Just Because: Yep and Yep

Gold Fish: Part 3

Turns out that I shouldn't have just played on my computer all week long when really I should have been painting. I am currently in California for Brother-in-Law getting married/Thanksgiving festivities, and will be all week long. This means no painting for me this week. Obviously this week was planned, but last week was not and now I am behind and that much closer to my deadlines. YAY! (nope)

Before we left, though, I did make a little bit more progress on the gold fish:

I like the way back fins have turned out. I have actually finished them off a little bit more, but forgot to take a final photo before leaving. To see past progress photos on the fishes click here and here.

Illustrator: B is for Black Bear, Berries, and Bees

I mean, it is no Charley Harper (ps, it is hard to go all minimal), but I am a little proud of myself. You would be too if you saw the first one I made...

I am not 100% sold. I feel that it could be better, but I am not sure how. Thoughts? 

Red Oil Paint: Pigments, Basics, and How to Pick the Right Red

Red is the most important color in the world. Why? I have no idea, but for some reason when people of every culture and language were sitting around making up words for stuff, the color that everyone gave a name to first was the color red. Always, throughout time, red is the first and blue is the last.

Red, the color of sin, nobility, authority, ceremony, and revolution, was not a very versatile hue until the 20th century when Cadmium Red become available and then even later in the 1950s when the automobile industry created more dynamic reds with the creation of transparent hues. If only Turner, Friedrich, and Martin had such reds! Not that they did too badly with what they had.



Top Characteristic: Red is one of the hardest pigments to use well. In strict atelier schools painting a red fabric is one of the last things learned due to the difficulty of creating red highlights to not appear bright pink and shadows to not grow too dark and muddy.

Cadmium Red: Made from the same process that creates Cadmium Yellow and Orange, Cadmium Red is almost a neutral opaque red, with a slightly warm cast and creates strong tints.

Boasting a strong masstone, Cadmium Red is usually picked as a primary in most color palettes for its clean mixtures and strong secondaries.

Cadmium Red is the much needed, synthetic replacement for the very toxic pigment Vermillion, also known as Cinnabar, a mercury sulfide mineral and was used throughout ancient China, Greece, and Rome. The Pompeiian baths at Titus and the Villa of the Mysteries used Vermillion. In fact, in ancient Rome prisoners were forced to extract the pigment from mercury mines, who would then die after only a few years of exposure to the heavy metal.

Cadmium Red was used by artists such as Henri Matisse, Franz Marc, and Marc Chagall, and is sometimes marketed as Cadmium Red Medium.

Naphthol Red: An organic red, Naphtol Red (also spelt Napthol and Naphtol) is a warm, semi-transparent red that closely matches Cadmium Red in masstone and produces strong tints.

It is an excellent choice when you want the color of Cadmium without its strong, sometimes overwhelming opaque qualities. It is, however, not as lightfast as Cadmium.
Rothko used Naphthol Red is several of his paintings.

Alizarin Crimson Permanent: Anciently known as Madder Lake, Alizarin is a cool, transparent red with a muted tint.

Originally made from madder root and used to dye clothing, Alizarin is now synthetically produced. Sadly, true Alizarin has a poor lightfastness and should be avoided. Luckily, a few companies do produce permanent, lightfast options. While these permanent options due differ in chemical composition from a true Alizarin, the Permanent option is still an excellent match in masstone and transparency.

As THE cool red, Alizarin is used by everyone. Artists such as Velasquez, Turner, Rockwell, and even Bob Ross used Alizarin.

Quinacridone Red: A product of the automobile industry, Quinacridone Red is a cool, transparent red with a moderate tinting strength.

Quinacridone matches the opaque Cadmium Red Deep in masstone, but is useful when a true transparent red is wanted. Quinacridone also offers a lesser cool option to Alizarin that also provides stronger, brighter mixtures. Since its manufacture in the 1950s Quinacridone is a staple of almost all color palettes.

When wanting an opaque companion to Quinacridone, as stated before, consider Cadmium Red Deep.

How to Pick the Right Red 

Red is the most temperamental of all colors (yellow a close second) and is the color I recommend initially investing in the most. I have six reds: Cadmium Light, Medium, and Deep as well as Alizarin Permanent, Napthol, and Quinacridone and unlike with other colors, I use all six consistently, with the exception of Cad Red Med. I personally prefer the softer quality of Napthol.

As a beginner painter Alizarin, Quinacridone, and Cad Red Med (or Napthol) are a must. Normally I recommend needing only a cool and warm primary, but red is a different story.

Remember when you are picking which red to paint with always consider the following characteristics: color temperature, tinting strength, and opacity.  Of the three mentioned above Alizarin and Quinacridone allow for cool transparencies, while Cad Red Med provides a strong warm, opaque red.

For more about colors and their pigment characteristics take a look at my Tips and Techniques page.

Graphic Stuff: Cardinal and Drawing

Sunday was my birthday and it was super great. Art stuff is always a safe bet with me, and I scored on that front. Husband got me a new toy (an intuos tablet) and my friend, Buddy (who is pychic), got me two books. One on Charlie Harper and another titled Plants and Their Application to Ornament. I squeaked when I opened them.

The past two days I have been a little bit obsessed with my new things and did not exactly paint anything. I did however draw with my new tablet and I copied Cardinal by Charley Harper.

The one on the left is mine and his is on the right. The seed/leaf things in my book are green, but all I could find online were the black and white ones. Also my cardinal is a little on the fat side.

Below is a copy of a character design that I did in photoshop with my new tablet. PS, I am horrible at this but not bad enough to give up. So, you know, a silver lining.

Characteristics of an Oil Paint: A Guideline to Purchasing the Perfect Paint Every Time

Walking into a store and looking at their rows upon rows of oil colors can be either very exciting (if you are like me and want them all) or very overwhelming (if you are also like me and you just want a red that will do what you want it to do but you don't know which one will do that).

When I need to purchase a new color, say red, it is usually not because I want a "new" red color (I always want all the colors), it is because I need a different "acting" red that will do something different from the reds that I already have. There are three general paint characteristics that will help you to find that "right" color: Color Temperature, Tinting Strength, and Opacity.

Color Temperature 

I talk a lot about color temperature. Color temperature, even for abstract painting, is important as it can help you create better color harmony throughout a work as well as create correct lights and shadows (yes, even abstracts have lights and shadows).

Orange is the warmest color on the color wheel, and blue is the coolest. As you move towards orange you get warmer colors; as you move towards blue you get cooler colors. So within each color family you'll have a variety of warm and cool colors. Take the simplified example below, of the green family:

Let's say I own the green on the top row, a solid Kelly green. I am painting a warm green shadow on a plant, and as I am painting I realize that this green isn't working. Why? Color temperature. The Kelly green is a cool color, and what I really need is a warm green from the second row. Knowing this I can go to my paint store and pick the right colored green.

But why can't I just mix the right green? You potentially could, but there is a season for mixing and sometimes a season for purchasing. After all, just having the right color doesn't mean you have the right paint.

Tinting Strength 

Tinting Strength refers to how strongly one color will affect another. Take Phalo Blue, for example. It has a very strong, or high tinting, strength. One drop will dye the entire room blue. Cerulean blue, on the other hand, has a very muted tint and is wonderful when you need just a nice subtle blue tinge.

Be careful not to assume that opacity and tinting strength are the same thing. In the case above, the high tinting Phalo Blue is transparent while the low tinting Cerulean is opaque. On the flip side, Titanium White is an opaque white will take over anything that you mix with it, while Zinc White is a transparent white with an extremely low tinting strength (which makes it perfect for delicate veil and lace details).

Opacity 

There are three levels of opacity: opaque, semi-transparent, and transparent. Opaque paints advance towards the viewer with a thick, buttery consistency. Transparent paints recede away from the viewer with a thin, glossy consistency.

How to Pick the Right Paint You Want and Need 

Going back to my first color, red. If I am a beginning artist with a limited color palette, I most likely only have Alizarin red (this was me when I first started painting). Let's say I am painting a warm red apple. Alizarin is a cool, transparent red with a muted tint. That's great for my apple's shadows, but what about the rest of it? I could warm my red with a warm yellow, but then I would have to use a huge amount of my low tinting Alizarin to get a deep red, and even then it still would not be the real red that I want.

What I need is an opaque red so that it will advance, a high tinting red so that I can add yellow without my red getting overpowered, and a warm red to balance my cool Alizarin shadows. But which red has these qualities?

My Pigment Posts 

The answer to our red question can be found in my color pigment posts. I have already written a few pigment posts (White, Black, Yellow, and Orange) and as I was working on Red I realized that maybe why I was writing these posts wasn't entirely clear. Hence this guideline to tell you why the information in the color posts is useful.

My color pigment posts do not cover all the reds (or all of the greens, etc) made by all of the paint companies. Instead I have picked the top, most common colors which can be purchased from just about any paint company. They are the ones you will want in your collection before moving on to other colors.

When you need to purchase a new color, I would recommend taking a look at these color posts to see if the color you need is among the ones mentioned. Most likely it will be.

If you want to learn more about all of the colors, not just the ones I cover, I recommend checking out the Gamblin and Grumbacher sites.

If you have more questions about how to use oil paints, take a look at my main Tip and Techniques page.

A Thought on my Art Tips and Techniques

Yesterday I showed someone my blog. It was a big step for me (hi Carl), as I have only told a handful of people about it. Which means I spend a good amount of time wondering who are all of the other people that read my blog (hello mystery people).

I showed this person my Tips and Techniques page, but after doing so I realized that my blog is not well organized. This will not be a problem when my new websites launches, but for now I have added a new label to the main page of my blog: Art Tips and Techniques Title Page, Links and Topics.

This way someone can just click on the label and go straight to the main technique topic page without having to wade through all of the other information. I will also start providing a link back to this main page in each new technique post.

Do you think this is a good idea? Does anyone have any other ideas as to how they would like me to improve the way I organize things?

Gold Fish: Part 2

Remember those fishies that I told you about forever long ago? Well I am finally working on them. The past two weeks I was a little out of commision. I got sick from babysitting sick kidos and then babysat them several times while being sick.

Not that I mind all that much, I mean they are pretty great:

But back to the fishies! Below are some progress shots (top two are the underpainting, bottom two are the overpainting), a detail image, and a special fishy movie trailer just for you! 

Daily Drawing: Ariel

I love illustration. I love animation. I love Disney. Sometimes I super want to be able to illustrate like peeps such as Brittney Lee (yep, she designed Elsa) or Jim Madsen. Growing up one of my best friends, Kay, was amazing at such things. I have never been awesome, but I have also never really tried either.

So today I give you my first attempt, a slightly forlorn looking Ariel:

One day I shall draw such things as the Historical Princess Series, I recommend taking a look at all of them, by Claire Hummel:

I particularly love the one of Maid Marian.

Snub-Nosed Monkey: Part 1

Snub-Nosed Monkeys are both beautiful and kind of creepy. Mostly because they have no nose. But don't worry, they make up for it with their killer fangs:

The babies (left) are not as colorful as the adolescents and adults, but they are so cute!

Recently I have felt that my drawing skills are falling by the wayside. Along with all of my other goals, which I rarely actually achieve, I am going to add drawing a little bit everyday.

Today I was perusing my Pinterest boards and came across the image of the baby snub-nosed and decided he was the one I was going to draw. Throughout the day I got a little bored painting and went back to the drawing a couple of times. Here it is so far:

I figure I will go slowly and really try to make a finished drawing. This is something I haven't done for a long time. We shall see how it goes.

Just Because: Honest Trailers - The Force Awakens

If you have never seen an Honest Trailers, I recommend taking a look at their youTube channel. They are really great. This one has a different flavor than their normal videos, but yeah...spot on:

I hope this movie has good reviews, if not, don't think I can go see it. 

And yes, I do already have my Tickets

Just Because: Things for Buddy

I have recently been finding several things across the internets that I think my friend, Buddy, would particularly enjoy. Mostly because she is awesome and for some reason I feel like writing a post is better than an email, like I have left her a secret present. To see more about each, click on the title links.


Classical Sculpture Action Figures

I want one.

Portraits of Auto Mechanics in the Style of Renaissance Painting by Freddy Fabris 

Dually Sinister and Playful Solarplate Etchings by Jaco Putker

Towering Wooden Set Pieces and Combustible Monuments by Manolo Garcia

I hope he made a lot of money on these things, I don't think I would be able to blow them up. 

Photographer Captures his Architectural Pilgramage 

“Architects of the Imagination” Highlights Disney and Dalí’s Unlikely Friendship

Turns out that they were friends, who knew? Also, it never occurred to me that they would be contemporaries. I have these categories in my head, and I have dates and time periods for those categories, but sometimes I fail to associate the different groups. Like with Disney and Dali. 

Models Recreate Gustav Klimt’s Golden Paintings

Yep that is a photograph, not a painting. 

Hi-Fructose: Juan Travieso

Hi-Fructose: Juan Travieso Debuts his Futruistic Paintings of Nature in NY

...In our interview with the artist, he shared, “As a part of nature, I am aware of the fact that we are trying so hard as a species to disconnect ourselves from what we are. I feel that it is my responsibility as an artist and as a citizen of the world to give voice to the powerless species on this earth.” Travieso recently made his debut in New York with a new series that offers a futuristic look at nature, particularly endangered species...