Colour--is what it is all about

Today I thought I would write a post about colour and its significance to the painting process. Most people learn about the primary colours; red, yellow and blue and how to mix these to get secondary colours of green, orange and purple. Some even go on to learn how to mix their tertiary colours from the primaries and secondary colours. The three qualities of colour are Hue, Value, and Intensity. The Hue is the pure pigment or basic colour such as yellow, or red. The value is how light or dark a colour is. The intensity is how bright or dull it is compared to its pure quality. Light changes the quality of colours. Without light, there is no colour. As a painter you will learn how to mix colours to get the colour you want. I believe mixing colour for painting is one of the most difficult aspects to painting. It takes time and effort. Many times you will have difficulties in trying to figure out how to make a colour. People who do not understand the skill involved in painting have no idea how difficult it is to build up those painting skills in order to get good enough to sell your work. Learning about colour and how to manipulate the colours when you are painting is a huge endeavor. Many artist try to use a limited palette. That means they just use a few basic colours and paint with. Limiting your palette will help to create a more harmonious painting. This means the same colours are throughout your painting, not just in one area. When you are mixing colours and want to lighten a colour, don't always use white, try to use a lighter colour instead such as yellow. This will give your painting more colour and not the dull look that white can give at times. Some colours just do not go together and you may end up with "mud." Another thing about painting is you need to limit your use of some colours such as phalo blue as this colour is a very strong paint colour and can easily overwhelm your painting. Other colours to use sparingly are some of the greens as they can be too strong. It is a good idea to try to learn how to mix your greens yourself. The green colours in nature are not as intense and are "grayed" down quiet abit. Also, the use of black is something many artist do not use. Instead they mix up a very dark purple colour and this adds a colour to your dark area. As I mentioned earlier in the post mixing colour is one of the most difficult jobs to painting and it will take lots of paint (you may waste lots too trying to mix) and lots of effort to learn how to get the colour you want. Don't give up! You will learn if you keep on making an effort. Eventually, you won't worry about it so much as you will automatically know how to make each colour you want. But getting to that point will take some time. Good luck and happy mixing!

Ideas for Paintings

Tonight I wanted to post about painting ideas. At various times I will have an idea come to me about a painting that I think may be a good one and I like it and want to paint it and I have learned I have to write that "bit of inspiration" down or I will forget. It has to be something that I can get excited about and think "that would be a great painting!" Many times I have had an idea come to me and I didn't write it down at the time and it was lost to me.

Another thing I have learned to do over the years is to keep pictures of things I have got over the years as a reference for my painting. I have a photo box that is specifically for keeping reference photos for helping me on visualizing something I need to paint. For example, I may need to paint an animal and it is helpful to me to have a photo of that animal to see how the physical structure is made up of the specific animal.

I keep a running list of "painting projects" that I want to do eventually. As I do each project I will cross that one off the list but I am constantly adding to the list so will always have a project that I want to work on. I may work on several projects at the same time.

My advice on this topic is to write down your bit of inspiration for a cool painting project right away so you don't forget what you wanted to do. That way you will have it for when you eventually do the actual painting. It works!

Thoughts on Painting and Drawing

Hello again, I wanted to write about the painting that I love to do and teach others. I also wanted to write about how important having some drawing skills is needed to be able to render your painting well. You really need to understand drawing in its most basic forms such as just thinking in simple terms like lines, shapes, forms, and textures. Having a basic understanding of how a flat 2 dimensional picture is transformed into a realistic 3 dimensional picture by using shading, forms and other drawing techniques will greatly improve your confidence when you do finally pick up the paint brush. What you need to realize is that the drawing is really just a "guide" for you to be able to use in order to start painting with your paints. Your eventually going to just cover this "guide" over with paint anyway so it doesn't really matter if it is a rough drawing quickly layed in with a piece of flint charcoal. Because you have to remember that using a pencil is alot easier to use than a paint brush. Lay in your drawing by possibly using a grid to help you get a more accurate drawing then when you have your drawing in and you know where you are going to start painting your subjects you can adjust the picture by changing the position of your shapes with your paint brush. Bottom line is don't get too stressed about the drawing process because you are really only using it as a "guide" so you know where you are going to start to paint. Enjoy!

Art Classes are going Great!

I thought I better post in the blog about how the new art classes are going. I have a few people in the class and hope to get more later. I am planning to go to the U.S. to see my family in a few weeks and will be away for awhile so will not be able to teach the art lessons during my vacation. I will give the students some assignments and a project to work on while I'm away to keep them busy until I get back. When I get back I plan on resuming the art class and start taking kids in to teach art classes to. I now have heaps more space in my shed now and will be able to accommodate up to 8 to 10 people in the class. Also, I have a fireplace being installed to keep the temperature comfortable during the winter time.

Regarding the website, I plan on adding more great content on art instruction coming up soon. I will be putting in more step-by-step demonstrations for beginning painters. The students in my art classes will have an opportunity to get their art posted on a page in my web site with their permission for a limited time. It will be fun and exciting for them to see their art in the internet!

I have also been busy painting my own projects and have finished a small rooster painting which I will post in my gallery site soon. I have started a larger project. I like to have several projects going at the same time as sometimes I get "bogged" down with a painting and need to take a short break from it and come back later with a fresh eye and usually I can get through the slump easier and see the solution. One tip an artist told me to do is to look at the picture upside down, as this sometimes works to figure out the question "what do I do next?"
Thanks for reading my blog and I'll be posting again soon!

New art class starting for beginners!

I have started a new art class for oil painting beginners this last week. It is every Wednesday from 9 to 12. Students need to bring their own supplies, I can give them a list of supplies they will need. If you don't have your supplies, you can use my supplies for a small fee. There is small fee to join the class. For further information about the class you can email me at Marilou@oil-painting-for-beginners.com Hope you can join us. I can only accommodate about 8 people. This class is held in my shed/studio. There is plenty of room because the shed is about 40 x 25 feet. But I only have about half of this space at the moment. This class curriculum will cover basic knowledge that beginners need to learn about. I will be teaching about colour, values (shading), and composition. There will be some discussions about drawing and what skills you need in order to be successful with painting. How to SEE like an artist. Thanks for reading and hope you can join our fun group of painters.

Current work in progress

I thought I better post something in the blog to keep my readers up to date with what was happening with the website oil painting for beginners. I recently finished a portrait painting of my daughter who is 12 years old and will be putting it in the website under portraits. Like I said previously in the portrait page, I do want to do more portrait painting and feel that I will improve with more experience in that area. I want to do a new self portrait of myself in oils as I haven't done one in a long time (maybe 15 years?) Anyway, the painting I started after the portrait one is a landscape painting of a very old bridge here in the town I live. I will post the photos of this painting in a page called "work in progress" on the website shortly. I haven't done anything on the painting in a couple of days as the weather has been very cold outside and my studio is in a shed with no insulation (just metal walls).

For those of you waiting for the video clips, they will be coming soon, I am looking for a good camcorder to buy and will record those mini lessons and get them posted in the website under a new page soon.

Thanks for your patronage.
Marilou

Welcome to the Paint Rag Blog!

Gday and welcome to my new blog for oil painting for beginners. I hope to use this blog to post new ideas for my website. Hopefully I can post to it at least once a week to keep my readers up to date with the website news. I will be giving tips and techniques in this blog on how to overcome certain obstacles when you are doing your painting. Also, new ideas for easy paintings to do.