Starting a New Painting

THE SUMMER IS OVER NOW IT’S BACK TO PAINTING!

Hi Folks

Now my fall classes are in full swing I am hearing comments like the following over and over again:

“I think I’ve forgotten everything”

” I did nothing over the summer”

” where do I begin”

” I’m confused and feel anxious”

This is more common than one may think so how and where does one start?

There is no simple answer except jump right in. Start with something small and simple. Work on a small canvas and find a simplified image. You don’t want to over whelm yourself. You want to build your confidence back up and nothing succeeds like small and simple.

You may find you are over blending and so you need to resort to the Rules of Three:

Three brush strokes and stop

I have stood behind students as they paint and asked “how many brush strokes do you think you just used?” Their answer is usually ”around 10″. They are always amazed when I tell them ….. 36… or some number that is well above and beyond their expectations. No one should take more than 3 – 4 brush strokes with one tonal value or colour before mixing and using another.

Three colours only – mixed together to create a new colour

Again students are very successful at making ‘mud’ or nasty greys. All because they used more than 3 colours.

Three Focal Points

You need to move the eye around in your painting and so you will need 3 focal points and one rest spot. This can be in the shape of a triangle, the letter Z and in some landscapes you can stack your 3 areas.

Remember to keep your brush strokes consistent and this is important to remember when painting a landscape with lots of sky. We tend to want to blend the sky colours and then resort to a more painterly approach for the fore ground, giving the impression that perhaps two different painters have painted the picture.

Talking about skies, the best way is to use a criss cross brush stroke and work it fast, painting one corner first and then move on to the next. When it dries you will be amazed how blended it appears yet still allowing some brush strokes to show. Often times it takes 3 – 4 attempts to get the completed look, colour and tones that you want. Don’t despair, skies can be tricky. You need patience and a strong arm. I always say this is how I keep my arms toned – at least my right arm!

Happy Painting

Cheers Georgia

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Painting Big!

GOING BIG!

By going Big I do not mean simply painting on a large canvas i.e. 36 ” x 36 ” or larger, which has it’s own challenges but I mean you also need to enlarge the image you want to paint from. You may think it is an easy process but it is not. Not all images are easily enlarged. The composition can often become distorted when you crop and enlarge a photo. You still need to have all the design components of 3 focal points and a rest spot. Think – Georgia O’Keefe – and you get the picture – no pun intended

To start with, you need to have taken either a very good clear up close image or you can use a good clear well defined photo that you can enlarge certain areas of it. This is not the same as cropping a section of a your 4 x 6 photo and trying to work from that. I am saying you need to enlarge an area of a photo using one of your camera modes, save it as a separate picture then print it. Or once on your computer you can use what ever APP you have to crop, enhance and enlarge areas of your photos to save and print. I do all my enlargements, cropping etc. while my photos are still on my camera.

Once you have a nicely enlarged image to work from you can map it out on your canvas. Do not try and use a grid – use your eye to develop your image. I say this as you will see the proportions of your image will be dictated by the size of your large canvas and so it should be. You may want to continue the editing process as you map out your image, something you will not do if using a grid.

The next step is to paint an under painting. Not only will you be using colours to enhance your tops colours but you will be establishing your tonal values and seeing if your proportions are correct. I spend more time painting in this area than ever before especially when using a large canvas. I’ve found that I can easily make corrections at this stage without concern for finding and using the complex colours that I am seeing. Before I move ahead I check I have well balanced proportions, design and tonal values. The more time I spend on this stage the easier I know it will be for me later when all I have to do is think about colours and hues.

Now I can move to my top layer of that I see. I can push myself in this area as it is mainly all that I have to think about. How lovely is that!

Happy Painting

Cheers

Georgia

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Framing Your Art Work

FRAME OR NOT TO FRAME – that is the question?

I am always saying to students they should use ready made canvases with wrap around edges because then they don’t have to pay a premium for a frame. That still holds true but – there is always a but – a good frame though will turn a good painting into a great one. May seem simplistic to say but it is true.

I recently completed a small painting as a demonstration about editing and composition. I had previously taken it to my local art supply store to find a ready made frame that I felt enhanced it. So when I showed the painting to the class there were the usual oh’s and ah’s. I had not told them I was going to show it as a framed piece because I wanted them to experience the effect without any bias. So I turned my back and popped the painting into the ready made frame and then showed the framed piece to the students. The look on their faces was amazing. Their eyes popped! They were truly impressed with the framed effect. So what does that tell us? Yes, we do not have to frame every painting but when you have completed something you know is good – a good frame will make it even better.

What makes a good frame?

First of all, it should do just that – frame your piece, not take over. So in other words if your eye goes to the frame first then it is too over powering. You don’t want folks commenting on the frame. You want them noticing and commenting on your art.

For acrylics and or oils you should look for a nice neutral off white ‘linen’ liner that is 2” – 4 ” wide depending on the size of your painting. Then choose a moulding that is either a natural wood or a soft silver or gold. Most art supply stores will have ready made fames in standard sizes, so take your painting to the store and try them out.

For watercolours or soft pastels or anything on paper you will need to frame it behind glass. For this you will need to find a good framer. Be prepared though for this to cost you , on average for a small i.e. 14 x 20 about $250 – $400. It’s expensive! One of the reasons I stopped painting using soft pastels although it still is one of my favorite mediums to use.

Happy Painting

Cheers

Georgia

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Green ; a challenging colour to paint

PAINTING GREEN – it’s a challenge

I always think of Kermit the Frog when I think of the colour green. He sings ‘ It isn’t easy being green’ and as an artist I know, ‘ it isn’t easy painting green’. Yet as Kermit tells us, there is plus side to being green..

I paint lots of florals as you all know and I am always looking for new ways to capture them. A few years ago though I decided I didn’t want to paint any flowers only the green foliage. I thought this would be a great challenging summer project. So off I went with the intent of taking photos of only green leaves. To some that may not sound too interesting but believe me, it was a challenge. So much so I ended up taking photos of , yup, you guessed it , flowers. Then at the end of the day as I was entering my apartment building I saw a great leafy plant. So started taking shots of it. I thought, what could be easier than a plant right out side my front entrance. I could simply walk out my front door and take random shots of the plant over the summer to capture how green changes during the summer light. I already decided on a simple title for my project, ’ The Green Project’ . But a few days later I noticed these odd shaped things appearing and not knowing what type the plant was I took photos of them anyway. Then a few days later they opened to what I thought would be more leaves but, no, they were flowers. I was so disappointed . I realized I obviously could never photograph anything that didn’t have a flower in it! So I continued to take photos of this magnificent plant and the Lilies as they turned out to be and how they transformed over the long summer. I aptly renamed my project ‘ The Green and White Project – The Lily Series’. It’s a lovely group of paintings you can see on my web site www.georgiayoungs.ca

I still got to paint green though in all its glory I just had a few white lilies added in as well! But I learned how to see ‘green ‘ and how to create them. The best greens do not come out of a tube and in fact even if you do use some of those lovely greens make sure you add some yellows, or orange to them. It is interesting to see how green changes tone over the summer and how the summer light affects it at different times in the day and season. Early summer it is all about light mid tones with a brush of Naples and Cadmium Yellow middle and touches of mauve and blue. By mid summer it is all about brighter tones with lots of Cadmium Yellow Deep and then by end of summer as the light cools so do the greens, having more subtle blues and purples in it.

Challenge yourself with your own Green Project. Find one plant in your garden or on your balcony and start at 8 Am taking photos of it. Then return at noon, then 4 PM then 8 PM – Study the photos and see all the subtle gradations of tones and hues. Using 4 small canvases paint all the variations of ‘greens’ as they appeared during the day in your photos.

Happy Painting

Cheers

Georgia

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TONES

It may seem confusing when artists talk about ‘tone’ but the term means simply light and dark.

The two extremes tones or contrasting values are Black and White.

‘Hue’ refers to colour.

Successful paintings will have tonal contrast in them, or a range of values.

A painting that has a ‘high-key’ means you have created tones that are extreme and ‘low-key’ means you will have a range of low tones.

Painting with only mid tones you run the risk of your painting being dull and flat.

Using tones that have a wide range of values will make your painting exciting and interesting.

To fully understand tone, take colour out of the equation and create a Gray Scale. You do this by using only Black at one end and White at the other and create all the gradational shades of Gray in between.

Happy Painting

Cheers

Georgia

Yes, please go ahead and forward this email to a friend. This does not mean they will automatically be added as a subscriber to my news letter. They will have to email me at georgiayoungs@shaw.ca so I can add them.

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Editing Your Painting

EDITING – LESS IS MORE

A publisher will take a writer’s work and edit it for spelling, grammar and excessive information. An art teacher takes on the same role when helping a student complete a painting or drawing.

But what happens if you don’t have an art teacher telling you what to look for or eliminate?

It is one of the more difficult things for an artist to consider, because what one may consider excessive another may feel necessary.

My first suggestion before you start to paint is to crop your image, making your focal points are quite obvious /clearer. This is the first step in editing.

The next is to see what lines or objects you feel are excessive and eliminate them. You don’t want any lines leading into corners which will lead the ‘eye’ off your canvas. Nor do you want too much information in the centre of your canvas as that too hinders the viewer from allowing their ‘eye’ to roam to other areas.

To challenge yourself use a photograph that has many trees with branches and begin by drawing the main trunk then add a few branches at a time and stop each time to see if you really need to add more. Don’t keep adding for adding sake! You will find what had amazing multiple braches in the photo your painting will only need a few to portray the same effect.

Don’t be over whelmed from using a photo that has a lot of detail because you will find that in ‘editing’ it will not be so difficult.

Squint and concentrate on only the colours and tones and begin with that. Adding one detail at a time and accessing it before you add more.

 

Happy Painting

Cheers

Georgia

Yes, please go ahead and forward this email to a friend. This does not mean they will automatically be added as a subscriber to my news letter. They will have to email me at georgiayoungs@shaw.ca so I can add them.

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