yellow cow update

here is the update, the third application of paint… another technical painting (sigh)  i’m trying to learn colour theory by doing…but it turns out there are other technical problems other than colour theory.  thank god i didn’t attempt kandinsky!  imagine the size of those problems!

 all i did was paint the lower left of this pic, the rocks and the leaves… that’s abt 3 hrs of my life spent scratching on that small surface… wow, am i anal-retentive or what… but i got to use a fan brush!  hehe 

interestingly, this third application of paint is when oil as a rich medium is starting to show.  i was complaining abt how the cow looks as though it can be blown away, well, that’s cos oil should have a certain ‘gravitas’ abt it, and this is mostly through how you manipulate layers and layers of quality paint.  since i have neither quality paint nor layers upon layers… it pretty much sums up the pic.

the pic is also uneven, as you can see from the cow, the lower right areas and the background… the lower right has 1 1/2 layers of paint… why this odd number, that’s cos the paint isn’t applied very evenly the second time… the brush i was using couldn’t absorb enough paint on it (lack of quality again).  the effects aren’t good or bad, it just isn’t appropriate for this painting, as the original painting has this this ‘flattened’ and ’smooth’ look abt it. 

also, some pple seem to ‘get it’… that is, the feeling of oil as a medium… two of my classmates seem to have ‘it’ with their landscapes… incidentally, the two of them are some of the older folks, retired too.  i wonder if being free of worries is one factor that enables you to paint more freely.

an aside:

the original yellow cow by franz marc has such a carefree and whimsical attitude… it’s so playful… the colours so vibrant, you’d think that the painter was some cheerful chum living in lala land.

his biography is anyting but.

yellow cow/franz marc

art lessons – forgot to add that i’ve also applied a first layer of paint to ‘yellow cow’ today!  here it is (to compare with the original, check category yellow cow)

technically, what i learned today:

• should have applied a foundation layer of paint… think it would have made the colours look richer… as it is, the colours look too ‘light’, the cow looks as if it can be blown away by the wind… noticed this with the previous lempicka… oh well, will apply at least 1-2 more layers of paint next few weeks.
• SE used her fingers (five!) to add shadows and movement to the painting.  she showed me which side of the finger to use for straight lines and round shapes.  also, she mentioned that cos of the angles, we can use all 10 fingers! if we want.  heh.  what abt toes? 
• i think i’m going through some long overdue cubist obsession now.  the previous lempicka was definitely cubist, so is this.  all my classmates are painting landscapes, but i’m fixated, stuck in the late 20th century.  also, i just fell in love with the colours of ‘yellow cow’… apparently, franz marc believed that colours had a spiritual value… i wasn’t surprised to learn that he formed a collective with kandinsky (another one of my fav artists!) and he also admired matisse’s works, both renowned colourists.  kandinsky wrote a famous article on the spiritual value of colours too. 

a lil more abt franz marc the original painter of yellow cow -

this is copied from the guggenheim museum’s website.  interesting chap, crazy abt animals.  but boy, can be paint! 

b. 1880, Munich; d. 1916, Verdun Franz Marc was born February 8, 1880, in Munich. The son of a landscape painter, he decided to become an artist after a year of military service interrupted his plans to study philology. From 1900 to 1902, he studied at the Kunstakademie in Munich with Gabriel Hackl and Wilhelm von Diez. The following year during a visit to France, he was introduced to Japanese woodcuts and the work of the Impressionists in Paris.

Marc suffered from severe depressions from 1904 to 1907.  In 1907, he went again to Paris, where he responded enthusiastically to the work of Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, the Cubists, and the Expressionists; later, he was impressed by the Henri Matisse exhibition in Munich in 1910. During this period, he received steady income from the animal-anatomy lessons he gave to artists.

In 1910, Marc’s first solo show was held at Kunsthandlung Brackl, Munich, and he met August Macke and the collector Bernhard Koehler. He publicly defended the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM) and was formally
welcomed into the group early in 1911, when he met Vasily Kandinsky. After internal dissension split the NKVM, he and Kandinsky formed Der Blaue Reiter, whose first exhibition took place in December 1911 at Heinrich
Thannhauser’s Moderne Galerie, Munich. Marc invited members of the Berlin Brücke group to participate in the second Blaue Reiter show two months later at the Galerie Hans Goltz, Munich. Der Blaue Reiter Almanac was published
with lead articles by Marc in May 1912. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Marc immediately enlisted. He was deeply troubled by Macke’s death in action shortly thereafter; during the war, he produced his Sketchbook
from the Field. Marc died March 4, 1916, near Verdun-sur-Meuse, France.

Moooooo….

just came back from art lessons.  after a quick shower and dinner, it’s nearly 1am.  am freaking tired.  nobody turned up today except me, so besides sketching my next painting in oil! (virgin moment!), SE spent some time talking about how some paintings have a certain ‘authenticity’ and ‘authority’.  these words are in quotation marks as it’s difficult to translate the Mandarin terms into English.  Half the time, i struggle to understand the exact nuance when SE explains certain concepts too.  [i often wish that our mandarin were up to scratch (all her students are more comfortable with english!), we could dig deeper into the techniques/concepts and have a richer understanding].  PITY.  oh well, it’s quite funny sometimes when we launch into an impromptu language class, and C will whip out her ever ready eng-man digital dict to try to bridge our gap.  lol.

back to the lesson… SE took three paintings as an example, and asked me to imagine them as people in a tour group i’d just met and ascribe them personal characteristics.  she posed a question, “if you had to give your passport to one of them for safe-keeping, which one would you choose instinctively?”  we agreed that one of the paintings was the obvious choice.  the answer led us to examine that painting more closely. 

 first we stepped back a couple of metres to take in a bird’s eye view, the standout points from this angle were the perspective, the strong focal point and the sense of movement.  next we examined the painting at close quarters and saw that this sense of movement, which gave it a certain dynamism, was really made up of different brushstrokes, use of different tools (palette knife, paintbrush) and texture (thin and thicker layers of oil). 

 the impt thing though, is that although all these techniques can be easily learned, the issue is whether the artist has the innate ability/intuitive sense to apply them appropriately at any given instant.  this is what differentiates a good painter from a mediocre one, and gives a painting that sense of ‘authority’ and ‘authenticity’.  also, according to SE, that painting’s author had a good grasp of grey.

“Grey?”  i queried. 

 ”Yes, because oil painting is often concerned with shades of grey and the relationship between them.  That is why oil paintings of apples look really old and unattractive, while advertisements/graphic designers will use bright, primary colours to make an apple enticing and crunchy.  the two mediums have such different results because their aims are different”.

 Wow.  that’s something i didn’t think abt until today!  the wonders of grey! so that’s why still lifes always look so dodgy… haha…. but then again, caravaggio’s still lifes look extremely scrumptious…. hmmmm….

although i didn’t do much today, the talk was a welcome break from just painting all the time in class, and hearing someone much more accomplished ruminate and reflect on painting is also illuminating.  quite enjoyed this session cos there’s so much food for thought. 

anyway, here is the current painting yellow cow (Franz Marc) i’m attempting… basically, the technical thing i picked up today is to ‘zoom out’ and take a larger view.  when sketching, it’s impt to block the shapes (like in the oil sketch), rather than be concerned with the undulating details (like in the pencil sketch) and to find the lines connecting the shapes.  ok, it’s difficult to understand what i mean in an abstract fashion, so just refer to the sketches below and hopefully it will make sense. 

       

original                          oil sketch                    pencil sketch

before i left, SE urged me to draw/sketch more again.  she told me that my last painting (dear blondie!) was good, and that although she doesn’t set homework for her students, she advised me to sketch more frequently, and to use oil to sketch, preferably on canvas too.  i think she wants to train me to be more confident and relaxed, and less self-conscious and tense.  i know i’m very tentative, cos painting (not to mention oil painting!), is so freaking new and i’m completely clueless even abt basic techniques like how to hold the brush when sketching vis-a-vis when painting, what brushes to use, what sizes, whether to sit or stand and how far back to evaluate yr painting etc. 

painting is very much like a subtle physical and emotional dance.  however, you’d only know whether it was a polka or waltz after the session has ended.  sometimes it’s a breakdance with bruises to show!

also, the funny thing with drawing, is that i’m really am at the mercy of the moment and i HATE feeling so vulnerable.  i guess it’s similar to being a medium waiting to go into a trance, you don’t know what to expect, can’t predict if the ending is going to be good or bad, and worse, can’t stop the process until it’s done.  3/4 of the time, i’m just so bloody relieved mickey mouse didn’t emerge and the results looks plausible, 1/4 of the time, i’m either elated cos it turned out much better than expected or just pissed off cos donald duck visited instead. 

well, at least the canvas i made was ok for use today.  heh.  my first hand-made canvas!  so proud of myself.  i applied the gesso too!  and today, i used turpentine for the first time (another virgin moment!) to dilute the oil for sketching purposes!  can’t wait to start using linseed oil too!  wonder when tho’… i LOVE its smell.  used it to varnish my easel TWICE.  ha.

ok, it seems a bit silly to be so happy abt small things like that, but well, everyone gets off on different things.