Judy Morris Workshop - Day 2

Here is the beginning of the first painting I am working on in class. The reference was a photo I took in Chinatown a few years ago. I did the street sign above the lanterns, but I wanted to add the word "Chinatown" across the bottom. I went on the computer to look at fonts and Chinese words. The problem was that I couldn't enlarge the pattern for the words without a copier that enlarges...which we didn't have in the class. I ended up freehand drawing the words on tissue paper and using a light box to copy it onto my paper. Then I painted it with white latex paint that Judy had which is colored the exact color of Arches paper. When you paint over it some of the color remains on the latex outline and you get a subtle lighter color where the letters are.

Our lesson for the day was on texture and pattern which Judy calls "eye entertainment." The texture and pattern draw you in and make you take a closer look. She uses stencils and patterns to trace and paint through. She brought along several for us to share.

We discussed color chords. Two of the more popular ones are the desert triad which consists of indian red, cerulean, and yellow ochre. The other is the transparent triad which contains quinacridone gold, permanent alizarin, and french ultramarine. Both of these are nice but I wanted something a bit brighter. I used winsor red, permanent alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, and french ultramarine.

I also sketched out a second painting based on a photo I took from the apartment we rented in Paris. I wanted to use words as texture, but I wanted them to have meaning to the painting. So I headed to the computer to print out a few phrases. Here is the sketch of this second painting. I believe it says "a beautiful morning in Paris, hello.

Judy also did a demonstration on applying gold leaf to paintings. This is her latest addition to her watercolors and it has a wonderful effect.

It was a very busy day. Class was from 9 am to 4 pm. Then we went for a swim in the indoor pool, showered, went to dinner, then a presentation, and back to the studio until 10pm.