From Maaavin's Atlanta Class-Mariah

[Marvin Mattelson]

Cheryl, I'm glad to hear you're interested in a workshop. It's not really a technique that I teach, but a way to approach painting. It is appropriate for any stylistic leaning, painterly to controlled.

Yes I make house calls but it gets pricey.

In the course of my week long workshop I can barely cover the intricacies of how and why I use color. I wish I had the time to do a video or write a book and make my approach more available, but for now, I can't afford the time. However nothing beats the experience of watching what I do first hand and having the opportunity to question anything that seems unclear. This is the very best way to learn. No close seconds.

It's my experience that when people are ready to move forward, they will make the necessary arrangements.

In the meantime here are the colors I recommend to my students. All colors are Winsor and Newton except for the white, which is made by Michael Harding and available only from the Italian Art Store.

Colors for flesh and wherever else appropriate:
MH Flake White #2
W&N Terra Rosa
W&N Yellow Ochre
W&N Yellow Ochre Pale
W&N Indian Red
W&N Ivory Black
W&N Raw Umber

Colors to round out palette:
W&N Burnt Sienna
W&N Alizarin Permanent
W&N Viridian
W&N French Ultramarine Blue

Colors I use only where very intense color is needed. Not placed on the palette unless necessary:
W&N Cadmium Scarlet
W&N Cadmium Yellow Pale

[Kimberly Dow]

Pat & Val - Good for you two! Great job - and sounds like you had fun as well.

Marvin - just curious, do you have your students mix up the colors like you do beforehand? I have heard it said that it takes days to premix your palette and I am wondering how it fits in with just a week.

[Cheryl Ellicott]

Marvin,



Thank you so much! What a lot of frustration this will save me.




cheryl

[Elizabeth Schott]

Hey wait ...aren't those Marvelous Marvin Mahl Stick Bridges on all those easels?

What's with that?

[Valerie Warner]

Elizabeth,
Yes, they are Marvin's mahl stick supports! After trying it I loved it. I bought one right away. No more looking for my mahl stick! It became part of the easel and I don't waste time any longer looking for it. I really like that.

Cheryl, just getting the list of colors would have been fairly useless to me. You see, as Kim mentioned, there is a system of mixing that reminds me of having pastels. There are strands of colors each going from the darkest value to the lightest, 2-9.You mix say...the yellow strand using yellow ochre pale & white to achieve value 9 (the lightest before white) and you use yellow ochre & yellow ochre pale for next values, then yellow ochre & raw umber to achieve even darker values. After doing that you have a complete range of yellows (values 2-9)at your disposal. When you look at your resource at a yellow area you ask yourself how does it differ from my wash in? I look at my palette of yellows, pick the value, add a touch of whatever it takes to achieve what I see and there you go.I don't this gives this method a fair shake. We had 6 days of solid learning to be "introduced".

Kim: As Marvin says.. .It is all painting. As I mix my palette, I'm evaluating hues/values/intensity. Over and over. It took 1.5 hours the first time. I expect it to take less time than it took to write my emails over the last 2 days. about 1 hr. I will be able to determine my value etc of paint that I need immediately. No more guessing. I will not have to trial and error my way through a painting. I'm doing a cougar right now that I worked on for at least 3 weeks pushing and pulling color over and over. Too intense, too dull, wrong hue. Geez! ! ! Then I got Marvins list of supplies for the workshop and saw the care and purpose in his list, figured I better slow down and choose very wisely in my cougar painting. I limited my palette, approached with purpose and wha la. It finished itself. No kidding. It will be up on my website in a couple of hours.

[Linda Brandon]

I would love a Mahvelous Marvin Mahl Stick support. How can I get one?

(Incidentally, if anybody is interested, the new Betty Edwards book Color suggests that artists make three separate color wheels - hue, value and intensity. The 12-step circular imagery is to me easier to manage mentally - a handier mnemonic - than is a linear progression (that is, you think of a value being at 3:00 rather than further down the line) Practically speaking, I haven't figured out how to set up a palette this way, though. Sorry for digression.)

[Valerie Warner]

Linda,

If you want a mahl holder just email Marvin. He makes them himself. Cool

Regarding your palette suggestion, it's all good eh? Anything that slows us down, focuses these beautiful right brains of ours is a gift. I am pretty rock headed so I need simplicity. I didn't realize it until I used this limited palette. What's good about it to me is that a brainiac (brain eee aak) named Marvin did all the leg work for me while I was too dense to even see I needed control. He studied the masters, and I mean studied. Learned their methods and colors and medium. Applied to today and is sharing it with others. Wow. Thanks big guy.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Kim,

People who choose to use my palette long range eventually tube the different color strings. Then they can just squeeze them out in minutes. The tubing is what takes days. Actually mixing out the palette, however, requires far less time. In the workshop people have overnight to do it. The more acute their eye is to translating color to value the faster they do it. Val did it pretty fast the first time.

The point that Val was eluding to was, mixing up the palette is not a precursor to painting. It is painting. Until you have developed the ability to see color in terms of value you have no chance at doing a successful portrait. I tell my students if they want to practice painting, then practice mixing the palette up. I did this for a year before I ever tubed.

Using my palette set-up speeds up the painting process tremendously when you're in front of the model. My students are amazed that although it looks like I paint very deliberately I get a lot done. This is because I'm not hunting and pecking.

There is also a misconception that somehow I'm using formulaic color solutions that leads to a similarity in the color of the skin. Not true. There are no recipes. Everything is based on evaluating what you see and making the appropriate choices.

My palette provides me with the necessary range to capture the nuances specific to each individual complexion I paint. It is an impressionistic use of color, in the true sense. The color is very lifelike but the paintings need to be seen in the flesh, so to speak, to appreciate what they look like. I am not painting for reproduction. like when I was an illustrator. My end result is the painting itself. The subtlety cannot be captured on film in the same way that real flesh cannot be captured on film. Maybe someone who saw the originals would like to share their experience of how they appear.

I make the mahl stick supports and brush organizers because of the response of my students to their usefulness. If anyone is interested in buying either of them send me an email.

[John Reidy]

I've been using Marvin's pallette for over a year now. I continue to mix it fresh each time as it proves to be a good exersise for my eye and judgement before I approach the canvas. It usually needs touching up throughout the week.

I've seen a few of Marvin's originals. It's true, they can't be compared realistically to Photographs or uploads. I'm sure most of us would agree that we are not happy with the photographs of our paintings no matter how good they are. They always leave something to be desired.

Marvin, regarding your mahl stick, do you sell one that attaches to your canvas? I thought that was what you used in Atlanta.

[Valerie Warner]

Patty just sent me some photos of our portraits in progess. This is the point at which the value study has been done in raw umber, it has been allowed to dry, I'm taking a white conte pencil and "correcting" & redrawing. Next post is the close up.