Oil Demo Doug Dawson

Art Students League of Denver
Studio Landscape Painting w/Doug Dauson

Pastel Demo Doug Dawson

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:

• CMC Edwards classes (maybe a girl living in Edwards took classes here)

My ideas:

• Make stencils on predetermined size papers on transparency paper to help transfer design