Thursday 30 September 2010




Course work: Two additional sessions of adjustments to the grey scale: I’m getting closer to equal steps between the squares, but am not yet there. Cut out the 4 cm colored squares in preparation for (someday) gluing them onto the value-scale sheet.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Stephanie D’Allesandro and John Elderfield Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2010

Pp. 320-355

(A fairly difficult book to read, requiring close attention and short reading sessions, but yielding exhaustive coverage of the artist’s work in the 1913-17 period, which the authors consider the critical years of the painter’s career.)



Sketchbook work: A pencil sketch in my pocket sketchbook of a 13-year cicada, found dead on the porch.

Time today: 1 hour 14 minutes

Wednesday 29 September 2010




Course work: Repainted the grey scale yet again, and painted the colored squares.



Reading and theoretical studies:



R.L Gregory Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (3rd Ed)

McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1978

Pp. 208-240



(This is a fairly interesting book, although the only copy I was able to find was published in 1978. A more contemporary work that covers the same subject is Margaret Livingstone’s Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing, which I read earlier this year, and which I would suggest as a replacement for Dr. Gregory’s work, as it is aimed more directly at the reader specifically interested in art.)





Sketchbook work: Attempted a small drapery sketch with paint left over from the grey-scale work, using the brush in hand. Not too successful.

Time today: 1hour 43 minutes

Tuesday 28 September 2010




Course work: Repainted the six intermediate steps on the value scale, this time erring on the side of painting them too light.



Reading and theoretical studies:



R.L Gregory Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (3rd Ed)

McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1978

Pp. 174-207



Sketchbook work: A very quickly done partial sketch of one of the horses having a lie-down; he was up and gone before I could finish.

Time today: 1 hour 10 min

Monday 27 September 2010




Course work: Drew the grid for Project Three, and painted a grey scale down the left-hand side. I may have to do some additional work on this, as the tendency of acrylics to dry darker continues to cause me difficulties.



Reading and theoretical studies:



Stephanie D’Allesandro and John Elderfield Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2010

Pp. 300-318



Sketchbook work: A graphite-pencil drawing of part of a piece of driftwood that we keep as a scratching log for the cats.

Time today: 1 hour 52 minutes

Sunday 26 September 2010




No work today; spent the day packing my Drawing One work to be shipped for assessment.



Weekly reflections on learning experience: Color experimentation continues. The three-color mixing project in acrylics went fairly well, and I supplemented it with sketchbook work in marker and in colored pencil. My acrylic color circle is not fully satisfactory, but I am fairly pleased with the one done in oils. My reading program continues satisfactorily.

Saturday 25 September 2010




Course work: Rather than paint an extended color circle as suggested by the text, I elected to paint a second color circle using oil paints, on oil sketching paper ~40 x 50 cm. I found this somewhat easier than the one done in acrylics, although the three yellows remain differentiatable only in bright sunshine and it was necessary to thin the violet color substantially in order to obtain a color that is recognizably violet.

Reading and theoretical studies:



Stephanie D’Allesandro and John Elderfield Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2010

Pp. 270-299



Sketchbook work: In my pocket sketchbook, a scrap of ribbon lying on my wife’s workroom floor. I then had a try at it in my larger sketchbook, using acrylics: my intent had been to paint the form of the ribbon with a single stroke, but I think that I would need a flat rather than a bright to succeed at this. It is possible that I should have thinned my paint a bit more as well. However, even experiments that fail are worthwhile.

Time today: 2 hours 9 minutes

Friday 24 September 2010




Course work: Painted the color circle (Project One), using the specified colors. The mixture of crimson and ultramarine blue makes a very dark, rather brownish violet that photographs as black; had I been given my choice, I would have mixed violet with pthalocyanine blue and alizarin crimson. The mixture of cadmium yellow and lemon yellow can be distinguished from its neighbors only in a strong light. I was unable to get a good uniform application of crimson or ultramarine blue. In other respects, the project went about as I had anticipated.

Reading and theoretical studies:



Stephanie D’Allesandro and John Elderfield Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917

The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 2010

Pp. 241-269





Sketchbook work: The head of a replica of a Maya figurine.

Time today: 1 hour 44 minutes