Monochromatic Paintings

For their first painting, students in Honors Painting approached a still life using only different hues of brown. They had access to two colors of paint plus white, and I asked them to look for all the different values in the still life, and try and capture them in this limited palette. 

 

For many of the students it was their first time using acrylic paint, as well as their first time trying to draw a still life from observation.  Other students have painted many times before. 
First, we talked about creating a strong composition by zooming in and making sure to create interesting negative space shapes.  Ideally, the subject matter (objects) should touch at least two edges of the composition. Students drew their composition on a gessoed toned board, using vine charcoal.



Next, students wiped away the tone of the paper with a rag, to plan out and observe where their highlights and lightest values would be.  This is a common technique used by oil painters, but I wanted the students to try it using acrylic. 

  
Next, students mixed colors for and painted the numerous values they were seeing.  The goal was to end up with AT LEAST 4 different values of paint on each object, and to capture a sense of the relative lights and darks within the composition- as in, this vase is darker overall than this pear.
 








In conjunction with this project, I shared images and videos with the students related to under paintings, and how (especially) oil painters have used under paintings for hundreds of years and beyond to set up a successful painting with contrast, and to save money on the more expensive colored pigments.