A Fresh New Limited Palette (From the 1800s)

I love a limited palette. I love drawing something in water soluble ink and then coaxing a mid tone and deep tone out of it with a water brush. I love painting with just shadows. I love painting the sea and the sky with just the white of the paper, a warm blue, and a green blue. I love mixing the green of a potted plant and the terra cotta of its pot from yellow, cyan, and magenta. This basically is because I can't work all the colors at one time.

When I try and match each bit of a scene to the right thing in my paint box, the result looks artificial at best, jarring at worst. (A great tip when you've completed a painting and this happens, is to grab a little bit of one of the main colors and find somewhere to dab or smear it into the other main color. This makes it more cohesive immediately.)

 My plan to get to where I can use all the stunning colors that look so beautiful in a swatch (they make watercolors out of gemstones now!), is to learn a new to me limited palette. This has been on the to do list since summer, so 6 months, including 4 months that I took off to work on my art. Thanks to the COVID-19 quarantine, I am not only off work, but also off the gym(s), off traffic, off visiting friends and family, off shopping. I am using some of that time to learn the Zorn Palette.

I plan to work in all genres. The palette is most suited to portraits but I prefer to work from life and have no model aside from myself.

Zorn Palette Exploration Day 2: Botanical

 Having learned from day 1 that I could not coax a full range of color out of red, black, white, and yellow, I set myself up for success by choosing a subject that is already those colors. I sat in the garden observing when it was overcast and blending when it was sunny and I had to put on sunglasses. I am not trying to learn a new palette with a gray filter intermittently over my eyes.

 Lovely, vibrant, healthy succulents!

I really tried to capture the little edge highlight on each leaf. I had to paste it on thick to keep it from blending with the underlying color. Because in life it is so thin it might be something to add later with a little rigging brush, but then how do I keep track of where those highlights go? I also found it difficult to put in black shadows. I would apply the black, and doing so would blend it into the burgundy, making it disappear. I think the most successful part of this painting is the background. I did not invent it but copied it as best I could from life. The bluish gray of the wall, the light toned brown of the dirt in the background, the shaded red lip of the terra cotta, and the business of the soil in the foreground.

Zorn Palette Exploration Day 1: Landscape

 Not sure you can make anything out in this landscape painting.

 Does that help? This is the view from my window while quarantined.

Essentially there is just a learning curve to using oil paints, and I am very out of practice. It's a very different practice from watercolor, where you let the paper shine through as you swish a little accent here and there.

Having set a goal to work on my Zorn Palette skills, I realized suddenly the light was fading and I had no ground prepared and no subject. I painted directly on the watercolor paper, racing the sunset. My red was not correct (quinacridone rather than cadmium) and I overestimated my ability to coax a blue sky out of the limited palette of red, white, black, and yellow.

Compared to when I first tried oil painting 10 years ago, this is more successful. I sat and blended everything away into mud and couldn't understand how it had happened.

Japanese Shopping Service

My first order from Amazon.co.jp was super exciting. Before I ordered, I wasn't even sure they would accept an American credit card. I could not believe all the titles that were available to me, all the crafting books with amazing photos. From craft swaps I know that very small packages can end up costing a lot to ship internationally, but for two books it was only $12.40. That was 5 months ago. I was ready to put in another order but NOTHING in my order could be shipped to me. I wanted a few DVDs that are only available used, and some cans of coffee. I thought about it for a couple of days. The base price for one of the DVDs was $5, and I have wanted it for a few years. I decided to use a shopping service. There are so many fees! The service fee is separate from the percentage fee and the order fee and the item fee, plus of course double shipping. As I looked at the breakdown I reminded myself that I was buying 4 things for $40 (before international shipping), so even though the fees looked ridiculous they were fine. Today they have sent me six emails. 

It feels like at this rate I should just go to Japan, but if I do that I will of course want to have the practice. 

Adult Ballet

Ballet is magical, my childhood feelings mixed with awareness of ballet in art history and ballet development... It is just beautiful. The class I am taking is not in a dance studio. It is in a mixed use studio at the gym where I work. It's used for yoga and stretching but it is sort of transformed when we pull out the barres and our little scuffing sounds start. I think I have been to four classes and already I am doing it! My first two days were difficult to follow along like I only knew first position and I could not do the arm portion whatsoever because I had to focus on the steps. 

The instructors teach in socks which I think is very welcoming as a signal to new members to come as you are. Socks honestly are doing the job perfectly. Good amount of traction, good amount of slip. The other students have shoes though and they are dainty and lovely so of course I want some. Sometimes one person will be wearing !dancewear like leg warmers or a half shrug and it is just all delightful. 

Mealworms

There are some mealworms in the classroom. I am afraid of them. They live in a tiny plastic terrarium on top of four inches of woodchips and the bodies of their ancestors. Sometimes I drip water on them because I feel responsible for them but I don't know what they need. If they were anything besides insects I would take steps to tend them or free them. As it is, I don't want to for example feed them and have a huge population. Also there are cockroaches so I probably shouldn't add any food to the classroom. One more month, little guys. 

Telling Time

All day my fifth graders ask me what time it is. Besides recess, music, library time and that sort of thing that the whole class does together, many of them leave for tutoring and counseling. I think they have already learned to tell time but asking me is easier than reading the analog clock. So, I made little worksheet slips to hand out when I get that question. Four of them fit on one page.