training. Little more than just a quick overview of something that takes years to learn.



What are some of the major ideas I bombarded them with over the 4 days?

First I defined drawing as 'the interpretation of form'. We are often told that drawing is 'mark making', or something touchy feely having to do with self expression. While that can be true, it is basically about representing the 3D on a 2D surface. By that logic, if you are not interpreting form, you are not drawing.
A monkey with a crayon is not drawing. Squealing your tires at a stop sign is not drawing. It's mark making, but not drawing.
Again, teaching someone to faithfully interpret form can not be taught in 4 days. It probably takes closer to a year of full time study under someone that has already mastered this skill.

"Drawing is the interpretation of form." - Degas

We discussed the idea of light and shadow. Objects are made visible to us by light. If an object is lit well from a single light source, we can see that there is a definable light and dark side. There is a shadow line, that separates those two sides. We must first understand that concept. The light side is for interpreting form. Form is not for the shadow side, but is left for showing atmosphere, which we do by keeping the shadows flat. Look at the shadows, not into them. The dark is scary, stay out of there.

Squint! By closing one eye and blurring or squinting with the other, we simplify the scene down to the essentials.

Drawing and painting is really all about relationships. These relationships are discovered by looking, comparing and questioning. This way one determine proportions, values, colors, shape and edges. By being ever critical, you can learn your subject with every stroke. "Is it lighter or darker?" "Does it need more red, yellow, or blue?" "Is it warmer or cooler?"

I explained the novel idea of making sure your image will fit on the page by starting with the largest of measurements first- Top and Bottom. If you have ever been in a figure drawing class you will occasionally hear someone say they ran out of room for the feet or that they can't fit the head. If that every happens to you in the future, you have my permission to smack them in the back of the head with your sketchbook. Your main job when working is to at least make sure you can fit the subject in the square of the page. That is basic composition- arranging in a square. Always work big to small. Details are not as important as everyone thinks. Adding detail to a bad drawing will not make it better. Putting the features on a misshapen head will not make it look more life-like. Get the big stuff right-the big proportions-the big look, and the rest will fall into place. You will see that detail is not as important as the poetic beauty of the big impression. You will also find that there is more harmony in the 'whole' and you will save yourself a lot of wasted work. Leave detail to cameras and photorealists, both of whom are just dumb machines.

"Genius lies in seeing the thing as a whole." - Joshua Reynolds

Did I mention the squinting thing?

Most of the girls had a lot of natural ability and ended up doing some nice work for the short amount of time they had to complete it.
I explained that my job in the class was not to be the host of a group Hug Fest celebrating art.
First off that would be creepy, and secondly it is just not helpful. I just stood behind them and pointed to the things that were most off in their paintings from nature. I made sure they knew their job was basically to make "this look like that". They handled it pretty well, though a few seemed to have issue with me painting on their work, but I think that is the easiest way to demonstrate a point. We are taught from an early age that anything creative we do is special and awesome, and while it may occasionally be the former, it is rarely the later. It all went pretty well and I made it the whole class without making anyone cry despite my best efforts.

The title of this post is in reference to a rally cry the girls came up with for the week- "Go Big or Go Home!"
I was so proud.
I almost cried a bit myself.



I laid in a painting for them as a demonstration, I will do a post on that painting next.