Paint Out of Your Comfort Zone

Rose and Bowl
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
9 x 12 in/23 x 30.5 cm
Copyright 2013

Whatever your comfort zone is, it's time to paint out of it.

That is, I'm pretty sure it's time to give your predictable painting repertoire a break, not only for your sake but also for those who like to view and collect your paintings.

Take your creative neurons on a thrill ride and paint whatever it is that you never, or almost never, ever paint.

If you paint seascapes, paint a flower or a bouquet.

If you paint portraits, paint a landscape.

If you paint city streets, paint an animal or a herd.

That goes for painting abstract versus representational and vice versa, too.

You get the picture.

It's one thing to paint the same thing(s) over and over until you achieve near perfection and call yourself a master or past master.

It's quite another to keep painting the same thing until your creative juices for painting anything else dry up and blow away. Don't let that happen. Do what I did.

I rarely paint still lifes. Ever. But I did this week. In fact, I painted two of them, one of which is today's image. I'm glad I did. I needed a break from my landscapes that I have been painting for months and months in both watercolor and acrylic.

It's refreshing and some of those skills that have been hibernating inside you will be glad you gave them a stretch.

Get Real, But Not Too Real

Many people like abstract paintings. Many people don't. It seems most either love them or they don't like them very much, if at all.

From the Pier
Acrylic on Canvas Board
7 x 9 in/18 x 23 cm
Copyright 2013

I am one of those painters who like some abstract paintings--primarily those in which my mind can take the shapes and colors and put them into some type of order that allows me to make sense of the image before me. The other ones, no, thank you.

That's why I have not been in a rush to visit the Picasso Black and White exhibit now on display at the MFAH but ending soon. I may not make it, but I don't think that makes me a bad art person. More power to Picasso; he has plenty of fans already.

I do like representational paintings more than abstract. I like the painting to tell a story or at least have the ability for the viewer to make up a story.

However, liking the representational style doesn't mean I like all those baroque, neo-classical, and/or romantic paintings that were so prevalent up until the 19th century. I don't. They're either too dark or have too much theology or are just not very interesting (although well painted). Also, photo-realism is a bit much for me.

You may know I do like the loose, realistic paintings of the Impressionists, although at the time they were criticized for being everything but that. I like John Singer Sargent. I like Winslow Homer. I like Georgia O'Keeffe--her landscapes not her flowers. I also like Edward Hopper, although, except for his watercolors, he didn't paint very loose. I can take or leave Gauguin, Matisse, and Picasso as I've already said.

I do like several current painters who paint in the representational style of contemporary realism, such as Frank Serrano, Kevin MacPherson, Qiang-Huang, Joseph Zbukvic, and John Hammond to name a few who paint in oil, watercolor, and acrylic, respectively.

If you also like representational paintings, you may want to check out their work.

10 Things I've Learned About Painting

Shoreline
Acrylic on Canvas Panel
7 x 9 in/18 x 23 cm
Copyright 2012

As a current painter in acrylic, I am attempting to take my work to a higher level by putting into practice some of the techniques I have read about in my many books on painting.

I respect acrylic for what it is and what it does and how you use it. That is, I try to accept acrylic on its own terms with both its advantages and disadvantages.

I have gleaned several things that will help me with my acrylics, and I believe many are applicable to other painting mediums as well:

A good composition can make or break a painting, so choose it well.

Simplify.

Use the most limited palette you can.

Underpaint using a wash of similar color to the overall color(s) of your painting to cut the whiteness.

Loosely draw in the main elements using your paintbrush.

Block in your darkest darks and lightest lights first.

Painting a smaller painting may be a better choice as you gain experience rather than a large canvas.

Paint with the largest brush you possibly can.

Paint fast, keep it loose, and leave out the details.

Paint like no one else and learn to appreciate, if not love, your own particular style.

Painting En Plein Air

A Beautiful Day for Painting
En Plein Air
photo copyright 2008

Maybe it's the nice spring weather we're having here in the northern hemisphere.

Maybe it's the feeling of being on the inside looking out.

Maybe it's the art books about en plein air painting I've been reading.

Maybe it's the DVD trailers of all those oil and watercolor painters who love to paint outdoors.

Maybe it's wanderlust.

Whatever it is, it's making me want to paint en plein air, which I have never done. OK, I did go out in the backyard once, but that really doesn't count.

All those en plein air painters look so happy and fulfilled in the meadows, by the riverside, in the park, or at the seashore. The weather is usually pretty fine, even if a little overcast, and sometimes there's even a refreshing breeze. How nice!

What purposeful painters they are, painting from life as it should be. Painting light and air and atmosphere just like the Impressionists in the Forest of Fontainebleau.

I take stock of my supplies. Can they be adapted for a painting trip en plein air? Why, yes, I think they can be. I don't really need a pochade box. I have a tri-pod that can be converted into a portable easel of sorts. I have light-weight plastic containers to hold what few brushes and paints I'll need. Sunscreen--check; waterbottles--check.

I'm all set.

But wait. It will soon be mid-May. There will be heat. There will be humidity. There will be mosquitos and critters. There will be sweat. What am I thinking? Painting en plein air in this climate? Am I nuts?

No, just envious of all those en plein air painters on the Pacific coast of the US, in the South of France, and along the Mediterranean Sea, that's all.

But, I will be enjoying the A/C in my studio all summer long.

Paint a Pochade

My Pochade
7 x 9 in/17.8 x 22.9 cm
Copyright 2013

OK. What, you may ask, is a pochade?

First. Let's get the pronunciation right. It's poh-SHOD with the accent on SHOD. It's French.

Actually it's French for the word poche or pocket, according to Wikipedia. I suppose that's pocket, as in a painting small enough to fit in your pocket or almost anyway. It is a small sketch-like painting that "captures the color and atmosphere of a scene."

You may also be familiar with the term pochade box, which is a type of portable easel popular for en plein air painting. It's like a Swiss-army-knife for painters, in that in addition to being an adjustable easel, it's also a stand and a paintbox with partitions that folds up and can be carried under one arm. But I'm not talking about that pochade box.

I'm talking a pochade as in a small painting.Why paint a pochade?

A pochade makes a great study for a bigger painting either en plein air or in the studio.

A pochade allows you to paint only the main elements, due to its small size.

A pochade or more accurately the support on which you paint a pochade can be paper, wood, canvas (or other) and is relatively inexpensive, again due to its small size.

A pochade can be and maybe should be painted rather quickly.

A pochade makes a great small painting and a statement all by itself, especially framed.

Painting a pochade is fun.

Painting is Personal

A Personal Painting

I'm not 100 percent sure if it was Bob Ross, the late, great TV artist, who said that painting is personal. If not, then some other well-known painter has surely said it before. I agree, and here's why.

You almost always perform it solo.

It's just you, your eyes, your brain, and your hand. You are in control of the whole operation. 

It's your preference. You make all the decisions. You decide the medium as well as what to paint and how to paint and when to paint.

It's your prerogative. You decide what brand of paint, what type of brush (or palette knife), and what to paint on.

It's all in your domain. There aren't too many things in life about which you can say that.

If you don't take it personally, then you're doing it all wrong. Think about it--have you ever met a painter who didn't  care about his or her paintings?

After all, it is an extension of your mind--the physical manifestation of your creative self.

What could be more personal than that?

An Easy Way to Compare Paint Colors

 

A few years ago I did a blog about the technical side of paint colors.

 

Today I thought I'd give a refresher. Recently I wanted to compare a couple of yellows so that I could use the one I already had.

The painting exercise called for a palette using aureolin yellow, which I didn't have. What I did have was cadmium yellow medium, and I wondered if I could substitute. Of course, in actuality I knew I could use any yellow I wanted, but would cad yellow medium be close enough to the desired palette color?

I remembered that technical information about the paint pigment is listed on the label of the paint tube or jar usually in very small type. There will be a pigment number listed if the paint is professional grade or even a better student grade; however, some student grade paint doesn't give a pigment number, just the name of the color (e.g. azo yellow light).

The pigment number is the one that starts with a P (for pigment, duh). That's followed by either a Y, R, B, Bk, Br, W, G, O, or V  (for Yellow, Red, Blue, Black, Brown, White, Green, Orange, or Violet). That is followed by a number corresponding to a particular hue on the Color Index, which was assigned by the Society of Dyers and Colourists and the Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists.

Anyway, back to my problem.

I looked up the pigment number for aureolin yellow, which is PY40. Then I looked at the pigment number in very small type on my little tube of cad yellow medium. It was PY35.

Close enough for me and my paint budget. High Five!

Overcome Your Painting Inertia

This has been one of those weeks when I had the best intentions to be productive and creative and to have something to show for it by now, that is, late on a Friday afternoon.

I think someone said something like, "a good intention without action is failure." Or  something like that; don't quote me.

The point is, painting can be a hard thing to get going on, if you know what I mean.

You have your studio or workstation all set up to be productive. You have a plan for your next painting. You may even have the drawing or underpainting already done.

And yet.

You can't make yourself begin to paint. You make excuses or even busy-work for yourself. You run errands or putter around (or write an art blog)--anything to keep you from standing at that easel and actually painting.

Why is painting so hard to get started?

I think it's lack of confidence, oh, let's call it what it is: f-e-a-r. Fear of ruining a drawing, ruining a canvas, ruining a painting. I do know it was F.D. Roosevelt who said, "the only thing to fear is fear itself." And it's kind of like that in painting.

You, or I, will never succeed at painting if we cannot overcome our fear. Do not remain inert. Overcome it. Pick up that brush right now.

You Shouldn't Try to Paint Like Anyone Else

Who Paints Like This?

Here's the thing. I know you like to paint. You like to paint because you saw a painting you liked in a museum or a gallery or a book.

And you wanted to paint a painting that looked like the painting you liked. So you looked up the artist who painted the painting. You researched the works of the artist, and you searched on the internet, and you bought books about the artist's work and his or her technique. You watched YouTube videos about that artist or videos by other artitsts about that artist. You bought DVDs by the artist and watched him or her paint.

You bought the same tools as the artist: the same palette, the same brushes (especially if he or she endorsed them), the same paper or canvas or hardboard. You bought not only the same brand of paint the artist used but also all the same colors in his or her color palette.

Someone is making money on this.

A known contemporary painter, who shall remain nameless, uses a color palette that is similar to one of the many you have tried. Of course, they're all pretty similar when you get right down to it--variations of reds, yellows, and blues plus a few secondary greens or violets along with an umber or sienna or two.

Anyway, you try out this color palette. It includes pthalo blue. You have never used pthalo blue, but you try it once, twice, three times all with the same miserable result. You and pthalo blue are not meant to be.

This doesn't mean you're not a good artist and painter because you can't paint with someone else's color palette, which most certainly evolved over their career.

It does mean you have a unique background and knowledge you bring to your work that no one else has. You have experience mixing colors and putting down brushstrokes that no one else has.

 Here's the thing. You cannot paint like anyone else nor should you try.

  

Seven Sins of Painting

Oregon Coast
Watercolor on Art Board
Copyright 2013

Today's blog is about overcoming bad habits. I have at least one of these habits now and have had all of them at one time or another. I blog about this to help me remember not to do these things. Or at least to work on not doing them so much. 

Otherwise, I find myself going back to my old habits. What are those habits?

I like to call them the seven sins of painting:

- Over-reliance on photos, which is a crutch for actually seeing

- Not using your artist's license--you do have the right to make any changes you please

- Putting too much detail in the initial sketch or underdrawing, which sets you off on the wrong path

- Not seeing the lights and darks or worse--not painting them as major elements

- Beginning by painting one thing or area in detail rather than first blocking-in the whole thing

- Holding your brush like a pencil and painting tightly all scrunched up

- Finally, over-working or over-painting or whatever you may call it--it's when you don't know when to stop, so you just keep changing and painting and adding details that ultimately ruin your work

The goal I have for my work is to paint freely and boldly so viewers will be drawn into my paintings. If this is your goal, too, then we both need to stop it!