My Big Fat Greek Painting-part 2

The Painting so far.

Appearances often are Deceiving.--Aesop (~550 BC)
The Greeks have all the good sayings. This saying sort of sums up how this project for the 6th Grade of Ogden School in Illinois has been going.

The inside of a Geek column.

The 6th graders from Ogden have sent the Artist to find a Traveler for their painting of Greece for a school gift. That is where our Traveler Diane comes in, Diane went to Greece to find her past and found her present.

Athens from Traveler Diane's Greek Trip

The painting doesn't seem to be going anywhere, but it has come a long way it just doesn't look it yet. So I guess Aesop was right, now what about Greeks bearing gifts?

Traveler Diane and her Greek relatives.

Traveler Diane's Story: When I talked to Traveler Diane about her trip she had nothing but wonderful things to say about Greece.

Diane and her family in Greece.

Meeting her extended family was truly a warm and touching time. Even though they didn't speak English, Diane's Greek relatives were kind, warm hearted, and went out if their way to make her feel at home during her stay.

Diane's first meal in Greece. Yum!

The Traveler Painting Greece Part 2: When we left this painting I had the it almost blocked in with paint. Now the painting has gone through a few changes, but before I get into that I have a question to answer first.

Well, not exactly a question, Ogden student Issac, told me about a comment the 6th graders made while checking out this blog on their painting. When they saw the picture above he said the whole class screamed, "scribbles" and didn't know what I was showing.

What I was trying to show was the design and the effect I wanted on the viewer. Here's what I wanted the viewer of the painting to do. Start looking at the painting at A ,and then be lead to B, and then on to C, and the rest. Thanks Issac.

Back to the painting- With most of the mid-tones colors ( colors in between real dark colors and the real light colors) painted in it's time to start on the light colors. And that is the buildings in the background.

While I was painting in some of the buildings in the background I realized the design wasn't working quite the way I wanted it to so I needed to make a change. What was happening was the big boat was pointing the wrong way, and leading the eye off the canvas. By adding the new boat tip in the right hand corner and lining it up just so, the design would work much better.

Painting is fully blocked-in. That means the whole canvas has been touched with paint. It's not done, but you can see it's coming together.

The start of color adjustments.

Artist Tip: It's hard to judge colors by them self, that is why it is important to block-in a painting quickly and then make adjustments. It's kind of like what a rough draft of a story is for writers.

It's getting there. Lots of color adjustment to make still, but the painting is starting to take form and feel like a painting.

Details from the Painting so far.

Now that the painting is blocked in and a few color corrections have been made, the next part of this painting is deciding on the next coarse of action. The painting is wet and will now have to dry before I can work on it again. So there will be plenty of time to figure changes out and answer any more question the class has about the painting. If you have any questions send them to me here or at www.theartistandthetraveler.org

Until next time, keep your chin up and keep reaching for the stars.