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What a great way to start my day! To open up to all of your positive feedback. This workshop was exactly what I have been itching to return to for six months since taking Marvin Mattelson's week long workshop in Atlanta in January of this year. One week with Marvin and you get a good idea of his approach and a chance to begin a portrait with drawing and wash-in techniques from life. The last day of the week-long workshop I layed in some color but was pretty overwhelmed by all I had learned. The painting I began in January was my very first attempt at painting a portrait.
For six months I did nothing but mix Marvin's fleshtones palette and "play around". And I did a couple wash-ins and drew from life, knowing I would return for his two-week workshop in Las Vegas.
But I never imagined I would have so much fun and that I would take to his instruction so easily! Everything clicked and I believe it was because Marvin's instruction is simple and very consistant. His twenty years of teaching is reflected in his approach and his passion for his students.
If I came away with a couple important lessons which I can pass on to other students beginning in oils it would be these:
1. Learn to draw from life. Draw, draw, draw. No matter how beautiful your color, your portrait will fail if you cannot draw well and get the likeness right away.
2. SHAPES. Think of everything in terms of shapes, not nose, eyes, forhead, highlight, lips, etc. If you evaluate everything you see in terms of shapes you get it more right.
3. Evaluate color by HUE, VALUE, INTENSITY. This allows you to know exactly what you want the color to be. Constantly ask, "is it too yellow, too pink?", "is it too light or too dark", "is it too intense or too neutral"?
Marvin constantly talks about creating form, not only with shapes but with value. He talked about sculpting the planes, which helped me understand what I was wanting to do with paint.
This really stuck with me: "A sculptor chisels facets to create changes in value. A painter paints changes in value to create facets".
It will takes me months and months for all to really sink in, but the bottom line is I have a direction to go which makes perfect sense to me and I really love the colors I can get with Marvin's palette.
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