Learning Points: Mel Stabin Workshop, part 2

Busy Afternoon in Lucca, 11x15 (detail)

One our second day of the workshop, Mel demonstrated the use of value sketches, and the painting of figures in a street scene. Our assignment was to practice those two skills, and my effort is illustrated above, in "Busy Afternoon in Lucca." You can see how the features of the figures were merely suggested, and rendered quickly, allowing colors to merge, as on the girl on the right. Similarly, the figure of the lady fuses with the stroller she is pushing, and the figure in the red jacket merges into the man's shirt in the foreground. The two figures further back were very simply indicated, with their shapes described mostly in negative by the dark door behind them.

Jazzed Up, 22x15
In days four and five, I took a more experimental approach in the assignments to practice the figure. In "Jazzed Up", I used line and free color, painting very quicly and directly, using the brush and color to "sculpt out" the figure, while dark colors, splattering and aggressive directional lines further emphasize movement and rhythm.

The workshop with was a great learning experience, and a fun one at it!

Here's Mel Stabin posing by one of his paintings. (Photo courtesy of Herb Rodriguez)