Complement Painting

A couple of weeks ago my Challenge Group unveiled our May paintings. You may recall that the challenge was to paint only with the complements of yellow and purple. I learned a lot and had fun too.

It was such an interesting exercise that I really wanted to try it again using other complements with the simple figure study I did for "Dancer at the Bar". I am again amazed how much can be done with only two pigments (in this case, cadmium scarlet and ultramarine blue) plus white.

"Orange and Blue Study"
Oil on hardboard 7"x5"
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin

SOLD

More Charcoal Sketches: Woman in Dress

Short poses and longer studies:
Charcoal and chalk on 18x12" paper

©2010 Diana Moses Botkin

These and others available with Paypal at my DailyPainters gallery page.

Charcoal Life Drawings: Three Back Views

Charcoal and chalk figure studies on 18x12" grey paper
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin

These and others available with Paypal at my DailyPainters gallery page.

Figure Studies in Charcoal and Chalk on Large Paper

These two sketches were drawn on large sheets of Fabriano paper.

I thought the one on the brown paper turned out especially nice. That is, until I sprayed it with fixative.

Now it has a mottled look from the spray. The drawing on the grey paper is fine, and I'm not sure why the spray shows up that way on the brown paper. Although some might think the effect of the spray is sort of interesting, I don't think I'll order any more of that brown Fabriano.

Charcoal Figure and Hand Studies

I'm finally getting a little time (and sunshine) to photograph and document recent drawings.

Occasionally, this tall fellow poses for our local sketch group. It is quite a contrast drawing him after studying our petite female model for so long.

These studies and others are available at my DailyPainters Gallery.

May Challenge: Complements Purple and Yellow

As you may recall, each of us in my Challenge Group takes a turn choosing what we'll paint. This month, member Robin Cheers came up an interesting idea for us: "Paint your subject of choice only with purples/yellows - complements. You can add white lets say, but not black. Only mix the complements to make grays or use them in full color."

So... a painting using only purple and yellow, along with white. This was a challenge I had never attempted before: welcome but a little scary. Turns out, I really enjoyed seeing how much I could push the very limited palette. Plus, I learned a lot.

Since I didn't have any tube purples on hand, I mixed up a batch from Ultramarine Blue and Thio Violet (a magenta pigment). For yellow I considered using a transparent Hansa Yellow but decided on the more brilliant, opaque, and warmer Cadmium Yellow Medium.

I knew I could get a nice brown with my mixed purple and the yellow I chose, and some decent tans using white and little more yellow. Lavender/violet hues were a given with purple and white, but I sure missed using reds and greens.

That said, I was actually quite surprised by how much variety I achieved with only purple, yellow and white. Color comparisons had to suffice for the perceived range since the actual extent of available colors was so limited.

Layering colors worked better than mixing for some of the hues in my painting. I was able to get some fairly intense darks with layers of purple with a little yellow in the mix. And layering a lavender tone over light yellow gave me a pink of sorts. Not a luscious glowing scarlet by any means, but a semblance of pinker flesh tones,more than using just the yellow and purple mixed browns.

(left) "Dancer at the Bar"
7"x5" Oil on hardboard
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin

NOW SOLD

I think all the Group's paintings are very interesting and I enjoyed going to each one's blog to read about how the artist approached this month's Challenge. I hope you will too!

(left) "Sophia" 16" x 20" Oil on Canvas ©2010 Suzanne Berry
(French Ultramarine Blue/Alizarin Crimson mix, Cadmium Yellow Medium, and Titanium White)

(above right) "Study in Complements" 8x10" Oil on Panel ©2010 Robin Cheers
(Ultramarine Blue/Quinacridone Red mix, Hansa Yellow and White)

(left)
"Sliced Plum on Wood Block"
5x5”
Oil on Panel
©2010 Jeanne Illenye
(Cadmium Red / French Ultramarine Blue mix,
Cadmium Yellow and White)

(left)
“PY Study"
9x12”
Oil on Panel
©2010 Vicki Ross
(Cobalt Violet, Cadmium Lemon,
and Titanium White)

"Valley Gold" Original Sold & Giclées on Canvas Now

This 11x14" oil recently sold at my Montana outlet, Meadowlark Gallery in Billings.

It's one of my favorites and it's nice to know this lovely piece will be enjoyed by some special people.

If, like me, you love storm clouds, I'd be pleased to paint something similar just for you.

This image is also now available reproduced on canvas, with textured embellishment. You can order it unframed, or framed in two large sizes, and shipped to you. Please contact me if you would like more details.

Sleeping Model Studies in Charcoal and Chalk

These longer poses on dark paper seem very sleepy to me, probably because the model was napping. I think most of us who were drawing hated to wake him up when the pose time was over.

Quick Poses, Charcoal Figure Studies

Taking a break from other work, including a portrait commission, I'm finally getting around to taking photographs of some of my drawings from the recent weekly figure drawing Open Studio.