Steve Fleming

Artist Studio

Steve Fleming

In The Studio: Just Paint 36 “Office Talk”

The Artist In The Studio

This painting is another abstraction involving just the creative handling of the shadow shapes, although I have added some passages like the docks that are more just dark forms.  I think these exercises are a good starting point for learning to understand where the light is showing up in the painting by just trying to get a good handle on the shadow portions.  Now I must tell you that if you are chuckling that I have made a major mistake on the boat with the apparent lack of the lower hull, don’t be mean, I was trying to indicate that the top stripe across the hull was significantly darker than the lower area, I don’t think I handled it as well as I would have liked.

I am using a nice colorful palette of cobalt, cerulean blue mixed with cobalt violet, burnt sienna and the occasional addition of raw sienna. Using a round brush I get a lot of variety in the brush work.

The dock is primarily burnt sienna, alizirin, and ultramarine blue, cutting around several white shapes for the feeling of light.

When the paint on the dock sets up just a little make a few scrapes with a knife or flat scraper.  Paint the background landscape with thalo yellow green cobalt blue and a hint of new gamboge.  Remember to cut around the areas that you want to leave white.  Paint the cabin of the boat with a gray mixed from ultramarine blue and burnt sienna and the hull with the same mixture just adding a lot more burnt sienna.

Add windows doors and dark accents on the dock, buildings and boat.  Stop when you start getting too busy.  It is best to learn to abbreviate the information, leave something for the viewer to do in your painting.

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