Video from CWA zoom demo, 3/17/21

If you missed my zoom demo last week, it was recorded and shared on the CWA youtube channel. We had lots of fun, and quite a turnout. I’m going to share my support materials and such here today, and talk a bit about my thinking.

A big push this demo was to explore notans and composition, and I spent about a 1/3 of the demo doing that. Much more than normal. I also used a limited palette of just Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Lemon, and Burnt Sienna. Part of the goal was to highlight some of the focus and content of my upcoming 3-day zoom workshop with the CWA (hint hint!!! LOL). If you’re interested in my class, there are still spaces available. We’ll have 30 students maximum, and are half way to full capacity. You can find out more about it in this earlier blog post and can sign up here on the CWA website.

The demo was a paint along format. I started by sharing the reference photo and the preparatory painting I did ahead of time, that I wasn’t really satisfied with. Here they are-

I found it adequate, but too static. The door is the clear focal point with its contrast within a contrast, but there weren’t enough additional points of interest to hold my attention. I had an extra photo that I had taken on site, which I hadn’t used because the barn was clearly too centered in it, but I liked how it had additional info on right hand side. I brought it in to the demo and used the two photos in combination to make a new composition.

Note how I cut off the sky, which detracted too much from the focal point, then brought in that little dark object on the right, “captured” under the arm of the tree, while also keeping that additional open space on the left, so the barn wouldn’t be too centered. The goal is often to create little pockets or areas of captured light, where the image can hold our attention for a bit. This very clearly happens in the open barn door, but also happens to the left (where the brokendown roof is), on the right (under the arm of the tree), and up top (when I crop the sky and create that little pocket between the roof of the barn and the canopy of the tree). These little extra points help activate the sketch, so it holds our attention for longer, compelling us to travel around it more.

I hope folks will get a chance to watch the video. If you’re interested in this sort of experience, it’s part of what we’ll be doing in my class. One of the very few benefits of Covid has been recordings like these, and that they’re available for anyone anywhere in the world to watch. We’re building the class that way too. We’ll be recording it and making it available for a month afterwards to attendees only.

In other news, we got a new 5-month old kitten. I know, I know…. but I write this blog, so I get to share cute stuff like this too. He’s a Maine Coon. And he’s cuuuuuuuuuute!!!!!! :) Meet Indiana, or Indy. He adventurous and very charming. Hahahaha! Honestly one of the friendliest, most playful cats I’ve ever had. And I’ve had a few.

Happy viewing folks. Until next time.