Fri 3 Sep 2010

Additives: White Opaque Flakes/ Cold Sun

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I’m going to finish out this week using Opaque Flakes again in my painting.

As I mentioned previously, you can mix the flakes in with your paint or apply the texture to your surface before adding colors.  Either approach will work.

I start today’s painting by covering the entire surface with the White Opaque Flakes.  Once it dries I add a wash of ultramarine blue over the flakes.  The paint puddles inside the crevices between the flakes so you can instantly appreciate the additive’s texture.

I next go over part of the blue with a deep reddish yellow—almost a brown, especially when some of the paint mixes with the blue wash that hasn’t quite dried.  I finally add a spot of red within the upper streaks of yellow.

The  5×7 painting above, “Cold Sun” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Thu 2 Sep 2010

Additives: White Opaque Flakes/ City Grid

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Today I’m switching over to using Opaque Flakes to add texture to our paintings.

As with the Glass Beads we’ve been using, you can mix these in with your paint or apply the texture to your surface before adding colors.  Either will work.

I start today’s painting by covering the entire surface with the White Opaque Flakes.  I have no idea where I’m going at this point and proceed by laying down a thin wash of raw sienna.  The paint puddles inside the crevices between the flakes so you can instantly appreciate the additive’s texture.

I start adding rectangles in different colors about the painting, keeping them light so that the raw sienna shows through.  In the center I decide to add a red circle to vary the design and later hit it with yellow in the circle’s center.

It’s a quiet painting, again reminiscent to me of Paul Klee’s work.

The  5×7 painting above, “City Grid,” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Wed 1 Sep 2010

Additives: Glass Beads/ Primitive Man

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I’m again working with the Glass Beads texture gel. And today I’m kind of channeling Paul Klee, on of my favorite artists of the 20th Century.

I start today’s painting by smearing the surface with a neutral green and letting it dry.  I next come in with a red and roughly brush it into the middle, leaving the green as a frame.

I mix up a brighter red and add the glass beads in with it and apply this to the middle of the field of duller red I brushed on earlier.

I like the way it’s looking but realize it needs more so I add a yellow rectangle and a green circle.  Better but it’s not quite there.  I add a streak of green below the yellow rectangle and a spot of yellow in the center of the green circle.

It’s at this point that I start to channel Paul Klee.  I add a couple of yellow streaks stretching out from the rectangle and two more going down from the green streak.  It looks a little like a figure drawn by a primitive artist and I realize I have a finished painting and a title: “Primitive Man.”

Tomorrow we’ll start using the White Opaque Flakes.

The 8×10 painting above, “Primitive Man,” is for sale at $125 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Tue 31 Aug 2010

Additives: Glass Beads/ Emerging

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I’m still working today with the Glass Beads texture gel. I’m also working again with an abstract since I believe abstract works are better suited for this texture.

Once again, you can mix the glass beads in with your paint as you work or you can lay them down with acrylic medium before applying your colors.

I start today’s painting by smearing the glass beads onto the surface and letting it dry. Only then do I start adding colors.  First a blue wash.  The glass beads can absorb a little of the paint or a lot, depending on how much you apply.  Once the blue dries I add a reds, yellows and greens—some as thin washes and some as opaque paint.  The washes I let run off the bottom of the painting.

As I mentioned yesterday, you can’t really tell a lot about the glass beads from the above photo. The original work has to be seen right in front of you to be fully appreciated.

The  5×7 painting above, “Emerging,” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Mon 30 Aug 2010

Additives: Glass Beads/ Moving Target

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This week I’m painting  with additives that can be mixed with your acrylic paints, usually to achieve certain textures.

I’ll be working with White Opaque Flakes and the Texture Gel: Glass Beads (both by Liquitex).  These additives, in my opinion, mostly lend themselves to abstract works.

Let’s start with glass beads.  These can be appreciated more when you’re standing right in front of the original work since they pick up the light around them and reflect it.  You can mix these in with your paint as you work or you can lay them down with acrylic medium before applying your colors.

I start today’s painting by laying down a field of raw sienna and, once it’s dried, go over it with a bright green.  Once the green dries I add a darker green at the bottom to create a base for the painting.  Next I paint a large red circle, adding the glass beads into the mix.  I later speckle the painting with red splatters.

Again, you can’t appreciate the glass beads from the above photo.  You have to see it in front of you to really appreciate its unique qualities.

The  5×7 painting above, “Moving Target,” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Fri 27 Aug 2010

Color/ Seagull On The Wing

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Here’s another view of the Pacifica coastline on a bright clear morning.

The blue sky predominates, doesn’t it?  There’s blue in the ocean too, of course.  There’s green grass on the hillside and streaks of green in the ocean as well.  The rocks are brown but I’ve pushed them in the direction of orange so that they play off their complimentary color, blue. It adds just the right spark that the painting wouldn’t have if I had left the rocks a dull brown.

Never hesitate to push your colors from nature in order to create a more favorable palette.  Artists have been doing this for centuries, so why shouldn’t you?

The 8×10 painting above, “Seagull On The Wing,” is for sale at $125 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Thu 26 Aug 2010

Color/ The Arch

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This is a painting of a landmark no longer here. A few years back a bad storm came through town and I was surprised when I went to the beach a few days later to see that a natural arch in the rocks had broken apart and collapsed.  Too bad.  But, luckily, I’d taken many photos of it. So I’m using one of them for today’s painting.

I began the painting by covering the entire surface with raw sienna so that it has a brownish-yellow color that you can see peeking through in certain areas.  The sunlight on the rocks is similar to the raw sienna color, but slanted toward orange a bit.  This will work well since the ocean is predominately blue, but I make my ocean a deep blue-green.

These colors are very similar to the colors in yesterday’s abstract.  Remember? There’s a bit of blue in the green, of course, and a bit of yellow in both the green and orange so that the colors of the painting are bound together. I toss in a few birds to add a bit of life to the scene.  I especially like the white gull about to fly past the arch.

The  5×7 painting above, “The Arch” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Wed 25 Aug 2010

Color/ Orange Flare

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I’m doing an abstract today, working again with blue and orange. I’m using the spray bottle technique introduced on August 2nd which you can see again by clicking HERE.

Instead of just using orange and blue, however, I introduce green as well.  There’s a bit of blue in the green and a bit of yellow in both the green and orange so that the colors jell together. Sort of like they’re linking arms to keep the painting together.

Try an abstract of your own and pay special attention to your color palette.

The  5×7 painting above, “Orange Flare” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Tue 24 Aug 2010

Color/ Sailboat

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Today’s painting is based on a photo I took during a trip to Mystic, Connecticut—a beautiful town.

If you were with me yesterday you’ll remember how I based the painting of the Calla Lily on the complimentary colors: blue and orange. Well, there’s a lot of blue here.  Where’s the orange?  There’s a smudge of orange on the sails but they are more of a dark red, aren’t they?

The painting still works for two reasons.  One, if you look closely, you’ll see there are green elements all through the painting and they play off the red.  Second, it often helps to take a step to the left or right of a complementary color to keep things from becoming too predictable. This is often called a “split complementary color.” And the red works much better than yellow  would.

So remember the color wheel is a tool.  It’s there for you to use but it’s not there to dictate to you.

The 8×10 painting above, “Sailboat in Mystic,” is for sale at $125 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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Mon 23 Aug 2010

Color/ Calla Lily on Blue

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I’m continuing this week with the importance of colors.

Squint your eyes and look at today’s painting.  What colors do you see?  Even though there are steaks of violet in the background, the predominate color is blue.  And the flower?  Well, it’s white, of course, and there’s green along the stem and even a tinge of green in the shadows but there’s a definite orange tint to the flower.  Again, I’m using opposites on the color wheel—blue and orange.

Try squinting at your paintings as you work and test the overall color scheme.  I think you’ll find it helps.

The  5×7 painting above, “Calla Lily on Blue” is for sale at $55 + shipping. The painting comes with a mat and backing inside a clear protective sleeve. To purchase,  please click on the “Buy Now” button below.


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