Too often when we are painting outside, or from a photographic reference we are dead set on painting what we see, which can be very frustrating because it’s impossible to recreate our natural surroundings with a few colors on a flat surface. But we can suggest what the light is doing in terms of value and [...]
Archive for the ‘Tips & Techniques’ Category
September 26th, 2011
September Newsletter from StarkeStudio.com
Click here to read the September Newsletter from Starke Studio. http://myemail.constantcontact.com/Newsletter-from-Phil-Starke-Studio.html?soid=1102502724695&aid=5nDlLSxLEaw. FacebookTwitterDiggItTechnoratiDel.icio.us
September 24th, 2011
New Topical Video Lesson and New Look to Starke Studio Website
I’ve put together another Topical Video Lesson. This video focuses on painting textures. DVD 1 focuses on “Painting The Textures of Objects”. Different surfaces reflect or absorb light differently. I demonstrate techniques to achieve different textures. DVD 2 is “Painting The Textures of Water” and is a lesson on how to handle the different surfaces, [...]
September 17th, 2011
Scraping Your Panting Off When Things are Going Well
Scraping the paint off your canvas doesn’t always mean you’ve goofed up. Scraping is a good tool to use between stages of a painting. When you’re outside and are quickly blocking in a painting with thick paint because thicker paint gives you a better suggestion of light than thinner paint and makes a bolder statement, [...]
September 10th, 2011
Drawing: Is It A Tool Or An End In Itself?
Obviously the answer is both. Artists have always drawn whether as preparatory studies for working out problems in a painting, which can become finished pieces in themselves,as a habit to sharpen our ability to see, or as finished pieces of art. Most artists though have a craving or desire to record what they see, and [...]
September 3rd, 2011
Slow Down the Drying Time of Oil Paint
The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques: Fifth Edition, Revised and Updated (Reference) 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 slow [...]
August 23rd, 2011
Every Artist Should Have A Dog
As an artist I have a lot of deadlines, shows and galleries wanting work and wanting it tomorrow. So it is real easy for me to put off little things that keep my eye sharp like sketching from life, either a model or outside. I went to an indoor ceremony where cameras were not allowed [...]
June 18th, 2011
Using Brush Strokes to Show Form
Since painting is done on a flat surface and the goal is to make your subject look three dimensional, it’s important how your brushstrokes lay on the canvas. Using value changes gives flat objects form and so does temperature change — warm colors come forward and cool colors recede. Hard and soft edges do the [...]
June 12th, 2011
Topical Video Art Lesson “Mixing Color”
There are certain parts of the landscape that are easy to see and mix color for; a clear blue sky, summer green grass. But most colors in a landscape are not that easy to figure out like the color of a tree trunk, the shadow on the side of the mountain. Colors that seem gray are hard [...]
June 10th, 2011
Painting into a Dry Painting
When a painting dries, the color tends to go flat. The lights and darks get duller and flatter. So when you want to paint back into a dry painting you have to do something to bring the colors back to their original state and value. There are several options you can use. Retouch Varnish can [...]
