Archive for June, 2011
The Brilliance Of Oil Paints
Painting has been around for over 32,000 years. The earliest findings of art were found on rocks in Northern Australia. There are so many different types of paintings and how you can use different types of materials to create art. It can be anywhere from chalk to sculptures.
Oil painting is probably one of the most technical of all the art forms to do. can also be very versatile. It gives you the option of using it thick or thin. You are able mix the colors to get the desired blend of color that you are searching for. The brilliant detail of color that oil paints can produce is amazing.
Selection and Composition
When I decide to do a landscape painting, one of my first challenges is to decide what I want to paint. Selecting the scene and composing the painting present real challenges. The landscape painter has no control over the lighting or the arrangement of the scene. The color of the light and density of the atmosphere change from minute to minute. Shadows are never fixed.
To create an illusion of depth on a two dimensional surface, artists work with certain visual cues: light and shadow, volume, scale, overlap and perspective. These are not always easy to find in the out of doors. Therefore, one of the essential skills of a landscape painter is selection – the ability to evaluate a scene beforehand and decide if it contains the visual cues which can be translated into an effective painting.
Selection and composition also are concerned with the amount of information in the landscape. In attempting to paint the landscape for the first time, the student is overwhelmed. The maxim “Less is more” comes to mind. We must narrow our field of vision and limit our focus.
Complementary Colors
Complementary colors are two colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. Red and green, blue and orange, and yellow and purple are complements.
If complementary colors are placed side by side, they heighten the visual intensity of each other, especially if they are close in value. When bright red flowers are seen in a field of green, they appear to be even more brilliant.
Neutrals are created when the complement of a color is added, as when yellow is added to purple. Adding the complement to a color reduces the intensity of the color, and it becomes more and more close to neutral. Neutrals also affect how colors advance or recede. If high intensity colors are painted next to neutrals, the neutrals recede and the high intensity colors come forward. Neutrals can also make pure colors appear brighter. Contrast of intensity – bright versus dull – lends greater interest in an oil painting.
Color Temperature
One of the most descriptive color relationships is the relative “cool” or “warm” of a color – the color temperature. Most people would agree that certain colors, like blues, are cool and others, like yellows and reds, are warm. From an artist’s perspective, a cool color is only cool when it is compared with a less cool (warmer) color. A warm color is only warm when compared to a less warm (cooler) color. In other words, color temperature is relative.
Temperature differences are an important form of color contrast. An oil painting with variations between cool and warm ( as opposed to all warm or all cool) offers greater variation and interest to the composition.
Differences between light and shadow reflect a temperature shift. Colors in light are usually warmer and colors in shadow are usually cooler (although the opposite can be true). Temperature also affects the spatial position of colors. We often hear that warm colors advance and cool colors recede. More precisely, this happens depending on context. Train your eye to look for temperature differences, whatever they might be.
Local Color vs Perceived Color
My teachers have always told me to, “paint what you see, not what you think you see.” They were making a distinction between local color and perceived color. Local color is the color of something based on our preconceived notions. Grass is green, tree trunks are brown. Perceived color is the color of something as it appears to our eye under the influence of a particular color of light.
In representational landscape painting, perceived color is always the color in which the artist is most interested. The artist wants to paint the tree to look the way it appears to him. Amazingly, this might include adding red or yellow, orange or blue. With practice, the artist will see these colors in the tree.
The Relativity of Color
If you place two small squares of yellow color on a canvas a few inches apart and surround one with a square of red and the other with a square of green, the two yellows will appear to be different. The one within the red square will appear to be lighter and brighter than the one within the green square.
This illustrates a fundamental truth about color: Color is relative. A color choice can never be evaluated in isolation, but only in the context of the surrounding colors. Each color affects the adjacent color as well as the painting as a whole. In a landscape painting myriad colors can be assigned to the trees and fields, but it is a consistent color strategy that binds them all together.
The Limitations of Paint
Because we are so accustomed to seeing sunshine on the landscape, we never fail to sense that it is real. A landscape painting, however, is different. Artists cannot exactly match the colors in nature. This is because natural light and painters’ pigments are not the same thing. At sunset, the sky glows. The canvas only reflects light; it cannot actually glow. The brilliance of a sunset or the radiance of sun dancing on water are just not possible with paint.
Artists borrow from nature and use those colors as a starting point, but getting the “right” color is never about copying nature or matching nature hue for hue, value for value. It is about finding a parallel relationship – a color metaphor – that substitutes for the real thing. Painters try very hard to see the world as it is and to record the colors as they see them. But the limitations of canvas and paint force the artist to change what they see in order to create a convincing illusion – to create a “lie that tells the truth.”
The Torpedo Factory Art Center
On Sunday, I made a trip to Alexandria, VA, to visit the Torpedo Factory Art Center. The U.S. Navy began construction on the building in 1918 as a factory to manufacture torpedoes for use after World War I and throughout World War II. It was used for storage for many years, but the City of Alexandria bought it in 1969 and in 1974 it was opened to the public and had been turned into studios which artists could rent and have space to create their oil paintings, works in acrylic, ceramics, collage/mixed media, fibers, jewelry, photography, printmaking, or sculpture.
Today the Torpedo Factory is home to over 165 artists working in 82 studios which are open to the public. A Torpedo Factory studio is truly unique. In one space, an artist creates, displays, discusses, and sells his or her artwork. Not only can you shop for original artwork in the studios, you can also get a first hand look at the artistic process. In addition to the 82 artists’ studios, the Torpedo Factory is also home to six galleries, the Alexandria Archaeology Museum, and the Art League School.
The building is about a block long, three stories high and has two torpedoes on display with information about the building. It is at the edge of Alexandria’s charming Olde Towne district with its many restaurants. Today, the Torpedo Factory is a thriving example of how the arts can revitalize a community and serves as a prototype for communities throughout the world who wish to establish their own visual arts facility.
Working Wet-Into-Wet
Probably one of the greatest challenges for the artist who does oil paintings is working wet-into-wet. Because oil paint dries slowly, the artist must often apply paint over areas that are not dry – thus, wet-into-wet. Imagine drawing the scene with thin paint, then applying a heavier coat on top. Too much blending overworks the colors and creates “mud”.
Two things can help: Start with thinner layers and gradually work to thicker layers. “Thin” does not mean thinned with solvent or medium. Oils straight from the tube are considered lean or thin. If too much solvent or medium is used, the paint becomes slippery and it is harder to get a fresh stroke to stick to it.
Also, don’t overwork the brushstrokes. If you do not want the colors to blend, apply the stroke and leave it. Only a single stroke or two is permitted before the new color will blend with the under layer. It also helps to use a softer brush with a lighter touch.
Art Class Was My All Time Favorite
One of the best classes I took in high school was art class. The creativity that we were allowed to use was so much fun. Even if we didn’t have any artistic ability our teacher made us feel like we were the most talented kids out there. We worked on all different types of projects.
The most intriguing project that we had to do was when we had to paint a self portrait. Our teacher wanted us to paint it in abstract expressionism format. It was quit entertaining to see what people came up with. The teacher was very impressed with my use of colors and shapes. I didn’t think it looked anything like me, but I suppose that was the point.