Demos and Instruction

Many of my students are so eager to paint they jump right into their medium.  

Too fast too soon. I didn't want to do thumbnails either yet I have learned that all the preliminaries are

absolutely necessary for a successful outcome yet it's about the process not just the outcome.

After choosing a " good reference" which is an entire other topic one needs to establish the basic shapes as they relate to each other.

That's where the thumbnails and notan come into play. Then the different formats are explored all in small 3 inch sketches.

At this juncture I explore with color sketches. This lets me play before committing , so important to my process. I am including a 6 x 8 preliminary exploration based on using the complementary colors from the local color in the underpainting . I used Derwent Inktense on Print Making Paper.  This was  not intended to be a painting , it's not pretty, it's not finished . It is meant to see if the visual effect gives color interest and life. Then the subjective decision to commit or to go back to the initial stage...

It is time well spent to think about what piece of our creative soul we want to  present to our viewers...by planning we can control

the desired outcome. Eve Miller PSA, IAPS/M