When a painting is almost done.....

Here is a way to try out a change to a painting that is nearing completion.

In the first photo you see the painting.

I am thinking that perhaps this painting needs another branch, but where to place it?

In the second photos you see a piece of colored paper with tape on it, and in the last two photos you see two different placements that I tried out.

Now why would I do this? Well sometimes you have a painting that has so much work in it that if you place a new element in it with paint and don't like it, you have to do quite a bit of work to take it out AND repaint what is behind.

This example is just that - an example.

I would not use a color so different from the painting, but I wanted you to clearly see what to do so I used a very different color. If I were really doing this for myself, I would use a piece of brown paper and I could tell much better how the placement would look.

This is something I developed on my own and when needed, it has been very effective.

I hope it helps you too!

Fan Brushes

When one is in the art store staring at rows and rows of brushes, it can be overwhelming. I know a lot about brushes, but I too will often just buy new ones to try them out and expand my tools.

Fan brushes always attract the eye when brush shopping because they are so different than most other brushes (I did see a 'brush' made of a bird's wing once in an art store in Santa Fe).
They come in various sizes, but they also are made of different bristle materials and that is what I want to tell you about.

First you can get a fan brush in hog's hair bristles. The bristles are stiff and are good for dragging wet paint that you have applied to get certain effects. I have used this brush to pull paint over the "edge" of a painted cloth and it helps to show the change of direction of the cloth falling over the painted edge. Sometimes I just pull the applied paint while it is still wet and sometimes I use a slightly different color and put it on top of the color already applied.

Secondly you can get fan brushes made of very soft acrylic bristles. These are not good for the job I mentioned in the above paragraph. They are for blending paint in the most delicate way.

I would suggest you try out these things on a sample board or canvas paper til you get the hang of it.

Also, if you pick paint up off your palette on your fan brush, don't pick up big clumps of paint. You made need to thin the paint down a bit with linseed oil (or whatever medium you are using) so that the paint will flow off the brush easily. You will have to reload the brush often, sometimes with every stroke. Notice that a fan brush is thin and is not made to hold a lot of paint, therefore you have to reload often.

You can use part of the fan brush, the side edges. You don't have to use the whole thing. Sometimes you need to use one of these but the entire fan shape is too much for the job. Just load one side of it and do the job!

Tip: if someone can tell you used a fan brush for effects in your painting that isn't a good thing!
You don't want it to look gimmicky. Keep it subtle.

Compose everything! Happy 2010!

Most of us are probably not working in our studios

or on our art just now. I trust you are all enjoying

the season of sharing time and love with family

and friends. And perhaps you too have composed

something lovely for them to enjoy, letting the artist

that you are create something wonderful.

I wish you and yours the most delightful and

fulfilling year to come. Compose it beautifully!

Transferring a drawing to canvas is done by placing the drawing face to the glass of a window (in the daytime!). Then you go over the lines with charcoal, taking care to make the coverage a bit wider than the actual line in the drawing. For complex areas (here it is the hair) just cover it all with charcoal.

Now place the drawing face up on the canvas. Adjust it to fit as you want it placed. Then with a blunt pencil (a sharp one will poke holes through the paper), go over all the lines of your drawing. Do tape it in place so you can lift it occasionally to see if you got it all transferred.












Here you can see the tape holding the drawing in place, and also the blunt-tipped pencil.


















In this last photo you see the drawing which is about to be lifted off. Note that the placement of the drawing over top of the canvas is slightly tipped. This is because the student wanted to place it that way. Doing drawing transfers this way gives you that flexibility of placement.

Even though there is no photograph here of the drawing on the canvas, understand that after you have it done, you will need to touch it up with any corrections or adjustments you want to make. Also you may need to make some of the lines darker so they don't disappear under the first thin layer of paint. DO SPRAY IT before you begin painting!

Using a rag while painting

Here you see a student of mine painting

with a rag in her hand. It is not a paper

towel, but is a soft cotton absorbent rag.

Good sources for such rags are soft cotton

things such as old t-shirts and nightwear

that has been laundered so often that there

is hardly any lint or fuzz that will come off

on your brushes. Also you don't want

rags that are so thin (like old sheets) that

you get paint all over your hands.

Use of Paper Towels

Basically, I use paper towels for cleaning

my brushes. I don't hold them in my hand

while I am painting the way I hold a rag

in my hand while painting. I have them

on my easel's shelf that is just below the

painting. Or I have a stack of paper towels

set aside and I use them just before I dip

them in the mineral spirits

to wipe off the excess.

Use of rags

But rags are for use while I work on a painting

and am doing things like blending areas of different

colors or tones. What happens is that the brush

will pick up a tone and if you don't wipe the brush

with the rag, the tone (or color) you don't want to

end up in a particular place will end up there!

So just hold a rag in your hand and wipe off the little

bit of paint so you can keep blending without dragging

a color into an area where you don't want it.

I also use a rag for another purpose. When you have

a brush that is a very small size and you have cleaned it in

the thinner, it will have the thinner run down the handle

and not only get your hands yucky (hi-tech word), but

when you go to pick up new paint, it will run down and

dilute what you just picked up. SO! I have a rag on

my easel shelf and always use it to absorb that thinner.

Rags are way more absorbent than paper towels.

How long to use a rag?

First of all, have a good supply of them and when they

get loaded with paint get rid of them. Do not wash them

as it's not worth it. Also, don't keep oily rags around as

it is a safety issue. I put them in the trash in a plastic bag.

Taking photos to paint from

The main point of this post is to tell you to take lots of photos

of any scene you may want to paint. Take a long shot, take

close up shots, take pictures of what is around the main subject.

You may want to paint something that is essentially a long

shot in a photograph, but if you don't shoot up close, you may

not have enough data.

I didn't post all the photos I took of this wonderful stone

barn, but I hope you get the idea.

The other thing about close up and far away shots is that

sometimes you can't see what is in the shadow areas if you

have a shot with a lot of light colored area like sky. That closes

down your lens (if you are shooting on automatic) and then

the shadow areas will look practically black. If you shoot some

close ups, then the camera lens opens up and allows you to see

what is in those shadow areas.

I hope this helps!

Getting started

This student work is a great example to show
how to get started with any subject. This is
a challenging one, but the beginning is the
same.

Mix three piles of paint. A middle tone, a dark
tone (not the pure paint out of the tube) and
a light tone (again, not the pure white).

Then put on an overall tone (thin paint, not
thick)that is somewhere between the darkest
and lightest tones you see. You can even use just
a thin coat of raw umber all over with no white
added to it. Take a rag and rub it to look even
all over.

Next put in all the dark areas, then do the light
ones. Keep the shapes VERY simple. You will
do the more complex shapes and blending later
later later!

Most beginning artists go for the details way too
soon!