June 2, 2008

Have you ever tried fresh blue cheese on a traditional baguette with just a touch of butter to mellow the sharpness?  It is a special taste that I learned while staying with a family in Montpellier,  accompanied of course with a nice glass of local red wine and a quiet time on the veranda.  Voila! This was my evening tonight, watching the birds, listening to their songs, watching th play of light and shadows on the trees as the breezes played games with the clouds!

Well I brought my painting of the Harlequina mask home tonight because I decided to work on the exercises Ted has been giving us for painting the figure.... so for the next three weeks I will be doing just that. Today I spent the afternoon on a poster study. This is not a detailed painting. It is just the values and how they relate to one another. He calls it a puzzle and indeed it takes time and patience to evaluate the light and how it relates to the figure. It is invaluble, as I found out with my mask study, because you can get caught up in the details and forget to look at the whole picture and the relationship of values.  I referred back to my poster many times to see if I was on the right track.

Anywas here is the painting with the poster study and the model.

Finally for tonight I will include the drawing I have been working on. I still have a few weeks so we will see what it looks like later:)