Ernie Marjoram was the demonstrator for the San Fernando Valley Art Club November meeting. Ernie is an accomplished architect, illustrator and landscape artist. Ernie's drawing skills are the foundation for his painting so he took his inspiration from a sketch done during a life drawing workshop. The seated, costumed man had many interesting details and Erie added a few more of his own.

      He started by telling us not to be afraid to squeeze out a lot of paint and proceeded to put a third of a large tube on his palette. Someone gasped. Using only red, yellow, blue, black and white Ernie told use he likes to keep his palette simple. He began by priming the canvas with a rich rust red and then blocked in the shapes of the mid tone colors. After that, he went in and added the dark values to each area and last came the highlights. He took extra care with the face since that is the main point of interest.

His last advise was to go back into the painting and "cut" around certain important shapes, like the face and the skull. The long fingernails and the skull are items added to the actual figure by Ernie for interest. It was a perfect post Halloween subject.

Everyone was enthusiastic about the demonstration and enjoyed Ernie's informed conversation. His skills made it seem so easy. Thank you Ernie for taking us on your creative journey.