More Castiglione Del Bosco 'Field Paintings'

I mounted some more of the Italy sketches from my recent trip.  I may work on them in the studio and/or use them for a larger paintings but for now they are just as I made them in the field.  I still have a bunch more to mount, about 28 in all.  I'm doing it little by little, when there's some more I'll post them.  Hope everyone is getting their summer sketches done. You should have several by now.

Keeping In Practice This Summer

White and off white sheet

White sheet, a bit more time spent.

White sheet, getting a bit more context.

Several weeks ago my students asked what they could do to stay in practice this summer.  My first answer was do 100 heads.  Later, I realized there isn't even a hundred days before we start again.  So, here is an example of something I do when I don't have time to work on something more ambitious, or just to have fun.  I throw a white sheet on a chair, and I paint it.  I try not to get to involved in the nuance or make the painting special.  I just try to quickly capture the colors, values, and shapes that I see.  Above are 3 examples so you can see how gruff the handling is.  It isn't important to articulate the folds perfectly, just make precise notes of color that are the right shape.  Capturing the shapes is very important, make shapes with your brush strokes.  And then do some articulation on top of those.  These should be done quickly- 1 hour 2 at the most.  Don't think finished painting, think, are the colors honest, are the values relative, are the shapes strong.  So go paint!  And have a fun summer.