Indirect Painting or Flemish Technique: Step 1 - Imprimatura (cont.)

Indirection Painting or the Flemish technique can be broken down into five steps:

1. Imprimatura or Ground 
2. Underdrawing 
3. Underpainting / Dead Color 
• Brunaille 
• Verdaccio 
• Grisaille 
4. Overpainting 
5. Semi-Transparent Glazes

It is important to note that throughout time each artist or academy had slightly different approaches to the style, but the basic stages were the same. Today I will be covering Step 1: The Imprimatura. (I have already written about the imprimatura, which you can read here. If you have not read that post, I recommend reading it. There will be overlap between the two, but somethings are different.)

Why the Imprimatura? 

The imprimatura, or "first paint layer," is the initial stain of color painted over the blank ground of your support. This is usually done before a sketch is laid down. Using an imprimatura is as common in oil painting as white paper is in watercolor. The imprimatura can help create a unified color harmony throughout the colors painted on top of it and reduce the time and effort needed to arrive at a certain value range. If, while painting, you ever stand back and feel that your colors don't quite "match," try starting your work with an imprimatura. This can help create balance and unity.

Colored Imprimaturas 

Traditionally the imprimatura was almost always moderate in intensity and value, and tended to rely on the low cost and quick dry qualities of earth pigments. Below is a list, from the Complete Oil Painter by Brian Gorst, of colors commonly used for imprimaturas. Where I can, I have included links to examples of each color being used in the description.    

1. Gray: The main function of gray is to remove the glaring whiteness of the original ground. A light-toned gray is the multi-purpose imprimatura and is useful for all genres. It also allows flexibility when your color scheme is still undecided. It was sometimes used by artists such as Monet. 

2. Terre Verte: This earth green was often used under areas of flesh by Byzantine and Medieval painters, such as Duccio, of the 13th and 14th centuries, but had continued use even past Michelangelo. The green helps neutralize the effects of strong pinks and reds, allowing for a natural skin color. 

3. Earth Red/Burnt Sienna: Used by landscape artists to give breath to green foliage, it also creates a mauve hue when sky and clouds are painted over it. This effect can be seen in works by Turner. These colors are also used by figure and portrait painters to help establish warm shadow masses, and was often used in the French figurative tradition by artists ranging from Poussin to Degas. 

4. Dark Brown or "bole:" A bole ground is usually an opaque mixture of Earth or Mars Red, black, and a small amount of Yellow Ochre. Still used today by traditional portrait and figure painters, a bole background came into style by artists such as Caravaggio and the young Velazquez.   

5. Yellow Ocher/Raw Sienna: These earth yellows provide a rich, warm imprimatura which maintains a sense of luminosity. Used by landscape and portrait painters to give a work a warm, golden undertone. You can see this used in works by Rubens.

6. Burnt Umber/Raw Umber: Both are cheap, quick-drying, and semi-transparent, making them ideal for a thin imprimatura. These colors were used by artists such as da Vinci and Van Eyck.  

7. Light Blue: Sometimes preferred by alla prima painters as a luminous base, using a blue imprimatura allows for water, skies, and atmospheric effects to be developed quickly. I have no idea who starts out with blue. 

8. White: A plain white imprimatura is the most luminous imprimatura for glazing. The drawback is that it makes opaque paint appear darker by contrast. The white ground was first consistently used by Manet, and then later by artists such as Seurat and Derain. 

Looking back through art history's use of imprimaturas can help you decide on the look and feel you would like to have in your own paintings, and is always the first step in copying a master's work. 

Monet vs Manet 

Looking at the top image of this post you will see two paintings by famous artists, Monet and Manet.

Manet was known for using white as his imprimatura, and this is exactly one of the reasons why the French Salon rejected his work. A white imprimatura can be difficult to work with when you do not understand how it can affect your color palette.

Using a white imprimatura should be done with purpose, as Manet did. You can see in Manet's Luncheon on the Grass how the white creates an unbalanced color harmony. The darks become too dark and lights too light against the white background. The blues and green seem to stand apart verses meld together and the yellows don't quite work wth their surrounding browns.

Manet did this on purpose. If this is also your purpose, run with the white, but be careful and aware that sometimes it just doesn't work out.



Monet on the other hand almost always used a colored imprimatura. While he did occasionally use white, you will usually see light blue (left), gray (middle), or yellow (right) coming through his works. His use of the imprimatura is a perfect example of how the correct imprimatura can help brightly painted, multi-colored works maintain a balanced color harmony.

Creative Block and How to Fix it!

Turns out that there isn't really all that much one can do, but to push through. Take a look:

Also the primary reason I want a house is so that I can have a kitten, this video is fun: 

Indirect Painting: The Flemish Technique or Classical Approach

Indirect Painting has a long and complicated history. It is often referred to as the Flemish Technique as it was first widely used during the early 15th Century by Northern Renaissance artists. It is also thought to have been first invented by the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck.

Jan Van Eyck, "St. Barbara," 1437                                                   Jan Van Eyck, "The Arnolfini Portrait," 1434

For centuries the indirect painting style was the only way to use oil paints. It wasn't until the late 1800 and early 1900s, as Impressionism's direct style started to become more and more popularized, that indirect painting went out of vogue. Although initially its techniques were still taught in artistic academies, it was during the 1950s that, at least in general, it was removed from almost all academic platforms both in the United States and abroad.

Indirect Painting is different from direct painting as it is painted in stages or layers, allowing each stage to dry before continuing.

Each artist or academy had slightly different approaches to the style, but the basic stages to Indirect Painting are:

1. Imprimatura or Ground 
2. Underdrawing 
3. Underpainting / Dead Color  
• Brunaille 
• Verdaccio 
• Grisaille 
4. Overpainting 
5. Semi-Transparent Glazes

Over the coming weeks I will be writing a separate post about each of these stages as well as a small history of indirect painting. In this small history I will show that indirect painting was not the creation of an individual man, but rather the culmination of decades of manuscript illumination.  

To read more about other painting techniques, check out my main Tips and Techniques page. 

BBC News: The World's Most Expensive Paintings

A Vault for Colors: The Forbes Pigment Collection

Via Colossal: Photos courtesy Zak Jensen & Andrea Shea/WBUR

The extensive collection of pigments of the Forbes pigment collection is amazing, and a place that I definitely would like to visit. Below is a little excerpt from an article written at Colossal and a video from Great Big Story about the collection. 

Colossal: Harvard’s Colorful Library Filled With 2,500 Pigments Collected from Around the World

The Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at Harvard Art Museums is different than many other departments of its kind—it's visible to the public. The public can witness conservators at work as well as view 2,500 pigment samples placed in tincture bottles and housed behind tall glass cabinets. The samples are reminiscent of medicine bottles—the concentrated material’s purpose to help doctor paintings rather than physical maladies. 

The Forbes pigment collection was started by its namesake—Straus Center founder and former Fogg Art Museum Director Edward Forbes who began the collection at the turn of the 20th century. Forbes would collect his samples from his travels all over the world, bringing back pigments from excavated sites at Pompeii to rare lapis lazuli found in Afghanistan.

Forbes’ interest in pigments and preservation started with his purchase of the 14-century Madonna and Child with Saints, which he bought in 1899 and noticed that the painting was quickly deteriorating. Harvard Art Museums research curator Francesca Bewer remarks in her book A Laboratory for Art: Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in America, 1900-1950 that he then began a passionate exploration into the process of how paintings were made. This interest led to collecting the materials needed for the preservation of fine artworks alongside his own collection of early Italian paintings.

Colossal's article also mentions this database, CAMEO: Conservation & Art Materials Encyclopedia Online, which I didn't know existed. Not only is the database impressively extensive, but it also houses a digital database of the Forbes' pigments! I am going to have to go through and read about the pigments I have already written about just to make sure I have all of my information correct. 

If you would like to read about various oil pigments, but in much smaller doses, take a look at my Pigment posts on my main Tips and Techniques page. 

Is it Safe to Oil Paint while Pregnant? Yes

Mary Cassatt, "Sleepy Baby," 1910 

Note: This post should not be taken as medical advice. I am not a doctor, and while my own doctor has given me the go-ahead, this post should be taken only as my opinion.

After "coming out" about my pregnancy I have gotten all types of questions/comments about painting:

Are you still going to paint now that you are pregnant? Yes.

NOTE: I have rewritten this post on my new blog. You can read it here: 

https://www.katherinegriffinstudio.com/post/is-it-safe-to-oil-paint-while-pregnant-yes-and-some-advice-for-the-new-artist-mom-dad-from-an-old

I wrote the original while I was pregnant with my first baby. Now ten years later I have advice for new art parents as well. Or you can continue reading the old post below.

Well, I guess you are going to have to stop painting now that you will have kids, aren't you? Nope.

Are you aware of how hard it will be for you to paint when you have a baby? Yep, I know it will be hard.

At least with the new baby you don't have a job to worry about, right? Nope, I do.

Well you don't make money at it, so it isn't really a job, right? Nope, I do and yep, it is.

Thanks world for making me feel good!

The truth of the matter is that there are LOTS of moms who are successful artists. Kind of like how there are lots of moms in all professions. Painting is not some special space where moms are irresponsible if they continue to do what they love. That being said, there are some elements to painting that every pregnant artist should be aware of.

How to make your painting space pregnancy and baby friendly: 

1. Always maintain good ventilation, even in winter.

2. Eliminate all solvents. This is key and easy.
                a.  Cleaning your brushes without solvents is healthier and cleaner.
                b. Use non-toxic Gamblin's Solvent-Free Gel or M. Graham's Non-Toxic Alkyd as a medium.
                c. Be aware that although some solvents are odor free, such as Gamblin's Gamsol, they are still very toxic and should not be used while pregnant.

3. Minimize the use of Cadmium, Cobalt, and Lead while pregnant.
               a. If using Cadmium paints, wash your hands regularly or use gloves.
               b. Replace Cadmium with Azo pigments. Azo pigments have almost the same base color as the various Cadmiums, but without the toxicity.
               c. Cobalt is an easy pigment to replace and is so expensive it is usually not a part of the general palette. All the same, take a look at your paints just to double check.
               d. Never use lead-based paints while pregnant. Happily there are now more than enough options that this should not be an issue.

4. Never allow baby to sleep in your painting space. Be aware of the amount of time baby is spending around your paints and place baby in a different room when possible.

If you have any tips for pregnant ladies that I didn't think of, leave a comment. For more Tips and Techniques, take a look at my main Tips page.

Watching Paint Dry: How to Get your Painting to Dry Faster

As deadlines approach, sometimes finishing a painting seems beyond reason, forget giving it enough time to dry.

Below are some quick tips to help your oil paintings dry faster:

1. If you know that you'll be rushed for time, try using more thinner than oil in your medium (while maintaining the Fat over Lean rule).

2. A professor once mentioned that you can dry a painting in the oven on the lowest setting. She always warned us that it will make the entire house smell and that you risk burning the painting, though. So maybe not the best option.

3. A blow dryer. Be prepared to sit there for hours.

4. A space heater. This is my preferred method when I need a painting to be dry a day before it wants to be. Select the lowest heat setting and let it go for hours.

5. Put your painting under the rear window of a warm car. The warmth inside the car will help heat the layers.

Even though these methods can help speed up the drying time, they will by no means take a wet, thickly painted canvas and make it dry by morning. Remember, oils do not dry by dehydration, but by oxidation. Adding additional heat helps to increase the rate of chemical reactions your painting is undergoing. Always remember to maintain a well-ventilated area and to have patience.

Warning: Never use the above methods unless you are completely finished with the painting. Trying to force drying time between layers can lead to cracking and a lot of swearing. Trust me, I know.

For more tips about painting, take a look at my main Tip and Techniques page.

Vantablack: Can an Artist really own a Color?

According to articles by The Guardian and Quartz magazine, yes an artist can.

Vantablack is the "new black" as of 2014. It is considered to be the blackest black, as it reportedly absorbs 99.96% of all light that hits it. In fact, the science behind Vantablack was originally created by a team of NASA engineers who developed a "blacker-than pitch material to help scientists gather hard-to-obtain scientific measurements" and "observe currently unseen astronomical objects, like Earth-sized planets in orbit around other stars." The black was further developed and named by the British company NanoSystems to make stealth satellites stealthier, as it is like looking into a black hole. And now the artist Anish Kapoor (you know, the guy who made the giant, reflective bean in Chicago) has all painting rights to it. As you can imagine, this has gotten a few people up in arms. According to the Guardian:

Painters are outraged that Anish Kapoor, the British sculptor who designed the blood-red Orbit tower for the London Olympics, has exclusive rights to the artistic use of this revolutionary new colour. NanoSystems has confirmed that he alone can paint [with] Vantablack.

This new black isn't exactly a paint, however. According to Quartz:

The thing to remember is that the coveted super-black substance is actually not paint but very tiny tubes composed of carbon, explains former NASA optical physicist John Hagopian, who now runs a startup developing carbon nanotechnology for engineering purposes. The super black is actually “grown” in the lab, the matte black effect coming from seeing a dense patch of these tiny carbon nanotubes which absorbs nearly all light. 

I personally am not super disappointed by the fact that I will never be able to get my hands on a black almost as black as a black hole. I mean... it would be cool, but using it seems a little too difficult for my tastes. Again according to Quartz:

For artists itching to use the scarce super-black substance, Hagopian cautions that applying the material is not as easy as picking up a can of paint. The process involves a gas mask and a special enclosure for the “complex chemical vapor deposition,” and inhaling the fine carbon-based material can be as hazardous as inhaling asbestos.

All-in-all, a black this black is pretty cool. Here is a video by NASA explaining how the black is grown (also, at the end of the video it says that they are getting ready to put this into space, but that actually just happened. Since the production of the video in 2013, the paint has been sent and used at the International Space Station):

To read more about Black pigments or just pigments in general, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.

How to Avoid Mixing Muddy Colors

Lord Frederic Leighton, "Cymon and Iphigenia," 1884

Keeping your colors crisp and bright, even when painting with a more subdued tone, can be difficult and frustrating for any artist at any stage. Below are some tips on how to avoid muddy color mixtures:

1. Limit Color Mixtures to Two or Three Pigments

Adding more than two or three pigments (excluding black and white) into a mixture can cause paints to grow dull and muddy. If you find that you are using more than three pigments, pause and reconsider your approach. You may need to go and purchase a different pigment.

Black and white, though, are not included in the two-to-three limitation as they change the value of the mixture and have less of an effect on the core color.

2. Avoid Using Cheap Paints 

Cheap, or student grade paints are full of fillers. When mixed together the amount of filler will overwhelm the amount of pigment and create mud.

3. Avoid Mixing Compliments

A perfect complimentary mixture, say of yellow and purple, will create gray. An imperfect complimentary mixture, say of a slight greenish-yellow and purple, will create brown. It is almost impossible to find a perfect compliment with paints straight out of a tube. Because of this, avoid mixing compliments.

4. Avoid Over Mixing 

When mixing a color combination on your palette, do not blend the mixture into a perfect uniform blob. This will cause the paint to lose some of its light and vibrance. Instead, when mixing, do not over mix. Allow the mixture to finish mixing while being painted onto your canvas.

5. Use Both Mixtures and Straight Pigments 

While painting use both mixtures and paint straight out of the tube. This will help colors to appear bright.

6. Maintain a Light Color and a Dark Color Paint Brush 

While painting use one paintbrush only for light areas, and another only for dark. It can take some time to get used to switching back and forth between your two brushes (in fact, I am always messing up), but it is worth trying. This will help keep your darks dark and your brights bright.

I usually have three brushes: one for lights, one for darks, and one for mid-tones.

7. Use a Clean Brush for Blending 

Just as over mixing your colors can cause problems, so too can over blending with unclean brushes. If you want two sections of paint to blend, pick up a clean brush (fan or other), and blend the two colors with the clean brush and not with your used brushes. Not only will this make blending easier, but it will also limit the introduction of additional paint which can muddy your blend.

If you have any questions or tips that I did not think of for avoiding muddy colors, leave a comment! To read more tips about painting, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.

Just Because: Color Perception Tests and Boredom

In college I had a professor who was just a weird dude. He considered himself a mark above the other professors in both talent and teaching ability (this was pathetically not true), and particularly considered his eyes to be "color experts." His color hubris was so strange to me. I mean, obviously everyone wants to have good eyes, and particularly as an artist you want to be able to discern color well. But what is the point of being better than everyone else, when literally no one would be able to see that you are?

Maybe I am just jealous. I do not have the best color perception. I mean it is good, like totally above acceptable, but I do have a hard time with green-blues. I know this because sometimes when I am looking at green-blues my eye balls go crazy, and there are also the scores I get on perception tests.

I got super bored today which means like any normal person I turned to color perception tests for entertainment. Obviously this is something everyone does, right?

Would you like to know how well you discern color? Now I don't mean like whether or not you are color blind, but whether or not you can "see" color correctly.

Below are some links that I highly recommend for testing your color perception. To take the test or game click on the title link below:

The Color Game 

During the game you have one minute to click on the different colored squares. As the game continues it increases in difficulty.

My highest score is 47, but I usually land in the high to mid 30s. But then there are those times when I barely make 20 because I get stuck on this bright, old school blue that I just can't see.














Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test

This will tell you where you have a color deficiency. I do! I score three, always, on this test. Always in the same range of green-blues. Husband gets a perfect score of 0.

Fun Fact from the site: 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency. I guess that means I am that 1. 

Color

This test also increases in difficulty, and as it goes it can sometimes be confusing as to which color you are controlling. I recommend taking more than one stab with this one. My highest score is 9.2, but I generally get around 8.9. 

So, what did numbers did you get? 

How to Correct Dull, Sunken Colors: Oiling Out Vs Creating a Couch

Have you ever come back to a painting after a couple of days of drying and realized that the colors are not what they were when wet? Or that there are spots that look dull and sunken while others look bright and glossy?

This can happen for a couple of reasons: 1. The ground you are working on is extra absorbent and is sucking the oil from your paint, or 2. You are using too much solvent in your medium solutions. 

Luckily the solution, oiling out, is simple, but the application from artist to artist can be varied.  

Oiling Out During The Painting Process 

Oiling out is simply a process by which a medium is applied over the dull area in order to bring back the area's luster. How this is done varies from artist to artist, but the general steps are the same: 

1. Using a brush or makeup sponge, apply your oiling out medium either over the entire painting or just over the dull area. Some oiling out medium solution options are as follows: 

• 50/50 Oil Medium to Solvent 
• Straight Linseed or Walnut Oil Medium  

2. Once applied, allow your medium to be absorbed for about two minutes. During this time some artists will rub the medium into the painting with their fingers. 

3. Wipe off your medium with a lint-free cloth or paper towel. 

• I first learned to oil out by repeating steps 1-3 first with straight solvent and then with straight medium. When I have done this, a small amount of paint will lift off onto my towel. While it does work well at bringing the dull areas back to life, because of this I have stopped using this method. 

4. Continue painting using the Thick over Thin rule. 

Oiling Out After the Painting is Finished 

Because I do not use solvents while painting, I tend to not have a terrible time with my paints sinking; however, this does not mean that I do not oil out. I like to oil out my paintings when they are finished. To oil out a painting when finished, you can use the same process above or increase the oil content of your mixture for greater gloss. 

I like to use 70/30 Stand oil to Solvent (or rather my Walnut Alkyd Drying Medium, as again I do not use solvents).

Oiling out once your final painting is dry to the touch helps even out glossy and dull areas. This should always be done before you varnish a painting. I will be discussing more about varnishing in a future post. 

Below are two videos. While not of awesome production value, they do explain Oiling Out wonderfully: 

Creating or Painting into a Couch

Oiling out and creating a couch are similar, but are used to do different things. A couch is a thin layer of medium that is not meant to luster dull areas, but rather to create a thin layer you can paint into. Your couches should be the same as the medium solutions that you are using for that particular layer. 

For example, if I am using 3 drops of Walnut Oil to 3 drops of Alkyd for the layer that I am working on, my couch will be made of the same solution. To paint a couch do the following: 

1. Apply your medium solution only over the area you plan to paint. 

2. Allow to sit for two minutes. 

3. Wipe off excess medium. 

4. Start Painting. 

Couches allow for even medium usage throughout the layer; as the medium is already up on your canvas, you will not need to dip your brush into more medium. Couches are also ideal for glazing.

I love couches, but I do not use them all of the time. I have found that for some textures I will use a couch and for others I will not.

To read more about Oiling out, I recommend reading here and here. For more videos go here and here.  If you have any questions about Oiling out, please leave a comment. For more about Oil Painting check out my main Tips and Techniques page. 

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

Purple, like blue, is a color of status and wealth. Worn by Roman magistrates, Byzantine and Asian Emperors, Roman Catholic bishops, and Suffragettes. It is associated with majesty and magic. However, it is rarely found as a painted pigment in old master works.

This is due to three things: a purple pigment for paint does not exist in nature; blue, at the time, was a rare and an extremely high value pigment; and purple organic dye was very expensive and very fugitive as a paint pigment. By fugitive I mean it would fade like nobody's business.

Blue pigment was more expensive than gold, therefore using blue to mix purple was a status symbol. The purples that we see in old master works were mixed from blue, such as in the works by Giotto.

Purple dye dates back to the Phoenicians, Phoenicia meaning "land of purple." The organic Tyrian Purple dye was made from a small gland of the murex sea snail. Thousands of snails would be captured or bred, then with shells removed they would 

be soaked in water until bloated and their hypobranchial gland removed. The gland produces a white liquid that when placed in the sun would change color from white to yellow-green to green to purple to blood red if left long enough. 12,000 snails would only create 1.4 g of dye. Just enough to dye the trim of a garment. While Tyrian Purple created a long lasting, dynamic dye, as a pigment it would quickly and very expensively fade.  

Now that doesn't mean purple was not used, it was just very expensive to use. Much like orange and red, purple as a pigment did not come into its own until the 19th century when at eighteen William Henry Perkin created the first synthetic purple called mauve.

Top Characteristic: Purple can be used to create deep, full shadows, and is essential for botanical and nature painting. Look for purple shadows cast off of yellow buildings and plants.

Purple is sometimes considered to be one of the least necessary paint pigments to purchase, because it is so easy to mix. However, it is important to note that some purples, such as Cobalt Violet, cannot be mixed.

Pigment Numbers (PV#): Along with the paint names, I have also included the pigment numbers. Look for these numbers to make sure you are purchasing a true purple and not a cheaper mix, as purples can sometimes come with various names.

Cobalt Violet (PV14): Considered the first real violet, Cobalt Violet is a warm, transparent purple with an extremely weak tint that cannot be mixed using other pigments.

Because Cobalt Violet is so weak you will not always find it in its pure form, but rather mixed with its cleaner and stronger cousin Manganese Violet (PV16), which gives the paint more body, but the color does change slightly. Pure Cobalt, because it is so weak, mixes poorly and becomes gray, but as a final coat or glaze it sings.

Cobalt Violet was used by artists such as Monet and Seurat.

Manganese Violet (PV 16):  A stronger violet than Cobalt, Manganese Violet is a warm, transparent purple with a muted tint.

A little redder than Cobalt, Manganese can give an artist the strength and body that Cobalt lacks. When mixed with white it creates a warm lavender tint. It is considered to be the original mauve pigment.

Quinacridone Violet (PV 19): A synthetic pigment sold under many different names, Quinacridone Violet is an extremely red, warm, transparent purple with a strong tint.

When looking for this color particularly, check the paint label for the pigment number because its names are so varied.

Dioxazine Purple: One of the more versatile purples, Dioxazine is a cold, transparent purple, with a strong tint.

Considered the strongest tinter and most transparent of any pigment, Dioxazine is so dark (the sample swatch was painted extremely thinly so you could actually see the purple color) that it can be used as a deep black. It is advised to use it sparingly because it is so strong, but when used correctly it creates lovely purples and tints. It is also the most commonly used purple.
   
How to Pick the Right Purple 

Like orange, you can hold off on purchasing a purple until you have acquired some of the more necessary paints. That being said, I love having a Dioxazine Purple to work into dark backgrounds, and purples are necessary for botanical paintings.

Both the Lilly and Chuck Norris's backgrounds were painted first with Burnt Sienna, then Pthalo Blue, and finally darkened using Dioxazine Purple. 

Remember, when you are picking which purple to paint with always consider the following characteristics: color temperature and tinting strength (opacity doesn't really come into play as most purples are transparent). For a warm purple first consider Manganese Violet (depending on the provider the name can differ, check for the pigment number PV16) and for a cool purple Dioxazine Purple. 

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

Purple used throughout Art

Below are some wonderful examples of purple in art in the following order: Giotto, Fyodor Rokotov, John William Waterhouse, Van Gogh, Klimt, and David Hockney.

Delve Video Essays: The Long Game Parts 1, 2, and 3

Below are three video essays on the importance of the "long game" as an artist and the necessity to see the hard times through. Obviously the ideas presented here can apply to anyone, not just artists.

Colossal - Painting in the Dark 

In the age of social media and the over-saturation of information, seeking recognition as an artist or designer can at times be a difficult, self-defeating effort. Creative individuals understandably have high expectations for the reception of their work, and hope for a public response that correlates with the labor spent on its products. In Adam Westbrook's new video essay[s] we get a fantastic argument against the perceived value of modern popularity tied to social media likes and shares. 

I am not 100% solid on the ideas presented in the videos. Mostly because I don't think that you are less of an "artist" for wanting recognition, nor do I think you are more of an "artist" because you suffer for art's sake as a complete autotelic. However, even with that, it can be helpful to have some perspective. 

What do you think? Should the end goal be autotelicy (made up the word), or being able to feed yourself doing something that you love? 

Also, I think that I will be creating a new link for my Art Tips and Techniques page, something like Helpful Videos for Artists. 

Color Temperature: A Pigment's Tell and a little bit about Blue

The other day I was wondering what the difference was between Ultramarine Blue and French Ultramarine Blue (because that is something normal people wonder about), and I learned something new about color temperature.

99% of the time the color temperature of a paint is easy to tell, but then there is that 1%. For me, it is with blues. I forget which is which and need to look them up. Before, in my head I classified colors into how close they were to blue or orange, blue being the coolest and orange being the warmest.

The problem that I ran into with trying to decide the temperature of Ultramarine and French Ultramarine, beyond that they are both blue and therefore cooler than most colors, is that they reside on opposite sides of "true blue." Does this make the both of them warm, since they are moving away from blue? But then how does that work with cool blues? I was confused and took to the internets.

I found a lovely little post from the American Society of Botanical Artists that explained the difference between warm and cool in a way that should have been obvious.

Most pigments will either have a green or red bias, not an orange or blue bias. Those with a green bias are cool while those with a red bias are warm. Thinking of warm and cool in this way simplifies, at least for me, color temperature.

Ultramarine has a slight green bias and therefore is cool. French Ultramarine leans towards violet with a slight red bias and therefore is warm. Ta da! Mystery solved! You can read more about their differences here.

You can also read about why color temperature is important for accurate lights and shadows here and check out my main Tips and Techniques page for more information about painting.

Tonking: How to Smooth Paint Strokes or Paint Thickness without Disturbing the Paint

Tonking is a very useful tool to have in your artist tool kit. Named after Henry Tonks, tonking is when a piece of paper (newspaper, rag, or paper towel) is used to smooth painting strokes or reduce the thickness of paint without disturbing the painting surface.

Take the images below, for example. I was unhappy with the colors of the kitten's paws (far left image) and decided to paint a transparent, color-correcting, blue glaze over them (center image). After painting the glaze I had three problems: too much medium, too much paint, and visible brush strokes.

Using a paper towel, I tonked the blue paint by covering the paw, and then rubbing in order to remove some of the blue paint.

I continued to tonk the paws until the desired amount was removed.

In order to remove brush strokes I could have also used a fan brush, but a fan brush would have disturbed the placement of the paint. Use tonking in lieu of a fan brush when you like the placement of the paint but need to:

1.  reduce the amount of paint
2.  reduce the amount of medium
3.  reduce brush strokes without disturbing the paint


For more about painting, check out my main Tips and Techniques page.

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.



I have rewritten this post here: 

https://www.katherinegriffinstudio.com/post/red-oil-paint-which-to-use-cadmium-red-naphthol-red-alizarin-crimson-or-quinacridone-red

This rewrite adds a little bit more meat to the discussion and some videos about red paint. 


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.

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

To read my updated version of this post, follow the link below (and I hope you are having a great day!): 

https://www.katherinegriffinstudio.com/post/oil-paint-colors-how-to-mix-or-purchase-the-perfect-paint-color-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.