The trouble with painting from color photoraphs is the color in the photographs. It’s usually not very good even though with digial technology it’s certainly better but not as good as seeing the real thing. A good way of dealing with photographic color is to work in color schemes. Picking a scheme that best represents the mood or lighting in your reference. For instanced an “analogous color scheme“ Read more »
March 2nd, 2010
Discussing Color Schemes – Part 1
February 24th, 2010
Pushing The Limits of What you Can Do
In painting or any kind of discipline, you’re either moving forward or slipping backwards, there’s no standing still. Staying in a comfort zone in your painting or subject matter is a good way to become stagnet. Pushing yourself beyond what you think you can do is important. Even if your attempts fail most of the time, you’re still moving ahead. It forces you to try different techniques, solve problems and come up with solutions you hadn’t thought of before. It also forces you to study different paintings, to see how other artists solve the same problems.
February 11th, 2010
Preliminary Sketches
Sometimes when I paint several color sketches or preliminary sketches before a larger painting, it can quench the desire to paint that subject. So switching up the medium can help me see that subject differently.
Since I usually use oils, using pastels for color sketches is more direct and spontaneous than oils. The sticks of pastels keep me from getting too detailed. The pastel paper has a different feel than canvas. Then when I turn to the larger canvas, painting it in oils is still unexplored. So whatever medium you use, try using a different medium while you’re working out the details for the finished piece and see if you enjoy the experience.
February 8th, 2010
Doing a Live Demo Over Computer Streaming
The Pastor of the Alive Church in Tucson, Jeff Love, asked me if I would be willing to do a large painting during a five-week series he is doing on “Life Palette”. The pastor is also a part-time artist and wanted to use the principles of a good painting and compare them to principles we need in our lives. There are two weeks left so if you’re interested in seeing my demo while he speaks, you can access their live streaming on your computer by going to this link: http://myflock2.com/cgi-bin/streaming.pl?nameset=Alive%20Church&churchid=church1&hd=¬es_id=&fb_uid=1410963546
The times are Saturdays at 5:00 pm Mountain time, and Sundays 9:30 and 11:00 Mountain time. It’s been fun and everyone has seemed to enjoy it. The video with this blog is the intro video they use each week.
(Blog posted at my teaching blog, www.betweenthepalettescrapings.com)
January 29th, 2010
Oil Painting On Paper
For a change of pace and a different look, I’ll paint oils on paper. It has a different feel and look that’s pleasing. Plus it has to be matted and framed under glass, which gives it a different look from the heavier framing for canvas. I use a 100% rag board or paper. Rag has no acid in it so it won’t deteriorate like other papers or boards. Read more »
January 25th, 2010
Canvas Boards
Students ask me often if canvas boards are worth messing with, do they get in the way of improving their painting skills, or prevent them from moving ahead. I think canvas boards are great. If you’re starting your painting career you need to cover as much canvas as possible. Buy them by the box and cover hundreds of them. They’re cheap, you can use them and toss them or Read more »
January 22nd, 2010
The Value of Color Sketches
When I’m getting ready to paint a larger painting I sometimes get too anxious to get started and forgo doing a series of color sketches to explore other possibilities in lighting and color and I end up regretting it. Even if I have a sketch that I’ve done outside I still try to find different ways of approaching the color or composition.
The habit of doing 3 to 5 small color sketches (3 x 5) or (4 x 6) is a good way to Read more »
January 19th, 2010
When Oil Paint Doesn’t Dry Fast Enough
Usually, if I’m trying to alter the drying time of oils, it’s to speed it up to meet a deadline or to make changes over dry paint. But once in a while, like in portraiture or figure painting, it’s nice to flow down the drying time to achieve subtle changes over a longer period of time.
Oil of Cloves is one way of slowing the drying time. It’s a preservative that’s used to cover up the odor of decomposition. It has a pretty strong odor but it’s tolerable. A few drops in a paint mixture retards the drying time. Ralph Meyer’s book “The Artists Handbook of Materials and Techniques”
January 13th, 2010
Traditional Gesso
I’ve been using acrylic gesso on small masonite panels lately, not having enough time to glue canvas to them and too cheap to buy pre-gessoed canvas panels and I’m finding the acrylic gesso is too slick. The oil paint doesn’t absorb into the surface enough. So I bought some
Gamblin Traditional Gesso. It’s a mixture of marble dust, titanium dioxide and rabbit skin glue. It’s been used for centuries on wooden panels and is more absorbent. Just add water Read more »
January 6th, 2010
A Page Full of Videos
Check out my new Video Page on this blog. Take a look when you’ve got time.
