Monday, January 26, 2009

Exerpts from my book, chapter on Color Theory ...

THINKING IN PRIMARY COLORS
Initially when an artist begins to match color by sight, there is much confusion about whether or not to buy all of those beautiful color mixtures, premixed in a rainbow of paint tubes, that are guaranteed to stretch your arm out when you carry all of them to a location beyond your own studio. However, if the creative mind can simplify its thinking by interpreting all colors into the three primaries, this can be a very easy process without creating monkey arms in the process. What I am suggesting is that you have in your palette, a warm and cool form of each primary color and a few other highly used colors like brown, white, and green. I will cover the specific colors that I use in the chapter on color (see page xx).
How do you begin to teach yourself to think in primaries? Look at each color and find the two significant primaries. If the color is bright and a red, yellow, or blue, but not pure as what comes from your tube, then add the compliment. The compliment is the color directly across from your color on a color wheel (see page xx). Think of your brown tones and gray tones as a mixture of all three primary colors. Both of these colors are created by adding all three of the primaries together. Understand that the only difference in mixing brown or gray is that gray has more blue, and brown has more yellow and red. Once you know the dominant color, you have to decide what the second color is that is influencing this tone. Next, think about secondary colors. Your job is half done if the shade is closer to an orange, green, or violet. Once you decipher the color into the two main colors, add the third primary and/or white in small amounts to dull the shade or tint to the tone that you are seeing. It’s that simple.

Recent Work



Today's model session.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Artist's Way Workshop ...




I have created some fun canvases from the 'reframed' blurts we made at the Artist's Way 'Jump Start' workshop. Filled with positive statements about Artist's, my canvases are a conversation peice and reminder that we are wonderful people! Those negative statements will now be changed forever with these little charms to hang on your wall. Buy full set for $450 or $50 each.

Exerpts from my book, chapter on Grisaille (or not) ...

To Grisaille or or not to ...
It is up to you, the artist, to decide what style you want to use when painting a portrait. There are many different styles that include or don’t include a preliminary coating of the canvas. I often prefer to do a painting directly on a white canvas, as it will keep the luminosity of pure bright colors rich and strong.
But, there are other times when I want to create more of a ‘deep mood’ than a statement of color. Grisaille painting is wonderful for this reason. You can paint in the moody method of the Renaissance painter with the right knowledge of how it is done.
When I first began painting in 1984, I was taught to paint the whole image with just burnt umber, scrubbing it in thin and literally erasing out my highlights. I still teach some of my new timid students to use this method, as it helps them learn to evaluate value and make their often timid use of value stronger in contrast by force. Since that time, I have learned more about the original use by the masters of painting both warm and cool tones, in values of gray and brown, to emphasize not only the value, but the temperature of the light and shadow.
Grisaille is a method of using gray in the cool tones of your model. Bistre is the method of using brown tones in the warm lights. Together, they create a full range of values that are not only rich in depth, but illuminated with temperature of value. Glaze is added over the top of your Grisaille and Bistre and produce a finished painting. (see the chapter on ‘Glazing’ for more information on methods and techniques).

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