Art Tip #132

A Good Reference

To achieve a good painting you need to start with good reference material.  But what constitutes a good reference?  So many students start with poor photos thinking that because the subject matter is interesting that it will make a good painting.  In my painting below "Windswept", it wasn't the Golden Gate Bridge that I wanted to paint.  It was the windswept bush/greenery that pulled you into the painting & strong design that attracted me.  The bridge just came along for the ride.  Here's my list of the good, bad and the ugly in reference photos.

The BAD & UGLY 

• The AWESOME SUBJECT PHOTO - So caught up in the subject matter, that you fail to see that there is no design, poor/no lighting or interesting shapes. Ask what is drawing you to this particular photo.  If the subject matter is your first answer then ask more questions.
• Photos from magazines - Photoshopped to death & has nothing to do with you. I've seen my fair share of photos that students pulled from magazines.  Perfectly coiffed floral arrangements or interior shots that have poor or many light sources. Just walk away.  Go set up a still life or paint your own kitchen.  There will be a connection to you in the painting because you picked out the flowers/objects & spent time arranging the set up or it's the kitchen where you cook for your family.  Familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it breeds good art.
• Bright sunlight (color is washed out), while in person it might have that special quality, the photo will never capture it.  Using photos taken midday is setting yourself up to fail.
• Back lit subjects -  Reserve this once you've got solid foundation skills & then paint this from life.  It's the nuances in the back lit subjects that can make it a special painting
• Overcast or grey day - Once again the nuances are lost in photos, better suited for plein air unless you have the experience/knowledge to go beyond the photo.
• Nighttime - Again, better suited for an experienced painter & done on location, not from a photo.

The Good

• Photos that you have taken - If you took the photo, then you've spent at least a little bit of time thinking about it.  You have a sense of the day (was it windy), the time, your surroundings (the sights & sounds) & therefore, you can bring something more to the painting besides subject.  You will be more likely to some color memory and be able to adjust the palette because photos can't accurately capture the true color of anything.
• Photos with good patterns of lights & darks.  Squint to see values & shapes. Do your light & darks connect in interesting shapes or do they look like polka dots?
• Photos taken early or late that allow interesting shadows and beautiful light.
• Is there a story?  Not just look at that turquoise front door.  Is there an interesting pattern of light falling across the door or flowers in a complementary color that cut across the door. Just having a pretty colored front door isn't even to hold a painting together.
• Photos without blinders - By that I mean, don't just focus on the main subject of the photo. Some of my most interesting paintings have come from the areas surrounding the main subject. It's not usual for me to pull 2-3 paintings from one photo.  Don't be tied to the photo as a whole that you miss a more interesting opportunity.

Being an artist requires that you participate in designing your painting.  Copying directly from a reference photo doesn't require as much skill as actively creating a piece of art.

Guest Contributor - Carol Marine Art Tip

This is the first of an ongoing series of guest contributors.  At least once a month, I will have guest post an art tip.  It won't always be an artist but it will be related to art.  I'm so honored to have Carol Marine be the first Contributor.

               

Carol's Tip 

"Getting the Most out of a Workshop"

1.      Leave your ego at the door. It is completely normal to worry at a workshop what other people are going to think about your work, especially the teacher. You only have a limited amount of time in which to impress them, right?! “What if I screw up?! What if the person sitting next to me is much better?!” If you can ignore those voices in your head and focus instead on simply learning, you will be much better off. Forget about how others might judge you (they’re just as worried about what you think). And believe me, the teacher is consumed with teaching, not judging!

2.      Be willing to let go of everything you learned before. Every teacher has opinions about the best ways to paint. Often these opinions collide. It could be that something you heard from a teacher years before and took as fact, doesn’t indeed work for you now. Be willing to let go of those things that don’t work and hear an alternate way of doing something. Take everything you hear with a grain of salt.

3.    Let yourself be uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable in a workshop means you are trying something new; experimenting. You may fail, and that’s ok. You may fail lots of times. But eventually you will have a breakthrough, and you would have never gotten there had you not allowed yourself to be uncomfortable.

4.    Follow up! The absolute best way to get the most out of a workshop, is to keep working when you get home. If you put away your tools for a month (or more) when you get home, you will likely forget what you learned, and lose the momentum and inspiration from the workshop. Carve out time for it. You invested time and money in the workshop, don’t waste that!

Thanks Carol for taking time & sharing some good information.

If you're unfamiliar with Carol, here's a little about her...

Carol lives in Eugene. Oregon with her family.  She has a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Texas, Austin & since 2006, she has been creating one small painting almost everyday.  A popular teacher, Carol conducts several workshops a year across the country.  To find out more about Carol & her work, visit her blog & website listed below.

Carol's Painting a Day Blog -http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/

Carol's Website - http://www.carolmarine.com/

Art Tip #131

Conveying Emotion

I've been giving a lot of thought on the direction of my art.  I constantly fight with wanting to be technically good but wanting more than just a nice piece of artwork.  I think most artists reach this point at some time in their career.  I found some notes that I jotted down from an interview I read several years ago of an artist (didn't think to write her name down) who was at the same stage. She said it became a spiritual experience & it felt like she was an orchestra conductor of movement & energy.  Here are some of the questions that she posed.  

1. What emotion do you want your painting to convey visually? Somber, joy, anger,

passion, etc?  Do you want to describe a time of day or night?

2.  What colors to use?  Does a predominantly blue painting convey sadness or restfulness?

3.  What tonal value?  Does a high key painting speak softness or joy?

4.  What type of movement?  Do you want to speak of a bustling street scene or a person 

deep in thought?

5.  What type of marks should I make?  Should you have energetic brushwork for a waterfall 

or quiet strokes for a calm day on the water?

A favorite artist of mine is Ron Hicks. Each of his paintings have a definitive story.  In "The Conductor" his energetic brushwork allows the audience to experience the maestro's movement. You can almost hear the orchestra.

Before starting a painting, do you ask yourself what emotion you want to convey? Something to think about. 

Art Tip #130

Finding Inspiration

We all can experience a lack of inspiration at the easel from time to time.  Inspiration can come from some of the most unexpected places. Here are a few of my favorite jump starts.

1. Virtual Travel - while traveling is inspiring, we can't always get away to the places that we most want to visit.  So virtual travel can at least get the creative juices flowing. Watch a film that has beautiful scenery, watch the travel show or visit Google Earth.  It can be a quick shot of inspiration for free.

2. Different Medium - Work/Experiment in a different medium. I recently picked up pastels & watercolors again.  Just looking at a box of pastels opens up a world of possibilities. Here's a  quick w/c sketch that I did.  It was fun & no pressure. You don't have to be experienced in the medium to have fun.

  

3.  A Palette Cue -  I see artists on a daily basis that inspire me for different reasons.  A favorite thing to do is, take a painting whose colors wow me & translate the palette. Example - take a still life painting & translate the palette to a landscape or figure or take a landscape & set up a still life based on the landscape palette.  I learned a lot about color this way.

4. Good Friends - I'm lucky enough to have a couple of good friends/artists whom I trust to give a good honest critique.  Painting can be solitary & we can get in our own way.  Find someone you trust that can push you through a tough patch, talk art or just commiserate with.  Sometimes just getting together with fellow artists can be inspiring.  

5. Take a break -  Trying to force inspiration is worst thing you can do.  If the inspiration is not happening, sometimes stepping back allows our brains the quiet we need.  Each time I do this, I'm always amazed at what jump starts the creativity.  

Art Tip #129

Familiarity

   

A few years ago I did a 10 Minute challenge for class.  As many times as I've painted an apple, I still learned & improved with each painting. Becoming familiar with my subject allowed color temperature, edge quality & brushwork to improve. Confidence in the understanding of the subject builds stronger paintings. Set a timer, chose a subject, paint at least 6 versions and focus for 10 minutes on each one. You'll be surprised a what you learn.

Art Tip #126

Art Tutorial 
Download the Lesson

I'm happy to share my process in creating fresh & painterly works in oil.  In this PDF downloaded demo, I will offer my approach in eliminating unnecessary detail, keeping your colors clean & your brushwork descriptive.  I discuss my process from the initial selection of my subject to the final brushwork.  I include how to avoid mistakes, a section about color mixing & brushwork.  It's a great tool to print & keep beside your easel as you work through your paintings. This art tutorial is available for $10.  Click the buy now button below & once the purchase is complete, you will receive the tutorial by email.  Be sure to include your email. I hope to have a new tutorial each month.  

Art Tip #123

Shake It Up

I'm getting out of my comfort zone this afternoon & teaching a new student how to use pastels.  I've done them in the past but it's been awhile.  While preparing for class, I got that wonderful creative feeling.  You know the one where the juices were flowing & you're itching to dive in. I even pulled out my watercolors.  I think it's good to step out of our comfort zones every once in awhile. 

You don't have to try different mediums to shake things up.  Try something you've never tackled.  Anything from a subject you've never painted, or a new brush, or a different technique. Just do it for yourself.  Don't do it with the idea of having to share it with the world.  Rather approach it as playtime.  Pushing yourself is a good thing.  

Art Tip #122

Have a Plan, Work the Plan

I know that structure or having a plan feels like it takes the joy or spontaneity out of painting but I find it is the opposite.  Having mapped the painting out actually allows me to be "in the moment" when I'm at the easel.  My first couple of years painting, I was all over the place.  Never set my palette up the same way, no set palette of colors, diving straight into a painting. The results...poor paintings.  Of course, I was just learning but looking back, if I had a little more structure, I could have eliminated many headaches.  So here's my basic plan.

1. I crop my image (be it from life or photos) several ways before deciding the final version. This means never painting the entire photo/image.  Taking the photo, I crop it for a square, a skinny(1:2 or 1:3 ratio) vertical rectangle, a skinny, horizontal rectangle and usually (2:3 or 3:4 ratio) rectangle. I'm surprised what I find in this process.  Sometimes I can pull 2 or 3 potential paintings out. 

2.  Now time to do quick value sketches.  Editing the information that is not necessary. Asking myself if certain elements add or detract from the painting.  It's my sketch that I rely on at the easel, not the photo.  I will reference the photo from time to time as I paint. Many times, the photo goes away until the end of the painting process.

From  the original photo, I eliminated the cobblestone walkway, the fence line, 

the misc. potted plants, fence line & busy foliage in the background.

3. For students:  Pick your format.  Sounds silly but I'm amazed that students that will actually crop an image (i.e. a square format and then paint on a rectangle canvas).

4.  Mix my palette.  I generally premix between 85% to 90%.   This allows me the confidence that I have a harmonious palette and that my colors will be clean and brushwork descriptive.  

5.  Time to paint.  At this stage, I've eliminated the big black holes for a painting.  It's now about the application of paint.  If my head isn't full of design issues, drawing problems, incorrect values, bad color choices then I'm much freer in my application.  This is where the interesting & beautiful brushwork can flourish.  Choosing how to make a brushstroke is easier since I've already determined the correct value & color.

Students say all the time, I didn't realize that you had to think so much to be an artist.  In a nutshell, YEP! Hope this will start you on your own path.  Would love to hear about your process.

Art Tip #121

What's Your Favorite Support?

In my post Set for Success, I talked a little about using good materials.   Most students give little thought to what they paint on.  I can't count the number of times that a student will pull out a canvas & say, "I got this on sale at Michael's for $5".  Yep, got it! At the starting point, we already have added an obstacle to the process.  The type of support you paint on is as important as quality paints & brushes.  Maybe more so.  It's like preparing a wonderful, gourmet meal only serve it on paper plates.  There are so many types of supports to choose. Cotton canvas, board or linen, stretched or mounted on board?  It's personal preference whether you like a rough, slightly rough or smooth.  I'm starting to sound kinda kinky! :)   Okay, back on track.   

Take some time & try different supports to see what you like.  Maybe painting on board works or a rough textured canvas or linen floats your boat.  But just using what's on sale isn't the way to create your best, possible work.  Painting on inexpensive support and then wondering why your brushstrokes are showing up or your paint seems to be absorbed into the canvas? Putting obstacles in your way only makes for some frustrating painting time.  

Here are some of my favorite supports:

Raymar Panels - Raymar has several types of canvas or linen that are mounted on MDF. They offer sample packages so that you can try different canvas & linen to see what suits you.  They rock.

Gessobord Panels  - Ampersand panels have a smooth surface & fun to paint on.

Stretched Linen -  Odessa Russian Linen - great support to paint on.

Art Tip #120

More Bedtime Reading

"The Art Spirit"

Robert Henri

Robert Henri (1873-1929), American artist & teacher. Part of the

 Ashcan School and member of "The Eight".   

A little book packed with wisdom that just keeps on giving.   A fellow artist gave me this book as I was starting my art journey.  Little did I know, that it would find a place beside my easel for many years.  Now it's place is beside my bed.   Inspirational & instructive.

The book is essentially notes by students & his teachings.  The observations & comments to his students are gems to be mined.  I feel he's looking over my shoulder, pushing me in the right direction.   The Mint Museum had an exhibit of his work a few years back and I was lucky to see his work in person.  I only wish I had lived 100 yrs ago...I would have been one of his students (right up front). 

Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

"The eye must be alert, must see the influence of one thing on

another and bring all things into relation"

"Color is only beautiful when it means something."

 

"Art is after all, only a trace...like a footprint which shows one 

has walked bravely and in great happiness."

Art Tip #114

Unfinished?

Today's post doesn't exactly fall into the category of  an Art Tip.  But it's on my mind.  A fellow artist & I started a conversation a few months ago about "unfinished" work.   Personally, I love stopping short of defining everything.  I think that my "unfinished" works sometimes say more about me as an artist than the finished pieces.  It feels like a fresher approach but does that matter to the buyers & should I care?  My friend felt that there was a market (albeit, an educated market) for this type of work.  Or does it once again come down to the right collector for the right piece?

 I always know the point when I have crossed the line.  It's exactly 1 minute too late.  Then I kick myself for going past the point of no return.  

  

Now that I've starting painting abstracts it's possible that's where I'll satisfy my soul.  Maybe the art tip today is to keep searching & stretching yourself artistically.

Happy Painting!

Art Tip #112

Breaking Down Florals

I'm often asked how do you paint flowers without indicating every petal.  It starts with the basic shape, as with anything you paint.  As you see in the photo below, with the blue flowers, I painted the darkest blue first in a general rectangular shape.  The white flowers were circular & blocked in a half-tone greyed bluish purple.  Side note:  I can paint but evidently drawing on a painting is not my best skill.

I work from dark (transparent) to light which enables me to lay the lights on top with a minimum number of strokes.  I always try to create form by painting from the outside in (see below).  Defining my shapes from the background allows me to keep from getting too detailed. Also, leaving a little of my underpainting showing thru helps balance the need to over define. The leaves are added at the mid-point, in half-tones and are there to support the flowers not overpower them.

The last strokes are the lights (which are opaque & heavier paint).  If you look closely you will see that my lightest lights are the smallest portion of the flowers.  Without the darks & half-tones, the lights will appear flat.  Students are always so anxious to place the highlight on an object without realizing that what's underneath the highlight is more vital to creating form that one light stroke.  

Art Tip #111

Favorite Art Sites

With social media what it is, there is an abundance of information at our fingertips.  I thought I'd share just a few of my favorite sites.  

Painters:

John Singer Sargent - I found one of his paintings in an art book at age 9. He got my

artistic juices flowing & they haven't stopped.  This site has his complete works. 

   

Sergei Bongart -  One of just many Russian impressionists that inspire me.

Tibor Nagy - When I grow up, I want my art to bring the depth & language that his work 

does.  If you don't know him, you should.

Drawing:

Sketchaway - A sketchbook traveler.  When I visit other artists' it's their sketchbooks that I'm most interested in.  It tells a lot about the artist.  

Urban Sketchers - A blog that features more than 100 artists from around the world. 

It's just fun to visit.

   

Misc. Sites

Underpaintings - Matthew Innis' blog that as he says...celebrates excellence

in Representational Art. A cornucopia of fabulous art & exhibits are highlighted.

Painting Perceptions - A blog that invites discussion & ideas on exploring painting done from life.  It includes interviews & information written from an artist's point of view. It takes time to explore but well worth it.  A large variety of styles.  

Painting Resource

Gamblin - I use Gamblin paint, their site is full of great information.  If you have question, 

I've always gotten a timely & useful response. 

Art Tip #110

Painting from Life

For the first few years of learning to paint, I mostly worked from photos.  I struggled to understand values, color & wanted to paint every little nuance.  Photos compress values, color shifts and capture everything.  

For the next 3 years, I painted tons of still life.  I came to see values better, temperature & plane shifts.  The photo of a lemon doesn't compare to an actual lemon.  It was like apples & oranges (sorry, bad pun). It was easier to see the temperature shifts as well as the values of the objects that brought them form & dimension. My paintings came to life.  In other words, painting from life taught me to "see" as artist.  

I have always had my students paint still life.  It's usually a split of 1/4 are excited & 3/4's were looking for something to hit me with or were shouting that they hated painting flowers/fruit as they tried to escape out the door.  I set up a still life and have students stand over it, look into the shadows & have them describe the colors within.  I'd then take a photo of the still life.  In the photo, they no longer saw colorful shadows or temperature shifts in the objects.  EYE OPENING MOMENT!

Still life can be anything.   Gardening tools, your daughter's red boots, your decorative soap dispenser or a piece of lingerie.  All you need is something that you find interesting to paint & a good light source.   So go grab a couple of colorful spools of thread, a piece of fabric & go paint.  You'll be a better artist for it.  I promise!

Art Tip #109

In the Green

                

          

One of the most common areas of difficulty for beginning & intermediate students is mixing believable greens.  Greens that will harmonize & not look like you squeezed the color "straight out of the tube".  Last week I talked about making my own dark/black.  That dark is the basis for all my greens which I add...can you guess?  My favorite Indian Yellow.  This gives me a dark, fairly transparent mossy green that is the "mother color" of all my greens.

I then add Viridian or more Ultramarine Blue for a "cooler" version of the mossy (warmer) green.  I will occasionally add Phthalo Blue if I really need to push the color.   I try to lighten my colors with different tints of yellows, purples, greys...just about any color but rarely do I add pure white.  While white will lighten & cool, it also makes colors chalky.  

You can see from above that while I start with a desaturated green, I'm able to make beautiful saturated colors with a variety of temperature shifts.  Harmonizing my greens happens because they all have a little bit of that mother color mixture in them.  

It is but a very small sampling of green mixes.  This way of mixing greens & having a limited palette gave me the confidence to mix any color.  What better way to start your day at the easel already knowing that your palette will be harmony each & every time.

Art Tip #108

In the Black

I use a limited palette which doesn't include black.  I make my own for several reasons.  One, I can control the temperature of my black.  From the photo, you can see the the cooler black/greys on the left with the warm version on the right.  I also find that tube black can be such a dead color & my blacks have life to them.  My standard mixture is 2 parts Ultramarine to 1 part Burnt Sienna (this will vary with the brand that you use).  This is also the base for my green (mother color) mixture which will be my next art tip.  I make just about every green that I need from this main color.  Hard to believe but greens are never an issue for me.  

 If you struggle with mixing believable & harmonious greens be sure to catch next Tuesday's post.  Happy weekend.

Art Tip #107

Favorite Bedtime Reading

The Language of Drawing

by Sherrie McGraw

There are 4 books that are always by my bedside.  This is my favorite even though it's not about oil painting.   The book is more about seeing rather than about actual rendering. Translating the information in front of her, Sherrie is able to capture the lyrical nature of her subject.  Simply looking at her drawings makes me what to capture what she captures, which to say, the essence & beauty of her subject.  While it is not a new book, I believe it deserves a place on any artist's bookshelf.  

Check back to see which are some of my other favorite bedtime art books.

Art Tip #106

The Tools 

I have a few jars of brushes but tend to stay with the assortment above.  I use Winsor Newton's Monarch series.  They are synthetic mongoose brushes and brights & filberts are my favorite.  The brights give me such a strong stroke & the filbert provides a wonderfully, fluid line.  While they can be a little pricey, they last forever.  I've been painting with 4 brushes for more than 3 years and they just keep getting better.  Without my brushes, I'd be lost.  Buy the best you can, treat them well & they can serve you for a long time.  

What's your favorite brush?

Art Tip #104

Butter!!!!

Several people have asked what the warm yellow is on my palette.  It's Indian Yellow.  If you are unfamiliar with Indian Yellow, let me introduce you to the wonderful possibilities of this tube of paint.  It's a transparent warm yellow which compliments the opaque Cad. Yellow Light on my palette. 

Mixing Ind. Yellow w/ Titanium White and call it my BUTTER.  It's an ideal way to lighten colors without adding pure white, it's the base of my transparent "mother color" green mixture (another tip for later) & it mixes to the most natural yellow that I seem unable to sufficiently achieve with the Cad. Yellow colors.  Many years ago, I realized that my palette was heavily weighted with opaque colors & in the process of switching out for more transparent paints, I discovered Indian Yellow.  I only use Gamblin Indian Yellow.  There is such huge swing in the quality & color with other brands.  

 I find Gamblin's Indian Yellow to be the most pure hue.  It's such a personal preference but if you aren't happy with your paint...what's the point?

Do you love Indian Yellow as much as I do?

Art Tip #103

UGLY DOG

Despite the name, I think it's the best brush cleaner around.  I've revived 6 year old, dried out paint brushes (the kind that could kill someone) back to almost new.   For my really bad brushes, I coat the bristles & let them sit for a day or two (occasionally massaging the soap into the bristles).  You'll know when it's done it's job, the bristles will be pliable.  Just rinse really well, pat dry & then add a little oil back to the brush.  I've saved so many brushes.   It's been harder to find in the art stores but here's a link to purchase.  

 Don't you have a container of old, paint laden brushes sitting around your studio that you would love to use again?