We appreciate you spending time with us to teach us. I love your blocking in because I want to learn to paint more loosely and I can see what I hope of achieve by just seeing your blocked in step. Love from Colorado.
I’m so happy that you share and give these tips to us beginners, some of us are on a budget and can’t afford the dvds at the moment but we have the love of painting and the desire to learn, I’m saving to purchase your dvds, but I just want to tell you thank you so much! We greatly appreciate your generosity, bless you miss Dianne.
Yet another fine tip, Dianne! Your viewers come up with wonderful questions. Your answer to this one cleared up a bit of between-the-ears fog that I've wrestled with lately.
Thank you so very much! miss Dianna for helping beginners like me.You explain everything so well and I'm so grateful that you give your time and expertise to viewers like me so that we can learn to paint.
The camera was really good this time especially. I like watching closeups of your brushwork as you do whatever specific thing you are doing. Thank you! Really helpful!
I just read your 'story' on your website...thank you for all your generous sharing. I relate to your thoughts re. competitions...they never felt a part of my art life. grazie grazie
Hello Dianne. Thank you for you great Instruction! I apply your principals when painting my watercolor paintings (although with watercolor your approach is a bit different). This has improved my paintings tremendously. I just painted your tree. It's nice. I struggled so much, before watching your channel. I also get the sense with you, that there are no "stupid" questions to be asked. Thank you. Could you do a discussion on landscape shadows? Shadows under trees?
Mam u have a great knowledge with impressive personality ,I am watching ur vedios and learning a lots of things .thanx for sharing such a great knowledge .
Hi Dianne I have had so many lessons and nobody has ever really gone into detail with the colour wheel and it’s use with blocking. You are so great a teacher! I would really love to see you finish this tree. Did you so it in another lesson? I have learnt so much with just waiting your videos. Thank you
Thanks, Joanne. Since these Tips are to illustrate single concepts, I want to keep them short, so don't do a complete painting. You might browse through our full length lessons on diannemize.com where I take concepts more in depth.
I'm so hooked on your videos Dianne! I'm so glad I found them! I wish you were my High School teacher in 1967 . Well a lot of years have passed, but I'm loving this! I love to paint, usually oils. Sometimes I get an area that loses continuity with the painting and it gets muddy . How can I fix this without ruining the whole painting?
Usually when an area gets muddy, it's because either the color harmony has gone out of whack or you've lost your darkest darks. Try first, checking for your value contrast, then color harmony.
Hi Love your videos, can you tell me how I can get a copy of your chart. I tried your website and couldn’t find it. I am sure the diagram with your tutorials will help me as I struggle with landscapes and shading. Many thanks Regards Di
Thank you so much I learned a lot I knew nothing of blocking in as I’m a beginner and full of questions so can you please tell me the next steps I need to take to finish this tree ??? Thanks again ... GOD BLESS !!!
Go to my full length video called Notan: How and Why where I show the entire process. You can find it at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-2iIm9Ms7ZZ8.html
really good, start from the middle tone it is easy to see color ,I always told to start from shadow first but it is hard to decide color , doing middle tone first works for me
Dear Dianne , thank you very much for this very good and useful instruction. According to this instruction it seems that it is better to start coloring not from the 'in shadow' part but from mid tone part ( local color ) as it is easier to then mix shadow and light parts. Am I right?
Reza, using this sequence helps with establishing the local color. It works just as well to begin with the in-shadow, so choose the process that works best for you,
Good morning Dianne, new to your channel and appreciate the valuable lessons, thank you. My question is, for your block in, you use a very light spray of gamsol and poppy oil. Does the poppy oil with it's ability to extend the oiliness, create any problems with the F/Lean rule when completing the painting later, following all the block ins totally prior to further final painting? As well, I have only walnut oil, hoping it would suffice, if not please advise. Best wishes :-)
Christine, I thoroughly wipe down the surface so that very little of the oil is left on the surface. This process is just to enable initial layer of paint to flow on more smoothly. It does not affect fat over lean. If you don't have poppy oil, I suggest using linseed oil rather than walnut oil because walnut oil might cause drying problems. Poppy oil, too, can cause problems if you allow too much of it to stay on the canvas.
Good day Dianne, Thank you for your valuable advice and direction. Extremely informative and I am thoroughly enjoying your videos. Very best wishes from Canada
Very interesting approach and helpful. Question: Why not instead block in the entire tree mass first with the "half-tone green", then add lighter warmer broken paint value to the light sides of the tree and broken darker, cooler color to the "shadow" part? Given the leafy structure of the tree (unlike a solid ball) it would seem as though the 'half tones" will be disbursed thoughout the tree, although more prevalent between the lighter top and darker lower side...??
Thanks for your comments @Grant Fleming . Your suggestion is valid, but my approach is to block in by observation, not by formula. What we do in the block in stage is determined by light and shadow and from my viewpoint, it works best to determine that by observation rather than by formula. What follows then will be the defining stage and that's where we take into consideration what we are seeing within those light and shadow areas--such as leafy structure and distribution of halftones.
Not sure I follow. The "half tones" appear, by observation, both in the transition zone (light going into dark) but also within the lighter areas (tree tops and edges) and the shadow areas of the tree. @@IntheStudioArtInstruction
Let's back up a bit. This Quick Tip was about the "blocking in phase". What I'm interpreting you to be talking about is what happens in the developmental stage. It could be that we're just using a different interpretation of these phases. I agree totally with what you are saying.
Hi Dianne, thanks for this helpful tip. Just curious what green you started with for your value line. Did you mix the original green or was it sap green? It was such a pretty green. Thanks!
Monica, for this particular green I use a mixture of REMBRANDT Viridian and Transparent Oxide Red at about a 3 to 1 ratio. The Rembrandt Viridian is the only viridian that works. Other brands are either too light or to milky. Thalo Green with Transparent Oxide Red will give a similar color/transparancy/depth. The only issue with Thalo is that it has so overpowering.
I paint pet portraits and would like to get into figurative painting. I currently first paint/sketch in the image to get the features in the right spot to resemble the dog using a grid system, but I realize I could paint more economically and looser if I did a block in. How would you approach blocking in a dog yet be able to get the proportions of all the features right? Thank you.
Look for the pattern of lights and shadows first. Whatever the structure of anything--whether a figure, a dog, or a landscape--the structure of the image will be defined by how the lights and shadows fall upon it.
No, Mario. There are some done with watercolor and a few with pastels. I use oils because most of the time, I'm teaching something that is applicable to all painting mediums and oil lends itself to that better than other materials.
Thank you for your lessons! What is dificult to me at block in, It is to ignore, for the moment, the figure details. O always start to detail too early.
A common mistake folks make when learning to paint is to go for the details first. Doing so can cause problems later. It's best to work general to specific. This becomes easier when you focus your attention on the values, colors and shapes RATHER than the images you are painting.
I apologize ahead of time for asking too many questions: !.: How long do you wait to "build up" the painting with another layer>until it dries completely? 2.: when darkening the green-- couldn't blue have been added instead of the complementary of red? 3.: could you please explain what you meant about applying poppy seed oil and gamsol before painting? thank you so much!
When painting alla prima, we don't wait for anything to dry, but paint directly into the underpainting. However, for a more sustained approach to painting, dry to touch is sufficient for building layers. When darkening for creating shadow, we darken according to what we are seeing. If in direct, warm light, shadows usually become less saturated as well as cooler, thus adding a bit of complement plus blue creates the feeling of shadow. However, if the local color of green is more blue than yellow, then adding blue is the way to go. The only purpose for the poppy seed/Gamsol is to slightly dampen the canvas before painting. Dry canvas resists wet paint, so it we very slightly dampen the surface, the paint flows on more easily.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Wow! thanks for answering so promptly! From what I understand from your answer, you are not talking about an underpainting with a pigment added to the poppy seed oil and gamsol -- because you are merely demonstrating a concept?
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction I'll try to express my question more accurately than previously: Let's say that you decide not to do a tonal underpainting. One can do a gamsol/poppy oil lay-in and then wipe most of it off? This can be done be done on an ENTIRE DRY CANVAS before commencing a painting? Is this how you approached your gorgeous landscapes with the stunning play of light on the trees, foliage and water? Thanks for your elucidations. These kind of dilemmas can prevent me from falling asleep at night... So, thanks again.
Let's answer it another way: wet paint resists being applied to a dry surface so we treat the surface to make it more receptive to the paint. It needs to be only slightly damp, so what I do with the poppy/Gamsol mix is lightly spray it, then wipe it down to get most of it off, leaving the surface just slightly damp. It's not really a layer but a treatment of the surface. Yes, the whole thing.
Thanks for your incredible patience. Are most of your oil landscapes done in this way instead of with an underpainting? Your quick tip on an underpainting lift-out is very interesting; so, I thought that you usually do an underpainting. I HOPE NOT TO BOTHER YOU ANYMORE WITH QUESTIONS; but, it interests me to know if your USUAL modus operandi is to start with the combination of gamsol and popy seed oil. (The oil painting instructor who taught me used to begin every stroke by dipping into a combination of linseed oil and refined turps, and then the pigment.) I am very tempted to try your method because I see the stunning results..
Red and it's analogous colors neutralize the green family. Shadows are not only darker, but they become a bit more neutral, too. So I used it for its ability to neutralize the green.
Hi Dianne, Can you please state what brand and colors you use, the size and type of brush(es), and the medium you applied to the canvas before you start painting, and pixabay photo name/link and also put that information into the youtube video description?
Erin, please see my reply to your comment on Quick Tip 201. My choice of brands depends upon the color. For example, I use Rembrandt Viridian because it is totally transparent, rich and dark, unlike other brands of Viridian. For the most part, Gamblin, Rembrandt and Utrecht are brands I use. Regarding other information you asked for, I'll forward your comment to my producer who is in charge of your RU-vid channel.
If you're painting oils over the top of the acrylic block in, I'm always confused...Some people's acrylic block ins are like completed paintings, and I'm not sure whether they cover the whole thing again with oils as a last layer, or whether they only touch over certain details with the oils.
Different folks handle this different ways. Technically, oils can be painted over acrylics, but acrylics cannot be painted over oils. Some artists who use acrylics for the block in phase, block in only the large general shapes, then develop the full painting with oils. It is a matter of choice as to how far a block in is taken. For some artists, the block in phase is clear cut, for others there is a transition between block in and development where it's not clear where one ends and the other begins.
Sorry but I did not understand if the values you applied are two, the darkest and the lightest in a darker version, or if the middle ton is also there and I am not able to see it.
muhlenstedt, when the sun is bright and in certain positions, the shadows and lights get distorted in a photo, making middle values or transition values difficult to see. But they are always there. Look at the Quick Tip again and notice how I explain that the transitions between light and shadow are always in middle value. Here we see them in smaller amounts because of the strong shadow and light.
Thank u very very much for all your tutorials. I request a full landscape painting starting with blocking process. Truly apprreciate if you could do this. Best regards,
Mohammad, there's not time in these Quick Tips to do a full painting. I do however have four video lessons on the website where I take a block in and finish it. Those can be found at diannemize.com/product-category/series-seventeen-beyond-studies/ .
Hi Mrs Mize, aren't you bothered by the transparencies in these block ins? I feel always distressed by it, and add titanium white to fight it, and end with off colors. Isn't block in supposed to look like a block? a solid block of color?
There's nothing to be bothered about. Transparency is as important to the painting surface as opaqueness is. It helps give depth to the color. Block in is not suppose to look like anything. It is a method of placing colors and their values before refining.
You say you go "darker" than the actual color but your painting looks so much lighter. Do you mean it is easier to darken a painting once you start light?
