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Featured Article
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12 Tips for
Painting Landscape in Plein-aire
By Gary Blackwell
By
1. The keyword in plein-aire painting is simplify. This applies to materials, techniques and procedures.
2. Choose your subject and verbalize why you want to paint it.
3. Position yourself with the sun on the left or right of the subject. Avoid the sun at your back. Early mornings and late afternoons provide dramatic lighting.
4. Establish the horizon line.
5. Observe atmospheric perspective. Cool colors recede, warm colors come forward.
6. Identify the center of interest.
7. Identify the lightest lights and darkest darks to begin establishing the values involved.
8. Look at shadows. Identify cast and form shadows. Look for reflected light.
9. Make a quick thumbnail sketch of your subject. Use only 3 or 4 major values to visual explain your composition.
10. Use a limited palette, and put out a lot of paint.
11. When you begin painting, sketch with a round or flat brush, and keep painting with the biggest brush you can. Step back from you canvas every 5 minutes.
12. Work from big shapes to little shapes, dark values to light values, cool colors to warm colors.
Gary Blackwell is an award winning artist. He teaches outdoor painting classes every Friday from 10am to 1pm. To join the class and treat yourself to a "mini-vacation" call Kline Academy at (310)927-2436 or visit our website at www.klineacademy.com
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How to be a better painter...
 When I think about great artists who have set the bar quite high for those of us to follow, the names of Sargent, Bouguereau, Di Vinci, Rembrandt and hundreds of others instantly come to mind. The obvious common denominator is great drawing skills and understanding of the human form.
But in our age of instant gratification, we want to "cut to the chase." Paint. and that's fine, anyone can be taught how to paint. BUT if you want to be a GREAT painter, you have to know how to draw... AND... you must keep practicing.
Believe it or not- but the painting on the left is not by Sargent. It was just painted by a Kline Academy student, Ben Springer after Sargent, The Spanish Dancer. This is Ben's first painting after the mandala exercise! I asked Ben about his background in drawing:
" As for drawing, it was always off and on for me growing up. I think it was the impatience and frustration of youth that made it that way. Eventually in art school I had a teacher that set the bar pretty high for me. He required that I draw 50 pages a week of life drawing. So every chance I had I went to life drawing. Looking back, I can easily see how important it was that I learn proper drawing skills. Those skills help to translate into any other artistic endeavor. Getting into the video game industry the drawing skills transitioned to 3d modeling and digital painting. For the past 6 years I've been doing digital modeling and sculpting."
Okay- so here is your homework:
1. Take a sketch pad with you where ever you go and just begin with gestural lines- find the rhythm of the pose and do them quickly. Next, try to just focus on the silhouette of the figure-no detail. Do 50. You will begin to see your improvement and also see where your weakness are so you know where to focus your attention.
Uninstructed drawing workshops every Tuesday evenings with a live, costumed model, short poses, $15. Figure drawing classes Wed mornings and a new one forming Saturday Afternoon with Esmeralda Acosta, $40 contact:
Kline Academy of Fine Art, (310) 927-2436 www.klineacademy.com.
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"The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real." Walt Disney
"My kid can paint that..."
well, not so fast. If it was only that easy...
Have you ever pondered the various ways of transforming your painting muse into an abstract expression of how or what you feel? Seems a bit complicated, but worth a shot, right? Following are some of Scott Yeskel's instructive ideas for abstract painting:
 1. Take a photo of a specific scene that you are fond of, whether it's a Downtown busy street, the ocean, a sweeping meadow, etc. and
2. begin to understand its rhythm. Is it calm? frantic?
3. Does it overlap in size and shape,
4. is it warm or cool?
5. Next, take your picture and crop it, blow it up,
6. imagine it from a birds eye view.
Starting to sound interesting?
Scott Yeskel is a regionally acclaimed oil painter who paints both representational and abstract cityscapes mostly of L.A. In the tradition of Diebenkorn, Richter and De Kooning, Yeskel will explain the mesh between midcentury abstraction and realism and how it has evolved in today's art world. Learn to paint abstractly while staying intouch with traditional methods and techniques.
For more information on our new Abstract Painting Classes, Call (310) 927-2436 or visit our website klineacademy.com. We are currently considering Tuesday mornings and Saturday afternoons all levels welcome.
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"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint." Keith Haring
About Kline Academy of Fine Art, EST 2007We are a Different Place to Learn to Paint, Draw...Create.
There are not many schools that teach classical painting and even basic foundations to achieve classical and representational results...without the snobbery and for all levels. These valuable skills are also necessary in the creation of contemporary art. Many of our lessons are from live demonstrations which is 10 times more effective. And because we are all working artists, we know how to paint and we'll show you brush stroke by brush stroke.
Whether you are a novice or professional, and whatever your genre, we are committed to teaching you all that we know to help you become better at your art making.
Kline Academy of Fine Art
3264 Motor Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90034
(310) 927-2436
www.klineacademy.com
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