Saturday, October 24, 2015

Speed Painting in Colorado



The cottonwoods in the Gunnison River Valley of Colorado are lit up with autumn color, and I decide to paint the view as a double page spread. Check out the speed-painting video: (Link to YouTube Video

Gunnison River Valley, casein, 5 x 16 inches.
Video tutorial: "Gouache in the Wild"
• HD MP4 Download at Gumroad $14.95
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• DVD at Purchase at Kunaki.com (Region 1 encoded NTSC video) $24.50
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9 comments:

Jose Romero said...

Great painting. I just find it´s a pitty you didn´t use a full sheet for it!

A Colonel of Truth said...

Golf applause!

Glenn Tait said...

A beautiful landscape, I love the use of the double page spread in the sketch book.

Would you or have you done a two page spread like this using gouache?

What is the "open" time on the palette with casein compared to gouache?

James Gurney said...

Thanks, Jose and Colonel.

Glenn: Yes, gouache would work for a double page spread, too. Sometimes colored pencil will rub off on a facing page, but the paint stays down pretty well. You just want to be sure the book doesn't get too much heavy pressure after it's finished and the book is closed in your pack. Painting panoramas in open spreads is a common practice among Urban Sketchers. You can set up a special frame to make a changing home display of your open books.

About open time. All things being equal, I believe casein stays wet or open on the palette a little longer, though I haven't done a systematic experiment. But the bigger variables are: 1. Humidity, 2. Whether you're in the direct sun, and 3. Whether or not you squeeze the paint on a damp paper towel. Given those variables, gouache or casein can set up on the palette in anything from 20 minutes to three hours. The good thing is that the texture of the paint changes as it dries from runny to thick, and that's what you need at various stages of the painting. I like to have runny, wet paint at the beginning as I'm laying in the big areas, and thicker, goopier paint for highlights and accents at the end. If I want to paint for more than a couple of hours, I just swab off the palette and squeeze out new colors.

TamlynG said...

Just beautiful. You're in one of my most favorite parts of the Colorado high country. I was just painting along the Gunnison River a couple of weeks ago. (There's a well maintained trail along the river SW of Gunnison as it heads to the reservoir lots of painting ops)

I have been intrigued by your use of casein as an under-painting. Do you think that acrylic gouache (Acryla) would have similar characteristics? I'm not sure I want to invest in yet another media :).
Also if you have the time, and are still in the area, I highly recommend the beautiful Ohio creek valley as it heads to Ohio Pass (cty rd 730). Stunning views of the Castle Mountain. On the other side of the pass is the road to Crested Butte.
Looking forward to your next post. I have really appreciated your "In the Wild" videos!Thank you! Bon adventure!

doug goodale said...

What properties of casein lead you to choose it instead of acrylic?

James Gurney said...

Doug, three properties --
The low tensile strength keeps it from every getting sticky and makes it more likely I can clean a brush with paint dried in it, and it has good opacity, resembling gouache.

Aras said...

Hi I am Aras Saber Mohammad Amin,from Canada,Ontario.YoUr artworks are awesome.I am reading ur TheArtistGuideforSketching that I borrowed from library.its agreat resourse.But Ihave a slowing problem bith sketching from life, spend enough tine on perspective,recording exactly how the scales appear on my picture plane from my stationpoint. i dont have enough space to include forground elements in my paper.its always the foreground objects looks big that spoils the sketching I cant make a sketch within a short tome spending tomes with finding exact horizon line from parallels bojects that recede in space and finding that way Point of sight.So the measurements that i take with my pencil for the Foreground elements are too big that I cant fit the on the paper.Becz thats what my pencil measuring is giving me;and its cumersome to reduce the measurement in half.Kindly,whats ur insight on copping with ur exact scale appearance read from my pencil.Thanks a lot dear James Gurney; U are my hearo that I aspire to..My facebook page http://www.facebook.com/arasaber

Aras said...

Hi I am Aras Saber Mohammad Amin,from Canada,Ontario.Your artworks are awesome.I am reading urTheArtistGuideforSketching which I borrowed from library.its a great resourse.But I have a slowing problem with doing mysketching from life, spending more time on perspective,recording exactly how the scales appear on my picture plane from my station point. I do not have enough space to include foreground elements on my paper.its always the foreground objects that troubles me appear big on my support paper that spoils the sketching and I cant make a sketch within a short time. I spend a lot of times with finding exact horizon line from parallels objects that recede in space and finding that way Point of sight.So the measurements that i take with my pencil for the Foreground elements are too big that I cant fit them on the paper.Becz thats what my pencil measuring is giving me;and its cumersome to reduce the measurement in half.Kindly,whats ur insight on copping with that.Thanks a lot dear James Gurney; U are my hearo that I aspire to..