Gloria J Zucaro's "Classes & Studies"

This week for Paint Party Friday http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ I am showing two different areas of study .  Above is an oil painting study of how to do buildings.  Our instructor was Frankie Johnson at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL.  http://www.mainstreetartcenter.com  We used Frankie's photos for these studies.   

We first toned our background with a washy mix of blue and black acrylic because it dries quickly.

Next we decided on our size and placement of the basic flat front of the building on the left, an old farmhouse.  We measured the height and width, but were free to change them if it would fit our composition better.   

With as a few strokes as possible of our oil paints( size #8 flat), we placed the front of the building in but did not make an outline of the building first. 

Then the dark right edge of the roof line and the narrow roof showing behind it. 

The lower section under the roof on the shadowed side where the small porch extends was put in next in one value lighter than the roof color.  We did not leave room for the porch we just filled the whole area.

On to the bright sunlit roof out to the side, then the wall facing us, which again is another value lighter than the shadow side of the main front part of the structure.  A sliver of the view of the end of the wing of the house.  

Then the roof of the porch went in in a value darker than the face of the building because it is a little recessed, but lighter than the front facing side of the wing which is further back and shadowed by the main part of the building. 

Darken the inside of the covered porch, lighten a little the front of the porch as it extends back.  

Now warm up the face of the house with some yellow, red or orange mixed with white.  Add the windows with a smaller brush.  They can be done with one stroke, and each should be different, having a harder edge here and there, No outlining.

Next we worked on putting different values and colors of the greenery around the building to make it feel nestled.  Frankie emphasized that we should used different sizes and shapes of strokes as well. I think it came out really well!

I won't talk about the smaller building, because the process was basically the same.

My second part is from exercise done for my Dion Dior online watercolor class.

http://diondior.blogspot.com/

done through the Joggles website

http://www.joggles.com/

It is using triads.  I really had fun with it and might use these types of designs in my greeting cards.

Happy Paint Party Friday everyone.