Thursday, August 2, 2012

main site siphon ii: background


This assignment came out of our background painting class

This was....an unusual class.  The teacher who normally taught it ended up going to the east coast for a short-term job, so instead we got a series of substitutes, starting with the ever-energetic Sam Michlap, of Dreamworks fame, who, after a four week stint of black-and-white composition boot camp, left us with these parting words: "Don't suck."  


Following him was Donivan Howard, of Disney fame, who had us crash course through the four basic compositions (abstract, deep, flat, and, for the life of me, I can't remember that last one...)

And by the 8th week, we were taking bets as to who would be our third and final substitute, when in walks none other than Mike Humphries, of just...fame.

So this was my fourth and last class with Mike, who decided to make this into an acrylics background painting class. 








good times.

medium: acrylic on watercolor board

main site siphon i: mouse house


gouache


I'm beginning the long-awaited plan to transfer some of the rougher work off my main site and integrate them here.  Shift some of the burden onto her sister site so she can handle the weightier, "portfolio" quality work. 

This was the final for our gouache techniques class at school.  It was my third class with Mike Humphries and the assignment was to design a small house made of natural materials and use it in a composition. 

Rule #1: no trees.

helen consulting with mike on her first round of sketches: "And here's one with a tree stump..."(1)
mike: "No trees!"
helen (puppy-eyed): "Not even a stump?"
mike: "Mmm, no. I want to give you a challenge."






medium: pencil (sketches), gouache on watercolor board (color keys and final art)

1.  The following dialogue is by no means accurate. The spirit of it is spot on, but the word-for-word playback is completely dependent on my incompetent memory.