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Repetition is the key to painting mastery.

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Discipline needed for artistic self-realization.

The problem with some artists is their predisposition to want to paint a multitude of random subjects. They paint a portrait on Sunday, neighbours flowers on Monday, a lovely landscape on Tuesday, still life on Wednesday, and on Thursday a street scene emerges from the canvas. Who knows what Friday will bring. I suppose it is the nature of the beast to want to be creative and follow one’s Muse. The problem with this approach is that the artist never gets good at any one style or genre of painting. Every subject requires specific elements and techniques in order to render them correctly.

Repetition makes for a much stronger painter. A painter able to render any subject of choice. Whether you’re painting fur or the nude, it takes practice. To get good at painting clouds, 25 to 40 cloud themes need to be painted before one can get down to their true delicate nature. To understand how the paint lies in the value shifts and the subtle colour temperature changes, the painter needs to produce more than one or two.

Consider the number of cloud paintings Tom Thompson created and multitude of little desert sky studies Maynard Dixon completed. Carl Rungius’s stacks and stacks of mountain studies illustrates his progression towards his later more mature work, allowing for finer compositions and ethereal colour transitions. Paint 25 waterfall paintings and I guarantee you will start to get comfortable with how the water flows at the bottom (which is the part that kills most waterfall scenes). Paint 25 flower paintings and watch how the colours start to come alive and your technique naturally becomes more expressive.

Start by getting some cheapie 8x10 canvas boards (or Arches Oil Paper) and go to town! Cut up a bunch of watercolour paper into small sizes and start to churn the studies out! The ever-stellar painter Julie Hamilton says, “paint and pitch”. Remember, when practicing painting a subject, the process is often more important and interesting than the finished work. You will learn a lot and as a result your imagination will flourish. As the great painter Edgar Payne said. “Memory feeds imagination”. 

Your friend in art,

Doug

P.S. Aldro Hibbard spent a lifetime painting snow just to see if he could get it right.


5 things you didn’t know about Bob Ross.

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"There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend."

No single person in the history of art has brought more people to the world of painting than Bob Ross. I was one. I set out to paint and soon realized it was much harder than it looked. People may joke about him and his cozy talk and his hippy swagger but he brought a lot to the table (easel). Painting is hard no matter how you face it. There seems to be miles and miles of distance between what he does and what someone like Clyde Aspevig does, but truthfully, they are closer than you think.

“There are people who just like to hear him talk,” one station manager said. “We even get letters from blind people who say they tune in because he gives them hope.” He certainly gave me hope and helped me feel like I could. Anybody that can make you feel like a winner is a cool cat in my book. I met Bob at an art trade show long ago and all I could do was thank him.

Here are 5 things you didn’t know about Bob Ross.

  1. HE WAS A MILITARY MAN. Before Ross became a painter, he spent 20 years in the United States Air Force and retired with the rank of master sergeant. “I was the guy who makes you scrub the latrine, the guy who makes you make your bed, the guy who screams at you for being late.” When Ross retired from the Air Force, he allegedly vowed never to scream again. This was the impedance for his soft demeanour.
  2. HE DID IT FOR FREE. The Joy of Painting ran new seasons on PBS from 1983 to 1994, so a few years of fat stacks of cash? Not quite. Ross actually did the series for free. His income came from Bob Ross Inc., selling art supplies and how-to videotapes, teaching classes, and even doing the trade show circuit. How did he find the time to tape all of those shows? He recorded a season almost as fast as he could paint. Ross could bang out an entire 13-episode season of The Joy of Painting in just over two days, which freed him up to get back to teaching. And you thought I painted fast…
  3. HE DIDN’T SELL HIS PAINTINGS. In a 1991 interview with the New York Times, Ross claimed he’d made over 30,000 paintings since he was an 18-year-old stationed in Alaska with the Air Force. When Ross died of lymphoma in 1995, most of his paintings either ended up in the hands of charity or PBS. That’s not to say there aren’t any Ross paintings floating around. While he generally didn’t sell his canvasses, Ross did sell some souvenir gold pans during his stint in Alaska. At the time, the amateur artist got $25 a pop for a gold pan with an Alaskan scene painted in the bottom.
  4. HE DIDN’T LOVE THE FRO. It’s hard to think of Bob Ross and not immediately key in on the giant bushy mushroom cloud of hair that exploded off of his head, and Ross knew it. Unfortunately, he also supposedly hated the haircut. Ross had an uncanny knack for marketing however, so he knew that trimming his fro to a more conservative look would likely undercut his business. Ross decided to stick with the stylin’ locks and even had his permed visage emblazoned on every tube of Bob Ross paint he sold.
  5. AT THE BEGINNING of The Joy of Painting’s second season in 1984, Ross dedicated the show to William Alexander. The man who got him started in all this, who filmed a promo for his former student: “I hand off my mighty brush to a mighty man, and that is Bob Ross.” That was that. The new area had begun. In 1987 someone from Alexander Art told Ross that they could not keep up with the demand generated by the The Joy of Painting and suggested that Ross start his own line of art supplies. He never looked back after that.

Let's finish off with a few brilliant quotes from the great instructor.

  • That’ll be our little secret.
  • You know me, I gotta put in a big tree.
  • Any way you want it to be, that’s just right.
  • Let’s just blend this little rascal here, ha! Happy as we can be.
  • People might look at you a bit funny, but it’s okay. Artists are allowed to be a bit different
  • Shwooop. Hehe. You have to make those little noises, or it just doesn’t work.
  • Talk to the tree, make friends with it.
  • That’s a crooked tree. We’ll send him to Washington.
  • There’s nothing wrong with having a tree as a friend.
  • Roll it in a little bright red and let's sign this right in here. Luckily I have a short name so it’s easy to sign.

Your friend in art,

Doug

P.S. There are so many more little tidbits about Mr. Ross. For example, did you know that he used to love filming little animals such as squirrels and that his wife died exactly a year after his death? Share your own Bob Ross story below.

10 Things That Cause Mud in a Painting.

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Your painting may not be as fresh as it could be.

1. Bad Drawing

Get your drawing right from the start. Bad design causes more grief in a painting than anything else. You don’t need to draw well but you do need to be accurate. Most of us fear drawing and yet it’s the very foundation of art. If you don’t feel comfortable drawing, take a class. It’s fun and you might just be good at it! It only takes practice. Draw freehand, copy, project, trace, draw from life, or scan and paste… it doesn’t really matter. Keeping the life in your painting is the objective. Begin with a well designed drawing and seal it. As you paint overtop you can wipe pigment off to get back to your sketch. Your drawing is only a guide, not a floor plan, but if it is weak your painting will become muddled and incoherent causing you to overpaint or guess. Guessing = Mud.

2. Buying Lame Colours

Have a look at your palette. If you have more than two earth tones, chances are your painting will look drab. It’s very hard to get a colourful painting when you start with a bunch of tubes of browns or greys. Colours are at their brightest in the tube. There is no way you can make them brighter. You can, however, dull them down all you want. Start bright and move towards dull. This will keep your colours fresher.

Here are a few of the muddy culprits found on too many palettes: Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue, Indigo Blue, Davies Grey, Paynes Grey. They have black in them so naturally turn dull. Also anything with the word “pale” in it. Any of these colours used with a knowledge of their working properties are fine, just make sure you are using them properly and sparingly.

3. Dirty Habits

Dirty brushes make dirty paintings. Check your water or your thinner - if it looks like something an Alabama mud snake lives in you might want to clean it and do so often. Dirty brushes also make for dirty palettes. Clean it and keep it clean. I recommend using a glass palette. It’s very easy to clean and reuse. For you watercolorists - get a nice metal palette (don’t skimp, it ain’t worth it). And finally - Blue Shop Towels are an artist’s best friend. Clean rags make for clean brushes.

4. Values

Another culprit for mud is bad value exchanges. If two colours have the same value they will be hard to read. Similar values can be used together but if the overall painting has the same value throughout, it will look muddy. Think: Are you painting a tree in the sun with a bit of shade or is it a tree in the shade with a bit of sun? Use your value finder and pay attention to how far apart your values are. 

5. Warms and Cools

Any time you mix opposite colours you get duller versions of those parent colours. As you likely know, the opposites are red/green, blue/orange, yellow/purple. But there are also warm/cool opposites. Red-orange and yellow play well with each other. Blue-red and purple coexist nicely. Look at your palette carefully and see if you have any dominant clean colour mixes and use their compliments.

6. Over-mixing 

Mixing too many colours and variations of warm/cool on your palette is not effective. A bit of this, a daub of that, is asking for trouble. Know what you are mixing and why. Don’t guess! Guessing = Mud.

7. Mark-making

Putting too many marks on your paper or canvas will make for a confusing painting. Daubing with your brush can cause unruliness. Make clean distinctive marks and leave them alone. Overpainting your marks can cause you to want to overpaint the overpainted marks, compounding the problems. Less marks means a cleaner painting.

8. Surface

Switching from one paper to the next, from canvas to masonite to gessobord can cause you grief. Every surface has different working properties. If you don’t know how to handle the surface, your tendency will be to overwork it. Learn what each surface is like, find their strengths and weaknesses and then use them to your advantage.

9. Toned Surface

Toned surfaces are nice to work on but they have disadvantages too. If you don’t establish your lights and darks very early on, you will be tempted to paint things the same value as the ground you are working on. This leads to a dark and almost ominous feeling in your work.

10. Shapes

You can’t paint the flea on the dog till you have painted the dog. If you start with little itty-bitty shapes your painting will look too busy. Busyness causes clutter and clutter reads like mud. More is never the answer. Less is always the answer. Simplify things so they read clearly.

11. (BONUS) White

Adding too much white too early causes chalkiness in your paint. When your paint gets chalky the effect is hazy and looks like your painting went through an old dishwasher. Start with your darks and keep the white out as long as you can.

Watercolourists have the opposite problem. You need to preserve your whites. If you lose the white of your paper too early you will end up with an overall dark appearance to your work. Leave some whites so your colours will glow and don’t put on too many layers.

Your friend in art,
Doug.

10 Things To Ask Yourself While Painting

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Self-critique checklist for painters.
  1. Is my idea of the painting clear? If not, where did I miss the mark? How can it be reinforced?
  2. Does anything need work? Often the painting has its own direction and should go that way. Listen to it.
  3. Is there a general sense of Harmony? Does the technique (i.e. brush handling) or colour work together and look to be of the “same world”. Does it all look like the same painter painted it or is there inconsistency in style or approach?
  4. What finishing touches could I add to give the painting more zing?
  5. Is there a convincing sense of depth? Are there any tangents that bother me or flatten the painting out?
  6. Does the initial abstract value pattern still read clearly?
  7. Is there enough detail? And then of course, is there too much detail?
  8. Does the painting convey the “mood” of the day? If not - How can I resolve this in the next painting?
  9. Is it really me? My reflection? My interpretation? My style?
  10. As successful as the painting is, how could the next one be better?

If you can’t find an answer, ask a better question!

Hint: It’s best to answer these questions in the presence of a beer, which tends to take the sting out of the answers.

Keep swingin’ that brush!

Your friend in art,
Doug.

Dominate Painting

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Using dominant/recessive qualities of pigments to your advantage.

Dominant/recessive juxtapositions are throughout your work and extend to your palette. There’s a simple rule to follow that will help - Always add dominant to recessive. As most of you know, each pigment has a different strength when it comes out of the tube. Some colours, like Alizarin Crimson, are very rich and very strong in their tinting strength. Other colours, like Viridan Green, are very weak and you will use a lot of it before it has any effect. The stronger tints are referred to as dominant and the weaker tints are recessive. These qualities go across all mediums - oils, acrylics, watercolours, pastels - and can be used to your advantage.

The more you mix colours together the duller they get. The more White there is in your mix the cooler and duller it will be. Because of this, it is to your advantage to always mix the colours in a certain order. For example: We all know the strength of the Phthalo colours. If you were to mix White into Phthalo Green it would take you donkey’s years to get it to lighten. However, if you do the opposite and mix a daub of Phthalo Green into White, you can get it to lighten very quickly. By mixing the dominant colour into the recessive one, you will not only save time but a lot of paint and money and the result will be a cleaner mix of colour.

This dominant/recessive method goes even further. It’s easier to lighten a dark than to darken a light. Lights are dominant and darks are recessive. This is why when you have the option, always start with your darks first. Darks are recessive and easily manipulated while lights are dominant and hard to change.

It’s also easier to cool a warm colour than it is to warm a cool colour. Warm colours are recessive and cools tend to be dominant. Ever notice that a lot of artist’s palettes have more cool colours than warm ones? It’s because cool colours don’t change easily whereas warm colours change without much coaxing and are therefore prone to getting muddy. So put your warms down and leave them alone.

Of course, all of this is the leopard and her ever-changing spots. Just as when you say that blue is a cool colour and then you put a warmer blue next to it - well there you go - there is now a warmer cool blue and cooler cool blue. The rules change all the time because everything is dependent on the relationship to what is near it or what is mixed into it. Keep your eyes on the prize! One colour will dominate against White but may be recessive next to an overpowering colour like Prussian Blue. Once you start learning the nature of pigments, you’ll be on your way to cleaner colours and big $avings.

Keep your brush moist.

Your friend in art,

Doug

How To Sign Your Painting

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Branding Your Artwork

1. Do not use your regular signature.

Often our regular signatures are not at all legible. While your regular signature may look good on the bottom of important documents and bank cheques it might not be the best look for your art. The signature on your artwork needs to be clear, legible and unmistakable so that your fans and collectors instantly recognize your name on everything you create.

2. Full name? Surname only? Initials?

Does your name sound more impressive if you use just your initials plus surname? Or does it have a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’ if you use only your surname? Maybe your parents were kind to you and carefully selected a first name and surname combination which just rolls off the tongue? Try saying your name outloud in different ways. You are bound to find some combo that works. If you got stuck with a handle like Archibald Q. Fudpucker, consider shortening it. Remember you are going to paint it many times throughout your career. Whichever you choose, just be sure to use it consistently, making sure it’s legible and doesn’t look like a fifth grader wrote it.

3. Your signature is your brand.

Everyone recognizes the swirly logo of Coca-cola or the big”M” of McDonalds. Your signature should be the equivalent of that (not literally); something that is easy to read, easy to recognize, easy to remember, and an expression of your art and personality at the same time.

4. Designing your signature.

Experiment. Write it a few hundred times on paper with multiple variations and then pick the version that feels ‘just right’ for you. When you have the result you like, practice on scraps of the different supports or surfaces until you are comfortable painting and drawing it. Try scratching it into wet paint with the end of a small brush. Practice until it becomes as natural as writing your regular signature, so that you can instantly sign your completed artworks and body parts of adoring fans with a confident flourish.

5. Tidiness and consistency.

All too often I see artworks that look brilliant but I’m disapointed by the signature. It can be distracting by being too huge, in brilliant white or some other out of place nuclear colour, sloppily written, sloping awkwardly, too close to the edge of the canvas, mount or frame or just plain hard to see. Take the time to consider your signature and carefully plan the placement. I sometimes mark a light line on the painting and sign on top of it so that my signature is level. Don’t rush to sign an artwork just because you want it to be finished. Take your time and get it right. Of course for some artists, a sloppy signature is part of the appeal, but do sloppy with style (even if it doesn’t look like it).

6. Where to place a signature.

Usually it resides on bottom left or bottom right, with enough room to sit away nicely from the edge of the page or canvas, and taking into account any framing and mounts. Most frames have a 1/8” rabbet for the painting to sit in. If your signature is too low it can get partially covered by the frame and will look awkward. Some artists like to hide their signatures in other locations, but remember the bottom of the artwork is where interested collectors will look first. Don’t make them work too hard.

7. Composition.

I like my signature to be placed in just the right spot and at just the right size. Too big can be awkward and if it’s too small it can be missed entirely. Most times I consider the composition of the signature as part of the artwork. Have a big blank area at the bottom of the painting? By placing your signature there you can stop the viewer’s gaze from falling out of the painting.

8. Signature as logo.

Hand your favourite version over to a graphic designer for conversion into a logo or if you can, convert it yourself. Your signature can then be used for promotional purposes on exhibition invitations, catalogues, signage, merchandising and web sites.

9. To date or not to date?

Some artists like to date their work. (ex. R.F. Sploonberry 1988). I must admit that going into a museum and seeing a signature with a date has an appeal, but most gallery owners don’t appreciate it. Art doesn’t have a shelf life but it can be harder to sell work that is stale and dated ten years ago. Imagine what the buyer might be thinking… “Why hasn’t this sold?” Save the date for the back of the painting.

I promise you, no matter how good you get and how proficient you are at signing your painting there will be times you’ll still have to wipe it off two or three times to get it right.

Your friend in art,

Doug.

P.S. Email me with any questions or leave a comment below.

The Creative Process

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An Internal Game • Article by Brian Batista

There is something within that drives our need to create. Throughout we navigate personal challenges. Technique is only the outer practice. It can be learned. When we can’t quite get it how we want we build our skills and thus our craft. We take classes, get constructive criticism from peers and learn to see what others are seeing then modify in order to get our vision out. All the while forging a path towards some goal that we have in mind. All the while, and often overlooked is the fact that we constantly come face to face with something else all together.

Creating is a very personal and subjective experience. It can be emotional, bringing us to the deep recesses in our minds. The ups and downs can feel like the stock market. Yet at other times, we are in the zone and our thoughts are serene and crystal clear. Artists tend to be overly self-critical. When personal blocks arise, an inner voice takes centre stage judging every mark with impunity. Feeling suddenly like the triumphant master of your domain and at other times everything just plain sucks. The highs and lows ebb and flow. From monarch to slave in one stroke.

As a teacher, I am acutely aware when my students struggle often bringing them to this point. They want to quit, they sigh and make grimacing faces. Some need to step away, others are brought to tears and all over art. I see and feel the ups and downs. I understand the personal challenges and how monumental they are in that moment. It is partly my job to help nudge them enough to help breakthrough this veil. If this is happening to you, know that you are not alone.

We all go through this. You can’t hold onto any one moment, master or slave. Best artist in the world or worst. The only constant in our practice is change because of this we are always growing. Growing in our art skills and within. I’ve learned the most important thing is to show up, stick with and you will push through. Trust the “artistic method” and trust yourself. You can do it.

With thanks and gratitude,

Brian Batista

P.S.

A student shared this with me the other day and I want to pass it onto you:

  1. This is awesome
  2. This is tricky
  3. This is sh*t
  4. I am sh*t
  5. This might be ok
  6. This is awesome

Welcome to the Swinton’s team, our newest instructor, Brian Batista. He has been with us doing the Sampler Workshops and will now teach a class on Thursday afternoons.

If you are looking for a fresh new approach or a different take on your work he may be just the guy for you. Brian’s creative experience is extensive and his enthusiasm is contagious. He is high energy and animated making for a very fun and entertaining studio environment…

Brian believes that there is an efficient and effective way to successfully tackle creating an artwork. Knowing these steps and being systematic in how you set up your practice can make all the difference. Art creation need not be boring or formulaic, there is still plenty of room for creative exploration etc. but great innovation comes from limitation and knowing to get to where you want to go.

NOTE: Want to know more? Here is Brian Batista's Artist / Instructor Bio

Visiting Alaska 2015

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Let your dreams grow and the artwork will follow.

It began when I was 10 years old and my father gave me a very cool looking alcohol decanter. I decided to fill it up with money and in no time I had a collection of 100 found pennies. One whole dollar! As my fortunes grew that small decanter was replaced by a large bottle, than a vat, and when the vat finally broke I replaced it with a large plastic rain barrel. Splish splash it was raining lotta cash!

When I turned 14, I got the crazy idea to scrawl “Alaska or Bust” on the vessel bloated with coins. My plan was to one day use the money to go on a long trip. It took a while, but two years ago, on my 50th birthday, the rain barrel was finally full and I decided to fulfill my dream. I had amassed $5,266.18 and was finally ready to go.

It turns out that sometimes dreams require permits and before heading to Alaska I was informed that to go straight into the Denali National Park and drive the 89 mile road through the mountains to get to Mount McKinley (now called Denali - the tallest mountain in North America), I’d need to apply for a pass. Only 700 vehicles per year are allowed into the park so the passes aren’t easy to get. Unfortunately, I missed my chance that year and instead ended up in Oregon painting the ocean.

The following year I was thwarted once again, and this year, after turning 52, I decided that waiting was no longer an option and decided to drive to Alaska without a pass.

Some 5600 km later and a very sore butt, I’m back home. Seems strange that my lifelong dream is accomplished. Obviously, if you have a clear goal and a rain barrel full of pennies, you can achieve anything. Small things amount to big things.

Here are a few thoughts from my trip:

Those of you who told me to bring a few jerry-cans of gas because the gas stations are far apart were right. Some towns are as much as 600 kms apart and when that gas light came on (more than once) I wished to have taken your advice.

The northern part of our country is vast beyond belief. It’s absolutely magnificent and seems to go on forever. Seeing the vastness and wildness of our Great White North left me feeling very patriotic. It is a very special place - an area that needs to be protected.

There are three natural resource in our country: Oil & Gas, Trees and Subway locations.

miners toeBooks on tape and lots of music are essential. There is no cell service for thousands of kms and when you sing as bad as me it gets old very fast.

The only time you will see another vehicle is when you stop to pee at the side of the road.

Caribou are a lot smaller than most artists paint them and Northern moose are like regular moose on steroids. Also - Beavers are definitely not an endangered species.

Lastly, and most importantly - Never turn down a shot of whisky with a black, 100 year old, shrivelled-up miner's toe floating in it. They say it’s good luck and I believe it.

Your friend in art,
Doug


10 Things I learned about painting fall colours from my trip to Alaska

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Autumn Painting Tips from a Northern Excursion

  1. Cadmium Yellow Deep. This colour is a MUST. The Cad Yellow Light or Lemon Yellow have a large green component to them. Most Cad Yellow Mediums also have a green undertone and tend to show this green when mixed, thus having a cooling and dulling effect. Cad Yellow Deep has a larger orange component, and stays warm.
  2. Try not to see the abundance of leaves upon the tree but the general shape of the tree itself. Paint big shapes to start.
  3. There is far more purple in fall colours that you think. Once you have secured the preponderance of warm colours, you need to add a little cool to the mix. This tells the viewer how warm the warms are. Quinacridone Rose and Ultramarine Blue lightened will give you a nice soft purple. With the addition of Yellow Ochre you can grey this down to a perfect quiet lavender that will sing amongst the golden yellows.
  4. Details for shrubs and trees should be placed on the edges between temperature or value breaks. Remember - large shapes advance and small shapes recede.
  5. Cadmium Orange and Quinacridone Rose make a great red. This red will lean from the cad red light side (orange tendency) to the deep warm red, almost purple side. Remember - warm tones advance and cool tones recede.
  6. Pre-toning your canvas with a warm colour will help with filling in the blanks and allow you to paint simpler shapes and you won’t have to fill the canvas with as much detail.
  7. Use a brush one size bigger than you are comfortable with. Using a bigger brush will help aid in the elimination of details too early in the painting and keep things looking fresh.
  8. It is easier to cool a warm colour than to warm a cool colour. Cools tend to be dominant, so use them after the warms have been established.
  9. Adding white to yellow doesn’t make it brighter - in fact, it makes it duller. Colours are only as bright as they can be when used straight from the tube. Adding white to colours cools and dulls them. This is even more true if you are using acrylics. If you want your yellows to be bright, use them straight out of the tube. One other way to make your yellows seem brighter is to darken or deepen the blue of your sky. Carl Rungius used this trick to make his snow on the mountains “pop”. By making the sky darker, the whites in his snow appear to be brighter.
  10. When you are mixing colours do it in the right order so you don’t end up mixing twice.  Once you have identified the colour you want (red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, or green), mix it, then adjust for value (most often lighten) and then adjust for chroma (usually by adding the compliment). By avoiding adjustment to the chroma before the value you save a mixing step by not having mixed twice. 

Below are some field paintings of the fall colours I did while on my northern excursion. 

Your friend in art,

Doug

12 Ideas for Keeping Things Fresh in Your Art Studio.

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Strategies to prevent boredom from creeping into your art practice.

One of the symptoms of ADD is frequent boredom and getting easily distracted. Once boredom sets in, the focus quickly gets fuzzy and nothing gets accomplished. In order to combat this creative inertia, I have had to create strategies to prevent it from creeping into the studio and crawling onto the easel.

Here are few nuggets that help to keep me in the groove:

  1. Keep a large stack of prepared surfaces at the ready - preferably in a wide variety of dimensions. Prepared canvas, hardboard, birch ply panels, gesso boards, sized paper, etc.
  2. Switch from landscape to figure to still life and abstract. This can mean using different palettes and mark making, helping to spark the imagination. I tend to follow seasonal phases, painting landscapes most of the year and switching to the figure in the winter, but it’s good to change it up randomly.
  3. Use a different, or even an unfamiliar medium. I use oil most of the time but for a game changer I also paint in watercolour, charcoal, pen & ink. You may not be well versed in all these mediums but changing it up is very invigorating.
  4. Keep a growing inventory of reference photos. I keep 500+ photographs on my desk at all times and also a large cache of pics on my computer. Create a folder called “Yummy Things To Paint” and add to it constantly. This will become your source for quick inspiration.
  5. Surround yourself with examples of other artist’s work. Pin up a variety of reproductions of paintings in varying subject matter and compositions, especially of things you’d never think to paint. This keeps your eyes fresh. Reading art books or just flipping through the pretty pictures is another way to stay inspired.
  6. Paint fast! It keeps the boredom away! Working on the same painting for long periods of time sucks your energy and tends to leave you dry. Winslow Homer tells the tale of painting models on the beach… He was into day four of the painting and got bored, so he hired a kid to pour water on his subjects. Suddenly, after 4 days of attempting to finish the painting, he did so in 30 minutes.
  7. Practice often with variety of styles, colour themes, subject matter and techniques to expand your repertoire. Use the try and true method (patented by Julie Hamilton) of “Paint and Pitch”. Trying things out, again and again, until you are familiar with the technique and then switch to something new. Don’t worry if you make lots of false starts, just start.
  8. Thinking and painting are two different beasts. In my studio I keep 2 easels - one is for creating and the other is for evaluation. I create on the painting easel and the other easel is for critique - that’s where you hunker down into the big comfy chair and wallow in the harshness of self analyzation. For this process I suggest a wee dram of Scotch…
  9. Music. Change it up! If you have the same routine daily expect the same outcome daily. Music is an important detail in setting the mood and shifting your mind into unfamiliar territory. Playing a variety of music genres will help keep you on your toes.
  10. Treat yourself for your efforts. There is nothing like framing your best artwork in a beautiful exotic frame. When it looks that good it makes you excited to do another.
  11. Move your finished paintings around. Once you start painting lots, your studio will likely become your own private gallery. Don’t let your work hang in the same place too long. Rotate it and add some of your new work to keep things fresh.
  12. Put some juice back in the gas tank. Strangely, painting all the time can drain your creativity. You can’t always give without getting something back. Go see some live theatre, hit the movies or dance to a live band. There is nothing more inspiring than seeing someone else create. They give, you receive.

There are a bajillion more things one could do to keep inspired. Please share YOUR favourite tricks for staying inspired.

Your friend in art,

Doug

The Artistic Method (Part 2)

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Creative Process Part 2 • Article by Brian Batista

Planning a method of attack enhances my efficiency and effectiveness thus permitting me to achieve more in less time. This aspect of my approach may sound more like time management than art making, however, if you are wildly playful, experimental, and love spontaneous “happy accidents” you may want to try a bit of pre planning. Without even a simple map, you may never get to where you want to go. Your chances of achieving what you hope greatly diminishes when you simply dive right in. In most cases all you get is big mess to clean up at the end of the day.

Creativity is a balancing act between the two extremes of planning and playing. In a visual lamguage we use the terms “push” and “pull” - when you create focus on one area and balance it with another. As artists, we journey through the ups and downs of making marks and mistakes without a universal formula. Ideas, thoughts and feelings are physically translated into an image whether it becomes representational or abstract.

Unlike the scientific method, which is empirical, logical, measurable, and can be tested at every step along the way, the artistic method is far less quantifiable method preferring a more intuitive approach based on feelings and ideas and has no set recipe or formula to follow. Still there is a process involved in getting to where one might seek to go. If you make this a bit more systematic each time you will find you get to where you're going quicker and with better results.

It’s one thing to be an artist who plays open and freely, it is another to show up and get things done.

Try your hand at being systematic. Have a plan, do the work and let the artistic muse guide the rest of the way.

My thanks and gratitude,

Brian “bunny” Batista


NOTE: Want to know more? Here is Brian Batista's Artist / Instructor Bio

Creative Process (Part 3)

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The Artistic Method Continued • Article by Doug Swinton

1 - Big to Small Shapes

Always start with the big shapes and work toward the small shapes. You should be able to reduce your reference to no more than 5 major shapes. If you can’t get it down to 5 shapes or less you have too much going on. Once you have your major shape broken down you can then break those shapes into three smaller shapes. From there you can break those three shapes into even smaller shapes as needed. You can’t, after all, paint the fleas on a dog before you have painted the dog.

2 - Big Brushes to Small Brushes

When you get the little brush out too early, before you know it you will have a myriad of leaves on the canvas before you can even see the tree. Try to use one brush size bigger than you feel comfortable with to keep loose and stop yourself from getting into the details too early. Move to the smaller brushes as you transition to the smaller shapes, reserving the smallest brushes for the very end of the painting.

3 - Dark to Light

It’s easier to lighten a dark than it is to darken a light. Start with your darks in any area of focus. Once the darks are established move to your mid tones, then add the reflected lights, the highlights, and finally the accents (both light and dark). Working this way will help you keep your colour’s fresh.

4 - Warm to Cool

It’s easier to cool down a warm colour that it is to warm up a cool colour. Whenever possible, start with the warm colours in any one area and move to the cool colours.

5 - Dull to Bright

To make colours to sing they can’t all be signing at the same time. One of the ways to make a colour pop is to place it in a surrounding duller area. As Rembrandt once said “Give me mud and I will paint you the subtle skin of a princess. Just let me paint whatever I must around the mud”. Start with duller versions of the colours in the big shapes and move to fresher less dull colours in the medium shapes. I save the brightest colours for the end of the painting when the details go in.


Here is a little 20 minute painting to demonstrate my process...

1. Working from large to small, break the reference into three large shapes.

01


2. Break the three large shapes into smaller shapes.

02


Working from large brushes to smaller brushes and from dark to light, place your darkest values.

03


Move to the midsize shapes with a smaller midsize brush.

04


Going from dull colours to brighter colours, midtones to lights and from big brushes to smaller brushes, place your details and the sparks of colour.

05


Put it in a frame, pour some wine, put on some Romi Mayes and enjoy the rewards of following your plan.

06

Identifying and Painting Tricky Values Accurately

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Light colours in shadow & dark colours in light • Art Lesson by Doug Swinton

Here is where the lesson begins: Notice that the value of any colour, from the darkest to the lightest can live in either the shadow or the light section of the painting. In other words, you can have a light value living in the shadow family and a dark value living in the light family.

These reference photos illustrate the extremes in value separation. Look carefully… Just because something is black does not mean it lives only in the dark family.

Let’s observe this on the boat “Lady D”. Notice the black band painted around the bow of the boat. Look at it’s value on the side lit by the sun. Now notice that the white on the base of the boat in the shade - it lives in the shadow family and is actually darker than the black that is in the light family. The white is darker than the black!

lady-d-boat-value

Let’s pause here and let that sink in…

Now let’s look at another example, on Mirabell the cow. Look carefully. The dark patch of her hide that is in the sunlight (even though it’s black) is lighter than the white that is in shade!

cow-value

Keeping your values straight by continually comparing and actually seeing them for what they really are and not what you think they are is a concept the can raise your paintings to new heights.

Don’t forget these couple of aids that can help in the assessment of value.

value-finders

Once you have found the correct value, match it to the colour you want to paint. That’s a lesson for another day.

Hope this helps. Keep those brushes clean! Class dismissed.

Your friend in art,
Doug

PS - Leave any questions or comments below. 

Color Perception

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Developing superior color perception • by Michael Downs

Hardly any person would argue that to be an expert sommelier a key skill is superior flavor perception, or that to be an excellent conductor a key skill is superior sound perception. Since color is primarily how we describe any visual subject matter, it ought to follow that to be an exceptional painter a key skill would be superior color perception.

Color perception skills in painting evolved mainly during the Impressionism movement. Prior to this time in history, paintings were usually executed using a tonal/value approach, due in large part to the limited range of pigments available (mostly earth tones). With the onset of the industrial revolution, came two major advancements for painters:

  • The invention of new metal based intense pigments that enabled painters to actually make a realistic and complete color wheel.
  • The invention of paint tubes that made painting outdoors more practical.

In the late 1800’s, Monet took advantage of these modern conveniences, and ventured outside to paint. Over a twenty year period of plein air painting, he “discovered” (or really just saw), that changing light affected the colors of the objects he was observing. In 1890, his observations culminated in a thematic study – 25 works in total – of haystacks to demonstrate how the time of day, different seasons, and various weather conditions altered color. This was not an arbitrary or subjective study of color, but rather an objective study of how light conditions affect color. The industrial revolution gave painters the ability and Monet gave painters the awareness to go beyond value-based perception into the new realm of color-based perception.

Today, we have more modern pigments than Monet could have ever imagined, but even one hundred years later color is still being overlooked. I ask myself why this is the case because in all fairness color, NOT value, defines our visual world. Yet it seems that learning and developing color perception is being largely ignored in favor of value. The only answer I have for this incongruity is that color is much more perplexing than value to master. The following quote alludes to the fact that even Monet had to constantly challenge his brain to defy his own preconceived color notions, and to allow his observations of true color to create form.

“I wish I had been born blind and then could suddenly see. Then I would naturally just paint the colors, and not be distracted by the objects in front of me.” – Monet

While many artists have studied color extensively, there is still little understanding about color perception, despite the concept existing since Monet. The problem seems to be that most artists are taught color understanding and that is a very different thing from color perception. This very basic comparison expresses some differences between the two and will give you an idea of whether you use your understanding of color or perception of color when you paint.

Color Understanding

Knowledge & Recall

  • Blue and yellow make green.
  • Ultramarine is a warm blue while Cerulean is a cool blue.
  • Mixing colors across the color wheel results in “mud”.
  • Easy to learn (a memorization of facts, that can be presented in a book)
  • One time acquisition (once you learn that blue and yellow make green, you know it)
  • Very useful, but often limited (allows you to copy, paint by formula, or make subjective/expressive color choices)

Color Perception

Sensory Input & Evaluation

  • What are the qualities of the color I am looking at? (warm/cool, dull/intense, light/dark)
  • How does the color vary from one area of an object to another?
  • Is the relativity of the color correct within my painting?
  • Challenging to learn (a training of the eye to become more sensitive to color input and a training of the brain to properly interpret rather than insert previously acquired information, that can only be acquired through training, practice, and experience)
  • Ongoing process (once you begin, you will continuously be refining your perception skills)
  • Very useful, limitless (allows you to make objective color choices giving you complete freedom to paint any subject matter in any style desired)

Color can be mixing paint and learning the color wheel, or it can be so much more… it all begins with your eyes. 

Michael is well-known for his teaching style and teaches methods used by professional artists. He believes in showing students the foundations of both drawing and painting, so that students can take their skills and apply them to any style and medium of their choosing. In oils Michael encourages his students to work "directly" to take advantage of the properties of the paint. In watercolor, his philosophy is simplicity, keeping it fresh and luminous. In both mediums he emphasizes training the eye to see both shape and color, to quickly improve skill level.

In Praise of Painterly Painters

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by Charles Movalli

by Charles Movalli

Some so-called “painterly painter” are devoted to outdoor work. Some do still lifes, some figures. But all share certain attitudes. Not all of these attitudes are the exclusive property of painterly painters. Most painters, when pressed, believe in similar broad principles. But keeping that in mind, let’s try to generalize about the mind of the painters who loves paint. Rough painting, after all, is not simply a style. It’s a way of thinking about the world.

charles movalli-artwork 01There have always been painters who love the look of a brush stroke and who, as a result, are willing to sacrifice “accuracy” for the sake of suggestion and implication. It’s the age-old struggle between those who define and those who seek the fleeting impression. The conflict reaches far back in time. We don’t have paintings by the great masters of Greek art, but we do know that Zeuxis disparaged rapid execution and praised diligence and care, while Apelles was praised for his ability to know the value of the word “enough.” Ancient China saw the same aesthetic distinction: there was the Northern or “gradual” school and the Southern or “sudden” school – the school of intellect and the school of intuition.

Keeping the Chinese phrases in mind, we can see that there has long been a “sudden” school in the United States.

Two of its best expositions – the sacred texts of all painterly painters – are Robert Henri’s The Art Spirit and Charles Hawthorne’s Hawthorne on Painting. Both books are dominated by the words “economy”, “mystery”, “joy”, and “invention”. Hawthorne even says that when a painter thinks, he’s done for. Although he contradicts this opinion elsewhere in his book, the implication is clear: there’s a value to spontaneity that “finish” can never equal. Intuition is what counts, and since spontaneity, the vehicle of intuition, is by definition fleeting, painterly painters have little interest in the dogged pursuit of “perfection”. If anything, they’re hostile to it. “Perfection is the enemy of great art,” says one such painter. “Make a few mistakes,” recommends another. Eugene Delacroix talks about the kind of mindless industry that, were it possible, would spend just as much time on the back of a canvas as on the front. The effect of the minute must be caught in the minute. Don’t niggle over the parts. Move on or start again. When an eye was wrong in a Sargent portrait, he scraped out the entire head. It might take a dozen tries to get a spontaneous, unified effect, but the effort was not just a matter of counting brush strokes. It was a sign of Sargent’s search for the brush strokes that gave the most expression with the least waste of energy. It’s the difference, as one painter remarked, between the picture that tires you by exhibiting the labor put into it and the one that exhilarates you through the seeming ease of its execution. The painterly painter uses the viewer’s experience to give life to the work.

charles movalli-artwork 04Painterly painters believe that an abbreviated style is best suited to capturing elusive effects. But although they consciously strive to develop a rapid execution, their detractors often criticize this characteristic, dismissing their work as little more than sketches. The criticism creates more problems than it solves. For what is a sketch? More importantly, what is “finish”? The painterly painters labor under a disadvantage, since their idea of finish is not that of the general public. Robert Henri understood the problem: When people ask for finish, he wrote, they’re really asking for the expected. The problem has been worsened by the camera and the way its image prejudices the eye of the viewer. Our painters have little use for photography, and although some people claim the camera is the highest form of visual truth, the painterly painter declares it the most obvious example of the visual lie. One painter summed it up: “One eye, no brain.” Another declares he notonly can tell when a picture is done from a photograph, but he can also detect whether the film used was daylight or indoor! The painterly painters prefer to work directly from the subject or from sketches don on the spot. They have stacks of such pictures which they call their “brains”. They rarely sell them. In this, they’re like John Constable, “I don’t mind parting with the corn,” he said, “but not with the field in which it was raised.”

Yet some viewers still find the summary execution of a picture annoying. They want their money’s worth. They want the facts. And they’re hard put to figure out what Sir Joshua Reynolds meant when, over two hundred years ago, he declared that detail in a painting was a sign, not of industry, but of “idleness”. Blades of grass can be done when the painter is half awake, but there’s no room for “idleness” when the artist seeks a subject’s important relationships. The painterly painter is then in the highest state of tension, and the relaxation of this tension signals the finish of the picture. That’s what is meant when someone like George Bellows is called a “body painter”. The body participates in the painting process: the body often says when to stop. Picasso summarized this view when he said that his hand told him when a work was done.

charles movalli-artwork 06Many viewers have trouble agreeing with the painterly painter’s hand. They find brush strokes confusing – and some how insulting. The brushstroke is like a piece of the painter’s handwriting. Of course, rough pictures demand something from the viewer. But such a demand indicates not contempt for the viewer’s wishes but rather a respect for his or her intelligence. The viewer is asked to join in the creative process. All painterly painters agree on the fact that they’re in a partnership with the viewer. What the viewer brings to such paintings is almost as important as what the painter puts into them. The painterly painter uses the viewer’s experiences to give life to the work. Instead of being a passive receiver of information, the viewer becomes a participant. As one painterly painter noted, the highly finished picture exists whether you look at it or not. It’s as alive in a closet as on the wall of a house. But the painterly work needs the viewer to complete it. Since half the painting is suggestion, the “completion” varies with the viewer. Some paintings, one of our painters observed, look as if all the air has been sucked out of them: others give you room to breathe. After all, he continued, it isn’t the painter’s job to give people what they want but rather what they ought to have. One of his painter friends has a rough portrait of himself hanging over his sofa. “I made the artist stop before he thought he was done”, he explains. “He’d put in all I needed – all I could use.” Another painter sums up the question even more tersely: “Do you paint to be understood, or do you paint to understand?”

What, in the view of these painters, should a picture convey to the viewer? The painting, they’d all agree, is a record of an experience. Its aim is to communicate this experience to the viewer. But our painters also believe that an experience is based on very elusive and intangible qualities in the subject. Facts and details cannot convey it. If anything, facts, as Tolstoy said, stand in the way of the truth. That’s what Van Gogh meant when he told his brother that his life as a painter was devoted to finding those lies that would give him the truth. The “lies” – the exaggerations and omissions – are what convey an experience to the viewer. The individual parts of the subject count for little. What is your relationship to them? How do they rank in your response to the subject? What is the special order that you want to record on canvas? Painterly painters admit that nature is full of detail, but they also insist that the eye sees little of it. Constantly moving and changing its focus, it sees three-fourths of the world as a blur. The painterly painter is obsessed by what the eye doesn’t see. But seeing what we don’t see is a complicated problem, for life gives us knowledge and knowledge transforms our way of looking. On the face of it, the easiest of all activities should be seeing what we see. In reality, it’s the hardest. As Henri said, it’s harder to see a landscape than it is to paint it. And the great John Ruskin exclaimed that “the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what he saw in a plain way. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion – all in one.”

charles movalli-artwork 02Because of the painterly painters’ belief in their subjective definition of “finish” – a quality that cannot be judged by outside standards – they often make quirky teachers. How do you explain the inexplicable? One school says that if you study great art and figure out how it works, you can apply the lessons to your own pictures. But our painters tend to take the opposite view. They say the mast is a master precisely because you can’t explain his or her work. Explanations don’t add – they diminish. What counts is the fresh view, the personal vision. Be a spider, one of our painters used to say, and spin your own web. “The word,” Constable wrote, “is full enough of what has already been done.”

This kind of talk makes little sense to the beginner who is usually convinced that painting consists of technical tricks and secrets – exactly what the painterly painter is reluctant to discuss. This reluctance can easily be mistaken for secretiveness. The irony is that our painters, so often criticized for the cleverness of their technique, hardly ever talk about it. What interests them is the experience and the process involved in capturing it. The fun is in the seeing. The painterly painter avoids the how-to approach, suspicious, as ever, that technique will obscure his or her vision. Their interest in the final product is minimal. They have an intense sense of the moment, and that’s what they live for. In fact, one of the old-timers used to say that if there was a heave, it must be here on earth, for the earth is so beautiful.

What is the student to make of all this? One often hears complaints about the outdoor teacher who made a student remove a color from his or her palette one week only to have the student reinstate it a week later. The advice seemed contradictory. The problem is that the teacher wasn’t talking about technique. He or she was discussing the nature of two entirely different days. A color that worked in one situation would not work in another. John F. Carlson, the great landscape teacher, said he could give students the technique to paint a masterpiece in six months. But what would students do with it? That’s what frustrates them. It’s hard to be content with the sort of advice given by one painterly painter: When you don’t know what to do, forget everything anyone ever told you and just take a look. It’s more comforting to think our problems lie in a faulty technique, a technique that can be salvaged once the right teacher is found. A problem that lies in the eye seems harder to control. Frustration increases as we realize that the fault lies in ourselves and not in our instruction. But so does the challenge. A couple of painters were talking about a friend whose highly finished work was a great favorite with the public. “Criticize him if you want,” said one, “but there’s no denying he’s a competent painter.” There was a brief silence “Well” said the other, “is that what you want written on your tombstone: He was a competent painter? Not me.” He continued, “I want He tried to be an artist!”

charles movalli-artwork 03If the aim of art is to see nature for yourself, to discover how you feel about what you see and how you can interpret it, then style becomes a direct expression of the personality of the painter, and the brush stroke is like a piece of the painter’s handwriting. Pictures are large pieces of calligraphy, written as much as painted. With this sort of attitude, it’s not surprising that the painterly painter’s approach usually becomes progressively more summary and expressive with the passage of time. He or she moves toward greater and greater simplicity of statement. The greatest sinner, from this point of view is the instructor who hands out pre-packed brush strokes and formulas, thus short circuiting thought at its most critical and important stage. One of our painters refuses to touch the work of his students, fearing, he explains, that the student could mistake his brush stroke for the way to paint an eye or a tree. It might take the student ten years to find out differently. The situation is much like that described by Eugen Herrigel when he tried to learn archery from a Zen monk. Unable to discover the “trick,” he cornered his teacher and demanded practical guidance. The master replied that if he gave techniques at the price of the students’ experience, he’d be a terrible teacher and should be fired. It’s this extreme emphasis on the experience that characterizes all painterly painters. An Old-timer once noted that he loved the work of a friend because he saw the most familiar things in the most unfamiliar way. That’s why Hawthorne told his student to paint studies that would surprise him, that would make him feel the shock and thrill of their discoveries about the world and themselves.

Our painter is almost as interested in learning how not to paint things as he is in learning how to paint them. In fact, the painterly painter avoids the how-to approach, suspicious, as ever, that technique will obscure his or her vision. Here he or she shares another idea with the Oriental sages; learning gained is learning lost. Vigilance is everything.

Some of our painters, debating the nature of their activity, once decided that it was like performing on a high wire. Each brushstroke counted and there was no time to nod or rest. Each day presents a new problem and demands a new solution. Experience can’t solve a problem, but it helps the painter to see what the problem is. The greatest temptation (and danger) is to rely on previous solutions and thus paint the same picture for the rest of your life. Some feel that the professional is, by definition, the one who can always turn out a good piece of work.

charles movalli thaw seasonThe painterly painters, as usual, feel quite differently. With everything depending on experience and alertness, the work is bound to fluctuate with the disposition of the artist. One of our painters destroys four out of every five picture declaring that “a dud is a dud”. All of them ignore the idea of “skill” when defining “talent” and prefer more generalized terms. One says it’s “simply a liking for something.” Another, that it’s “enthusiasm,” and still another, “interest”. The difference between a commercial artist and himself, says on e painter, is that the commercial artist can do a job and repeat it over and over again. He can’t. He tried once, when money was scarce. A dealer suggested doing pictures by the gross. He tried to do ten of a certain subject. The first was good, the second, not so good, the third, terrible. “Some people think painting is painting,” he explains, “and that all practice helps, even doing a hundred of the same thing. But that doesn’t make you better – it makes you worse.”

So our painterly painters are surrounded by seeming contradictions. They finish by not finishing, include by leaving out, paint more by painting less. Their means are easy to see, the results, immediately felt. But how such seemingly insufficient means lead to these results is a mystery. It’s as if the magician at the carnival explained his trick and still fooled you. In more finished pictures, there exists a one-to-one relationship between effort and effect. Dutch painters made grasshoppers look like grasshoppers, and you saw the veins in the legs because the artist painted them. But when the legs aren’t painted and you still sense the veins, curiosity and interest are added to simple admiration. Then industry gives way to the magic of art.



Photo Reference • Print vs Monitor

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Painting from a reference in your art studio.

Printed photographs depict a three-dimensional object in a two-dimensional representation. When working from photos we need to take this 2d image and work it back to the 3d realm. It’s a giant leap that painting from life doesn’t require. But let’s face it - we can’t always work from life.

In this country, where it’s winter 9.5 months of the year, photo reference becomes a way of life. Sometimes it’s the only way to paint a subject. Some subjects just move too much - such as horses, which don’t sit still very long (though Bill AntonNed Jacob and our own Michelle Grant would tell you otherwise). There are also times when you can’t finish a painting in one sitting. In general, photos are great for resurrecting the vision you had of the real thing.

So if we must use photos, then let’s use them to the best of our ability. The next leap from a printed photo is using a tablet or a monitor.

Some monitors have very high resolution and can render a subject almost clearer than life.  Monitors cost more than a TV but the colour retention is stunning. If your monitor is hooked up to your computer, you can calibrate your photo using Photoshop (in LAB mode) and with this tool you can adjust almost anything. Photoshop is a great tool to get you on the right track. Often, manipulating photos is an important part of the process of getting you to produce a great painting.

Personally, I don’t use a monitor, I use a TV. TVs are cheaper than monitors and you can get them as big as a house. I have a 32” Sony smart TV. Smart meaning it has WiFi capabilities. I use it with my computer but I don’t need to use any wires or because it streams the image wirelessly. This means my computer doesn’t even have to be in my studio. I can’t adjust the colours as much as I could if I had a monitor but then I can’t adjust the colours on a regular photo once it’s printed anyway.

Below are a few pros and cons for you to consider when deciding whether to paint from a printed photo or a monitor...

Monitor Pros

  • Once you have a monitor you don’t need to make prints of your photos any more and this can save you money in the long run.
  • The image is much bigger for you to paint from. You can make your reference picture almost as big as you want.
  • You can zoom in to get close ups and details if you need.
  • The colour is cleaner, brighter and stronger.
  • You can claim to be in the studio working and just watch hockey.

Monitor Cons

  • Monitors are hard to take to art class.
  • They cost a bit of money up front.
  • They take up space if you have a small studio.
  • You cannot test paint colour on a monitor the way you can on a photo. If you put a paint daub on the screen it just turns black.
  • If you need to put a grid on the picture the size you want is hard. On a monitor unless you know a thing or two about Photoshop, gridding is a pain.
  • Sometimes there is almost too much information. If you find it hard to divorce your self from the photo you’ll have a harder time with a monitor as there is even more information saturating your eyes.

Photo Pros

  • There is a tactile nature to photos that I love.
  • Being able to put the photo right next to your painting makes it easy to compare values.
  • Holding the photo and being able to get a close-up look is also wonderful. Monitors are always a bit too far away from your painting.
  • You can draw grids and paint right on the photo to make changes. Putting a small stroke of colour on a photo is a quick way to tell if your close to what you’re looking for in value or colour.
  • You can take photos to paint classes or workshops.

Photo Cons

  • Printing photos can be expensive. Unless you wait for Costco’s 10 cent sale the money you spend on prints tends to rack up.
  • Unless you’re ready to spend even more money, size is an issue.  I try to print my photos 5x7 rather than 4x6. I like the bit bigger format, as it’s easier to read. For really good photos (the money shots) I use 8x10 or 11x14 sizes.
  • Photos have a bit duller colours.

Notes on iPhones, iPads and other tablets.

Nothing is more annoying than trying to paint from an iPhone. The screen is just too small, it shuts off all the time and you can’t get it anywhere near your painting for a reference check. If you have to spend time fiddling with your phone to see your reference, you are taking away from the creative process and your painting will suffer.

Tablets can have the same problem. Unless you adjust the settings, they shut off every few minutes and if you have to put in your password to find your photo, well, forget it. It's too distracting, not to mention the temptation to respond to an email that just popped up. Tablets are hard to place next to your canvas. I haven’t found a device to prop up your iPad next to your canvas but if you can figure out a way than tablets are actually not too bad. Just remember to put it in airplane mode.

I use both printed photos and a monitor. I have thousands of printed reference photos and love going through the pile to see what the day will bring. I also have thousands of photos on my computer that I can use on my monitor. The larger format is very appealing to my older eyes. 

All that said, if I had my way I’d rather be outside swatting flies while painting from life.

Hope this helps. Leave me a comment below.

Your friend in art, 

Doug.

Why do I get worse the longer I paint?

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Painting from a reference in your art studio.

Has this happened to you? You did your first few paintings and you thought to yourself "Gee, I can do this. It looks OK. I need more practice, but I'm pleased with the results for a first try". And then, a few paintings later, all of a sudden the paintings look awful! Nothing seems to work, you've got ideas but can't seem figure out how to get them on canvas, the colours don't look right, you'd forgotten completely how to draw, etc. The longer you paint the worse you seem to get!

First of all, let me say, this is common. It happened to me, and to pretty much every artist I know. This can happen for two reasons:

1). You just think you're getting worse. Your eyes are getting much better at judging. With each painting you do, you see more, you understand more about how the paint works, you begin to study other artists more and judge yourself more harshly. As well as happening in the early stages, this can rear it's ugly head again any time during your career, when you're feeling a little short on ideas, when you're trying to work at a time when you're overtired, when you've done a little too much reading or studying of other artists and instead of spending time painting.

It's also common to take on bigger and bigger challenges. That can make it see like you're backsliding, even though you are learning and growing.

2). The second possibility is that you actually have gotten worse! Let me explain.

Because you can see more, you were noticing more colours and more values, particularly in the shadow areas and putting them there, and losing track of which areas are in light which areas are in shadow. Adding too much colour or using too light a value in the reflected light areas of shadows is one of the main problems painters have. Check the painting you're working on to make sure that the areas in shadow stay in shadow. Don't be seduced by too much light and colour, particularly in the shadow areas if your goal is to keep the image realistic. If you're having difficulty seeing this, snap a photo of your painting and either print it out in black-and-white or change it to black-and-white (the camera on your phone, if you have one, should do this) and check your values.

If you're studying the work of too many other artists you might be losing "yourself" and instead trying to emulate someone else and missing the mark. If you're going to experiment, try to pick one thing at a time, for example:

  • in this painting I am going to work on keeping strong contrast between light and shadow
  • in this painting I'm going to try working with a really limited palette 
  • in this painting I'm going to concentrate on establishing a distinct centre of interest.

Give yourself a focus and it will be a little easier to grow, one step at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day!

With any of these problems, the main solution is to paint. Forget about reading art books and magazines  for a while if that's your issue. If a painting hasn't turned out the way you like, set it aside for a few days and then look at it with fresh eyes. You may see an easy fix to the problem you are having. You don't necessarily have to go back to painting on it (there's nothing wrong with moving on to the next one and just calling it a learning experience).

Give yourself time to learn and grow, no matter which stage you are at in your painting journey. We all have ups and downs. Some days things just flow, and some days you're completely stuck.

Many of the artists I know, even long time professionals, are currently going through an evolution, a time of change, a feeling that what used to work doesn't anymore. It seems to be something in the air this year! If that's the case, rest if you need to, but continue to explore. Try little paintings. Experiment with a different medium. Play and put the joy back in your work. Take a break if you need to. Or replenish your spirit first and then come back to the easel.

Most challenges with painting can be overcome by simply painting. You can read, study, take workshops etc. but ultimately, you have to learn how you apply the paint, how the world in front of you translates for you. It's different for everyone. Keep painting. It'll all work out. You will improve. Trust me.

Adeline Halverson


adeline halvorsonAdeline Halvorson Artist Bio

Adeline Halvorson knew at an early age that she wanted to be an artist. In her rural upbringing, animals, especially horses, played a very important role. Her entire working life has been dedicated to her art career. Through experimentation, endless reading and hours of practice, she continually hones her techniques in acrylic or oil.

She spends most of her time researching and creating the paintings she markets to a growing group of collectors. She enjoys the variety of diverse subjects - floral, still life, dogs, or a childhood scene, and most often, her favorite equine subject matter. Years of riding and grooming horses has given Halvorson a knowledge of anatomy and muscle movement that her painting skills bring to life on the canvas. The shapes and movement of muscle, variety and texture of harness and trappings, as well as the horse and its interaction with its human counterparts provide endless artistic inspiration for one who grew up with a love for one of the world’s most beautiful animals.


By the way - Adeline is teaching a workshop this coming January. Check it out!

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Painting Beyond Chaos - Simplification and Massing

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How to simplify your subject to produce a better painting.

The tendency to start painting every detail right from the get go will produce a painting that is busy and confusing. The answer is to read between the lines and simplify. But how does one do that? 

My process is to begin by breaking the picture down into more manageable bites. Grouping similar masses will help you decode the structure of what it is you’re trying to paint.

Massing Groups:

  • Similar shapes
  • Similar values
  • Similar colours
  • Similar temperatures

Start by breaking it down into some simple large shapes. Try not to have more than 5 major shapes in a painting. Any more and it gets confusing. 3-5 makes it easy for you to paint and for the viewer to understand. 

Example:

This photo of winter trees is just oozing with information.

Let's break it down into manageable chunks:

1. Divide the image into 3 shapes, making them different in size to ensure an engaging composition.

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2. Divide those 3 shapes into smaller shapes. Doing so lets me get to the heart of the picture.

Note: You do not need to draw every tree and branch! You only need to place a few choice trees and make sure you have identifiable tree bits at the tops. Placing the rest in a similar value block will make it read as trees.

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3. Divide the tree chassis into light and dark families.

Here is where I get to use my artistic savvy and amp up the composition even further. By splitting the light side and dark side into unequal parts I will get one to dominate over the other and also make it easier to paint.

I also divide the light side and the dark side into warm and cool, further establishing the look of the painting.

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Dividing the scene into manageable morsels will help you handle the paint application with more confidence and your painting will look looser and more accurate.

Your friend in art,

Doug

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The Magic of the 70/30 Split

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Using opposites to create a dynamic painting.

You achieve the desired impact only by using a large amount of one effect and a much smaller amount of the opposite. Anything less than 70/30 and you’re in danger of falling into the Black Hole of Boring.

Breaking a composition down to 50/50, say half shadows and half sunlight, is mundane. Even 60/40 is too close. Avoid! The larger the proportion differential, say 80/20 or oven 90/10, the more eye popping.

Here are a few examples:

In this painting, Lori Putnam is using the light versus shadow opposition. Notice how much light she has placed in comparison to the shadow. 70% of this painting is in light and just 30% is in dark.

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Lori Putnam Demo at Swinton's - REGISTER


This Randy Sexton’s painting shows the opposition of large shapes versus small shapes. 70% of the painting is large shapes and 30% is small shapes (details of the scooters.) If this composition was divided into 50/50 of each, the viewer would not know where to look and the painting would become rather boring. It’s not only the use of opposites that works but the differing amount of opposites that gives this painting zip.

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Randall Sexton Workshop & Demo at Swinton's - REGISTER


In this selfie pastel by Harley Brown he uses warm cool opposition. Using 70% cool colours and 30% warm colours, he gets the colours to pop. It’s the small amount of warms that makes the cools come to life. I invite you to cover up that little hit of red on the right and watch how the painting falls apart.

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In this beautiful painting, Ingrid Christensen has about 90% painting and 10% drawing. She has used a little bit of line in opposition to the brushwork to accentuate or outline some of the painterly areas in this work.

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This can be used to your advantage the other way around as well. As opposed to Ingrid’s 90% painting 10% drawing in this work I used 90% drawing and 10% painting.

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Here we see the king Richard Schmid using his patented brushy vs. detail method. 30% detail sharply stands out against the 70% loose brushwork surrounding it.

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Just about anything you put on your canvas can have an opposite to enhance the effect:

  • Light vs. Dark
  • Bright vs. Dull
  • Warm vs. Cool
  • Big vs. Small
  • Loose vs. Tight
  • Hard Edged vs. Soft Edged
  • Scribbly vs. Rendered
  • Blocked In vs. Painted
  • Red vs. Green
  • Finished vs. Unfinished
  • Man Made vs. Natural
  • Bouffant vs. Square

The trick is to use differing amounts of opposition.

I hope you will use this principal in your next attempt and make your painting come alive.

Happy Arting. :)

Your friend in art, 

Doug

The Secret Curve

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Using convex vs. concave lines in life drawing.

When things cease to grow they begin to collapse and we see concave lines forming. Just look at a sick un-watered plant all shriveled and withered.

Convex lines are strong and powerful. Concave lines are weak and create a sinking feeling and unless they are needed for an artistic purpose they should be avoided.

Let me show you how this works...

Using convex lines will give your figure drawing a lively feeling. Conversely, concave lines portray a feeling of weakness. Nobody knows this better than Disney. Let’s use our old friend Scar as example. Scar was drawn with concave lines to show he was weak and sickly. Simba (the good guy) was drawn with convex lines to show his strength and health.

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Apply this concept to life drawing...

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Note how the major curve of the body (the blue line) is made up of three outward lines, not one inward line. This is what creates strength in the drawing.

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Outward lines portray volume.

Notice also that what one side does so must the other. If one side curves outward than so does the opposite side, or the drawing will look awkward.

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Extra Tip: This little secret works for landscape painting as well…

Here is our old friend Aldro Hibbard. In his painting the inward curve of the land is made with multiple outward lines, which helps the landscape portray upward rising hills of powerful nature.

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Hope this little secret helps you attain a natural feel to your work.

Happy Arting. :)

Your friend in art, 

Doug

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