Virtual Art Academy
White Dress, 15″x30”, gouache on illustration board.
I usually work 9″x12” to 12″x16” so this was a stretch in size for me.
In “White Dress” Jay incorporated the principles of Workshop P for his final painting of the four year program, as well as paying attention to all the other principles he learned during the online painting course:
- Choose a scene that contains white objects such as bed linen, dresses, or buildings.
- Use triadic, complementary, or analagous optical color mixing.
- Remember to focus on incorporating some of these ideas:
- add luminosity
- use multicolor brushstrokes and layered washes
- Do a large studio painting of your composition.
“I completed my first VAA assignment 22-Sep-2016 and this is my last 13-Apr-2020. It took me 3 years/7 months to get here but my brush has grown exponentially.
What a fun learning experience VAA has been. Thanks Barry for putting together a well-thought out curriculum path. First one I’ve ever seen in the art world.
For this lesson I chose a simple white dress. “Simple” hahaha, yeah, right. Now I know how much genius (and practice) that Joaquin Sorolla and John Singer Sargent had in their brushes. Painting a convincing white is not as easy as it appears.
For the background I chose a complementary optical color mix of yellow ochre (pigment number: PY42/43), ultramarine blue (PB29), and white (PW6)). For the dress I chose a triadic optical color mix of cad yellow light (PY35), cad red light (PR108), cobalt blue (PB28) and white (PW6).
I wanted the white to glow by using multicolor brushstrokes in conjunction with layered washes.
It has been fun looking back at my old pre-VAA paintings and my current work.. there is a Night and Day difference. Yet I know in about 4-5 years, I’ll be saying the same thing about today’s current work.
The journey must continue, one painting at a time, eh?
Onwards/Sideways,
Jay “jbird”