Mountain Village, oil on 8 x 8 gallery wrapped canvas

Reliance on my Painting Knife...

The painting portion of a session is always more fun than the clean up. Does anyone
else feel this way?

This is one of many reasons I often choose a painting knife - the ease of clean up. A wipe of my rag, and it's done. :) It also gives me choice concerning the mark I make. I can get movement and unique color combinations. I enjoy the way paint moves with a knife. It's behaves much differently than it does with brush. Hidden somewhere within the blade I may discover grayed down red or blue hues that comes forth with great abandonment. I love that...

Still keeping the economy of paint in mind for this study, I choose it for Day 4 of Leslie Saeta's 30 in 30 challenge. Please visit me at donnashiver.com


Below are photos that show some of my process with a Blind Contour Drawing Exercise. These are fun and meant to be super fast. I place a hole through a sheet of paper to block my view of the paper I draw on. I look only at the subject when I draw. The idea is to look at the subject matter and really focus for seconds at a time on the edges of the object, and even the surrounding space. I number these and look at progress in just five minutes time. As I said, they are super fast and great fun. They really work to inform me as I take a closer more refined look at these same objects.

Thanks for stopping by - Peace and Health all...

Placing charcoal pencil through newsprint

Side view

 

Blind Contour Drawing with charcoal - I worked with a skull and oil lamp

Blind Contour Drawing with graphite - drill, apple, travel cup, milk carton