OCTOBER 12, 2017

Demo by Ellen Diederich: “Balancing Colors”

 

Fargo artist Ellen Diederich began her demo by emphasizing that she would concentrate on “how shapes touch each other.”

Ellen put herself through college painting portraits and doing caricatures. This sharpened her visual sense and contributed to her drawing skills.

On a full sheet of watercolor paper, she had drawn a street scene from several photos, selecting elements from each. The scene included figures in the foreground holding ice cream cones. Before the demo, she had done an underpainting using soft colors and leaving white areas.

She then defined the shapes using a flat brush for the entire work. Ellen pointed out that “it’s important to keep directing people to come back and look at the painting. Don’t put anything interesting in the corners or people will leave and not come back. Make use of tension points. They can be useful or unattractive.”

She believes in changing color to create eye movement. “Get people going through the painting,” she urged, “ and always connect the subject with the background.”

Ellen was entertaining as well as informative. Her painting was not finished at the end of the meeting, but she will share it with us when it is complete.

                   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A month later, Ellen submitted the finished work for us to share with the members: