Demo at the Austin Palette Club

This morning I did a painting demonstration for the Austin Palette Club.

I talked about the use of making notan sketches to figure out composition and value structure before beginning painting. I often use a "color notan" also to decide on color palette for a painting.

A notan is traditionally black and white in design. I sketched my design with 3 values while I considered cropping, placement, etc. Then began my painting.

I started too dark, despite my telling them not to, and knowing that I tend to. As least with oils, I can wipe those darks out a little and lay over better values.

My early painting education emphasized working dark to light. I used to wash a burnt sienna over the canvas and then lift or wipe out lights. Later, I began to sketch with a brush and mass in big shapes with color...still dark, though transparent.

What I am trying to do now is to paint the midtones and lights first, then punctuate with very darks. That is helping me lighten my palette. Doing the color notans helps when o choose a color scheme for painting if you don't always want to paint things exactly as they are.