Painting with Beer

Saturday, December 12, 2009

It's been a busy few weeks, and I'm overdue for an update!

The past three weeks we've been studying landscapes, drawing in perspective, and interior-grade faux marbling (in that order).

First: landscapes.

We finished these just before Thanksgiving break.  Rachel assigned me a picture of Mount Ranier and this is my painting (about 6x9 feet).

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  I really enjoyed painting the mountain and trees.  But my foreground grass turned out a bit Disney-ish...I think I went a little overboard with the color, and stayed a little too regulated in it's placement.  But it's a lesson learned :)

The next week was spent on drawing in perspective.  There's a long story that I won't get into here, but it was a difficult week...even besides having to draw in perspective (which I'm starting to actually enjoy).

Needless to say, I was REALLY looking forward to the week after that, where we began to learn how to paint interior-grade marble.  Our previous marbling class was geared towards painting marble for the theatre (i.e. it looks convincing from at least 30 feet away).  This class, however, was for realistic marbling, intended for up-close inspection.

We couldn't help but enjoy ourselves when we started out the week by painting with beer...yes, beer :)  We just mixed dry pigment with the beer, which acts as a binder (and also keeps the surface very flat when dried, since no ridges equals a non-painted look).  It also dries VERY quickly and is easily resoluble, which allows for a lot of manipulation and cool effects.

And just as a note, we're using the word "marble" just as a generic term for all of the different stones (travertine, granite, etc).

Here are a few of my beer-glaze marbles:

The other medium we used was oils.  The last piece above has an oil glaze on top of the beer glazes.  These next pieces are done entirely in oils.

My eyes are buggy from looking at marble.  But it was really fun.

This coming week we'll be working on a project for Harvard's annual "Hasty Pudding" production of "Commie Dearest."  Apparently Harvard University doesn't have any sort of school-sponsored theatre program.  Since 1795 the students have written and produced their own show using an all-male cast, and it has been presented every year since 1844 (the only exceptions during both World Wars).  Naturally, all of the female parts are played by men in drag, and the show tends to be as risque and cheesy as possible, while still remaining "family-friendly."

We'll be painting four drops for them.  This next week we'll be busy translating the designer's renderings to full-scale drawings.  Once we return from Christmas break, we'll start painting.  Should be fun!

And one week from today I'll be in Denver!!  I'm SOOO excited to see friends and family.  Two weeks won't be nearly enough time, but it's going to be great.

Can't wait to see you all!