Paint Along With Nancy Kominsky; 111; White daisies

. . . Hello, I'm Nancy Kaminsky and today we're going to paint white daisies. This painting is not as demanding as some we've done and it will be

rather relief for you because you really let yourself go on the flowers. As usual, we stain the canvas. Lightly, try not to get your canvas too dark. We have problems if you want to erase when you put your drawing in. So do it very lightly. Again, not too runny. I think some of you are tempted to stop right now. Don't check and add. Keep right on going, especially new ones. Now we're going to put in our grids for our drawing. In quarters first, like this, always. Put your little lines. Actually, they're a little indicators before you draw your lines. That makes it easier. No rulers. Remember, I ball it. We're artists. Not technicians. There we are. Now we're going to do a simple vase like this.

And again, put our box in first, like that. This way, this is a very, very typical shape. Nothing exciting, but it serves the purpose. We're talking about daisies today. Don't forget that this ellipse and the one at the bottom is exactly the same. Now we're finished with that. Let's put our daisies in. As usual, when we draw flowers, we draw just a circle or whatever the general shape is, we do not delineate the character of the flower. For example, in the daisies, we don't draw each petal. First of all, it'd be a nightmare trying to paint into the drawing of each petal. And secondly, painting them in gives you

much more freedom, because actually they move. You see, they're not static. And when you draw them in, they become quite static. Not to mention all the work it involves. Start with the center first, like this. The shape of the circles will tell us in what perspective our flowers are. We have one here, like that. Let's see. Like that. Now, when we have a flower that's in perspective, our circle tends to be oblong, like that. In that case, the center, which is where the stamens are, is near the top. The petals will come below that. And let's see, one here, like this. Be sure they go in. Now, that's wrong. You see, because that flower will not go into the vase. It's tilted in such a way that it will, like that. So be very careful about that. The stems must go in, not hanging out in space somewhere. One here, like this. And we have a

lovely one here, like that. One here. And these that are absolutely in profile are very nice. We have some hanging down, which is marvelous. And these are shaped like this. Triangle. And when we paint them, you'll understand why. Now, you can always add extra flowers or buds. Whatever the case may be, if you find that your bouquet is not properly balanced, or is too square, or the usual problem, too tight. I think that they're much more attractive and natural if they're pulled out a bit. But when we're painting scared as beginners, we tend to do that. Bunch them all together. Poor little things. There we are. Fine. I think that's

all for now. We can add or subtract whatever the case may be. Now, as usual, where is the light coming from? That's again, the third most important thing in your painting. Where is the light coming from? Now, in this case, the light is coming from the right. When we paint something like a flower, especially daisies, the flowers are cut, which means that the light hits the opposite side. So we're shading the right side of the daisies. This, again, is a little different. But we shade the left side of the vase like that. I think we have another one right here. Fine. That's much better, much looser. That's it. Now, we're finished with the drawing. Let's

proceed with the painting. While we're painting, I want to make a few other important points that I have uncovered in previous paintings. Start with the dark tone, and we start on the left. Long flowing strokes. Please don't scrub your canvas with your knife, with little strokes like that. Try to learn your strokes correctly from the beginning. It takes a little effort, but it's certainly well worth it. You have a better painting, and you'll enjoy it more. You'll be freer. I realize it takes a little time, but you'll learn all of these things. Don't be afraid to copy from other artists, especially, for example, you know,

Van Gogh, which his son flowers and what have you. I think those things can be a big help, and don't feel apologetic about copying, because they all did. They got copied from Michelangelo for 10 years before he evolved his own style. You trillo, you used picture postcards exclusively. Never did an original painting his life from nature that is. So don't apologize if you were copying, because these painters have already solved a lot of problems for you. And in copying, you become conditioned to see it professionally right from the beginning. You certainly wouldn't go to an amateur, or someone who doesn't drive very well, to learn to drive. You'd go to the best. Well, since it's a little difficult to get to Michelangelo and what have you, I would say the next best thing is to work from his paintings. Actually, since we relate more to the Impressionist School, I would suggest the Impressionist painters, like Morné, Mané, Sisson,

and what have you. A dark tone. Now we're into the middle tone, like this. And don't let anyone intimidate you or frighten you by saying, well, you know, you're copying. Fine, you will copy it first. They all copied. When the Impressionist movement was started, with Pizarra was the father of the Impressionist movement. There were five artists painted together. Sisson, Morné, not Degas. He came through a little later. Actually, it was very much a Louvre, because it's very difficult name. But they all paint the same pictures together. I was amazed to see the one thing, the garden painting that they painted looked exactly like five of them. Three values. You'll find that color-wise, this is a rather interesting painting. And it breaks a few rules, but we introduce a little different color

combinations, a little off-beat. We do want to be a little original. Put some light tone and dark area as usual, like this. And a little dark tone over here, like that. I would like to see a little purple, like this. Now, let's put a little darker tone in here, like this, because the light does not get between the flowers. The flowers are bunched together, consequently no light gets in there, and it's a dark area. This tells us that they are a few flowers bunched together in a round bouquet, not pasted on flat, like so many props. Let's put our shadows in here underneath. I'm bringing up some purple. We've got a large area here that should be a little more

interesting, so I'm going to darken it down just a little bit. Fine, leave that for the moment. Let's go, as always, to our vase. That's always next. Remember, we had the vase before you can put the flowers there. Dark tone, long flowing strokes, like this. Middle tone, in the middle, like this. You see, with the minimum effort and color tones, we will discover that this vase is round. Bring your middle tone down. Let's bring a dark tone around and across the bottom, like that, and across the top. Before we try to shade that, let's put our light tone in like this. Yes, there are three tones of black. We didn't

know that, but it's true. There are three tones of white and black. I think we're going to work this out a little more dramatically because I want to just change the shape a wee bit. It's getting lost in the soft paint. Just a moment. There we are. A light tone. I've added a bit of dark tone on the light side, and I'm going to drag it over like that. Not again, there's another interesting technique. Now let's leave that for the moment. I think I will put the highlight on so I don't forget. I will darken the side just a wee bit. There

we are. I really like to paint them. Let's put a nice highlight on that. Right here. You can only put the highlight where the vase protrudes or sticks up because it's shaped this way, you see. That's the high point right in the center, not on the edge. I want to give these common sense explanations so that you remember it. I'll leave that for the moment. Let's start with our daisies. We're going to start with a dark tone. We'll start at the top, and incidentally, as I've said, in this painting we have three tones

of white and three tones of black. We're going to start with a dark and medium tones like this. This is what we do, like this. You see, that's in profile. Now don't put your centers and leave it alone for the moment. Keep going like this. That may puzzle you, but one thing is finished. You will see a fine Italian design here. In the center, of course, you have a complete circle like this, as opposed to a profile up there. Do not circle your petals around your center like that. Don't do that. That's typical of a beginning.

They do this. Each petal comes right from that center. He has his own little place coming from that center. Now the light is catching the tips of these daisies, so we're putting a light tone on the tip of the dark tone like that. You must go very fast because that's the beauty of it and the joy of it and the freedom of it. I want to make a point here about your paints and your palette, as we go along. The important thing is to keep your palette clean. When you're finished with your painting, move the paint that's left over from your mixtures to the space below the squeezed out paint, clean and mix an area. This is terribly important. Clean and mix an area thoroughly, scrape it, wash it

with kerosene. Keep your piles intact because you may want to use them again and if you have enough paint, you buy a smaller canvas and make another painting so you don't waste the paint. Then when your palette is clean and your paint kept very neatly, be tidy, you put, covered with elastic covering of any kind and put it in the fridge and it will keep indefinitely. That's saving you money. It's very important that you keep your tools, your brushes clean, your palette clean, and not only saves you money, but when you want to paint again, you can become terribly discouraged and upset if you have to start cleaning your palette, not to mention that once the paint has dried, the palette is ruined. You cannot use it again. Although when I was in Paris and then in the museum, there's Yulipam Museum, I saw Van Gogh's palette. They had it in the glass case. I don't know about that palette. I couldn't have used it and I'd paint about two inches thick on it, but maybe he's great

you see and that was the reason. I keep saying that if you're untidy and if you're this you're probably a better painter. I don't know. There we are. You see how interesting the white is against the yellow with the black. Keep going. These petals aren't getting a little light here like this. This should be a fun paint because you can really let yourself go. Although I remember in one of the classes we picked some strange looking flowers one day in someone's yard and what I didn't know was that after they were picked a while they would close. So I put them in the studio and we started painting it and the flower

started closing. By golly we were painting faster and faster and we finally ended up with one flower still open but we did get the painting finished but it was really very funny because we were racing against the flowers closing and we kept painting faster and faster. So we decided that was the last time we were going to paint them. There were a tiger lily I think or rather strange wild tiger lily which are very common in California. But daisies are not like that. You'll find that they hold up for weeks even. I've had them in Rome stay very good for a week or two. There we are. We're moving right along. There's another one right here. And don't be afraid about the petals. Keep them loose. Keep them free. Like this. Now our little one that's in profile like this the light tone is on the back

on the side like that. Jarker at the bottom put a few dark ones like this at the bottom. And we have one here. This is in profile by the way. Like that. We have one here. Like that. Here we are. Well we're getting a bouquet. I think we'll fix this one up here. Where the danger of this is you can end up choking this poor thing with daisies because you get so carried away but resist the temptation. Just get a few more in like I should right

now. Leave it alone and stop playing with it because I enjoy it so much. Let's have one hanging down like that. I think there's one. I want to give this feeling like this you see. So let's put another one up here. This is another thing. Another point I would like to make. When you paint flowers there are certain rules of composition either it should be this way or that way but not square. You see? This creates a very interesting composition and much more pleasing to the eye and much more natural by the way. Fine. Now I'm going to put the centers in. We're going to paint yellow ochre in the center like this. Put

all your centers in this way. Remember they're puffy and soft and they stick up. So I'm going to make another point in just a moment. This color we use right from the palette. I've tried to use as many colors as I can from the palette to save you mixing and a lot of aggravation also saves you money. There we are. I think I've got all of them. Fine. Now, oops there's one more. Over here. There. Now because they stick up and the light is coming from the right we're going to put a highlight right on them like this and with one little spot just like that of the yellow. Zinc yellow. Now we're going to outline the centers because they are casting a shadow on the flowers like this. So we outline them

in this way on the right side going between the petals a little. This creates a feeling of depth. Also it dramatizes the shape of the flowers like that. Just not too much. Please land up with black-eyed Susan so what have you. That's a whole different flower. My regard to add buds to this to to fill it in. I didn't want to choke it with flowers and so in a little while we will add some buds. I did forget one center up here right. Put a highlight on that. This looks a little square here. There we are. I'm going to put just

a few dark tones on the side like that. Not too many because the edges of these petals are in shadows. Now let's go to our greenery. Now as we do in most florals unless it's as I've said before, a distinctive leaf, like a cowlily or a tulip, we do impressions of leaves and you'll bless me for that I'll tell you. So you do very little in the way of leaves. Just a few here and there. Stems, what have you. We're going to put in a few

buds because they do help to loosen up the painting and of course it's quite natural. In days these are especially millions of buds. Put some more in like this and a little highlight on them and drag your color down for stems. Don't paint stems, just drag it down like that. Go put some dark tone in there and it's very very light stroke like this. I know it takes a bit of doing but you will do it. Right here like this. Now the little pods on the back of the little ones in profile like this, don't forget. Nice little leaf going down into the vase like that. And up in here. More light tone on the right side

because of the light. Some dark tones here. It is a bit of a lacy leaf. It's not a distinctive leaf in any case. I'm going to add some extra purple beauty. This is an interesting technique we use and this gives my students hard the hairs when I put purple between petals like this to emphasize the shape and the density of the painting of the daisies there. Flowers are very satisfying because they give you so much freedom and it's a relief when you've

done a difficult one. So try to stagger your projects. Well that's it for today. Now for our signature. Goodbye for now. See you next time. This program was made possible by a grant from Commercial Union Assurance Companies.

This program was made possible by a grant from Commercial Union Assurance Companies.