Jodi Maurus

Art Students League of Denver
Studio Landscape Painting w/Doug Dauson
Open Studio Mondays 9-12
For this Class - Fridays 9-12:30

Goal of painting is to paint something that will not get out of someone's head.
Landscapes have 2 moods - sunny or overcast

Sunny landscapes have 2 sources of light - sun and blue of sky

Blue of sky is in the shadows
Sun is in the sunny spots

Changes: early it is scarlet then red then orange then yellow-orange;
when it's high in sky it is yellow
then reverses yellow-orange, to orange, to red

Doug uses a toned surface - self prepared

Pink w/yellow for sunny landscape
bright pink for overcast

every 10th painting he experiments
does a thumbnail sketch to resolve:

design
value
quality of edges

3 things thumbnail does

help design the painting
rehearsal of painting
proof it will work

Painting vs drawing

Drawing is organizing with lines
Painting is using shapes to organize
Painting is more like sculpture than drawing

Fills in the thumbnail with 4 shades of light & dark (values)

Uses grayscale pens 20%, 40%, 70%, 90%
Can eliminate one and use white of paper
His grayscale pens are warm grays - can use warm or cool
Look for little areas that make a shape (massed shape)
Human tendancy is to seperate shapes
Important to learn to mass shapes

Values

4th value he put down is light middle (yellow green reflections in water

Painting

When he paints he uses bigger paper so he can resize if necessary, marks off half inch to indicate loss under frame or matt
to design relationship to size of painting put sketch in corner and draw from one corner on reference to painting paper
tapes corners

Uses a paper towel to push color into paper to eliminate light spots
The underpainting colors are suggested by light source
Using thumbnail as a reference, he puts on darkest pastels first then dark middle then rubs in with paper towel then may go to the real picture (never both at the same time)
Then adds lightest middle and light
plays with edges until pleased
looks at shapes - forget about what you are painting
does not push lights into the paper
goes back and adds more darks
if you find you always make the same mistake - watch for it
Water - don't labor over it - just flat level strokes
Sometimes he leaves a picture at the underpainting level
Next he brought in the greens, experimenting here and there and then expanding the color just by changing colors of shape
Next he brought in dark middle (lime green) expands if he likes it
Light middle - teal just a bit of light green. The more intense the color may become too powerful - watch it as you add it
Create the illusion of depth as things recede

detail is lost
contrast between values diminishes
edges become softer
color becomes cooler
color becomes greyer/duller

He adds bluer green to push back greens further back (the yellows are being filtered out)
Sky - start adding blues - (not in reference photo)

HIs values:

Light one - sky and area of water - pinkish & lighnt middle color
1st light middle one - yellow orangish
dark middle - orger yellow and end push darker orange
darkest value - blue of sky shining in it - use red violer purplish

Overcast scene often starts with monochromatic underpainting
A picture is finished when the state of organization is pleasing to you
Last photo I took he thought was 85% completer
Tip for painting mistake

If it could have been and you like it - leave it
If it could not have been or you don't like it - fix it

Tips

If you have many paintings going put the pastels you are using in a baggy and clip to board

Recap of day

Design, proportions, 4 core values (4 pastels or more if mixing)
1st dark and dark middle values establish design
Under painting colors different then final values
Marks middle of painting and blocks from there
Uses paint/draw method - strokes follow contour then fills in, scribbles edges of vegetaion

Made no sense when transferring notes: