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Original Creation

In the Stillness of Morning - Class Version

Mgiese84 23 Mar 2022

Not a super great quality photo but here’s how my class version of “In Stillness of Morning” turned out.

Couple of observations and comments on how it went.

1. I put the liquid white on the canvas before the class arrived. I just didn’t want them to put too much or little and the technique not work for them. I think I will continue to do that at least for the next few.

2. Dick Blick oils are boarder line too thin to use for this technique. They work ok until you need to start putting layer on layer. For example highlighting the evergreens and the foreground land was much more difficult than normal. I wish I could use the Winton oils like I normally do but they cost a little more than the shop owner wants to pay. Maybe I’ll at least use them on my painting.

3. Not all painters are created equal. It was very interesting to me what each person thought was difficult and struggled with. At first some struggled with the clouds using the fan brush. So I then showed them Bob's method of just tapping in the clouds using the corner of the 1" or 2" brush. They seemed to like that method much better.

4. Big brushes are scary, lol. We don't have a 2" brush so the 1" brush was our big brush. Even with that some weren't quite comfortable with it. More when it came to highlighting land area and such. They preferred the fan brush and I said don't matter what brush you use. Whatever you're most comfortable with.

5. They did not make friends with the knife. Some did fine with it but a few gave up on it. Well little do they know next month's painting will require some more knife work as I think we'll do some sort of a cabin.

In summary I think the class went quite well. I'd like to see us use firmer paints because I truly think that made things more difficult than need be. But I'll say the painting itself "In Stillness of Morning" worked perfectly for our 2 hour time frame. Best thing of all everyone enjoyed it enough to come back for another painting class. The one lady was funny, she's like "yea I'd recommend bringing him back again." Next month I'm going to do something on a black canvas. Leaning towards "Aurora's Dance" or "Cabin in the Woods."

Hope you all find this interesting.

Oils

Comments

Very nice to read your teaching experiences! Thanks for sharing! Like to give some remarks.

-By painting clouds it's maybe a tip to leave holes in the blue sky, so the white in the brush becomes not so quick blue. I think your advise to tap them in is a good one, because the small circles are difficult in the beginning.
-Did you ever use 1980 paint of Gamblin, it should be a good alternative, some colors are cheaper. Do you always use Winton in your own paintings Matt?
-It should be a miracle if students became friends with the knife in only one lesson of two hours! Learn to use the knife as a Whisper takes time and practice!

Hope you keep sharing your class events!

Thanks for posting this Matt! Let me say that your Bob wig needs a little something. 😂 Right now it kinda looks more like Sideshow Bob! JK

Felix Creator of TwoInchBrush.com

You should grow your hair out and perm it!

What a great job! You look awesome and the peeps did a good job on their paintings! Nice photos!

Pietro1963 Master of Monsters

Felix..your so subtle..kills me..he he..Matt u made my day bro!

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Thanks Brian! And that was even the official Bob Ross wig too!! I was slightly disappointed as well.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

LOL, Felix that's funny because my dad, when he and my mom were first married (back in 81'), actually had a perm himself.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Thanks Sandy! I thought they did a nice job too. Artists are always their toughest critics.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Jos, thanks for your comments and tips.

With regards to the clouds I did tell them to try and leave some light areas where their clouds will live. Some I think got a little heavy with the blue but personally I thought all their clouds ended up looking fine in the end.

I have never used the Gamblin oils before. I know they are supposed to be very good too. Other than my first couple tubes I have always used the Winton oils in my paintings.

I agree with you on the knife. I told them it just takes a little time to become friends with it, hehe.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Thanks P! I'm happy to hear that :-)

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Lol, thanks Tom!

Uhh, you say the biggest brush you use in class is one inch, but that one you're holding looks to be a bit bigger than that. 🙂

Great job, Matt. All those paintings look pretty good. The artists had a good teacher.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Lol thanks so much Alex

The next time you have a class of new students, Matt, you could 'break the ice' with them by bringing out that big brush and saying, "So, let's start with this tiny six-foot brush and go into a little cad yellow."

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Lmao, I want that video tapped too then

haha I actually did think it was your own hair for a minute. It even suits you. Joking aside, it's great what you've done here, Bob would have been really chuffed.

flippergirlpaints Top Event Submitter

So Awesome - I'll bet you teach a fun class! On you paints....I have some Gamblin 1980 paints and I do notice that they are not as thick as the BRI brand, but I do not have a terrible time of it. (I still have my BRI titanium white though, so I can't comment on that color.) I wonder about the canvas quality vs what you normally use at home. If I get cheap canvases and do not extra gesso them, I struggle more with the mudmixing because I am slow and the canvas sucks up all of my liquid white. If I add a couple of coats of gesso, the thinner paints are waaayyy less of an issue.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Thanks TLP! I think Bob would have been very pleased too. For me to go from never painted an oil painting in my lifetime to teaching the wet-on-wet technique makes me very proud too.

Mgiese84 Cleanest Technique In The Game

Thanks Pam! I'm sure the canvases are pretty cheap. Next month I'm going to do "Cabin in the Woods" (my sister said I couldn't do a winter scene now that spring is among us, lol). Hopefully the black gesso will help the situation. We shall see.

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