Well, I completed the second section of the Oil Fundamentals course and passed. The comments I received were very helpful and insightful. Bottom line, this time I learned that my depiction of values is decent, but I tend to go a little dark in the mid tones. Nobody has told me that before this, so this is appreciated!
I got some positive comments for this painting from the teachers at Watts Atelier, but there were some problems with the drawing. The angle of the jaw, apparently, is out of whack.
I’ll confess, I loved learning anatomy but never really liked the skull, and didn’t focus on it at all. Due to this, I am completely ignorant in skull anatomy. But, Watts is going to force all of us students to learn, whether we want to or not! And this is good!
The assignment was to quickly paint something in an hour, and don’t go any longer than that. Quite daunting! I never thought I could be capable of finishing anything so quickly.
As it turns out, I actually completed this in a tiny bit less than an hour, which surprised me more than anyone! There are problems with the drawing. (I feel like everything “leans” a little to one side.) But we are told in the demo lesson that perfection in accuracy is not expected when we only are limited to an hour to complete the painting.
The instructor who wrote the comments on this painting didn’t mention any drawing flaws; so I guess that means it was within acceptable limits.
The instructor notes said that the midtones were too dark on the neck and the side of the nose. Also, the darkest values are too opaque. (It looks better to paint the darkest values with thinner layers, with light values painted with thicker paint.) This was something I was never taught when I first learned to paint in oils. I am grateful for this new guidance and will work to integrate this into my painting.
Once again, I’m very grateful for Watts Atelier and the instruction they’ve given. On to the next part of the Oil Painting Fundamentals course—the Zorn Palette! I’m super excited to learn about this. (I have done some Zorn palette work before, and am fascinated with it!)
