Plein-air painting and a very friendly cat

Last Sunday before the tree went down, Jeanette and I painted a street scene in Rhinecliff, New York.

(Video link) I'm using casein, an opaque milk-based paint popular with 1950s illustrators. Maybe it's the milk smell that attracts a friendly neighborhood cat, who hangs out with us during the 45 minutes of the painting session. 

In addition to attracting animals, casein has an advantage over oil for speed-painting architecture because the drying time allows you to accelerate all the steps. I call it "oil on adrenaline." Note that at 1:15, I spot in the windows with the brush and then glaze the shadow values transparently over them before coming in with opaques.
At 1:50, I state the two side windows and their shutters with one big stroke and then subdivide the smaller window details with opaque light strokes, all with the same half-inch flat brush. The flat brush handles just about everything from thin lines to big areas.

With the limited palette (raw sienna, Venetian red, cobalt blue, and titanium white), there's no way to mix strong greens. I restrict the gamut to a smaller blue-orange complementary scheme in order to emphasize warms against cools. No one will miss the greens.

Good news on the video front: I just updated my "James Gurney" YouTube page, so please check it out and subscribe so that you can get notified about new videos before anyone else. Also, I have finished the final edit on my first hour long instructional DVD / download. It's called "How I Paint Dinosaurs." It should be out in a month or so. It will be followed soon after by a second one called "Watercolor Workshop." I'll probably do a third hour-long video on casein after those two. All of my longer form videos go deep into process and materials, and show methods in real time with lots of info. 

By the way, here's what I'm using on this painting:
Jack Richeson / Shiva casein colors (raw sienna, Venetian red, cobalt blue, and titanium white)
Richeson's FAQ about casein
Moleskine watercolor notebook
Flat watercolor brush (1/2 inch)

And here's what I'm using to make the the video:
IKEA Kitchen Timer (for the slow rotation of the time lapse)

My book Color and Light: A Guide for the Realist Painterhas more information about limited palettes 

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