Why It's Critical to Step Back and/or Squint

Here's a great demonstration of why it's so important to step back from your painting:

http://blog.jonathanlinton.com/2010/09/step-away-from-painting.html

Class Notes - August 18, 2010

A bit backlogged getting these typed up...

• Oiling Out
• Why
• Restores value of darker colors, which often lighten when they dry and turn matte.  Essentially, you need to make the colors wet again.
• When
• Whenever the value has shifted enough to throw off your judgment
• Where
• Preferably only in the areas you plan on painting in that day's session.  Straight oil with no pigment in it can do strange things to paint applied over it.
• How
• Take a small bit of oil on a brush and work it onto the desired areas
• Try to keep it as thin as possible
• If possible, wipe as much oil as possible off with a paper towel or rag.  The idea is to have as little oil as possible on the surface to re-establish the colors.
• Painting into a couch
• Painting into a couch refers to putting oil or medium onto the canvas to create a different surface in which to work.  It's related to oiling out, but they aren't exactly the same thing.  Oiling out is done to re-establish values, while painting into a couch is done to change the working surface of the canvas so the paint goes on differently.  So, when oiling out, you are also creating a couch to paint into.
• Choosing/Editing Reflections
• Sometimes it's necessary to modify a reflection or leave it out altogether in order to enhance the form.
• The envelope
• The envelope is an optical drawing technique where the major points on the contour of the subject are connected with straight or nearly-straight lines.  Then, the points are cross-referenced and triangulated until they are more accurate.  Then the drawing can be further divided and refined.
• Ellipses and Cylinders

Better Sphere Rotation