Advanced group - session #02

This year, for this group we have a different setup of the workshop: 2 sessions x 2 hours each dedicated to one painting/subject. I usually bring a few reference photos of a certain subject and we try to get into some composition issues first - each lady has to decide about the center of interest, combine 2 or more photos, add a real-life object to the composition, remove something from the photos, etc.
The next step is dedicated to draw the major shapes/lines on transfer paper and get the drawing onto the 11x14 inches paper (we only work from this size and up with this group). The ideal would be that each attendant would also manage to get into 1-2 color studies to decide on the palette, but so far none has achieved this step yet. But we have more many sessions to come this year, and I hope I will convince them on the importance of this step by the end of the workshop.
Our first set of photos was picturing still-life of fruits and vegetables: one photo had figs on a plate, while the second one had tomatoes on a plate. The main aspect of this one was to get rid of the rather non-interesting backgrounds, and eventually make some small changes to the composition (i.e. remove some of the figs). I do not have photos of the final paintings, but only a few from our activities. I have to ask the ladies to bring all their paintings in one of our next sessions to have them photographed.

2nd Session beginners

Some of you were wondering if for any reasons our workshop has stopped, and I did realize that due to my job and other life issues I have quite some time to post anything about how we are doing.
We did not stop, we are meeting as scheduled, every Friday with the beginner group and every second Friday with the advanced group. Just that I didn't manage to take photos at every session, but I will try to catch up with the blog posts during the following days.
As the lessons are following a similar pattern as the previous year, it is not really needed to explain much about what we do, but just a very short note: monochrome color study, graded washes and value study. Our first little painting was again a seascape study. Here are a few snapshots with the ladies in action.