John Cosby Workshop

Yellow Truck - oil on canvas panel - 14 x 11"

Painting  is a process of continual learning. Each painting is a learning experience! And, in order to accelerate the process, I try to take a workshop with another artist every now and then. The painting above is one I painted during the John Cosby workshop in Lodi, CA. John is an excellent teacher, and there were some very advanced painters in the class, but he made all of us stretch ourselves!

John teaches a painting process that can be adapted to most painting styles. He starts by mixing four or five color puddles that represent the different values in the scene. Then, he mixes all the rest of the colors from those puddles. Also, he really stressed drawing and composition. I drew the truck in this scene by first drawing a box, which had the same proportions as the truck, then drawing the truck inside the box. And the composition is a three-point, with the three main elements being the truck, the palm tree, and the telephone pole. Can you see it? I really had to subdue the bush, which, in reality, was a bright, bright green! And I used shadows to balance the composition. Just making my own reality... Fun!