kcp – Artblog

I’m so thrilled! This September I’m starting to give oil painting classes in a near-by community centre. I wanted to get a job like this for a long time. I been teaching cartoon illustration to kids in various community centres in the last few years, in hopes to make myself known and work my way up but I’ve found that it doesn’t quite work that way. Most centres that have painting classes serve a clientele that can afford them and the materials. Also, often the painting teachers at those centres have been there for a long time and aren’t likely to quit… I don’t blame them ;)

So I kept sending resumes until luck finally struck, when this community centre in my neighbourhood called me up. They didn’t have a painting/Art teacher and they were looking for one, and get this: they’re buying all the materials, brushes, paint tubes, easels… you name it! I was blown away but it’s a really great thing. You see, there’s lots of poverty in this neighbourhood and for a lot of people it is unthinkable that they can afford the materials plus the cost of the painting lessons. So this community centre buys the materials and offers classes at a reasonable cost. And, it gets even better; their philosophy is to never refuse someone who wish to participate to an activity because he can’t afford it. They’ll work something out instead.

That is so fantastic I think! Painting is such a beautiful discipline and it wouldn’t be fair to deprive people of it just because they are poor. It isn’t just a creative discipline, it is also an opportunity for people to go out, meet others, share and explore together, and not to forget relaxation and other “therapeutic” benefits of painting.

I want to give my students the choice of working from photos, from model or from imagination, so I been preparing, gathering photos, pictures of Great Master’s paintings, old illustration books and props to bring over there to make still lives. Anyway, I’m really, really excited and looking forward to start teaching my first painting class in a couple of weeks.

Been working on the poinsettia painting this last week. I hope to complete it before Christmas. Here are photos of the first and third painting session of last week (forgot to take a picture of the 2nd session, sorry)

At last, after 2 years on and off on the easel, Jasmin des Poètes was completed on august 14th – Usually I know when a painting is finished but this one had me second guess myself for a few days. My signature was on the canvas but I wasn’t entirely happy; some tiny little things are still bugging me but only I would know ;-) Given that this is my very first attempt at painting flowers, I think I should be proud.

I give myself a couple of weeks away from the easel and then I will continue working on my other still lives; the teapot one and the poinsettia which I’d like to complete before Christmas.

After these two paintings are done. I have other painting projects in mind already but I want to go in a different direction. They’ll still be still lives but not so traditional like these. Anyway, you’ll see :)

I’ll also be starting to give painting lessons (yay!) this September at a near-by community centre (Montreal area people, consult my web site if interested)

Reproductions (Prints and Print on canevas) and Greeting cards of Jasmin des Poètes are available at my Imagekind Gallery.

«Jasmin des Poètes » is almost done. Here are the last 3 painting sessions (from top to bottom) of July 3^rd, July 4th and July 18:

The next step is rather simple; it consist sketching the subject, full size on the 15” X 30” with 3 inches square grid I previously drafted (see: The set-up) – Then darken the other side of the   paper using a soft charcoal to act as carbon paper. Tape the sketch onto the canvas and go over the lines.

Sounds simple and it is, however I should stress the importance of good drawing habits. While any trick is good to help reproduce an image accurately, such as using a grid like I did here; there are no excuses for negligence – For instance, drawing the bottom of an object first to “seat” the object and establish a sense of space and dimension – Don’t do that and you may very well end-up with object that look like they are floating around – Pay careful attention to the size and distance of the bottom of objects in relation to the line of horizon (which is not necessarily the edge of the table!!) and in relation to each other. Taking the time to draw what’s behind objects, what you don’t see even though you’ll erase it later (or not, it’s up to you really) might seem tedious but it’s a good habit to adopt to help make a coherent drawing – Otherwise it can seem like the line starts or is going nowhere and lose some important indications of the shape of the object, its placement and the space it occupies –Always keep in mind of what it is you are drawing in terms of shape and direction. What is that shape? Where is it going? Drawing simple shapes to get started is a good habit but keep in mind that an apple is not a circle; it’s a sphere. A glass isn’t a rectangle; it’s a cylinder.

Drawing skills are very much like reading skills. When we first begin to learn how to read, we read letter-by-letter, syllable-by-syllable. Gradually we become able to visually recognize small words. Three letter words; four letter words and so on. To the point where as experienced readers we no longer read letter-by-letter, syllable-by-syllable because we instantly recognize the words visually. But say you encounter a new or complicated word for the first time; you will find yourself automatically shifting back to the letter-by-letter, syllable-by-syllable reading mode – Drawing is the same in the sense that if you can’t visualize it, by all means, draw it. There are things that I skip sometimes. That’s because I can visualize it. But as soon as something more complicated or more difficult comes along, I always revert back to the basics. Yet, there are things that should never be neglected when drawing or sketching and those are perspective, proportions, relations and a great dose of observation.

The making of a Still Life:

• Introduction
• The set-up
• Ground colour 
• The sketch
•  Painting begins