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#3 Challenge...No Blending Piece of Work...May 1-June 1
Savannah
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Shirley Seput came up with the great idea of our #3 challenge!
Under Mark's advise...absolutely NO blending...:-)
The challenge will start on May 1st...and end June 1st....any subject matter, size etc...just no blending!
Myself...I'm really excited to try this because I'm a "big time" blender....so this will truly be a challenge..fun, fun, fun!
Who's interested...post your name here if you will participate...Savannah, TJS, Sue, Maria, Martin, Grandma, Cynthia, Cin D, Ronna, Shirley S, Marie B, RGR, Elena, Amrit, Gary, Gary
Under Mark's advise...absolutely NO blending...:-)
The challenge will start on May 1st...and end June 1st....any subject matter, size etc...just no blending!
Myself...I'm really excited to try this because I'm a "big time" blender....so this will truly be a challenge..fun, fun, fun!
Who's interested...post your name here if you will participate...Savannah, TJS, Sue, Maria, Martin, Grandma, Cynthia, Cin D, Ronna, Shirley S, Marie B, RGR, Elena, Amrit, Gary, Gary
Comments
I'm worse than Savannah! :-S
Maria
I say NO, NONE, NEVER, NOT ONE STROKE!!! NO blending, over painting ok, but no blending or you lose.
Also I may suggest no one worry one bit about their painting looking horrible, but just make damn sure your values and color are right.
If you blend one stroke, you are defeating the purpose of this challenge in my opinion.
I would love to see a bunch of horrible paintings where the colors and values are right, even if everything looks all wonky and crooked and "horrible".
Maria...if I can do it I know you can too....this will be a great learning experience :-&
Sue...this isn't like you...come on...you can do it...no pressure...just a new project X_X
TJS...so glad your joining us... :x
I think we will all be pleasantly surprised with our results. It's not about who has the most beautiful painting...its rather a challenge to push ourselves outside of the "box" and challenge our comfort zones......who knows...we may find a new way to paint... 8-|
The choice of the subject is difficult as the challange ... in the end everyone will love you so much Shirley! :-*
Joke but in fact it will be really interesting for me! :P
Maria
Blending destroys the modeling effect gained by the nuances in value.
In effect a portrait with nine values when blended could be reduced to four or five values. The result is a very plastic looking person. Blending seems also to work in favor of the warmer values at the expense of the essential cooler skin values.
Depth and dimension is the whole visual illusion that creates powerful paintings.
The value string is what conveys the illusion of solidity and depth to the viewer.
As I remember Mark suggests that blending is as minimal as possible except where you are trying to render a smooth (ie ceramic) surface.
I don't recall Mark saying anything about glazing. It is evident though that he does not use the glazing technique.
Denis
It isn't unusual to find a painting that has blending used in one part and not used in another section. Just as every painting has every part of it glazed, and not every painting has an underpainting, and even those that do use under painting do not always under paint every part of the painting. The ideal is to pick and choose wisely the tool that best suits the artist's need for the job at hand.
I just wondered WHY Mark is against blending and glazing since he has never said that I heard in his video or read on this forum. I wonder if he is against other tools also? I would expect not, but he is the teacher, but only teaches in the videos and they don't seem to cover this subject. Perhaps this new video on landscapes will cover the use of different brushes and brushstrokes since so many landscape effects can be achieved that way, also sgaffito and tonking. However, I am expecting the video to only cover the effects that apply to the painting he is demonstrating. I am looking forward to seeing that video.
I'm in. This should be fun. 8-> :-SS ~O)
This challenge will be a great learning opportunity! So, I'm going to crush my fear of being a loser L-) and give it a try!
I'm really excited to start. \:D/
Blending, sgraffito and tonking are easy to achieve tricks.
Mark is showing us how to execute representative realism in a practical and straightforward way.
The DMP Forum is about the Carder Method. It is not everything you wanted to know about ART. You will have to buy a few books or go back to art school if you want comprehensive tuition in art.
Gimme a break. What do you expect for $20?
Denis
Grandma...like your idea of painting a landscape...I've always had difficulty painting rocks..perhaps a no blend painting would be beneficial?
Cynthia...Love that smiley face of yours...
Cin D....love your spirit...there's no winners or losers in this excercise...just learning something new...
Kingston...Bah...humbug!
Mavis....hope you like your new job...and hope you can join us!
I agree with you on the techniques above. But, this forum was created to teach a beginner to intermediate to mostly see, without so many technical sides involved. Once you've done his method in 3-5 stills and learn to see, draw, mix, and paint. Pretty much you venture off into your own thing.
Truthfully, I don't feel Mark is against any of techniques you've described in your post. You've also stated that as well. I just think Mark won't hit those areas because he wants to keep it simple to this technique.
But, this is just my view. You can always PM him or David about it.
Cyn. ~O) ;;)
I had just expected Mark to express some "why" when he said "Also I may suggest no one worry one bit about their painting looking horrible, but just make damn sure your values and color are right.
If you blend one stroke, you are defeating the purpose of this challenge in my opinion.
I would love to see a bunch of horrible paintings where the colors and values are right, even if everything looks all wonky and crooked and "horrible"."
I added the query about glazing just because I have always wondered about that.
When I first watched Mark's original video...he mentions to not over blend...(I think it creates mud)...and we lose the vibrancy of our values and colors...but says to just simply lay your colors down and do as little blending as necessary....
He also has mentioned several times about a first time student that did an entire painting (his first ever) without blending and I have to tell you....it is a fantastic piece of art work...I wish I could find the painting to post..
Anyway...you will find that when you lay your colors down...some will automatically blend because you can't help but over lap them...and it will have a "kinda" blended affect...anyway...have fun with it...looking forward to see what you design...so glad your on this forum!
I look at this way. When it come to oil painting there are basically two approaches - indirect method and direct method.
Indirect - starts with an underpaint followed by layers of heavier paint applications (fat over lean). This can include lots of techniques like glazing, scrumbling and so on. Slowly building up layers and correcting along the way until it looks right.
Direct (Mark's method) - paint it once and that's it. Learn to get the values and colors right to begin with to eliminate all that layering. That's why it's called Draw, MIx, Paint
Now, some people may have an easy time learning to blend properly. But I've taught people who, even after a semester of drawing classes, could not blend pencil to achieve a value change. And I've taught painters who could not blend paint to achieve a convincing form.
As for sgraffito and tonking: They weren't taught as techniques in school. They were just something picked up from reading about or watching other artists at work. I've seen them used badly, I've seen them used well. A "trick" would imply everybody can use it passibly well because it is so easy.
Other than that, I have no comment.
Thank you. Your experience and advice helps us all to grow as artists.
Denis
I think taking away a common tool, like blending, forces us to use other tools to compensate, like mixing way more intermediate color on the palette and placing color on the canvass with greater precision in smaller spots. (And I guess also painting into wet paint, which I don't think is the same as "blending" as a technique. My novice definition of painting into wet paint is just applying wet paint into other wet paint in a normal stroke rather than mixing two colors on the canvass, or softening brush strokes.)
Once the tool is returned, we'll potentially use it differently having had to do without it and make up for it's utility with other tools in this exercise.
Funnily enough, I have a painting that I think would meed the challenge criteria, not because I took up the challenge, but because it was my first ever attempt at a still life and I honestly didn't know how to blend.
I don't think that would be in the spirit of the challenge though, which I think is to intentionally take away a tool we rely on to force us to find another tool or two to compensate. In my first painting, I just didn't have the tool yet.
By Ronnie Taylor
That painting, and the one Emily Carder did for her first, drew me to this method. I couldn't believe this painting was not blended. Still stands in Gorgeous Category for me.
Thanks for finding this piece. >:D< :x
Personally I am somewhere in the middle. I make a sketch, sort of a map, if you will, for scale and almost always from a B&W sketch of my composition, but scale taken from the objects being painted. I lay a wash on to tone the canvas and then lay on this "map" I just described. Sometimes I might do a monochromatic wash painting if large and somewhat complex. This is very much, if not in some cases, exactly what Schmid and others do and what makes this work so well is we already have a plan worked out and a clear vision of what we want to achieve and how to do it before wetting a brush. One of several workshops I have taken from Schmid, he said (should "he" be capitalized in his case?
" Ideally, one should be able to look at a scene and see it as a mosiac. If you start in any corner and lay down each color, value, shape, size absolutely accurately what you will have is a perfect reproduction in paint of that scene. " Sounds simple at first and watching him do a demo is pretty close to this. In actuality this is incredibly difficult, if not impossible for 98% of us, but he is correct when you think about it. If everything is exactly correct, the drawing , colors and everything else will be perfect without one bit of blending other than the little that happens when one color overlaps another in a single stroke of the brush. Schmids ability to come so close to this is what makes him so special, like his work or not. His changes in a scene is also his ability to see what is not needed. Often we see many if not most of this paintings what many of us might think as unfinished. Not true. He knows any more added to the painting will take away from what he was trying to accomplish than add to it. He is also a master of "indicating detail with nothing really being done to paint that object. Watching him paint is a real treat most will never forget. He is a little dramatic with some of his flourishes of the brush, but I think this is to keep the audiences attention and be a little more entertaining. I have been fortunate to watch from start to finish a couple of portraits and a couple of landscapes and a still life. All were incredible. I was able to photograph one and would have paid four times retail for a digital movie cam.
BTW, I really like this painting TJS. Well done.
AZ, I first became a fan of Schmid about 20 years ago. I would love to have been able to go to a workshop of his. I knew I never could and that is how and why I went to one with Cassey Baugh. He was mentoring with Schmid at the time. I appreciate all of the time you put into sharing your knowledge on the forum because it does not produce income for you. I would love to see a couple progress picks of your painting process if you inclined to do so. I am amazed at the speed that you obviously paint with the production you have mentioned.
Remember the goal is to lay the paint on and leave it alone... absolutely NO BLENDING!!
Good luck everyone!!!
I already picked out what I'm gonna do. I am excited about it and might have to start before May 1st. I'm going to do a WIP so Mark can see where I'm messing up in the process. I just have a feeling this is going to look like crap. Oh well