Paint Along With Nancy Kominsky; 112; Snow in Central Park

Hello, I'm Nancy Kaminsky. Today we're going to do a rather involved painting, but very rewarding. We're going to try and paint New York in just about that time that we've done all the others, but then we can't paint flowers all the time, can we? The drawing is a little difficult and a little more involved. Let's put, I've taken a liberty of putting in the grids and staying in the canvas for obvious reasons because it is a little more difficult and we've done that before and there are other points I want to make. We're going to raise your rise in line just a little bit above the line below the center line like that. Start from the bottom when you draw. With that, the wash is umber, a little umber with solvent, carousine preferably, like that.

Now let's put in our water. It has a creek in here by the way. I've forgotten how you say that now. We say it in Philadelphia, I understand we say a creek, but here you say a creek, a little line here like this, a star from the bottom and we have another line here like this and these, this is our stream. Like that. I'll leave that for just a moment. Now we have our base, let's put our city there. Let's start with the tower. It's right on the right of the center line like this. Actually, it's the little worth building like that. Keep it simple and start with box forms and then use your perspective but don't do it for the moment. Just use simple box forms until you place your buildings like that and we have another building on the side like this. Again, let's have a box form and I will show you how we will then put it in perspective but don't do it at the moment.

We have another one here and we have one going like this. Well, I just broke a rule, it's something I just told you not to do, I didn't but anyway. There we are. It's one like that. Then we have another building, this extends out a little bit this way. I'm taking a little liberties here and then we have another building here and I try to keep them different heights, don't have them the same. As you know, New York is not like that at all. Like this. And we have a tool building here, this is very good gimmick anyway in painting because it tells us this building is very close to us like this. Now we have some small ones, back of these, like at very small and very much in the distance. Let's put them like that for the moment and I will show you. Now actually we're rather looking up into the buildings so this is what we're going

to do. We do this like this and then like that. And then we put a line, you see, now it doesn't look like much, I'm going to erase that. So you can see what I've done like this, you see. I don't do that but I want to show you how to do it. That tells us that we're seeing that side of the building and it also gives it interest so you don't have boxes. Things can be interesting if you see them in a kind of perspective. We have a dark area here which we will paint in but leave it for just a moment. Now this has a tower, this is a little tricky because it can look rather strange but in the painting we'll be able to delineate it. There again we're rather looking up into it like that. We have another situation here which is very interesting, we're going to do this and this.

In looking at the side of the building we've created a dimension and an interest in the buildings and with the shading then it really looks marvellous. You get the feeling of shape. Now we have a building going this way now, this is a little different like that, like this. Then we have one building that we are seeing this way like that. This is flat, it's on the side and we're just seeing a corner of it so don't fuss with it. That's very pale in the distance, thank goodness we have some that are very pale in the distance. Now let's put the buildings, the buildings are in, please do not draw windows and what have you. We don't in any case, they're too small, too far away and we're just going to paint in the impression of windows. Fine, now the buildings are in leave and firm moment. Let's go to the bridge, we have a marvellous bridge over this, incidentally right here is a bit of snow, incidentally it's called snow in central park, I adore snow scenes

especially cities, snow scenes are very interesting. Just put the bridge over this like this, over the water, like that, it's very simple bridge, it's not a suspension bridge, thank goodness, lovely little old fashioned bridge of stone and leave that for just a moment like that. And then we have two mounds of snow here like this, like that, we're going to shade them in just a moment, now we have trees, we have a stand of trees back here like that and that's all we're going to do because we're going to shade them very lightly. Now as I shade this you'll begin to see what I'm trying to say but not now for the moment. Two trees here and you know we don't put in the branches and what have you because you have so much underpainting to do in the building so leave them but you know they're there. Now in this painting the light is coming from the left.

This is the drawing, leave it for the moment, the shading will tell a story. Now we're going to shade this building, the light is coming from the left and then suddenly you're going to see the buildings develop even in the sepia stage. So let's take our brush, incidentally I would suggest you use not such a large brush I do but for your sake I would use a smaller brush. Very lightly and almost dry so you don't lose a drawing and keep wiping your brush like this on either side and this has a dark area here but we're not seeing it quite like the others however it is darker, it's quite dark here at the bottom, it's dark here. The light's coming from the left so the light's catching this part of the building, this corner of the building here, here and here like that. The bridge is very interesting and it's done very simply this way. We will paint it that way also, please do not draw every little stone.

You won't see it that far away thank goodness, you just see an impression of a bridge. I've made it quite dark so you can see what I'm doing. Now I'm going to just very lightly shade in trees like this so you'll know but naturally they will be painted out. Shade this area back here, the light's coming from the left, it's these two mounds right here on the left. Now let's shade our water because that is important right now. Even in the sepia you will be able to see the water glisten and the shading of it. It's quite dark. Back here the light comes underneath the bridge and therefore there's some lovely light on the water right there. I think that's what we're going to do. I would love to get into the painting and we must. There we are.

Now the drawing is finished. We're going to do the painting of course as usually start with the sky. We have an extra light tone at the skyline but the thing I want to, the point I want to make in this painting is that it's almost a monochromatic painting. Actually it's only two colors, two color mixes used in the whole painting. So we're going to start with shades of green. This may give you qualms but it's really quite effective. Now let's start right around the buildings first like that. This is, these colors, this color I'm using is called gray green. Now I remember all snow scenes don't have to be blue and white. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sick of them and I tried to keep away from them as much as possible. Let's always try for something a little unusual. Not to mention that in a city like this you very seldom get that beautiful pristine white blue and white tone.

You get grayish, greenish, unfortunately because of a smog and the heat of the city lights in what have you, which creates a peculiar color and I think it's very interesting like that. If you're building leans a little bit don't worry about it. Bring your light up like this. All right let's go to our meeting tone. I'll bring this up a little higher like that. I seem to tend to do the same stroke and I'll try to vary it a little bit to give you a little excitement. Now this gray green, it's grayed, we use a mixture of yellow and green but we gray it down with red and a little orange which gives it that off shade almost an olivey tone which

is very beautiful. Now if your buildings have a little sky tone, don't worry about it just simply do that. Now go up into the sky a little bit. Don't be afraid to vary it and make them up with something. Other things happen by accident and that happens in science in medicine and what have you and it's not any different in painting. You have many happy accidents, don't fight it, just keep going and if it doesn't look just like mine forget it, you may have something much better than mine. I found this teaching that some students had a far better interpretation than I have or had. In that case I've always taken it in front of the class and showed the class.

Not a fantastic idea or happy accident. Of course I knew how they got it, they didn't but when I explained to them then they understood. Now let's leave that for the moment and let's go to our buildings because this is what we're trying to talk about. We've done many skies but not too many buildings so let's get into it right away. Let's start with the left building, we're going to start with the light tone. Now what I've done here is that I've used the sky tone and darkened it down with other shades like this, now I'm going to leave that for just a moment, that's the light side, let's go to the other one on the right because this again is the light tone. Now this is the way you do this, take your strokes, please remember that your strokes are terribly important, don't fuss with it, just square it off, drag it down, square it off, drag it down like that. Now we have a dark tone, let's go to the next building, remember the light's hitting

there so we're doing the, and we're going to add dark tones to that like this. And a little dark tone here, but not as dark as that, let's add a little dark red there for a little interest, an excitement. All right, let's put the dark tone on here, now we're going to have a little problem here, the two buildings will run together so we're going to put a little bit of the light tone down here. Take your knife over like this, in the angle of the building, automatically it creates perspective, you see?

Like that, this is too deep, too steep a perspective so we're going to soften that down just a wee bit. Go put a little purple tone down here like this, let's go to the tower, there again let's put, start with the light tone, I got to be very careful, doesn't look like the leaning tower of pizza because I've lived in Italy so long, but everything's beginning to lean like it does in Italy, but in Italy it's antiquity, here it's, you're in danger, the Italian is not worried about danger, antiquity is the thing, and I've been on that tower and it is dangerous, I'll tell you. It swears up there and it does lean when you walk along the parapet, it's frightening, there we are, keep it dark and bring your knife over this way like this, I go to the tower, now this can be a little devil, so you have to watch it, keep it in perspective and be

very careful with it, I'm sure that it's a little fatter than it should be, but we'll remedy that in just a moment, what I want to do is get at the rest of the building, you can always go back and refine it if you have to, of course I don't like that too much because then sometimes you ruin it, but just leave that for the moment, we're going to go back and darken that, this should be the same as that fine, all right, let's go to the building on the left, it's quite light, so I'm going to add tones like this, there again, you see what I'm doing, the stroke is going up this way because the building is, we're seeing it at that angle, so your stroke should be that way, we're going to darken that building also to create interest and a difference in levels and what have you,

like that, let's go to this building here, there again we have the light tone here, like this, then the dark tone, it's interesting because you see it's light dark, light dark and in doing that we create a difference and it's almost that way, you play your lights against your darks and if you're correcting your painting it takes care of itself very nicely, let's put the two buildings behind there because I find that I tend to forget them because they're not very important, I would like them quite pale, so let's make them a little paler than the other buildings because they are in a distance like that, now we have lots of little goodies, God forbid, air conditioners and all these sort of

modern things, which the Tower of Pisa does not have, but it has a lot of curly cues, a lot of figures and thank God we're not doing that one today, there we are, this has little thing on top like that, let's darken that just a wee bit with a little purple to give it a little interest, an excitement, now what I would like to do is to score the buildings for windows, remember no windows, so we're going to do this, like this, be sure that your knife is not loaded with paint, keep cleaning your knife, clean your knife constantly

on your paper because when the paint builds up it creates very heavy lines and of course we don't need that, scratching is a marvelous tool and when you learn how to use this knife it's a wonderful, wonderful way to paint, obviously there's a lot of office buildings and what have you here like this, so don't fool around this, I want it hazy, so don't paint perfect little things on the buildings, just sort of have them rather hazy, after all it's also a snow storm or a head snow, all right let's go to the trees in the background which are purple like this, let's take our little stroke that we use, our little circular stroke because we see them as a dark mass not as individual trees, so don't try to delineate

them as trees, leave them for the moment, just put them on like this and then leave it for the moment, like this, okay, now let's do the bridge, the bridge is straight purple, dark purple and we take purple like this and we have a stroke like this, it's an up and down stroke which will create the illusion of stones like that, it's straight purple, it looks almost black, it is not, at one point we're going to use a little of the dark tone of the buildings to give it a little delineation without actually drawing them, this engineer would scream if he saw this bridge, I'll tell you, we're artists, we're not having it, we don't have a photograph, so that's another thing I want to tell you, in painting don't try to for photorealism, remember it's an impression you're trying to create, you're

an impression, the mistake that people make and your family will do this to you, yes but it doesn't look just like that, you can always fall back on, that's the way it gets me and that's the way I see it, and that's what you should tell them, and that's the truth, I mean it's no gimmick, that's true, my dears, let's put little branches in here like this, there you see, we have trees right now, and that's all you're going to do back there, we're not going to fool around with that, let's take a little dark tone and just a few strokes to give us a feeling that there is something and it's not a solid purple and there are stones in what have you, now leave that for just a moment, we're going to go to the stream, remember that the stream is a reproduction of the sky, water in itself has no color so it's like the mirror of the sky, that's how our beautiful light tone here, like this, we have a bit of snow there which we will do a little later, we bring our tones down like this, and remember I love a little stroke that goes down and

over like that, and have a little darker tone with a little purple below like this, and have a little light tone there, a medium tone like this, fine, I'll leave that for just a moment, let's put some purple around the bank, not too much, I have too much here, I loaded my knife with paint, you must be careful not to load your knife up with paint because it's too difficult to control, I'll leave that for just a moment, there we are, that's probably going to be, you know what school the Kaminsky has, leave it for a moment and leave it alone, there we are, I'm sure you'll forgive me, now let's leave that, snow,

we're going to start with the dark tone, the light's coming from the left, a little medium tone, and this is the gorgeous part, like icing a cake, you pick up a gob of white, like this, and you do this, lay it on, wipe your knife, just like that, just put it on in a gob like that, like this, this is gorgeous, it's the most satisfying thing to be able to put paint on that way, all right, now let's go to the other side, whoops, I dirtyed it and I didn't want to, let me clean that up a little bit, fine, let's go to the other side, there again we start with the dark tone on the right side, like that,

and then the medium tone, now let's put our snow on that, we have a lovely gob of snow here, don't worry about our little tree, that's the least of our worries actually, like this, snow is marvell, I love to paint snow, maybe I'm really a cook at heart, I like ice cakes, now again watch your strokes, we're creating a mound, and in creating a smell we have used a stroke so that it looks like a mound, and not a flat thing that's just raised, I would like a feeling of gobs of snow, let's put a little on the edge like

that, just a wee bit, I would like to darken it over here a little bit like this, fine, we have a bit of snow back here, under the bridge, it's also delineates the bridge, like that, now we put in our trees, little ones here, because the little trees, these trees are further away, remember, I have so much snow, I can't get the trees on, there, now we have two lovely trees right here, like that, these are done with purple, straight purple, and

on this particular color, a scheme with the greens and white, it's very, very effective and very beautiful, also saves us a lot of time, like that, now remember that the light comes from the left, so we're having little shadows like that, from the tree, now we have snow on the tree, on the bridge, and please no blobs, just a little bit like that, I have so much snow here, I didn't get a good trunk, anyway, let's put a little on the bridge, very little, like that, on the buildings, very little on the buildings please, because it's starting to melt up there, as you know, in the city, the snow doesn't stay very

long, I don't know if that's good or not, but I'm trying to get around, I guess it's a good thing, and drag it down a little bit, like this, and a little snow here, and drag it down, so you don't have it just lying there that way, and some snow here, like that, I really want to grow this trunk once more, I've gotten so much snow, and I feel it's not very effective, so I'm going to try it once more, and that's New York for today, we're going to side our painting, goodbye for now.

This program was made possible by a grant from Commercial Union Assurance Companies. Once again, thank you very much.