Using Acrylic Paints

In this post I wanted to write about using acrylic paints. I am primarily an oil painter but I do use acrylic paint from time to time for various things that I want to do because of the quick drying time and the ease of use of acrylic paints. One of the ways I will use acrylic paint is to tone my canvas with a yellow ochre or light orange colour prior to painting on it. What this does is gives the painting an all over colour or harmony as the initial painting is being done. The other reason I will tone with acrylic paint is you can see the colours better when you paint on a toned canvas than a white canvas. Another way I may use acrylic paints is after the toned colour is dry, I will paint an under painting with acrylic paint. Then go over that with oils where needed. I like the versatility of acrylic paint in the fact that it dries quickly and easy to clean up. No solvent smell as you use water to thin the paint and clean brushes with. Sometimes I feel a little pressured to hurry up due to the fast drying time and I like to take my time when I paint. But you can add a retarder medium to slow the drying time on acrylic paints if needed. So if you haven't tried acrylic paints I recommend you try them and see what they are like. Acrylic paint works great with oils as an under tone or under painting.

Cold Winter Weather

I just wanted to post about the winter weather here in Australia. The studio I have now is located out in a shed and is very cold in the winter. I have a small heater out there but it is still very cold. The studio I had before in our other house was located inside the house so I never worried about the weather because it didn't affect me. So I will have to wait awhile to work in my studio until the weather warms up to a more comfortable temperature to be able to paint in my studio. We have been getting alot of rain too which I was told was way more than they usually get in addition to the cold temperatures. I understand the temperature should start to warm up in September. I am looking forward to the warmer weather then I can work on my paintings again.

Painting on location or "en plein aire"

I have been living in Australia for a little more than 2 years and have been searching for other artist who enjoy painting outdoors or on location like I do. So far I have run into a brick wall as the people in my area just are not interested in this type of painting so I thought till last Saturday. I volunteer my time at the local art gallery for several hours a month and last Saturday I was there to do my volunteer time. Well, I finally met a fellow artist who is interested in painting outside! She has been trying to find someone to paint with her outside too for some time. She knows an artist that lives up north near Clare who goes out but not to our area very often. So we are planning to start to go out and paint in our area of our little town. There are numerous places to go to and lots of exciting places to check out and paint. She has been in this area for a lot longer than I have and knows all the good spots to go to but up until last Saturday couldn't find anyone to go paint with her till she met me. I have found that my paintings are much better when I do them on location than when I use a photograph. Seeing the real thing works better for me when I can paint outside.

Back on Australian Soil to Paint!

We got back last Tuesday, July 8th, and it has taken me nearly a week to get over the jet-lag. I am finally starting to feel my normal self. It was abit of a shock to come back to middle of winter after leaving summer in California. I was able to purchase a good camcorder and will start to create the video art lessons for the web site as soon as I can.
My next lesson I plan to teach to my class is going to be about "Brushstrokes" and what different types of brushes do. How to manipulate the brush to get the particular type of brush stroke you are striving for. Hopefully this lesson can be video taped for the website too.
I got really lucky while I was in California and got to meet two pretty famous artists who actually live in the same town my sister lives in. She knows one of them through her church friends and she didn't even know they were artists! She took me over to meet them and it was so exciting to get to meet Marilyn Simandle and Ted Goerschner! I actually have Ted's book and love his painting style. He paints in a very impressionistic "painterly" way. Here is a quote from Ted: "Most people overwork their paintings. Someone once said that detail is not a sign of industry but a sign of boredom. I feel that if you can create an effect with just one brushstroke, that takes genius. I like to give praise to painterly painters." Marilyn is also a fabulous artist and does some absolutely stunning work. I understand she started out painting in water-colour and now works with oil paint. Ted gave me some valuable advice and that was to paint as often as I can. That is what I tell my students also. He also gave me some tips on what art supplies to use such as canvas and paint brushes. It was such an honour to meet both of them.

On Vacation in U.S.

Hi all, I just want to say thanks for all the people who are waiting to read my next art post. I have been in the U.S. visiting my relatives and will be back in Australia in July. I am really excited to get back to my painting and art lessons. I have some wonderful resource material in photos I have taken. It has been wonderful visiting my mom and sister and will miss them again when I go back to Australia. Upon my return I will continue to add to my website: www.oil-painting-for-beginners.com and will begin putting in the video art lessons I had planned for the website. 

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!