Jul. 01, 2019 | Posted in Reports, Painting and Drawing , Student Reporter | Tags:Kristin Fiorvanti, Painting and DrawingReporter: Kristin Fiorvanti | Course: Painting and Drawing

Painting Drawing vol.7 (One-year 2019 – Kristin)

We then decided that my next subject would be landscapes. I wanted to learn from Alessandro’s painting skills so I suggested we use oils. I went to the beautiful Boboli Gardens in Florence for reference photos like the one above, and he showed me step-by-step how to approach the work.

First, we add a light, purple-ish color to the background to block in the sky. Then we continue into the far background. Alessandro used colors from light to dark to create contrast and depth in the painting. This landscape photo had a lot of layers to bring to light: the mountains, treelines, hills, and the plant in front.

After Alessandro’s example, I got started with his help along the way, following his steps. I’ve grown to like this way of teaching. He took notice to the way I hold my brush and said he could tell I was much more trained in watercolor; I’ve not had any classes in oil color. So he often stopped me and asked me to pay attention to the diverse techniques to use with oils. I was also struggling with accomplishing the impressionist-like colors in the background, so he made a viewfinder with a piece of paper to help me imagine how it should look. It helped me tremendously.

This is my finished piece, “Primavera in Tuscany”