Monochromatic for week two

Week 2 of Painting Fundamentals at The Beck Center was an exercise in monochromatic.

I chose crimson as my color to be mixed with black and white. My challenge seems to be using values correctly in my work. Though I suppose this is why our instructor is gently easing us into color one week at a time v letting us use the full spectrum right off the bat.

I spent too much time outlining my painting before starting the actual work. Though as Becky observed, I seem to have better functionality with architectural features. As class was about to conclude, I wasn't interested in finishing my painting at home, so I went old school on the birds. Remember the type you used to add to your drawings in elementary school - the solid wide V style. As you can see above, I took the easy way out and pulled the V bird style.

With my adoration of all things red, I thought that crimson would be a good color to start with, and when I first saw the piece we were working from, assumed it was a good selection as the piece also had a certain dark, foreboding aspect to it. But while working on it, too many of the shades were just too close to pink or mauve for me. A fellow classmate used green, which seemed to work much better - though he also seems to be comprehending the whole value thing while it continues to escape me. I should probably spend some at-home studio time practicing.

Becky, on the other hand, gets the values thing and its practical, real-world application. Check out the value scale at the top of her work. We joked that she's going through her blue phase. Hey, Picasso did it, why not a PR pro who's also a painter.

While I was DONE with this particular exercise when we got to the end of the night, Becky plans to finish hers, which I'm speculating she may just be at home working on right now. I'll post her "finished" piece when she shares a shot of it with me.

Additional note on the post from last week's class, Becky gifted her bat artwork to our friend Alissa, who named it Frank. Frank now keeps Alissa company in her 24th floor office in a certain historical office building in downtown Cleveland.

Next week's class is black + white + two primary colors. What are the primary colors again? Guess I better do some quick research since obviously I was out sick on that day of high school art class.