How to watch a DVD

Open package, load DVD, watch. Nope, there is more to it.

I just got through watching, Caroline Jasper’s art instruction DVD called “Landscape Oil Painting on Red Ground”, excellent DVD, highly suggest it. But the truth is this is the second time through it for me.

What I like to do is watch an instructional DVD the first time, relaxed, as if watch a TV show. Put the DVD in the player, put my feet up, and just relax. The second time I am ready to go to work. I have my material ready, and my digital camera handy.

As I start painting along, I will pause the DVD, and take a quick snap shot of what is a good reference point of my painting. The reason I do this is short term memory, yep I will most likely forget what I did along the way. This happens especially if my materials are slightly different. Jasper paint on red ground (red colored gesso) with oil paints. I like gold ground better and use acrylics. So by having references to how my painting develops I can expand on this in the future. If you can refer to how something has been was done originally there is no going back and reinventing the wheel.

There is so much contrast to the start and end of a painting, and both points are extremely important, references are important.

Most of the time I start with gold as an under painting but I also posted a photo of a blue under painting, because I like to break my own rules. But if you follow my blog you have probably noticed that I do think that a colorful foundation can be very helpful with acrylic painting. And Caroline Jasper is an artist that uses that base to make beautiful work. Check out her DVDs and web site to find out more.

http://www.carolinejasper.com

Hey don’t forget to check out my web site too:

http://mbschiros.artspan.com

Now What

Now what….

That is one the things that voice in my head often will ask me. And usually it is when
I am staring at a blank paper or canvas. Now that I have shared that with you I will give you the latest answer I came up with. Grab a pencil, pick a spot in the room your in and do a quick sketch. If you are feeling brave do that sketch, but do not look at the paper you are drawing. Use very few lines just enough to capture the basic shapes of objects.
That sketch will be wild and strange, but that is good. That wild sketch will give you permission to go any where you want with it. It is not perfect to start with so you do not have worry about a perfect painting. (Love that line; think I will read it one more time just for a smile.)
Now grab about 3 colors, and make one decision do I want a warm or cool feeling.
If it is warm use two warm colors like red and yellow and one cool like a blue.
If it is cool use say, blue and purple with an orange. Throw in a black to help deepen some colors if you are using watercolor. If you are using acrylics also add white.
Paint the majority of the painting with the first two colors saving the last one just to highlight or add some spark to the picture at the every end.
This is fun and practice but also can be an amazing painting when you are finished.
Give it a try and see what happens.
By the way the pictures are from my bed room and my living room. And yes messing rooms are more fun to paint, now a reason to avoid house work...life really is good.

Preparing to be spontaneous

Preparing to be spontaneous......

As weird, as it sounds spontaneity can be planned.

I do this is with acrylic painting. I often paint with acrylics on watercolor paper.

Most of my watercolor paper is 140 lb weight cold press. By the time I am done working it is usually at least twice as thick. This is because it is coated with gesso prior to painting.

I coat the paper for 2 reasons. I love texture in my art work, and blank white paper or canvases scare the tar out of me.

Gesso comes in many forms, thin, thick, grey, white, black, colors and clear. If you only have white, it can be tinted with a color, or you can get colored gessoes from Holbein (China red is my favorite), or Daniel Smith (gold is really fun to use).

A basic layout or composition plan can also be started using a couple of colors of gesso.

Using gesso with color knocks out my two issues right at the start. I spread the gesso thickly with a spreader leaving scrapes and ridges randomly and generally use a mid tone color so that all I have to focus on are my lights and darks when painting.

When one side is coated and dry, I flip it over and do the back. By doing the back there are now two surfaces for me to work on, and it helps to thicken and flatten the paper.

I have started making my own spreader. Plastic snap on lids from food containers work great, and you are recycling at the same time. Clean the top off, then cut it in half, I also trim the corner edges a bit and they are ready to go.

These prepped sheets are set aside until I get in the mood to start painting, or as it really appears, dive into a spontaneous mess of splashing paint around.

A Secret...

A secret I am sharing

This month’s blog is about how and where ideas can come from.
Never under estimate something that attracts your eye. Awhile back, I noticed that something on my amazingly messing work desk kept drawing my attention.
I had piled up a number of small sketches and paintings randomly all over my desk.
The spot that I noticed when ever I walked by was a small painting that was partly covered an ink line drawing. I knew it looked interesting but could not figure out why. After looking at it several times, I just decided to do a quick ink and watercolor of the small pile. What resulted was an abstract looking landscape that I decided to work into a completed painting.
Going with the abstract landscape idea, several more small watercolors developed.
From this, I learned a few things:

1. If something attracts your visual attention, work with it even if it is not logical to start with. The creative side of an artist mind can find a way to make it work.

2. Take a new idea or direction and do a series from it. It is like completing a thought and is very rewarding.

3. Give your self-permission to try something new and unexpected.

4. If a design looks interesting, try investigating it with a limited number of colors focusing on the lights and darks to work the design toward a finish.

5. Don’t second guess, go with an idea, and let the creative side of you mind do the work not the logical side.

6. It is OK to be messy….really like this one ;)

more paintings from that one original idea:


and a few ideas in wait, another pile of scraps, leaves on table, and a photo shop work up of one of the paintings, think this will keep me busy for a while. Now go and see what you can find.

practice and play

Practice, practice, practice. I heard this as a kid growing up and really hated it. It might have been because I did not love what I was practicing. My mom want me to master the piano, later in life I found out I had some hearing disability, that explains why I never enjoyed learning to play music. Now that I have a true passion for visual art, I love practice and encourage it. The trick is to make it fun, even an adventure. Pick up a pen or brush when ever possible and draw, doodle, experiment with color, or just light and shadows.

These are examples of taking a simple subject and turning practice into an adventure.

Working on simple tree structure, play with the light, shadow, but with unexpected color combinations. Who says the sky needs to be blue, why not let the tree be blue. Paintings these I worked on simple eye hand coordination, yet adventured into a new area of color.

Pick a simple subject and see how many ways you can change just one part of the composition.

putting the PC to work

There are many art tools, paper, paint, brushes, but sometimes over looked, is using a photo.
The digital camera is important, for saving records of your work to files, and for sharing by email or on sites like Facebook, Wetcanvas.com or Myspace.
But there is so much more that can be done with those photos. Playing with saved copies of the photos on Photoshop, Paint.net or a free and easy one IrfanView, can help you create. Notice I mentioned using "saved copies". That is very important. A photo of art work you plan to experiment with should be a extra saved copy, with a separate file name so that the original isn't lost or destroyed.
The program I use is IrfanView it has options for creating negatives, and a number of special effects. I have a couple of pics of paintings that were cropped, turned into negatives, and I used a color swap program, that lets me see what other looks I can get from an original idea.
Give it a try with some of your work and see if it sparks some new ideas from your originals.