Painting With Peggi - Alla Prima

When copying the work of Peggi Kroll, I learned a lot about painting and how less is more. I learned how to think in more simple terms and not trying to paint all the little details. This was my very first time painting Alla Prima and it was fun to learn the technique. I enjoyed making big brushstrokes and mixing paint to create what I wanted. "Mapping" is when you outline places in your drawing where you want color to go. It's basically a guide for where you're painting. A thing that I know now that I didn't know before starting this lesson was that you could paint wet on wet without all the colors getting muddy. I always assumed that if wet paints touched too much, it would turn a gross color, but it actually doesn't and it looks perfectly fine. Mr. Gaudreau was trying to get me to understand to not blend and think of things more simply. It was hard to not add in details and blend the colors together. He also tried to get me to understand that less is more and you don't want to paint over the same area too many times or else you'll just wipe off the paint. I remember Mr. Gaudreau telling us how to properly hold a paintbrush and that there's more than one way to hold it. From the Alla Prima video, the point of counting your brushstrokes was very interesting to me. It made me think about how minimalistic painting can be. I also learned how all the paint strokes are meticulously placed and that it's important to think about how they will all come together. For the elements of design, I used color for mostly everything, even the white shirt. I used shape in the parts of the girl. Most of her was composed of oblong shapes in various colors. Texture can be seen through the thick strokes of paint. Finally, I used value to add depth to the painting. I used no black or grays though, I used fun colors. I thought it was really interesting how colors can be used as values. When describing a painting, "painterly" means to see how the artist thought about the subject. To be "painterly" would be to see things simplified and to see the shapes of the colors and values, not worrying about too much detail. One thing that I learned that I will bring into my next painting is using big brushstrokes and not worrying about adding a lot of detail.