Little Puppy Study and Twelve Days #6 (Marketing Resources)

This little painting was done on the back of a failed painting on 140 lb cp Lanquarelle paper. Recently, I use mostly 140 lb cp Fabriano paper. Lanquarelle paper is lovely and soft and very white. However, it doesn't lift to white. Fabriano lifts beautifully to white, but sometimes lifts something you wish would it wouldn't have. Trying the different papers  to see what works best for you is worth it.

If you are interested this little painting is available here

Twelve Days #6
I think marketing is made easier by great paintings. Great paintings happen by lots of work and lots and lots of not-so-great paintings. I don't think there are short-cuts. So first, paint.
It is fabulous, however, to be able to "pay for your habit" and afford the materials, (especially materials for the "learning paintings" (i.e. trash)).
Some of the marketing resources that I have found helpful include:

1. "Open Your Studio" by Melinda Cootsona (link) This is a step-by-step book about having a successful open studio

2. old, archived "podcasts" from Artists Helping Artists (especially those with Dreama Tolle Perry)(link)

3. A great little book: "I'd Rather be in the Studio" by Alyson Stanfield (link) When I looked to add this link, I found that she also has free podcasts that make be as good as her book.

Little White Hen and Twelve Days #5 (Munsell Color Wheel)

This little chicken is available at Low Country Gallery


Day 5 of the twelve days
Color fascinates me. Perhaps the gradual loss of my vision makes an understanding of this more urgent.
I have a chart of Hilary Page's "visual compliments" (Color Right from the Start by Hilary Page) hung above my painting space. I have come to understand that visual compliments are "light" compliments which are slight shifts from the "mixing" or "physical" compliments that are described by the more customary triadic color wheels (these have red, yellow blue primaries and the compliments (e.g. red plus green) make a neutrals (black-grey-dark brown).
 I found the book "Blue and Yellow Don't Make Green" by Michael Wilcox (which I leant and have not had returned) added to my understanding of how I was making muddy colors (read if your colors are not what you want)

In "Color Harmony in Your Paintings" by Margaret Kessler, the Munsell color wheel is well described. The Munsell Color Wheel makes sense of all of the fractured pieces of information above. Munsell used five primary colors: yellow, red, violet, blue and green. This makes a different five color pentagon color wheel: different than the hexagon primary and secondary colors of the conventional color wheel. Consequently, the Munsell wheel shifts the compliments to be more visually accurate. More interesting to me, is that mixing these shifted compliments creates more beautiful neutrals and semi-neutrals. In Kessler's book, she further describes the use of the Munsell color wheel which is also amazingly helpful for color mixing, classification and color planning in a painting.

Series Sketch #8 and Twelve days #4 (great gadgets)

My original goal for this series was to use a lot of water and experiment with texture. The exercises you have seen (and there have been many throw-aways) that I like have had 1. a large value range (all have the deepest darks) 2,  well-rendered eyes and beaks and decent bird shapes 3. the drips matter:  the color, size and direction and 4. soft edges are needed. I have begun to use what I have learned to scale up and try other subjects....
This one is for sale here

My twelve days had best continue or Christmas will have arrived...
The most useful ready-made gadgets or tools that I love this year include:
1. a view catcher by color wheel company (link).  This great tool allows you to visualize your set up in a correct size rectangle and then use the rectangle to help make placement marks and block in.
2. "memorized" style planes of the head model  (link). This is invaluable to understand poorly lit photos or begin to understand simplifying the head.
3. table top paint on easel by Karin Jurick's guy (link). A fabulous easel that is always my students' favorite to borrow.
4.  table top photography tent kit by CowboyStudio (link). You see this in use every day that I post a small painting.

Series Sketch # 7 (lion cub) and Twelve Days #3 (fav teaching dvds or web casts)

As I was searching for source photos today, I came across this cub from a trip to the National Zoo in DC. I wondered whether the same abstracted watery paint application could work with this little guy. I quite like it. To compensate for the lack of dark values, I used a warmer (orange) color to bring the head forward.
This can be purchased here

For day 3 of my twelve days, I will share my favorite teaching dvds or webcasts. My goal is to grow with a more painterly style. Therefore most of the artists that I learn from paint in this manner. My favorites include: Alla Prima Portraiture by Rose Frantzen, Gesture Portraits II by Jeffrey Watts,  the teaching videos on BrightLightFineArt.com (especially those by David A Leffel, and an on line demo with Joseph Zbuvick by Color Your Life with Graeme Stevenson (link). This last link may inspire you to see other parts of this series which I always want to have time to do.....

Sketch Series #6: Flying Hummer

This is the second sketch of a hummingbird. The colors in the hummers are transparent, non granulating so I use salt to create texture on these birds. I have also experimented with rough paper, water droplets and now I am off to try alcohol.
Day 3 of Day 12 will have to be tomorrow. My morning painting was a "wipe" so I have to do something to recover....

You can buy this here, if you are interested.

Sketch Series #5 (baby chickadee) and Twelve days: #2 (books)

Still working on painting the chickadees at my feeder. This one seemed to paint himself. It looks like one of the chicks from the spring. I decided this morning that rather than "mess him up",  I will try to paint his parent later. It is always fascinating to me when these personalities "appear" on the paper.
This little guy has already found a new home before I can get this post written today (thank you!)

Day 2 of my twelve day "notes":
Most of you know that I came to painting late in life. I love every second that I am allowed to do this. I want to learn everything I possibly can. Therefore, I read. Here are my favorite book finds for this past year:

Alla Prima 11 by Richard Schmid
I have the first edition (also amazing) but this edition contains even more information. Somewhere between editions, I learned about "color temperature". The "warm light, cool shadow" rule seemed to start to make sense. In this edition, Richard has two photographs that show the same table leg lit with warm and cool light and the different color temperature shadows that result. This pair of photos are incredibly helpful to new painters. The entire rest of the book is worth the many, many times that owners will read this and savor the fabulous paintings.

Painting People in Watercolor
A Design Approach by Alex Powers
Design is not an area that has come easily to me. This entire book is filled with wonderfully designed images. I have a permanent bookmark on the page that demonstrates how to simplify shapes in a painting. As I write this, however, I have to confess that there are several other "permanent" book marks and I know that I will read this book (and continue to learn) many more times.

Color Harmony in Your Paintings
by Margaret Kessler
I have every book on color that I can find. Sometime, I could write a post on all of the color books. This particular book is fantastic. Finally, there is a description of the Munsell Color wheel and a way that I can understand and use the "visual or light" compliments that I have previously had charts to keep in mind. One of the "twelve days", I will write about the Munsell Color Wheel and why it might be worth understanding.

Sketch Series #4 (Red) and Twelve Days #1 (blogs)

This image refuses to behave. I cropped it so that the parrot has room to his left and the white of the paper is bright white.
I will reshoot it in the light of tomorrow and replace it, if you want to look again. To purchase this (link)

In the meanwhile, my bird series continues. Daniel Smith has a great sale for the next couple of days (including reduced shipping).  I love their watercolors. They are richly pigmented. They also have excellent descriptions of their paints. I am interested in playing with more granulation. I want the colors to "split" to add to the illusion of feathers. I can hardly wait to try these new ones.

I promised twelve days of art suggestions for  Christmas.
First are my favorite art blogs.
For the most information, I love
1. Ancient Artist Developing an Art Career After Fifty: by Sue Favinger (link)
The Goggle description: career advice, inspiration and coaching for people over 50 who are just starting out as fine artists, offering more than a decade of actual.....
Her essays are very thoughtful, well-researched and excellent. They are excellent for all painters and especially for older painters like me.
2. Carolyn Anderson Artist (link) has recently started a blog. Her blog (like her fabulous, information-packed workshops) are also very dense, informative and extremely well-written. I love the fabulous paintings that Carolyn adds to each of her posts.
3. For beautiful work, I love when Karin Jurick's " A Painting Today" (link) blog posts arrive in my  email.
Though she doesn't post often,  Liz Wiltzen- A Painter's Journal (link) has great content and interesting work and I also enjoy Art Talk by Julie Ford Oliver (link)
These should keep you busy for now!