3 Roses to celebrate 30 in 30.

September 30, 2013

Something to celebrate.  I made it for 30 in 30.  Roses always say special occasion to me. 

 

 

 

It wasn't easy to do 30 in 30.  I almost gave up one time, but I'm glad that I stuck with it.  I really liked getting to know some other artists and I appreciated very much comments from other people.  That is always very encouraging. 

 

Thank you to Leslie Saeta for organizing this event.  Leslie, I know you have been very busy.  Not only did you do a workshop, but you moved into a new house.  How did you do it?



http://lesliesaeta.blogspot.com/

Titles of Paintings

September 28, 2013


This is an example of painting the same thing more than once, but also my effort to improve the titles of paintings, something I need to work on all the time. This could become a series. 



No, you cannot have a cell phone

How about an ipad?





Day 27 of 30 Day Challenge

September 27, 2013 - only 3 to go

 Day 27 of Challenge

 

I can't think of a good title.  My ideas so far are: "High enough for you", "night out",  but really I just think of how much my feet would hurt if I wore these. 

 

Painting from yesterday - I included two, because the leaf looked too big and blobby in the second one so I corrected it to be smaller and more faded.  Might look better without the leaf.  A chance to paint it again which I will do today. 



Ways to Improve your Paintings

September 25, 2013

 

Paint the same thing more than once

It's not something I do all the time, but every time I try it, I think why don't I do this more often.

Which one did I do first?     Which one do you like better?  

(I made it easy to leave comments because I removed that crazy robot letter-thing under comment moderation-it's easy to do and you can still read comments before they are published).

I toned one with a really light color and the other was dark. 

Both 6 x 6

Today I put one on Daily Paintworks of some cups with a little pitcher and a couple days before I did one using the same cups, but with a sugar bowl.  I'm going to do one more with those cups because I made the sugar bowl so big it might overpower the cups so I'll try another one with a smaller sugar bowl.  The title will be "Sugar Daddy".  I just love that title.  On facebook I already renamed the first one "Sugar Daddy".  (Remember that post a few days ago about titles.  I'm trying to do better with that.)

I can't think of anything too interesting for these titles.  Ideas?

Daily Paintworks - link to see cup paintings

Day 20 of the 30 Day Challenge

September 20, 2013


Coming up with titles for paintings is always a challenge. 

6 x 6 - No, you cannot have a cell phone

Recently I listened to one of the radio shows on "Artists Helping Artist".  It's on every Thursday, but you can listen to any of the shows any time and there is a huge selection of topics.  The interview of Kevin Auster, a wonderful painter, had so many pearls of wisdom, including some good advice about titles for paintings.  The bottom line was don't use the obvious.  I've gotten better at titles with the help of friends, but using the obvious is my tendency.  His comments were liberating. 

This  little painting had so many obvious choices and I'm not sure if this is a good title, but at least it is not obvious, right?

Link to:   Interview with Kevin Auster at Artists Helping Artists

Balanced Diet

I like this title and there was one called "Parmagiana Wanna Be" named by Nancy Bradley that I really liked, too.   (I can't find that photo, but the painting included some eggplant)

(found the photo - SOLD) 

Painting Demo

 This demo is more detailed than the last one I did.  I used "animoto" again.  To see the demo click on the words "Painting Demo" below the picture. 

Painting Demo


My quest is to keep brush work big and have interesting edges, both soft and crisp.  Whenever I get too detailed I look at the work of Qiang Huang and Carol Marine whom I admire very much.  Both have great blogs.  Qiang Huang also has some youtube demos that are good and Carol Marines's ArtBytes on the Daily Paintworks website are really helpful to me.  In general, just looking at artists you admire can teach you a lot. 

Painting Demo

Painting Demo  (click on Painting Demo to see video, I hope)

I tried using Animoto again for a demo.  The first time I did it with text  and I went over the limit for the free service.  I'll have to think about whether I want to spend the extra five dollars a month for the expanded version. 

Last time I did this a few people said they could see the video.  Only the words of the title shows up on the blog.

Here are the steps with photos, the old-fashioned way:

Step 1 -Tone the surface, I chose this warm color to reinforce some of the colors I would be using in the painting.  The gold color will make the yellows sing.

After I did the drawing, I wiped it off so the wash wouldn't mix with the next layer, something I learned from Carol Marine in here ArtByte on Daily Paintworks


Step 2 - Use a wash (paint thinned with OMS) of the shadow color, a dark grayed out version of the object's color. 

 

Paint the darks so they go outside the lines, it will help with creating soft edges later.

 

 

Step 3 - Start adding the lights and background.  The last steps of the painting include adding more detail, highlights, refining edges to include sharp ones at the focal point and soft one elsewhere.  I use the paints that I have used to mix the colors in the painting to create a neutral background.  At this point I think about including temperature variation within both the lights and darks.

(I forgot to take photos in these last steps.  It happens every time I plan a demo.  It must be because you get so carried away in the last steps of a painting.  Next time I will set a timer. 

 

Last step is to post this on Daily Paintworks and the 30 day Challenge. 

 

15 more days to go on the Challenge. 

Stuck on Tertiary Colors

September 13, 2013


I like using the tertiary palette and keep going with it.  The 30 day challenge keeps me painting, too. 

Here is today's painting.  I did stray a little from the strict tertiary palette to create the neutral background because the white of the paint tube in the painting needed contrast.  There is so little color in the painting.  I had to use warms in the flat surface and cool in the white of the tube to get contrast and, wow, was that tube every difficult for me to draw, a lot of foreshortening.  I'm not sure if it worked. 

 

Link to Daily Paintworks

Pinterest - I have been working on several boards on pinterest related to color, composition and art tips.  There is a link to them on the top right column of this page. 

Painting Demo

Paint Demo - click on highlighted words Painting Demo below

This seems like a good way to show a painting demo in steps.  It's a short video with photos. I hope it works.   I should have included more steps and if this works the next one will have more photos.  If you have trouble seeing it, please let me know.  When I first tested it the screen was blank.  Then I used my standard technique when something doesn't work of clicking until something happens and it worked.


Please let me know if this doesn't work.  Click on words painting demo.

Painting Demo


Follow up on tertiary colors used on my limited palette:

quinacridone magenta - Gamblin
cad yellow medium-Gamblin
sevres blue- Rembrandt
turquoise blue-Holbein

white

Just a little more about tertiary colors....

September 10, 2013

I did two more paintings using just these three colors, plus white.  (all for the 30 day challenge, of course)  Notice I used two blues,  but both blue-greens.

What I noticed when seeing them together on my daily paintworks gallery page is the harmony, not only within each painting, but also as a group.  Interesting....

If you look at that  page  at DPW you will see they are cohesive as a group compared to the other paintings on my gallery page.

(love that Sevres Blue, a gift from a very wonderful friend)

Tertiary Colors

September 8, 2013

Another good reason to do the 30 day challenge is that you make new discoveries and try new things.  It is sort of a journey where one thing leads to another even if it is by accident.

On day 6 I did a painting of three paint tubes using tertiary colors of blue-green, magenta and yellow orange.  The neutral in the background uses those three colors.  (Another benefit of the challenge is that another artist doing the challenge pointed that out to me in her comment in yesterday's blog and thank you to her).    It did create a harmony in the painting by using just those three colors. 

So on Day 7 I thought I would try just using those three colors again, but this time the painting was very high key with pinks.  I used temperature changes for contrast, but kept everything pastel.  For the longest time I have been trying to figure out how an artist I admire named Nancy Frankel achieves using light values that show contrast.  I think it might be with temperature changes.  Check out her work. 

In my painting for today, I'm going to test out this theory. 

Day 6 has strong values, there are temperature changes here, too. 

Day 7 has tighter values,  but used temperature changes a lot.  Plus I  only used magenta, blue-green and yellow-orange just like the colors above. 

TIDBit:  I remember reading somewhere that you should use the colors left on your palette for your signature to make it harmonious with the painting.  That is why you see the magenta used in the one below.  Of course I forgot to sign the one above.  I do that all the time. 

Day 7 - 30 Paintings in 30 Days

September 7, 2013

I received some really good news today because Daily Paintworks picked my Day 7 painting for their Facebook "Pick of the Day".

Several months ago I did paintings of paint tubes with the primary colors and one with the secondary colors.  I didn't want to leave out the tertiary colors so I will have to paint one more besides this one, (another idea for the paint challenge). 

Daily Paintworks Facebook

THANK YOU

Day 5 Challenge

September 5, 2013

My theme for the challenge is "no theme",  I can't seem to connect a school bus, baby dress, and baby shoes to a paintings of a chicken.  (I really like chickens.)

Mug by Anna Branner, artist as LibertyTown Arts Workshop    http://www.libertytownarts.com/site/

 

My strong connection to chickens is because when I was 10 years old my grandfather gave me some baby chicks, cute little fuzzy yellow chicks.  It turned into a small business.  I even got up early before school to feed them.  I sold the eggs to my mother, relatives, and teachers for a very high price.  My father cleaned the coop and bought the feed.  Pretty good business plan.

When I saw this mug made by Anna Branner at LibertyTown Arts Workshop with Rhode Island Reds and White Leghorns, I bought it instantly.   I don't know if she has any left.  You should see her new ones with cows.

Day 4 of the Challenge - 30 paintings in 30 days

September 4, 2013

I started out thinking about a school theme for the 30 day painting challenge.  It must have been all those years working in schools.  Then it changed into a theme about babies.  It's only been four days.  I started out with a list, but things change.  I don't even know yet what I want to paint today. 

When re-organizing an upstairs bedroom I found these shoes belonging to my son who is now 36.  I couldn't resist painting them.  The baby cup belonged to me and I won't say how old that is.

Baby Blues
6 x 6

Daily Paintworks has listing of all paintings for sale. 


Tidbit of Useful Information:  Every time I use this I am amazed how it will remove dried up paint. Most of my clothes have spots of paint on them,  but every once in awhile there is something I try to save.  It is also great for restoring brushes with dried up paint, the ones you forget to clean. It's expensive, but that's what those 50% coupons  are meant for ---I have a bottle next to my washing machine. too.  It  works for all kind of things.  (Warning:  I dripped some on a good table and it took the varnish off, right down to the wood, it's powerful stuff).



30 Day Challenge and Ways to Improve your paintings

September 3, 2013

 

Keeping up with the 30 Day Challenge so far...

 

 

 Listed on Daily Paintworks

 

 

My theme lately has been ways to improve so since it is the beginning of a new school year I thought I would get a few of the Art Tutorials at Daily Paintworks call ARTBytes.  There are so many that are FREE, but the one that got my attention recently was by Carol Marine on Loose Brushwork.  It was a whole new way of looking at edges for me and I wish I had looked at it sooner.  Her approach is to start with the lights first and go from "island to ocean", the small areas surrounded with color or background.  

 

The idea of using stripes was one of the Daily Challenges, another offering to artists. 

 The bottom line is that Daily Paintworks offers many resources.  The ARTBytes are reasonable in price and you can save them and look at them over and over. 

 

Thanks you to Carol Marine and her husband for starting this website for artists. 

Here is a link to the page for Tutorials: http://www.dailypaintworks.com/ArtTutorials/ArtByteStore

Getting Organized and ready for the 30 Day Painting Challenge

September 1, 2013

It's still not too late to join the 30 Day Challenge - 30 paintings in 30 days.

Click here to get to Leslie's Blog

Getting organized has been good advice by Leslie Saeta to get ready for the challenge. I am ready to go now. 

 This is at my studio at LibertyTown.  I found these boxes at Tuesday Morning.  Looks a lot better than it used to look. 

 Almost all my brushes together,  drawers  are from Costco, good way to organize extra paint according to the color wheel. (Notice the tiny fan which is my ventilation system.)

 I had to get two bead boxes to organize the paints I keep by my palette.

 No, that is not Vodka, I keep extra rubbing alcohol in this.  The spray bottle is also rubbing alcohol which I use to clean my palette. To the left of that is a great  product called  D-Lead hand soap.  You can just rub a little on your hands every once in awhile and then use a paper towel,(no water needed).  I can't afford to lose any more brain cells.  Some paints are very toxic. 

I need a better drying rack than this set-up.  Leslie suggested a dish rack and I might just get one. 



It's still not too late to join the 30 Day Challenge - 30 paintings in 30 days.

Click here to get to Leslie's Blog

http://dailypaintworks.com/Artists/carol-josefiak-3555