Hello & Welcome!

Two artists tripping the world together like “recycled teenagers” – this was a dream come true in 2007 for Tony and I – & especially for me, since I had never been overseas before beyond Australia & N.Z. We spent a wonderful time in Ireland visiting family – then caught a ferry to Fishguard in Wales, train to London and from there on across the Chunnel to join the Eurail in a loop around Europe, staying in Paris, Torino, Florence, Venice, Zurich, Frankfurt, Brussells and London before flying home via Hong Kong.

My partner, Tony and I both loved Ireland (next Post) and Venice best of all and in Venice like countless others,  we fell in love with the picturesque canals reflecting age textured buildings…

the elegant Gondolas handled so ably by the skillful Gondoliers…

 Leisurely pedestrian friendly streets (no cars!) full of aged buildings and history…

 Countless exotic shops full of colourful masks and Venetian glassware…

and of course, afternoon GELATOS!

In VENICE the sounds were different to everywhere else we visited in Europe.  Without the noise and pollution of cars, instead the busy boat traffic conversed through a varied language of muffled toots and horns - from deep authoritative blasts of large liners…

(Above: The “Norwegan Jewel”)

 to high pitched repetitive pip-pips of small vessels – all merging with the swish of water flowing in their wake…

Long balmy evenings saw families emerge from afternoon siestas to dine ‘el fresco’ at the numerous restaurants – the children able to play safely without the dangers of road traffic… though of course if you lived there, all children would need to be taught to swim as early as possible with so many waterways honeycombing the city!

Even bicycles were fairly rare, no doubt due to the number of steps involved in crossing the numerous canal bridges in every shape and size imaginable…

It also greatly surprised us that in a city existing so much at salt-water sea level (sometimes below!) green parks with avenues of huge long established trees formed part of the scene…

Another surprising feature was the somewhat alarming lean on many of the buildings & towers!  We were told that some of the buildings require flotation to combat the sinking!

Naturally there were countless artists displaying their work for the tourists and people the world over would be familiar with many of the images portrayed…

As Tony and I wandered the less ‘touristy’ back streets and narrow lanes of Venice soaking up the atmosphere, we became more and more entranced by the textures of the buildings and hypnotic reflections in the canals – also of course the wonderful shapes of the gondolas, boats & barges.  Literally every corner we turned was “paintable”! It was overwhelming and our cameras and sketch books worked overtime!

I made several attempts at capturing these impressions in paint, but found it difficult to “break new ground” in rendering an individual approach – since these subjects have been painted so often by so many artists throughout history! 

Also, our photographs were so wonderful they were a hard act to follow! For example here are a couple of reflection shots I took that really stand best as photos!  I wouldn’t attempt to paint them because they are so beautiful just as they are – although I did enjoy enhancing them with Photoshop!

Still, I will share with you here my few painting attempts. Tony did rough sketches but hasn’t developed them yet.

First I did a very quick study to begin to “get in the mood” & tune in to the amazing perspective of the canals. which lend themselves to tall paintings. Getting the angles is tricky so I used my “clock method” (pretending that each line begins with the angle created by the hand of a clock – so I ask myself “what time is that angle?”) This method is fully described in the post on perspective. 

My next attempt featured mainly the reflections that fascinated us so much…

Then finally, I tried a favourite semi-abstract approach of mine – bending the lines and playing with the shapes. This at least gave me an individual approach!

   Here is the reference photo I took to work from…

Finally here is my painting of the tiny lane where our apartment was located.  It looked different every day as various coloured clothing was hung out to dry! Incidentally, although in a very old building, our apartment was newly refurbished and very comfortable.

Below is a photo of Tony leaving our apartment…so you can see where the painting is taken from…

Tony has his shopping bag ready for the wonderful fresh fruit and vegetables on a barge in the nearby canal…

So that’s about it from me on Venice.  We feel so privileged to have paid a visit there.  It was absolutely nothing like our preconceptions and was far more captivating and beautiful…also very clean.  The salt water was clear, there was plenty of healthy green weed growing on the pylons and we saw absolutely no rubbish floating in the water.  

We would advise anyone visiting however to explore the back streets away from the crowded tourist areas and our only criticism throughout Italy was the lack of public seating available – so wear old clothes and get used to sitting in the gutter or on any available step!  Hard surfaces (often cobbled) make for tired legs that do need a rest now and again!

 

Have you any memories or thoughts to share about Venice?  We’d love to hear.

Best wishes to all,

Julie & Tony

  There have been a numerous requests for guidance in using WATERCOLOURS and whilst I am by no means an expert in this, I will pass on what I know and have tried, to offer some guidelines.

Why do I say “Watercolour painting is for patient people”?  Well unless you buy heavy 300 gsm paper you have to go through the stretching process, preparing a day in advance. You also need to plan your painting and sketch it in very lightly and accurately in pencil with minimal disturbance to the paper (yes, I mean rubbing out!) The exception to this would be if you were doing wet in wet accidental type paintings with no drawing.  Generally you have to wait for each wash to dry before continuing to paint. (You may find it is good to work on 2 or 3 paintings along together to avoid being idle while you are waiting, or use a hairdryer.)

 You need to be pristine clean, with 2 water tubs – 1 for adding to the paint (distilled preferably) and another for washing your brushes. If you are concerned about maintaining the acid free quality of your paper, you should only handle it with gloves and wear them while you are working.  Adding clean water to a wash can be done with an eyedropper to avoid sullying the water as you might if transferring it with a brush.

Finally, when you have completed your beautiful translucent masterpiece, it will need very special framing.   Watercolours need to go behind glass, with a mount so that the painting does not touch the glass.  Also a waterproof backing is needed.  This is to prevent mildew over the years.

Now I’m not trying to put you off, because there is nothing so beautiful as a well executed watercolour painting - but you need to have the right temperament to handle all this. Personally, I haven’t – although I have tried to give you a few demonstrations below. OK so lets get into it…

                     Various water based paints have different qualities, such as:

Acrylic – which is no longer water soluble when dry and comes in transparent, opaque and fluorescent varieties.

Gouache – which is opaque water based paint, water soluble when dry – much like the early poster paints.

There is even a range of water soluble “oils” available these days.

Watercolour pencils which give drawn lines or shading, but can form a ‘paint’ when wetted with water via a brush

and lastly, PURE WATERCOLOURS – which will be the subject of this Post.

The term “Watercolour” usually relates to pure finely ground water soluble pigments, used on special Watercolour paper and without the use of white…the transparency of the paint allowing the white of the paper to glow through instead.  Occasionally, some artists use a small amount of white (called Chinese white) but the purist approach is not to use any.

Watercolour paints come in tubes and in pans…see illustration.  A Palette needs to have dishes for mixing different coloured washes before applying.  If I were using the tubes, I would put out the colours needed in the small hollows and mix washes from them in the large ones by taking a little paint across and adding water.

Brushes need to be soft (usually synthetic these days) and hold plenty of paint.  The larger the painting, the bigger the brushes needed – although some small ones for detail re always necessary.  Large “mop-like” round ferrule brushes are best for big washes – always care for them by pointing them up after washing & blotting dry.

When you buy watercolour brushes, some come pointed up with a soluble glue in the bristles to keep them in shape. You need to thoroughly wash out that glue before use.  Should your brushes need it from time to time, a wash in hair shampoo and then conditioner can restore them.   Another tip is to dry them flat to avoid water running down and being trapped in the ferrule. This can rot the wooden end of the handle over time.

There are also watercolour pencils available which offer a drawn line to a “paint” when wetted.  These are handy for small travelling  studies.

The little stack pack of pan colours  looks like the picture below when put away and is also very convenient for travelling.   Some of these come in a box with a palette inside the lid which is even better.  If I think I’ll be using most colours in a block range like the ones below (not in a tube) I spray them with water to begin the softening process – then it is much quicker to work the paint up when I am ready.

Here are the warm and cool layers unscrewed so you can see…

Watercolour papers come in different weights, qualities and textures (rough, medium and smooth). Most are acid free to help avoid mildew in the future.  Anything lighter in weight than 300 gsm needs to be stretched so that it will not buckle when washes are applied – so personally, I only buy 300 gsm.  However if you do need to stretch your paper, here is the procedure…

1.  Soak your paper in water well – many soak it overnight.

2.  Take the paper out, holding it up until it stops dripping – then spread it onto a backing board, smoothing from the centre out with a soft rag.

3.  You need a special gummed tape to secure it (available from Art shops).  Cut 4 lengths to fit your paper.

Take each one at a time and slide through clean water quickly then apply to paper and board.

4. Overlap the paper to form a border and smooth the gum tape out well as you go.

5. When you have finished with the gum tape, be sure to put it away in a plastic bag to store so no moisture will enter and spoil it.

6.  Now your paper needs to dry thoroughly before you start painting.  As it dries it will pull taught as the water evaporates. It is now stretched.

With opaque paints such as acrylic and oils, it is usual to work from dark to light in establishing your composition…however with watercolours it is the other way around.   You need to work from light to dark, preserving the transparent integrity of the washes and avoiding “making mud”…so creeping up on any dark areas is the way to go, leaving them until last.   Thinking tonally is important in all paintings.  Here is what I mean by tone:

TONE IS THE DEGREE OF LIGHT TO DARK, AS IN THIS PICTURE.  IT IS EASIER TO SEE TONE IN BLACK AND WHITE GRADIENTS.   TRY TO KEEP THAT OBSERVATION WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE RANGE OF LIGHT TO DARK WHEN COLOUR IS INTRODUCED…

A PERSONAL TIP:  WHEN I PLAN A COMPOSITION TO PAINT, I THINK IN TERMS OF 3 TONES ONLY – VERY BROADLY….LIGHT, MEDIUM & DARK.   JUST PLANNING WHERE THESE AREAS WILL BE GIVES ME A CLEAR PLAN TO WORK TO.  THIS MAY WORK FOR YOU ALSO.  IF YOU CHECK OUT POST 18 YOU WILL SEE HOW  I USE THIS PLANNING.   RIGHT NOW HOWEVER, LET’S GET BACK TO OUR FOCUS ON WATERCOLOUR.

Many people are enchanted with watercolour because of “wet in wet” effects…

In the illustration below there is a combination of wet in wet blurred edges in the leaves, wet on dry for the flower petals and stems and a waterproof pen for black detail.   The extra lines around the blossoms are done with watercolour pencils – which are great for detail…

The trick with watercolours is to START WITH THE LIGHTS AND GRADUALLY WORK TOWARDS THE DARKS (The opposite of oils or acrylics as a rule).  In this illustration below, please look at the beautiful transparency in the shadow within and on the side of the boat…that is the beautiful simplicity and purity of Watercolour painting…     

Below is another example of washes, thinly applied – using warm and cool shadows and leaving the light areas clean.

Sometimes it might be useful to use masking so that you can apply washes right across over (in this case, the house shape) and later peel off the mask to reveal white paper.  Mask comes as film frisk in sheet form and masking fluid in a bottle.  The house shapes have been cut out and put down from film frisk and the foliage texture applied with masking fluid here.  You can see where I have removed some of the foliage mask to show the white paper.

Note: It is important to remove masking fluid as soon as practical – if left too long (overnight for instance), it may damage the paper when rubbed to remove.

Below is an example showing a clean roof line contrasted by the darker foliage behind. The roof has a nice “dry brush” edge created with stronger paint/water ratio and a flat brush dragged horizontally to the paper.  Then with a clean brush & water, the colour is softened out away from the roof into the shadowed areas.  It’s all about contrast – you can’t show up light against light can you?

Below is an example of Australian Flannel Flowers where I had to realy concentrate on painting the negative spaces between the flowers to show up the flower shapes, leaving the white petals with minimal paint…the idea of cutting one out and letting it escape over the mount was to give the feeling of growth and freedom instead of being contained in the rectangle.

It might be useful here to show you how I went about painting these wildflowers…

 First, sketch your flowers lightly in pencil.  I would normally sketch much lighter than this, but in order to photograph it I had to go a bit darker…

With a medium round brush and plain clean water wet the areas between and surrounding the flowers, going over the stem areas.

(Many artists used distilled water and wear plastic gloves to keep their work acid free – as most watercolour paper comes acid free. Acid can enter the paper through our fingers, paint and the water used.  The benefit of this is that once framed properly with a mount under glass, the finished painting should resist mildew in years to come.)

Next. mix a wash with plenty of clean water.  Incidentally, always have 2 tubs of water – 1 clean to add to washes and the other only for washing out your brushes.  That will help keep your watercolours clean and pure.

Drop the wash into the wetted areas, tipping the paper to get it to flow into details areas. Please yourself as to what angle you wish to have your paper as you work for different effects.

  

Keep adding a little more paint until the shapes of the flowers are defined more clearly.

Next, being aware that white flowers are never all white, look for the shadows on the petals and apply these…also some colour to the centre of the main flower.

Flannel Flowers often have darker tips to their petals so my next step was to paint these…

 I must apologise for the discrepancy in photo colouring in this exercise. It is a “sunshine and showers” day and the light in my Studio keeps altering, which affects the camera pickup. In this next stage I have finished defining the flowers, gently creeping up on the darks.  Knowing when to stop with watercolour is the hardest part!  Just try to keep each area as transparent as possible, yet have still have enough definition.

Ah!  The sun has come out!  Now I photograph the finished example in full sunlight for you to see! I have added the stems and leaves with a fine brush.  I think the stems are a bit heavy lookng so I might carefully wet only them and blot gently with a rag to bring back the translucency.  Because watercolours are soluble when dry, you can do this with any area where you have been a bit heavy handed.

OK so I hope that was helpful.  This process could apply to many subjects and with watercolour more than any other medium, I think you really have to be aware of the negative shapes between the objects and contrasts in tone.   Rather than drawn lines, a defining edge is created by different tones meeting.  Even though you may need a light pencil sketch to begin with, it’s good to remove it where you can and just let the paint tell the story.

Here is a simple study for you to try – 5 daisies at different angles. Sketch them in lightly, then create a background wash around the drawn shapes. Let happy accidents stay as part of the effect. This is the first stage.

Next, add some soft shadows to the petals and paint in the flower centres. Then a bit more definition to the foliage.  That’s it!  Don’t overwork it…keep it fresh!

 Just a personal hint re watercolour paper, if you buy heavy weight 300 gsm I can honestly say from experience that is is worth every cent. Not only can you use one side, but if that doesn’t work out – you can use the other as well and there is no need to stretch it.  Then if your second attempt on the side doesn’t work out, you can undercoat the paper with acrylic and use it for an acrylic painting (or if rough texture, even pastels).

The painting below was a demonstration in using a plain candle to rub on textured watercolour paper where I wanted the paint to resist – so in putting a wash over the water and rocks, there remains a broken sparkly efect.    In this painting I used acrylics instead, which can be used as thinly as watercolour or as opaque as you wish.

Next here is a step by step process in creating a simple landscape that I prepared to try to impart some method to you. This example was done on 185 gsm watercolour paper, properly stretched..

                                         

Finally, the finished painting…

 One lady emailed asking for a seascape demonstration in watercolour – so here is my effort.  Now I am making this a combination of what to do and what NOT to do in that I am using  185 gsm paper in a pad and not stretching it!  Let’s see what problems it brings and see if I can find a way out… 

Wet the sky area with plain clear water ready to apply a wash. If you don’t do this you may end up with hard edges you don’t want.

I decide to apply a warm wash first to make sure I keep a sunny look…

It looks bright in the pan, but it is so diluted that when I apply it the colour is very soft.

While I have this colour handy, I apply it to the sand area as well, a bit stronger because it is in the foreground and colours are always stronger closer to you.

 

Oh oh – the paper is buckling somewhat so I put a minimal amount of the wash on the water and rocks to marry up the sky and beach  and try to even out the wet and dry areas on the paper.

Next I mix a purply wash for the sky and apply it gently over the soft orange. The first wash needs to be thoroughly dry before you do this.

Once again, while I have this colour in the pan, I deepen it a bit (I am mixing red and blue together to make the purple) and apply to the headland + define shadows along the water edge.  I have to apologise for photo colour discrepancies once again – the light in my studio is varying on this “sunshine and showers” day.  Where possible I photograph in strong sunlight.

Next I add some blue to the water.   You can see here how the unstretched paper is responding to the varying areas of moisture – not good, but I will keep going and see what I can do to fix it later.

I continue defining, trying to keep the overall transparent.  It’s not easy!  The colours tend to dry paler than they look when applied wet so allowances have to be made for this.

I am nearly there, but the painting lacks life.  With a small brush I add 2 seagulls to add interest. There is a nice airiness in the sky around them – I am pleased with that.

Here is the finished result…probably a bit heavier than it should be in the darks, but that’s my nature – I like drama!

When it was completely dry, I ironed it on the wrong side with a warm iron which reduced the buckling to practically nil. It’s probably not “proper” procedure of course, but this blog is about sharing experiences and helping each other.

Next I tried a wet in wet approach to try to establish the atmosphere of the Australian bush early morning…

When the above was dry, I then removed some of the wash with a wet sponge & blotter where I wanted tree trunks to be.  After painting in the gum trees in the foreground and loosely suggesting some grasses, I decided to create the focal point of a magpie perched on a stump and another flying away.  I was pleased with the overall atmosphere achieved in this painting.   The pale branches in the soft background were achieved by wetting the paint with a thin stiff brush and then blotting straight away.

Tony also painted a loose watercolour impression of the Australian bush near where we live. He began by sketching in the main tree trunks and applying masking fluid to them.  When the rubber mask was dry, he was then free to paint the background in washes and spatters with a toothbrush.  After that background had dried, he rubbed away the mask and painted the trunks, choosing to contrast most of the cool background colouring with warm colours.  This is an excellent approach for handling a difficult somewhat chaotic and complex subject.

Below is Tony’s next study – a Central Australian scene using strong colours…

Next, here is an arrangment of POPPIES for you to use as reference if you would like to…

Tony and I each had a go at painting this study in watercolours the same day.  We didn’t peek at each other’s work until we finished and were surprised to find we had both ignored the vase and focussed on the flowers only (not because it was gold – we could have painted it any colour we wished, but because we felt the flowers were such free shapes we wanted to keep that free feeling and not put anything with a solid structure in).

We both sketched in the shapes of the flowers with pencil first, then painted the background in washes, avoiding the sketched areas. Here is Tony’s painting.  He didn’t use any masking fluid to retain the white areas and carefully avoided them.

Next, here is my effort.  I approached it the same way as Tony except that I used masking fluid on the white bits, removing it later with a rubber.  I also put masking fluid on the stems so that I could continue my background right across them without cutting in.  The rubber mask is rubbed away with an eraser when the painting is dry. I wanted to keep the lightness in the flowers and so made the white blooms into yellow ones rather than put darker shadows. I like the effect Tony got but it didn’toccur to me to put green/grey shadows. I feel happy that I am getting better at handling watercolours.  It takes practise and a different way of thinking to using opaque paint. You have to be able to draw well or it shows (unless you do abstract I guess) and I love the freshness of the transparent colour don’t you?  

  

  

All for now then and once again “Happy Painting”!

Julie

 

Hello everyone!

Once again, by popular request, here is a Post about composition and in particular, flower studies.  I don’t profess to be an expert, but there should be something here to think about.

Because of copyright, I am mainly using my own paintings & photos here to illustrate. although Tony has lent one of his.

It’s a strange thing, but most artists when they begin painting flowers, never consider leaving out the vase.  Also, they almost always paint the vase first and then put the flowers in later.   Of course, this is our logical brain at work because in real life, this is what we do isn’t it?  We get a vase out of the cupboard, put water in it and then arrange the flowers.

OK so that’s fine in real life, but if you are going to PAINT flowers, they aren’t going to need water OR a vase are they?  So that’s the first thing to realise – we don’t need to put the vase in.  After all, if you were painting flowers in the wild or in a garden, you wouldn’t be painting them in a vase, would you?

Now with that out of the way, lets have a look at composition…and we must bear in mind that we all have different preferences in what pleases our eye.  Giving thought to various options will help you discover what it is that YOU like!  After all, art is a journey of self discovery and appreciation of everything around us at a deeper level.

                       (Note: Text generally relates to the picture below it)

Now first of all, unless you really want to go for symmetry for some reason…

Having a focal point arranged evenly and in the centre doesn’t leave anywhere for the eye to explore or imagine because everything is fully explained. Our eyes seek VARIETY in shape – not only the shapes of the objects, but of the spaces as well.

Now lets look at some Gerbras in a vase below. The vase colour relates well with the flowers, which is something else to consider in planning overall compositional effects.

We can add some foliage to link up the flowers, add variety to the shapes and group the flowers in a more interesting way by linking some together and overlapping some flowerheads.   Also we can get rid of that hard line suggested as a table edge and soften it into what could be a drape - that will make it unimportant and take away an obstruction as the eye flows up the sides of the vase. The soft shadow of the vase and flowers indicates that the vase is close to a backdrop of wall or similar.  So that has been some improvement, don’t you think?

Still the vase is very much in the centre. Would it be better set to one side a bit? 

Let’s try adding a bit more space on one side and playing the shadow out to the side instead of onto the back wall.  Have a look at the picture below. Do you think it is more interesting this way? 

 

Hmmm.  I think there is too much space in relation to objects now and as a result, I feel I want to be more intimate with the flower shapes and enjoy them more closely.

 

 

I find I can now enjoy the shapes of the flowers and the negative space shapes too – but maybe you like the earlier compositions better(?)

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                  POSITIVE & NEGATIVE SHAPES

OK now I hear some of you say “What does she mean by POSITIVE & NEGATIVE SHAPES”?

Well here is a simple example below…

  

Now to relate this to a flower study, the areas BETWEEN the flower and vase shapes shown in white in the example below are what we call NEGATIVE SHAPES.  The shapes formed by the flowers, vase and shadow are the POSITIVE SHAPES.

SO – ONE OF THE SECRETS OF A GOOD COMPOSITION IS TO HAVE THE NEGATIVE (AS WELL AS THE POSITIVE) SHAPES VARIED AND INTERESTING EH?   Well why haven’t we taken more notice of these negative shapes before?

Because the logical part of our brain cannot name the negative shapes, it gives them little or no importance in our thinking. When you start observing them through an artist’s eyes, you will see them everywhere and enhance your enjoyment of everything around you!

Why should you bother? Because these negative spaces often take up MORE SPACE on the flat surface of your painting than the so called OBJECTS! Therefore they must be of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE when we compose a picture! 

TIP: Don’t be afraid to let your “objects” touch the sides of the area you are painting in, because that creates really interesting negative shapes, and include the borders of your paper or board (which of course can be any shape you choose: rectangle, square, oval, circle)

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                                 SHADOWS!

Another thing our logical brain doesn’t recognise very much is SHADOWS, which play a very big part in the overall arrangement of light and dark areas. These need to be included VERY MUCH in your analysis of shapes.  In fact, in the picture below the shadows of the green and white flowers & leaves are stronger and darker than the objects that are casting them!  Often however they are softer when the objects are not in a strong light – but they are still VERY important! 

Here are some pictures I just took in my studio of SHADOWS ONLY, caste onto a white board. They make very beautiful flat pattern designs, don’t they? Can you see that the shapes of the shadows (dark) are forming positive shapes, leaving the areas between them (white) as negative shapes?  When you look at those negative shapes, they are all different to one another – giving our eyes much to play with!

  Actually, its good to view your composition reference through a little window cut out of cardboard – or use your camera rectangle to help zero in on the best angle and composition.  Make sure your rectangle is the same ratio you plan to paint on, or be prepared to crop it.

Below is a photo of some lovely Western Australian wildflowers my daughter gave me recently. If I were to paint them, how would I improve on this composition?  I’ll just share my thought process with you in case it is helpful.

Well I would start by moving that vase a bit to one side and eliminating anything detracting – like the place mats and bits and pieces.  Lets do that below…

Hmm. but there is not enough contrast to show the flowers up is thre?

Because these are STRONG bold flower shapes and not delicate, I would consider painting them with a darker background and elinating the vase altogether, like this…

Below are some paintings I did of Proteas previously, choosing to zero in on just the flowers…this next one was done with soft pastels on black paper. (The black areas are the negative shapes.  Are they varied and intersting?)

Here is the same subject again, with a white background, painted in acrylics.  (This time the white areas are the negative shapes.)

We have so many options don’t we?  Its all about choices!

                THINK BEFORE YOU START!  PLAN A LITTLE!

Let the flowers speak to you by imagining them drawn or painted in different ways before you begin -  maybe do some little thumbnail sized studies first.

In this next study, I created a circular ‘sunburst’ design.  I don’t think I needed to have suggested the vase really – after all I could have been looking straight down on the bunch!  There’s that logical interference at work – “What is holdig them up?” my silly brain said…and so I put in the vase!  Still, it is soft enough not to destroy the sunburst effect.  A circle or an oval are terrific ways to contain and hold the eye.  If your paintings aren’t working in their rectangular shape, just try an oval/round mount on them … you’ll be surprised!

I’ll stretch this picture above into an oval, just to see how it looks…

Here is another option – painting the proteas loosely and freely…

or how about a stylised version – going for more a flat patterning of design…

and yet another version, using light outlines for a ‘neon’ look…

However, if your flowers are delicate with petals that show the light through them, you may choose to paint them in something like watercolour, allowing the white of the paper to glow through the washes… below are some old fashioned dog roses from my neighbour’s fence. I got carried away with softly suggested leaf shadows to add variety and a little mystery…

Speaking of roses, here is a tip I was once given for an approach to multi petalled open blooms…

Next I tried painting some white poppies! White flowers are a real challenge!  When you study and paint them, you realise that there are hardly any true whites anywhere!  Instead, there are many subtle shadows on the petals.   I remember an early study in my college years was to paint an all white study – a white jug, cup and saucer on a white cloth!  I learned so much from that exercise about tone and form.

With these white poppies (painted in acrylics) I decided to allow the background colour to come into the shadows on the petals as a means of unifying the painting.  Not wanting to bring in an new alien colour for the vase, I just utilised the greens already present in the leaves.  The secret here in keeping the composition interesting was to choose 3 or 4 blooms for the main focal point and play down all the rest.  If they were all of equal importance, then the painting would be boring and there would be nothing left suggested.

Below is a bunch of colourful poppies dancing across the page –  this time treated with transparent watercolour (Note: no vase!)  Don’t worry about finishing the stems – just let them fade away or disappear into the cluster.

Here is another of Poppies in watercolour – Tony and I both had a go at painting them one afternoon recently… here is Tony’s finished work:

Now here is my effort.  I used masking fluid on the stems and white parts, rubbing it off after the painting was day.  Tony avoide his white areas carefully while painting and didn’t use any mask.  You can see more about these 2 paintings on Post No. 36 (watercolours).

 There can be 2 light sources with something translucent like flower petals – one shining on the form and another from behind it. A sunny walk in a garden will soon point up the difference.  If the light is shining THROUGH the petals, you will need to paint it thinly whereas light falling ON the petals can be painted more opaquely.

 Sometimes it is nice to experiment with strong design and play with shapes, as I did with these pointsettias below.  This is an area the fabric designers explore fully, playing freely with the shapes and not worrying about photographic realism.  I am actually fairly new to this and Tony has awakened me to a new level of awareness in this area. Thanks Tony!  Lots more to explore in this way of seeing!

 

In the painting below (acrylics) I decided to barely suggest the vase. It is a study of Singapore Orchids, brought to me fresh from Singapore by Adrian one Christmas!  I tried to create a feeling of life and movement with a suggested “cartwheel” within the shapes. Did it work?

At other times, its nice to experiment with different materials. Here I have used gold paint patterning on the vase and table and strong design in the treatment of these mermaid roses below…

Because the flowers were all clustered at the top, I balanced the light shapes by adding a few fallen petals on the table – so there’s another trick you can use!  Either petals, or a bloom laying on the table would work and relax a study that may be too ‘tight’.

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                             BE THE BOSS!  EXPERIMENT!

The biggest thing to remember is “YOU ARE THE ARTIST – THEREFORE YOU ARE THE BOSS!  YOU CAN MAKE CHOICES AND NOT JUST BE A SLAVE TO THE REFERENCE YOU ARE WORKING FROM, BE IT PHOTOGRAPHIC OR REAL.”   SO – “TAKE CHARGE, FORGET THE EGO, EXPERIMENT AND ENJOY!”

OH YES – & ONE LAST THING – ALWAYS PAINT WITH LOVE & FEELING FOR YOUR SUBJECT MATTER AND LOVE EVERY BIT OF YOUR PAINTING -  IT WILL SHOW!              (Unfortunaely, it will also show if you do not!)

Cheers!   

Julie

 

 

 

It has become apparent from online painting lessons being requested that a post covering glazing and also misting effects is needed.

                          Let’s first look at GLAZING:

Glazing in this instance is another term for thin washes of transparent paint, mixed either with appropriate solvents or Retouching Varnish (if using oils).

Sometimes we might finish a painting only to find it is not quite what we hoped for – colourwise – maybe it is too cold, too dull or the colours don’t relate to one another as a whole.   This can often be helped by putting a thin wash over the entire painting (or parts of it if you wish) using transparent paint.  Not only does this unify the painting’ s overall colouring but it can brighten or subdue as needed.

Oil paints are best for this, although you can glaze with acrylics, but not as effectively in my opinion.  Both oils and acrylics come in transparent and opaque colours and all of course are transparent to a degree when you thin them down with the appropriate medium.  Here are my favourite transparent oil colours suitable to glaze with, along with directions…

Here is a painting lacking in warmth and needing a little “sunshine” washed into it.  The painting is largely blueish so I will glaze using the complementary opposite to blue on the colour wheel, which is orange.

I am going to apply a soft orange glaze with a brush first to the left hand side and will use a mixture of Indian Yellow and Crimson Alizarin oil paints, diluted with Retouching Varnish. Can you see how it is bringing this little painting to life?   

As well as providing a protective finish,  Retouching Varnish gives a sheen to the paint, bringing up any flat areas and enriching the darker colours.  It is, to my knowledge, the only varnish safe to use on oil paintings prior to 6 months after their completion.  This is because it is turpentine based and allows the paint to cure by drying out through it.  It is best to apply this varnish with plenty of ventilation to avoid inhaling.

Next I take the glaze right across, covering the entire painting evenly, then with a soft rag, wipe back some of the cream highlights. Because the glaze takes about a half to 1 hour to dry thoroughly, I can remove some of it with a rag before it dries if I have have overdone the effect.  Some people apply the glaze with a rag, rubbing it in a circular action all over – but I prefer to use a soft brush, only using the rag for any removal.  Here is the painting fully glazed…

Now here is a picture showing the painting before and after glazing.  You be the judge.  Has glazing improved it? I would love to hear what you think! 

 

This painting needed brightening up, but supposing you have the opposite problem - a painting that is too bright or strong in colour.  If you take the main colouring in the painting as a guide, you can then SUBDUE it with a glaze using its complementary opposite colour on the colour wheel.  There is much about mixing and using colours in Post 11, but here is a basic colour wheel to see here…

                  Next, lets look at MISTING effects…

Misting in this instance is like glazing, except with opaque colour instead of transparent, mixed with a little Retouching Varnish.

Sometimes as artists, we would like to soften and fade back distance in landscapes or play down parts of a painting so as to draw attention to focal points.  This can be done by misting.   First, here is one of my paintings in oils which has an effect of broken light in a bushland setting – to give you an idea of what I mean…

The foliage behind the trunks has been misted softly and rays of light added for drama.

How was it done?  Well here is an example…the oil painting below I had discarded as a failure, being too dark and lacking in atmosphere.  I decided to do what I could to save it by “rolling in the mist” and maybe some shafts of light.

First, I prepared a mix of 2 oil paints – white + indigo (a dark cool grey). I also had handy some Retouching Varnish and a soft rag.  You can apply this method over oils or acrylic so long as they are dry to the touch.

There are many different greys you can use – you need to choose whether you want warm or cool grey and just how pale to mix it for your particular painting – I do suggest however that if you mix a grey with just black and white, add a little colour into it so that it doesn’t have a ‘dead’ look.  The warmer the grey, the more dusty or sunlit it will look.  Cooler greys suggest mist or smoke.

 

Can you see the soft grey at the right, which has been mixed from the 2 at left? That is the grey I will pick up on a rag to apply over the painting. I like to mix with a painting knife for a clean mix and easy wipe clean.

First dampening a small part of the rag with Retouching Varnish, I put my finger behind that part and rub it into the grey mix on the palette and begin applying it to the painting, starting at the top right hand corner…

Working my way down & picking up more paint mixed with Retouch Varnish as needed, I begin to create an effect of shafts of light as well as overall mist, by stroking with the rag at an angle… 

I continue over the rest of the painting, heartened by the effect being achieved!

I realise that I’ve now overdone it and too much detail has been lost in the mist – so taking a clean dry part of the rag, I rub to remove some of the pale grey – still working at the same angle. If I need to take more off, I moisten the rag with clear retouch varnish only and rub.

I have seen an opportunity to focus on patches of dappled light as a feature in this painting and build up some softly sunlit areas.  Sometimes we see this effect with early morning mist or with smoke. 

 

Here is a close up to show the effect, which I have seen all too often in my childhood in my “little home among the gumtrees” (not unlike this one) in the Australian bush.

Ok now lets take a look at the before and after pictures and once again – you be the judge! Did misting improve it?

 By the way, this is a great way to put in a whisp of smoke from a chimney or campfire in a painting or if you use a warm grey, suggest dust rising – for example around the feet of cattle or horses.  I remember one of my classes were thrilled to learn this, as some were painting horses at the time and this meant they could disguise their feet, which they were having a lot of trouble with!  Actually, I’ve seen some marvelous innovations by students to deal with this problem: water splashing up, dust rising, snow and long grass!  Anything rather than learn how to paint their hooves properly!  It has been a great source of amusement to me over the years.  I’m sure in my earlier stages of learning I was guilty of it too!

Below is a diptych I painted in 2007.  It has been on my wall opposite my easy chair so I have looked at it a lot.  Slowly I came to wish it were softer and more mystical with cleaner lines to suit my meditational state when I sit in that chair.   So, after some deliberation – down it came off the wall…

At first I set to and eliminated a fair bit of detail between the trees with a light cream paint.  Then I felt the need to contrast the warm colours with cool and “let the mist roll in” to this Australian bush scene.  It have loved the bush in morning mist so often as a child with the magpies carolling, that I decided that this was the effect I would try to achieve…so here it is:

Ah – now it can go back up on the wall and I know I will feel more peaceful when my eyes wander over this softened image.

Which version do you like best?  After all, we are all different – so lets rejoice in our differences  as we enjoy our growth and embrace all positive change.

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How about some overall feedback from you? Do you like these effects? Are they useful to you?

I have found them invaluable over many years, both when using oils and acrylics. It’s a great way to achieve atmosphere in paintings.

All for now and Happy Painting to you all!  Don’t forget, feedback and suggestions are very welcome, as this is all in the spirit of free sharing.

Julie

 

 

 

Hello All!    

With school holidays upon us, Tony turned up with a small old screen he had been given and asked if I would like to join him in involving the grandchildren in some simple printing with it.  (Tony taught screen printing in Coffs Harbour for many years at the Jetty High School. He later instigated the printing of shift lengths by Aboriginal ladies in the area, as part of a series of craft workshops.)   

When Amelia and Julia came for our screen printing session, we each made a different design which we could print onto plain white cotton pillow slips which I had first washed, dried and ironed so as to accept the dye well.

Here is the equipment we used – we only had one screen so had to clean it in between colours… so 1 screen, 1 squeegie, primary colours of red, yellow and blue fabric screen printing dyes, (+ a transparent “white” for diluting a colour to a pastel tint), newsprint, rags & sponges + a bucket of water for cleanup. The second in the picture is just to rest the screen on once it is inked up so that it doesn’t touch the table in between prints.

Now let’s have a closer look at …

You need to hold the squeegie at a 45 degree angle in the direction you are going when you print.  Usually, you first come towards you in one sweep, then making sure there is enough ink right along the rubber edge towards the mesh, sweep it back way from you – as Amelia is doing in the picture below. It helps to have someone hold the screen steady as you need to press firmly and evenly as you glide it from end to end.

There are many ways to make stencils.  This is an easy one, using newsprint (which we used to call “Butcher’s paper”). Here is the first step…

 Now the second step…(You may need to hold the paper up to the light to see where the lines are).

You can fold again at any angle you wish…and as many times as you wish before cutting.

Then try out some shapes, cut on the folded parts…remember you are cutting only part of a shape and the rest will be seen when you open it up…

Here is this pattern opened up .. remember we only cut out half a love heart, half a butterfly and a tiny part of the centre star.

                         JULIA’S DESIGN

Next we prepared a padded surface to work on using an old folded blanket with smooth cloth over it.  We put some newspaper on this and laid down the stencil.   Then we placed the screen over the stencil, carefully making sure the design fitted evenly within the mesh area and the edges of the paper overlapped the taped sides so that ink could not leak through on the edges.

This next step is to make the stencil stick to the screen before we print onto our pillow slips – so  Julia chose the colour dye she wanted and loaded it up with a spatula along the length of the squeegie at the end of the screen.

 

Julia now lifted the squeegie and put it behind the dye – then pulled it towards her pressing down firmly and evenly to spread the dye over the mesh.   It doesn’t matter which way you start, so long as you sweep the squeegie forward and back with plenty of ink.

The dye went through the mesh and stuck the stencil to it everywhere there were no stencil holes.  This is what the screen looked like underneath now.

Next it was time for Julia to print onto her pillow case.  Tony helped her with the first pull going one way…

Then Julia went back the other way by herself…

Then she lifted up the screen and there was her print! Perfect!

Julia added a second print like this to her pillow slip, then later a third one in blue between them, so it looked very nice when it was finished.  Both she and Amelia swapped stencils with their middle blue print, for variety.

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                   AMELIA’S DESIGN

Next, it was Amelia’s turn…here is her design, cut out the same way as Julia’s but with different shapes.

First sticking the stencil to the screen…

Then printing on her pillow slip…

and here is her lovely print…

Here is Amelia’s finished pillow slip, after adding two more prints…the colour was much lighter and softer than my photo recorded.

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                           JULIE’S DESIGN

Next it was my turn.   I cut my stencil out with a tiny craft knife, being very careful not to cut my fingers. Sorry – I forgot to photograph it when I first cut it, but here it is after printing – so you can see it just the same.

Here is the stencil stuck to the mesh of the screen…

Here is my first print on my pillow slip…

Then I repeated it alongside…

Next, after cleaning the screen, I mixed a light blue using transparent ink to dilute the colour. Where the blue overlapped the red it formed a third purply colour which is what I had hoped would happen.  I diluted the blue because I didn’t want the places where it overlapped the red to be too dark.

Then I repeated it, turning the stencil around the other way for variation.

The prints need to dry before you print the next colour each time, but it doesn’t take very long usually, especially if you peg them up with air around the fabric and by the time I cleaned the screen and mixed my next ink colour, I could go on printing.

Then more cleaning of the screen while the blue print dried and this time I used yellow – still with the same stencil, hoping that where the yellow overlapped the blue it would make green.  It did! Also where the yellow overlapped the red, it made it more orange. 

I used the yellow twice more and this is my finished design – a very colourful pillow case to have happy dreams on!   Printing a third time in the middle united the 2 sides. 

Now a confession!  I accidentally got a few tiny bits of dye on the material outside of the finished design – so to cover them up, I took a brush and painted some small shapes over them (the little butterfly and petal shapes).  They give more variety by loosening up the pattern, even though the distribution of the dye is not as even in those parts as it is through the screen – but this is not “proper” print technique – its just my way of getting out of a problem!    

You can also draw with fabric laundry markers to add to your design if you like.  I just used one to sign my name in the corner.

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                            TONY’S EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Tony’s turn now and he decided to use confetti as an experiment!  He sprinkled it down onto heavy paper, then placed the screen over, sweeping the squeegie across with a mixture of orange and green dye to pick up the confetti onto the screen.  Then he printed this…

Tony then took some of the confetti off the screen, added more dye and printed a second one.  I think they are beautiful patterns.  If he had used dark blue it would look like a night sky!

IMPORTANT!  When the dye is quite dry on your fabric design, it needs to be made colour fast by ironing both sides with a fairly hot iron – otherwise it may run when washed.

There are many things you can use for designs. Sometimes we draw around shadows or used pressed leaves like these.

So if you ever have a chance to do some screen printing, have a go – it is fun, a bit messy and a fair bit of work … but worth it!

You can print many, many times from one stencil and repeat prints for curtains, bedspreads & place mats etc. look beautiful!

But maybe you would just like to print ONE Tee-shirt and that’s OK too!

We all enjoyed our day of printing very much.  It brought back memories for me of hand making my own edition of 500 children’s books in 1985 using Riso Print Gocco methods, which are quite different and much more sophisticated.  As well as the books, I printed lots of Tee shirts (see examples below) using a squeegie and fabric dye just as we did above- but the finely detailed screens were developed using carbon melted by strong light.  Tony said he has done a similar thing, using sunlight! 

Did you enjoy our introduction to fabric printing? Don’t forget, if you have any questions, please ask in the Comments box below and we will try to help.

Cheers!

Julie

Hi Everyone!

You could take this as a warning… ‘BEWARE OF BEING BITTEN BY THE POTTERY BUG!”

It happened to me back in the early 1990s and I was well and truly hooked!  I had worked on flat surfaces painting and drawing for so many years and something inside me just HAD to go 3 DIMENSIONAL to see what could be expressed in wonderful, mouldable  CLAY.  I simply fell in love with the very feel of it in my hands and the endless possibilities it opened up and it became addictive! This addiction is commonly referred to as “the Pottery bug!”

This in turn led to huge changes on the home front, with every available space taken up with clay, glaze buckets and a large assortment of equipment – all very messy and every spare moment spent playing with clay!  That is why I say “BEWARE!”

Amazingly, this is yet another area where my partner Tony and I share a similar background. Tony taught pottery & ceramics at Coffs Harbour TAFE College for many years – and whilst we both now have it “out of our system” we enjoy comparing notes about problem solving in working with clay etc.

 I experienced a short course in basic pottery at Joan Rogers’ Chillamurra Gardens Studio at Terrigal around 1980 so I learned how to knead the clay to get any air out, how thick it could be without exploding in the kiln and preliminaries of wheel throwing. We also were introdued to lovely things like paper-making and candlecraft there…but then I returned to painting and put these pursuits aside for a long time.

However the urge to create in clay was always there in the background and then it grew and grew until I simply had to embrace it around 1990!  I first tried some material that one can harden in an ordinary oven – but it was difficult to work, very expensive, unsatisfactory for my need to work a bit larger and not ‘the real thing’ straight from nature!

Next, I bought some earthenware and raku clay, a small turntable + a few pottery tools and began making figurines which I had to carry, leather-hard, to a local Potter to have fired in her kiln.   Here is my model of “Wendy the Potter” who was kind enough to fire them for me at Copacabana until I got my own kiln - plus a few example of early hand built work …

After operating this way for about 18 months, my late husband, John announced it was time I had my own kiln! This was very exciting and we first tested our marriage by assembling and erecting a kiln shed together (if you have every tried putting together one of these tin sheds you will know what I mean!).  Hardly any screw holes lined up so it really tried our patience!

When the shed was finally up on a concrete slab and all ready, we acquired a 2nd hand 8 cubic ft. top loader gas kiln, burner and gas bottles.  I was so excited!  However I knew absolutely nothing about firing kilns and books didn’t seem to offer much because each kiln is different.  I had a list of temperatures for different clays & glazes and some little cones that would melt at various temps. These had to be placed so as to be seen through the spy hole.

This is when my friend Jan came to the rescue!  She had a Pottery nearby and taught me so much about firing kilns, I can’t thank her enough!  She stressed the slow and even rate of rise in temperature needed for raw clay.

Every kiln has its own personality and we certainly had a lot of adventures experimenting – especially the first year!   John was wonderful with innovation.  Because I didn’t have a smaller electric kiln at that time (though I later acquired one for preliminary bisque firing), I was determined to succeed with once only raw firing – but the temperature would surge and crack things when we went from the small pilot burner to the main one.  John solved this by installing a second pilot burner – then we could get a steady rise that would allow moisture to leave the clay before going too high in temperature.  I mention this in case it helps anyone else.  Here are John and I attending a stoneware reduction firing!  We did this rarely however and mostly settled into raw earthenware one only firings. 

I now began to feel like a real potter!  Seagal Studio at MacMasters Beach was now a Pottery! Not until you handle the whole process from start to finish can you really call yourself a potter, I’m told. 

 Well we certainly qualified & I include John because with 12 to 14 hour firings in a kiln needing manual adjustment about every 1/4 hour, it is quite a commitment. Dear John used to get up in the early hours on a winter’s morning and start off the firing for me and I would bring him down a hot breakfast, finding him huddled in the corner of the kiln shed with a beanie down over his nose!  The shed was cold and draughty early on as we had it set up on loose bricks to allow plenty of ventilation (safety factor when using gas).

Along with raw fired figurines, I occasionally bisqued a load of stoneware and experimented with hand mixed glazes.  The Pottery was now bulging with blocks of various clays, buckets of glazes, recipes and many unusual ingredients.  I didn’t use anything containing lead or barium, which are very toxic – but no doubt there were health risks involved in creating one’s own glazes and I would advise anyone to be ultra careful if you do.  One tip is never to sweep a pottery area – always vacuum.  Wet glazes can’t be inhaled easily but once dry, they can be. I learned to be very methodical, keep records and label everything carefully.

Loading the kiln with props and shelves was difficult from the top, as I am quite short and could only just reach (almost fell in a few times!) – so John would help load the bottom layer. I was surprised how much the kiln would hold and how much work went into creating one kiln load!  Of course it is different with wheel thrown pottery – much faster than hand-building.   I bought a small wheel to supplement activities and combined hand-building with wheel thrown work…

One idea really took off through my couple of outlets and that was “Aussie” wine decanters. The most popular was in the form of an Australian outback watertank with a wooden tap, snake on top and frog on the side. These stood on lovely little wooden watertank stands which John enjoyed making.   These were raw fired once only, in earthenware, glazed inside.    The second idea was the Dinkum Aussie Waterbag decanter for taking to barbecues etc. but these were difficult to fire and many exploded in the kiln. Here they are…

 

Everything was a challenge and I put my heart and soul into it, studying books and learning through many a trial and lots of error. There was so much to try!  Throwing 2 pieces to form goblets, matching coffee mug sizes, creating fitted lids, the intricacies of making teapots etc., but I never really excelled at wheel throwing and found it very hard on my neck, shoulders and back.  I didn’t take to precision work and always leaned towards making them somehow organic looking where possible. Here are a few pics…the first three are made by impressing actual plants into the soft clay, then hand colouring with glaze before coating with clear glaze.

Then there was a period when I longed to make something more exotic – hence the “genie bottle” series…

 

I  realised that my strength lay in imaginative hand building and supplied a shop in Brooklyn plus another Party Plan outlet for the next few years with figurines, oil burners and novelty items – even though these were labour intensive. Here are some  examples…

  

Most were built around newspaper twisted and bound with masking tape as a basis to support the shapes and minimise clay used. With only 1 or 2 small holes or slits in the finished clay sculpture, the paper burns away in the kiln leaving the piece hollow and light.

   

   

 

 

Often I would be requested to create caricatures of actual sports people in their favourite clothing, usually in some funny predicament – like the golfer who has swung so hard his legs are twisted up and the ball is still there.  

Then the most popular figurines of all – those of humorous fishermen with all sorts of problems!  Since John was a very keen fishermen and our beachfront home was often full of them, the ideas were easy to come by and exaggerate! The Hawkesbury River Oyster and Fishing fraternity became popular subjects too.  For water effect, I used crushed green glass which melted in the kiln. Here are some examples…

            

Sometimes I would receive orders giving a photo of a fisherman in his favourite gear for a caricature in clay to be made.  My humorous fishermen caught all kinds of things:  giant octopus, stingrays, huge fish, sharks and even a mermaid!  One had a competition with a pelican for his catch and others caught themselves in the tail!  It was such fun making them.

     

             

Oyster farmers almost always have a bitser dog on their barges and they love to lead the way up front with the wind in their faces!

 

As you can imagine, in a house alive with fishermen, practical jokes were popular.  This idea was one of John’s – the famous Aussie meat pie which is often the butt of jokes about what might be in it!   We used to put a few on a plate at a buffet, having first heated up some real tomato sauce on top so that they were steaming.   There were some very surprised looks and lots of laughter!  Here’s a picture of some of the “Pie Critters”…

Another popular item was our invention of “THE FOUR WISE KOALAS” – based on the well known ‘THREE WISE MONKEYS”… Hear no evil, See no evil, Speak no evil… except that I added a 4th…”Do no evil”!

These items gave rise to a lot of laughter in the shop…

Often, in the midst of filling orders, I would take time out to make something more serious for my own collection - expressing a classical sculptural approach…

                        

Of course, I couldn’t leave my beloved Bush and Forest Sprites out of the act either. You can view them in artform on www.kidsfuncorner.com under “Spriteland”.  Here are some little “Regie Rock Sprite” paperweight “mood barometers”.  Some are turned upside down to show you how they look each way…

Here is one close up…

 

then the Funny Fungi Family…

and Little Nodding Greenhood, the sleepy Orchid Sprite…

The water effect is melted crushed glass.

 I have a little Fairy Fernery with a small fishpond where I like to tell stories to children, so I made this model of “Yarnie” the Storyteller to help set the scene…  

A helpful hint with hand building – With most clays, you shouldn’t make anything thicker than an adult index finger and this can be difficult.   Instead of the old method of making a model solid – then cutting it in half to hollow out the middle then having to rejoin the halves…make a support out of paper pulled roughly into the shape you want with masking tape and build up the clay over that.  A small hole or two in the bottom allows the paper to burn out during firing.

There are however some clays that can be used thicker, such as paper clay – but the above method saves on the amount of clay used as well as reducing the weight of the finished work – so I think it’s a good one. 

A fun entry that was Highly Commended in the Wyong Festival of Arts many years ago was the “Pigs Party” and I made it after seeing the movie “Babe”…  John built the barn and I filled it with the following…

     

Orrrr! Don’t you feel sorry for the little one that missed out?

At one stage I felt quite overwhelmed with repetitive orders – so to make things more interesting, each kiln load I made one or two little figures to add to a composite assembly for my home which I named “The Insubstantial Pageant of Life”.   It was fun thinking how each figure would relate to the next, working my way around the composition.  The hands seemed to be the most descriptive part, so I gave them all white gloves to help show what was doing on. Here’s a picture of the overall, mounted on varnished timber with John’s help…

In short, the right hand side depicts people climbing the aspirational ladder (in this case a rope) – notice some will give us a leg up and others will step on us … then at the top there is a trio representing family and success. There is also a naughty child who has spilled some blue paint down onto the people below.  At the left, people are descending a rope and at the bottom they are progressing from left to right once again, completing the cycle.  The poor fellow middle bottom has a dog who is piddling on his boot and paint being dropped on him, but he is quite unaware!  Lastly, the folk in the centre window looking out are the observers of life, not caught up in the cycle of achievement.   Well – that’s the general gist anyway!

 

Here are a few close ups…

 

  

 

Finally, when John and I left MacMasters Beach, we sold the gas kiln and for a time I enjoyed a scaled down Pottery setup in our new home with just the small electric kiln, bench and wheel.  The last thing I made before selling these things was a FAIRY PALACE which sits on my porch.  It has coloured fairy lights in it – so looks quite beautiful, especially at night.  If you really want to know how I made it in a very tiny kiln, please ask via COMMENTS and I will tell you – but I don’t want to take away from the magic right now…

Here are a few close-ups.  I used anything beautiful I had to embellish it – beads, jewels, crystals, glass figurines etc.

                 

So that’s about it for this Post.  If you have any queries about any of the techiques or firing, please don’t hesitate to ask and I will help if I can.

Yours, three dimensionally this time!

Julie

PS. Worth checking:  about.com Guide to Pottery – Beth’s Pottery Blog – for lots of information about Potting in all its forms!  It seems from reading Beth’s blog that being “bitten” by the Pottery bug (or going “potty”!) is quite common!  Just thinking about taking raw clay from the earth into one’s hands, moulding it into something useful or imaginative and then completing that earthing process by firing it in your very own mini-volcano is such a magical, timeless thing!  I wouldn’t have missed the experience for the world!  How about you? Have you ever been caught in the magical “Pottery net”?  Do tell!

 

     

SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE & HARBOUR BRIDGE

Greetings all once again!

In this Post I would like to share with the evolution of a large painting “Opera House Dreaming”  which is still part of my collection.   The purpose is to see how a painting can grow from a tiny sketched impression and encourage you to try your own original approach if you haven’t done so before. To find your own personal approach to a subject by playing with shapes, design, atmosphere, linear forms or whatever appeals to you is so satisfying and so much fun.

So the operative word in this Post is ‘ORIGINAL”   - after all YOU are original aren’t you?  Your creativity should reflect that!  Truly, you don’t know what is in you to come out until you give it a go!

Here is an original small pencil sketch I made on Australia Day 2007 on Sydney Harbour.

The overlaid felt pen lines were added later, isolating the shapes of the beautiful Sydney Opera House – but the original pencil sketch just freely explored the relationship between he sailing boats, birds and Opera House – which is what impressed me on the day as the lovely curves of the wings of the birds swooped across similar curves in the sails – then echoed again in the ‘sails’ of the Opera House design.

Back home in my Studio, I was keen to see where this would take me in paint – so I put a large stretched canvas on the easel and hopped in with soft willow charcoal & a rag for an eraser before I got “cold feet”.  (Yes, there is still that initial hesitation that comes when confronted by a plain white canvas! But along with that, there is a tremendous sense of power - because here YOU are the boss!)  Others can give advice but the final decisions are yours – don’t ever relinquish that personal power.

  Putting in some tonal shading helped to establish overall composition as well as the linework. All the time, I was telling myself “I can change anything at all later on when I apply the paint. In other words, this stage is only a possible “guide”.  Not feeling trapped or committed is essential to developing a painting freely and you can embrace new ideas along the way and be on the lookout for accidental ‘serendipity’ happenings!

Freedom is what painting is all about, unless you want to be confined to painting photographically.   I think it is such a shame to feel restriction in creativity when just about everywhere else in our lives is full of rules and regulations!  After all, we have cameras these days if we want total realism in our images.

I sprayed the charcoal sketch with fixative and let it dry while I mixed some oil paint, using Alkyd white to hasten the drying. (This makes the difference between 1 day’s drying time and up to 5 or even 7 with normal oil paints!) Being a large painting I thought I would keep it fairly restricted colourwise to get the most out of the shapes and forms.   I know from experience that its good to go with what appeals to you most and not try to put every aspect in so I had to choose whether or not to keep the linework or go for shapes more. 

The shapes won and “lines” became not drawn lines, but edges formed by lights meeting darks. 

Colour? Mmmmm. yes - 2 warm and 1 or 2 cool colours should do it, reduced with white.  Yellow, Orange and blue should capture the sunny mood of the day and being complementary colours (opposite to each other on the colour wheel) they go well together.

This should leave me free to have fun with the shapes without worrying about controlling colour as well.  I start by applying cool colour first…keen to get the canvas covered. 

 

Something in me is sad to see the charcoal lines disappearing, but I am equally keen to see how the shapes will relate to one another without them – so I continue…

Ah! That’s better!  Now that I have covered all the white canvas with tones (lights to darks) I can better gauge how it is all relating.  It is looking a bit plain and static – in need of more interest and suggested movement, since it’s a big painting.  I promise myself that later on I can include more bird or boat shapes  or extended shapes to create more for the eye to play with.   It occurs to me that the largest Opera House ‘sail’ can ‘double’ as a spinnaker of a second yacht!  This is the added hidden interest I’ve been searching for!

I mix the warm tones that will make the painting “sunny” and begin applying them…

Yes I feel I’m heading in the right direction.  I spend several days playing with the shapes, gradually strengthening the ones I like and playing down those of lesser importance.  It really is pretty much a non-preconceived adventure painting this way and so much more interesting than planning ALL to begin with!

I turn the painting upside down often and even work on it that way.  This clarifies the overall relationship of the shapes, focal points etc. without my logical brain naming everything.

In the next stage, I have featured 4 birds and accentuated the water movement – all of which give the painting more life!

i

Finally, it is finished! I get a feeling of completion…

(but still nagging in the back of my mind is another rendition featuring lines rather than shapes – maybe a black and white charcoal one as well some day?)

There are so many ways to express a subject, sometimes it is hard to choose – but I am happy with this final result – it is decorative, sunny and an original rendition of this wonderful icon on Sydney’s beautiful harbour.

The finished painting was just dry enough to enter in the Kincumber Waterford Exhibition 2007 where it was Highly Commended.  

I hope you enjoyed sharing this process with me.  I guess in a loose sort of way you could say this “method” is to jump in, paint into trouble and then find a way out!  I don’t mind the “mistakes” along the way because I know they are only stepping stones or lessons really. It’s all about choices and we learn to make better ones the more we paint.  

Care to share your approach to creativity & artwork?  Why not leave a comment – as long as you like and let me know if you would like to share your story and pictures here.

Cheers!  Julie

 

EACH POST IS ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC & REVIEWED REGULARLY.

Hello everyone!      (Also view Post on Perspective, closely related to this one.)

DRAWING! What a big subject and what a joy to learn. If you learn to enjoy drawing you will never be bored!

Often we hear people say “I can’t draw a straight line!” Well who can, without a ruler, & would you particularly want to when Nature is so full of wonderful interesting non-straight lines? 

Many people have some idea that drawing ability is just something you are born with but I believe anyone can learn to draw if they want to.   After all, most of us learned to write and that is infinitely more difficult, but we didn’t do that overnight did we?  So with guidance and a shift in our way of “seeing” I believe we can all draw. 

The great spinoff from learning to draw is that little by little we learn to observe in a different way and it enhances our whole view of the world around us.  We see relationships and effects of light, shade, form, line, texture, shape and colour everywhere that we would normally have walked straight past!  I feel this is the greatest legacy of art involvement – relating more deeply and closely with everything around us and appreciating the wonder of the simplest of things. 

Back in the 1960s when I went to St. George Technical College as an art student, we really had to buckle down to the nitty gritty just learning to draw such “boring” things as chairs, pots and pans – then later, plaster models and drapes.  We were given very little help – just left to our own devices much of the time, so those that stuck to it for the 3 years of evening classes had to be VERY keen, especially since we were already tired after a day’s work before we began each night. Just for the archives, here are a few thumbnail examples of the drawings I did there…

                                            

Of course, a long time later I realised that learning to draw drapes helped me learn to paint mountains…& drawing tables, chairs and bowls had been the basis for drawing all structural things…but it was such a tedious way to learn back there in the 1960s! 

When I started to teach art in the 1970s, I decided to try to base my teaching on “what I would have liked to have had more of …ie.  visual, practical help and some FUN!”  I thought to myself  “Don’t just tell them, SHOW them!”  After all, it is a visual subject!

So lets have some fun here learning together!  You are welcome to send me your drawings as email attachments if you need help, so don’t feel you are alone.   jduell@pnvr.com.au

Firstly, we need to understand that there are a number of ways of drawing.  1.  Drawing from life (something in front of you)   2.  Drawing from recall (some people have accurate mental recall, often referred to as a “photographic memory”) and 3. Drawing from imagination (pure invention.)   4. Copying or drawing from another flat image.

I consider the most basic and useful start is with No. 1 – Drawing something in front of you.  This becomes a springboard of understanding from which you can progress to inventive & imaginative drawing painting later.   Copying has some merits, but can become a crutch that many are unwilling to throw away – especially if the reference is based on someone else’s view of life in the form of a photograph or artwork.  

It seems to me that the purpose of drawing is expressing and sharing with others your own unique and wonderful view of the world – your own particular way of seeing. I remember being absolutely gobsmacked the first time I attended a life drawing group and witnessed how differently we all “see” and interpret the same subject!  It wasn’t until then that I came to value my own, just as you will develop and treasure your own uniqueness in this way too!

We need to recognise that the main obstacle in us being able to ‘draw what is around us’ is our own LOGIC..the part of our brain that ‘names and describes’.  eg. Supposing we try to draw a chair.  The logic pops up immediately and says “Ha ha – I know about chairs!  They have 4 legs and if one leg is shorter than the other it will fall over!”   But just look at this chair from a 3/4 angle. Are all the legs the same length from this perspective? 

No?  Well THAT observation is what you need to rely on to enable you to draw – not what logic is telling you.   SO LET’S BEGIN!

How about trying this exercise to help us understand the process of “SEEING” in order to draw something in front of you.

 Here is an exercise to demonstrate the two sides of your brain at work – usually the left side is the logical one and the right side the intuitive “seeing” side that observes shapes without naming.

Don’t worry if your profile isn’t like mine. It doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you name each part as you draw the first one – then try to mirror what you have done in the second part.

Here is the process, step by step, which might be easier to follow…

 

How did you go?  Did you find your logical side pretty useless doing the second side?  Good! What did you find yourself thinking as you mirrored the first profile?   Things like “Now where does that line start” “What angle is that curve going?” “How deep is that curve” “When does it start to change direction” “Am I level with the other side as I go down?” etc.etc.   THESE ARE THE OBSERVATIONS NEEDED WHEN YOU DRAW!  Yes! It’s as simple as that!  A way of seeing – plus practise of course.   Now let’s go to the next part of this exercise…

While our brain is being teased a bit with shapes, see if you can see the two faces in this picture below…

Can you see a young woman?  Can you see an old witch?  Can you see both? They’re both there!

OK now here is the next set of drawing exercises for you to try…

Say you are drawing some objects on a page.  There is most likely going to be a lot of flat area on that page where there will be NO OBJECTS drawn.   We call those areas ‘NEGATIVE SHAPES’ and they are just as important, if not more so, than the shapes of the objects when you are making an interesting picture!  The space between the 2 profiles above was a “nothing” (or negative shape) right?   Now we have turned it into something … a VASE.  This is just to remind you that negative spaces are important.

Like to have some more fun?  Don’t forget, these are quick little exercises you can do as doodles often … they will help you develop your “seeing” side and quieten down the logic that makes drawing so difficult.

OK?  Now let’s stick with drawing the NEGATIVE SHAPES.  I want you to try drawing this horse’s head, by first drawing the shapes of the spaces around it.  You will need to measure and draw a rectangle the same size or ratio as the one below before you begin…remember – you only need to draw the white shapes.

AFTER you’ve drawn the white shapes, it should be much easier to work out where the parts of the horse go – like the eyes, nostril, mouth etc.  To use this method drawing things around you, look through a rectangular window cut out of a piece of cardboard. Move it to and from your eyes until the edges are touching your subject matter in several places. Now draw those negative shapes.  It isn’t the whole answer to drawing, but it’s a great start!

Here are some more of these to do…have fun!

How did you go with Koala?  OK?  This next one is a bit trickier because the negative shapes are bigger. Have a try…

This time, draw the white and pale blue shapes.

Great! Now just one more!  For this one you need to draw a circle to begin with (you could draw around a saucer perhaps)…

These exercises do more than tune you into negative shapes. They train you to get the big shapes in first before you get into ANY detail and that is so important.  It’s no good if you put in some beautiful detail work and find out later it’s in the wrong place is it?

Now let’s see how strong you can be by drawing the negative shapes around this horse, even though I haven’t filled them with white…this time the horse is pretty much white isn’t it?

If, for instance I wanted to learn to a simple object like a chair accurately, I would first look at the chair through a viewfinder like this one - a rectangle cut out of card and with 2 threads taped into place to divide the rectangle into quarters…

I would look at the chair through the viewfinder, moving it slowly away from my eyes until parts of the chair in my vision “touched” the sides of the rectangle.  I would then observe the shapes of the spaces (which we call negative spaces – the chair shape being called the positive shape) and draw those shapes lightly within the rectangle of my paper first.  (Naturally, the rectangle you are drawing within needs to be the same ratio as that of the viewfinder.) 

Using a viewfinder becomes unnecessary after a time, as your eyes are trained to “see” this way.

It helps to have the paper you are drawing on at right-angles to your eyes – either on an easel or on a sloping board from your lap up to a table -  your view of your drawing is distorted if you are sitting, working on a flat table.  If you can glance with your eyes back and forth from the subject to your drawing without moving your head, that is ideal!  Otherwise you have to do the mental trick of looking at the image, recording and carrying it in your mind and then superimposing it on your drawing surface. All this is tiring – so it’s good to get into the habit early of positioning yourself comfortably without having to turn your head back and forth.

Now getting back to drawing the chair, having drawn in the negative shapes, you can then creep up on the details of the chair bit by bit.  In the illustration below, the negative space shapes are shown in pale green and white, within the quarters of the composition. 

Drawing the shapes of the spaces AND dividing the subject into quarters are both really helpful in gaining control of your drawing approach. 

Another tip is to practise sketching simple forms (just a matchbox at different angles would do), lightly drawing the angles of the lines further than they need to be to begin with. These are called construction lines.   Here are a few examples from an early lesson at St. George Technical Collage back in 1968!

So how do you get the angles of the lines right in relation to what you are seeing?  Well, I didn’t know about it in those early days, but I’ve since learned to use what is called a “clock” method.  When I begin to analyse an angle in relation to the sides of my paper, I pretend that I am a pointing hand on an old-fashioned clockface.  Then I think “If this line was the hand of a clock, what time would it be pointing to?”   That helps me very much, but it may not help you younger people who have grown up with digital clocks!!

Now what we have been looking at so far is LINE or LINEAR drawing…but when we look at objects around us, they have light and shade on them which gives them a three dimensional appearance.  That light and shade is called

TONE:

 Here is an example of a tonal range from light to dark.  It is easiest to see TONE when you look at a black & white range with middle tones of grey.  However it takes a more practised eye to see degrees of tone when you look at colour, because as well as tone we are looking at CHROMA (or intensity of colour). Here is a chart that might help…can you see the gradients from light to dark in each row?

As artists (or as I prefer to call us “magicians!”, we have 3 main magic wands at our disposal to create illusions on a flat surface!  These are ways to CONTRAST or show up things in our drawings and paintings.  They are:

MAGIC WAND NO. 1:    USE LIGHT AGAINST DARK

MAGIC WAND NO. 2:    USE WARM COLOUR AGAINST COOL COLOUR

MAGIC WAND NO. 3:    USE TEXTURE AGAINST SMOOTH

and of these 3, the first is the most powerful.

Forgetting about colour and texture for a moment, when we draw and paint, we can use LINE and we can use TONE  or BOTH.  Here is what I mean…

Can yu see that in the third example there is little drawn line, but instead an EDGE is formed by a dark meeting a light. 

Here is an image of someone you might recognise.  Someone had the patience to create it using letters from a typewriter!  Notice there is NO DRAWN LINE used. In a way of course, pixels work the same way – but they are so small our eye doesn’t observe this aspect unless we zoom in a lot.

 I created this tonal picture of footballers without drawn line too.  We do this more in painting than in drawing, but most paintings begin with a line sketch that is used just as a guide and covered up with paint later. Lines become not drawn lines, but edges where the different tones meet. 

If you are a beginner at drawing and I asked you to copy this picture, you might feel it is too complicated….yes?

But what if I asked you to choose just one quarter of it and I turned the picture upside down as it is below.  Would that be a bit easier?

Yes? Why? Because the shapes are less easy for your logical brain to name. They are areas of dark, medium or light to “map” and copy.  Also doing just one quarter is less overwhelming than the whole picture.  So you see we sometimes need to break subject matter down to make it more manageable rather than “biting off more than we can chew”.

The areas of tone in the footballer picture are pretty much flattened into shapes representing dark, medium and light without much gradual softening from one to the other.   It helps to think broadly and clearly – naming areas in 3 categories – DARKS, MEDUMS & LIGHTS even though there are many hundreds of gradients within each. 

LIGHT AND SHADE:  If you want to paint or draw realistically you will need to understand a bit about effects of light on objects in terms of the shadows they create.  Let’s start with a simple ball with one light source coming from the right…

This will apply to any subject matter that is rounded.  For example…

A similar thing happens with cylinders and this can help us make arms, legs, tree-trunks etc. appear rounded…

 

 

Of course the variations are endless depending on the direction of a light source and becomes more complicated when there is more than one light source.  Being watchful of this becomes fascinating. Here’s a very dramatic lighting effect resulting in a silhouetted figure in a doorway…

                        PLANNING AN INTERESTING COMPOSITION

When you are choosing your subject to paint, from life or your photographs for instance, there are some pitfalls you might like to avoid and these are the most obvious ones.  Your challenge in composing a picture is to have it “varied, balanced and above all interesting”.  It’s Ok to have the shapes in your picture touch the edges of your paper – in fact touching in 3 places or more helps give you interesting negative shapes which help the composition tremendously.  Remember it is not just arranging the objects you need to think about, but arranging the negative shapes too.

 Sometimes there are angles in what you might be drawing.  Don’t forget this little trick to use – pretend each line is a hand on a clock… ask yourself “what time is that angle in relation to the sides of your paper?”

Sometimes your subject might be overlapped or clustered objects or figures. Then it helps to draw the overall shape they make. I know I am repeating this a lot, but please be on the lookout for those negative shapes which can help you draw, for example – the chair below…details can be added later on but it’s the overall you need to capture first.

 

Getting tired of drawing on white paper?  You don’t need to necessarily buy coloured pens etc. to have colour. Just draw on a strong coloured background.  Because this background represents a middle tone, I have only had to add the dark and light to contrast it.

 

Tone (light to dark) can be achieved fairly easily with WILLOW CHARCOAL which is a soft form of charcoal to draw with.  It can be finger blended to soften for graduated shadows coming into lighter areas.  Here is an example of one of Tony’s portrait sketches done this way.  Willow Charcoal (made from willow trees) can be dusted off easily with a rag as you gradually establish your drawing.  Start by sketching lightly and strengthen as you become more sure of your drawing. The finished sketch can be sprayed with fixative to prevent smudging.

If however you prefer pen and pencil work, here is a close up of some rendering by means of shading and cross-hatching. Try to follow the form of the object you are representing. You might need straight lines, curved lines or lines that follow the texture & form of say – the hair – which may be wavy….

 

The above exercise was part of a Caricature course I did and I used waterproof pens in a couple of different sized tips. The rendering below shows how you can achieve tone going from dark to light with the marks lessening in quantity and intensity.  Intensity is something that needs a bit of practise – i.e. the amount of pressure you apply to the pen or pencil.  Here are some practise exercises you can do-do-do-do-doodle! (My Mum showed me these when I was a kid. I think she picked them up from a correspondence course she did on drawing a long time ago).

You might think this takes a lot of time to do, and it can but you will be surprised how quickly you can produce repetitive strokes with practise to achieve the effect you want.   The whole thing is, it isn’t a race – you can think of it almost as a meditation exercise …just relax and enjoy. 

In the days before photography, book illustrations were via etchings produced in this way – using carefully applied thin to thick linework, cross hatching and dots.  Here is an example – an unsigned portrait of Sir David Livingstone c. 1800s…

Here is a closer look at the line work…

and a closer look at the rendering of the coat. You can see how the lines are more dense where it is darker…

From the same 1880s book entitled “The Pictorial Cabinet of Marvel” – here is an example of a remarkable illustration of a steamtrain taking adventurous passengers up to a very high peak in Switzerland, followed by some close ups of the rendering…

You can see how the Artist in some cases has used curved line to represent the motion of the steam.  Sometimes the strokes follow the form, as in the funnel and in other areas directional strokes or flat cross hatching is used.  Generally however, there is a feeling of following the form with the lines just as if you were running your hand over the objects.

Of course, in the days before photography there was a great need for such delicately executed artwork – especially for book illustration – but I include it here for added interest.

Below are some simpler examples of rendering. I like to sketch lightly with a pencil and then switch to waterproof pens in several thicknesses for rendering such as this – but sometimes Tony and I use pencils in several grades from 2B to 8B.

If you want to draw water, you need to study the form of the waves from different angles.  Here are some examples…

Still water reflections are very beautiful. See how the moving surface of the water has been suggested here – also the form of the buildings with angled strokes in the rooves etc.

Stonework takes a bit of doing. Here the mortar has been left light and each stong rendered individually.  Note the careful shadow tones on the right hand side and defining the window…Note also that you don’t have to give every block of stone the same amount of importance…by doing some carefully and well, the rest can be just suggested, which is much more artistic…

Rendering foliage can be a challenge, so here are some wonderful examples of various kinds.  Note that where the light falls there is minimal detail. Try to look for overall shapes of foliage clusters rather than thinking about individual leaves – also once again, map the negative shapes of the spaces between the branches.

In this example, the still water becomes a mirror, requiring almost all vertical and horizontal rendering.

There are countless types of foliage.  Pay particular attention to the differences and accentuate them.

Clouds can be suggested softly or dramatically…

The more you draw, the more your own individual style will develop. You may find you are naturally neat or that you enjoy being scribbly.  Here are 2 examples of my partner Tony’s quick impressions of a village in Wales. I love his loose impressionistic approach and can only do similar when I force myself to work very quickly…

 

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OK – so that is about it for general drawing tips at this time! More specific help can be found on the following 3 posts:  PERSPECTIVE, PORTRAITS & FIGURE DRAWING.

 Don’t forget those early Vase Face and rendering exercises when you doodle on the telephone pad and please leave a comment to let us know how you are getting on.  One last tip – always have a small sketch pad and pen or pencil with you and just draw, draw, draw anything and everything.  Not only is it enjoyable, but you will become more and more confident the more you do.

Happy arting everyone!

Julie

Sept. 08 ps  Thankyou to Mary, who contacted me as a beginner needing some help and prompted me to update and improve this Post. Lets know how you get on Mary!

Greetings !  

Before I start, just bear in mind the general rule that oil based paints & solvents etc. can be applied over water based ones – but not the other way around. 

Let’s start with some textural examples - either acylic or oil is suitable and these are applied with a painting knife.  A painting knife has a raised handle as opposed to a palette knife which is flat. There are 3 main ways to use a painting knife – loading the paint on the side of the blade for thin lines, on the flat for broad areas or the tip for smaller controlled areas.  (If your acrylic is too fluid, you can add some modelling paste to it for body).  A good way to learn is to use any leftover paint at any time to practise with.  A light touch is needed usually and if you are layering one colour over another for broken effects, you need to be so light that you can think of not so much “putting the paint on” as “leaving it behind”.

In this first little demonstration, I first laid down a thinly washed undercolour of light blue. By getting rid of the white at this stage I have given myself liberty to leave knife textures alone without fiddling – whereas if I were trying to cover the white board I would be overdoing the number of times I apply each knife load.   There was a lovely moment when I overlaid blue across the top of the reflection of the reddish-orange sail.  That is the magic I look for in knife paintings, when it “works”.

The foliage on the side was applied with the tip of the knife in a “jiggling”or “tickling” action … the masts with the side of the knife and the rest with the flat part loaded with paint.

In this next exercise, broad brush strokes were applied first to indicate the body of the buildings in a cityscape.  Then, using the side of the knife blade loaded with pale yellow the rows of “lights” were applied quickly and loosely. Then the same vertically with dark paint to define the buildings and spires.  This is just a small segment of a larger painting but should give you an idea to try.

Sometimes you may wish to give the texture of corrugated iron…

Here is the modelling paste I mentioned earlier, this time on its own – though you can mix it with the paint as well.   Using it this way, paint can be applied to the surface once it is dry.

Now rough, tufty grass effects…

and shorter grasses…

You could try using a sponge for texture (one with nice holes in it preferably) …

This method creates texture with 2 layers of paint...

Once you have the effect you want, you can paint over with various foliage/flower effects closest to the bottom of your painting to make a readlly interesting foreground area…

Now -here is an effect created by wax resist using a plain uncoloured candle… 

Then there is the wonderful world of collage to explore…

Of course once you have the texture there, you can paint over it as I have done in the painting below which features water texture created with unwaxed lunchwrap paper.

These are great fun to do with the kids…

 

Then there are Masking techniques to try…

Now for finishing a painting, why not try…

Stippling is a nice way to apply paint without leaving brush strokes showing. Use undiluted paint preferably…

Want to paint still water reflections?   Mirroring the imaged above the waterline is easier if you turn the painting on its side while you do that.  One way to get a watery effect is to paint everything in the water area with strokes going towards the bottom of the painting.  Then, with a clean soft dry brush, gently blur it all taking your brush horizontally.  You can then add slivers of light or drifts of weed etc. to suggest a bit more of the water surface “over” the reflected images.

Now a little change of direction…

 

So I wish you “Happy experimenting!”  What joy!

Julie

EACH POST IS ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC & REVIEWED REGULARLY.

Hello all!

Ah! Now this is a subject close to my heart!  I love working with soft pastels and the effects they give…and this Post is in response to enquiries about ways to use them.

First of all though, lets talk briefly about some of the many materials available besides paint that are available these days…

1. SOFT CHALKY PASTELS formed into various shaped sticks (thin, thick, cylindrical or oblong) as well as in pencil form, all of which can be purchased singularly or in sets. These are the subject of this Post.

2.  OIL PASTELS (crayon-like) can be soluble & therefore turned into “paint” with the addition of turpentine or other solvents (not water)- giving the option of drawing and/or  painting.  (Personally, I find them difficult to manage but they would suit some artists and types of artwork.)

3.  CONTE’ STICKS which can be waxy and hard /to dry and chalky depending on the grade of hardness. These are usually thin sticks which can be sharpened for finer lines, which is another option along with pastel pencils for fine lines.  In some ways Conte’s are better  because if pencils are dropped, they can break within the wooden surround making them almost impossible to sharpen.  However, you lose some of the Conte’ if you sharpen or taper the ends of the sticks. (If you are really frugal, you can save this ‘waste’ as a fine granulated powder to dip your finger into for toning.)

4. WAXY CRAYONS, COLOURED PENCILS, WATERCOLOUR PENCILS, WATERPROOF INKS, INDIAN INK etc.etc.

SOMETHING IN COMMON IN MATERIALS: It’s interesting to note that all coloured art mediums are created from the same original powdered pigments mixed with various binders (gums, emulsions etc.)  to make them into wet or dry materials, water soluble, solvent soluble etc.  Some are waterproof when dry (eg. acrylics & waterproof inks) whilst others soluble again after they dry (eg. watercolours & gouache/poster paints). Oil based paints need Linseed oil and special solvents in their use.

NOW, ABOUT CHALK PASTELS:

Below I have pictured one of the mixed assortments of various brands of soft pastels (round and square) that I share with our students. They are no longer in their original boxes but stored in a small fishing tackle box packed in rice to stop them rubbing together when travelling or fracturing if dropped.

Note that I store them roughly sorted from LIGHT TO DARK, WARM COLOURS ON ONE SIDE AND COOL COLOURS ON THE OTHER.  This is a great tip because it helps in choosing quickly the tint and tone needed without constantly searching…

 

The quality of the pastel is closely associated with the fineness of the ground pigment as well as the type and quantity of binder used in making the sticks.

Note that all wrappers have been removed and most pastels have been broken into half length sticks. This, I feel, renders them much more useful because this way they are able to be used on their sides for blocking in as well as drawing with the ends. 

The set below is still in its original box, wrappers removed and sticks have been broken and used. These sticks are quite slim compared to the large round and square varieties and I am showing this set because of the subtle colour range it gives.  All too often we can be attracted to the bright colours, forgetting that many soft greys, blues, beiges & olive greens are needed probably more often..

Besides needing a paper with some “tooth” or roughness to hold the grains of pastel pigment (proper pastel papers provide this), it is much easier to work on a non white background. 

This way you can allow the colour of the paper to be part of the picture.  Here are some lovely pastel paper tints available – some in large sheets and others in convenient pads of various sizes…

Before you buy pastel paper, study the grain of both sides and make sure it is what you want. Some have a honeycomb effect on one side I don’t always like, whilst others are more usable both sides which is handy (if you don’t like your finished result, just use the other side!)

Here is an example of the ‘honeycomb’ effect that is OK in this sketch, but I wouldn’t want it all the time – so would choose a smoother grain…

If you haven’t tried using pastels, they are very convenient way of working in colour on location without the problems associated with working wet.   For example, Tony and I took a small box each to Europe and were able to use them on the trains with virtually no mess.  We didn’t worry about spraying them with fixative at the time because being in a pad, they couldn’t rub with movement. 

 If you are buying a set, we would advise that you choose some that are not too thin to hold (or your hand can get a bit cramped) and don’t forget to look for subtle as well as bright colours.

An optional spray fixative can be used during and at the end of creating the artwork, to help adhere the pastel to the paper.  Be aware that fixative tends to darken the pigment slightly.  When the pastel is no longer being held by the paper and is sitting on top, you need to hold the artwork upside down outside or over a bin and tap off the excess before spraying.  Don’t blow it off, as you or others near you may inhale the powdered pigment and some people may be allergic. Once a pastel work has been sprayed, it will generally accept more added pastel … in fact, sometimes we spray work in progress a number of times to avoid smudging and settle the pigment into the paper.

A few pastel pencils or slim Conte’ sticks are useful for fine detail, and a cardboard stump (these are made from rolled cardboard shaped to a point) is handy for pushing the pigment into small areas. Also a kneadable rubber may be handy.

Now here are a few examples of different ways to use pastels.

You can see how the colour of the paper or ground you are working on is so important. When it is allowed to show through, a beautiful texture appears which is to me the charm of pastels – something that can’t be achieved with paint and brush.  If you don’t like texture you can finger blend as in the last example above.

One approach (my favourite if there is time) is to sketch very lightly in willow charcoal, using my soft rag as an eraser to dust the charcoal off where necessary.  Willow charcoal can be finger blended softly to suggest shadows very early. I like to think in areas of tone rather than just outlines (see post on Drawing). Once the foundation sketch is established, I blow & dust the charcoal back until barely visible and then spray with fixative.   From there, I can apply pastels confidently. You might like to try this and see if it works for you.

Here are a few examples of Tony’s and my pastel artwork to give you some idea of the versatility of this medium…

         

 

In this study I tried to depict movement in the sketch…

and this one of Tony sketching on site up Coffs Harbour way…the darkish blue paper was allowed to show & become part of the finished picture.

Pastels can be used minimally too, as in this portrait of Angie…

Here are a few examples of Tony’s 9 year old grandson’s use of a pastel set we gave him.  Some illustrate books he is reading and others reflect the environment around him.  We think he is off to a great start in expressing himself in this medium.   As you can see, because most pastels are light in tone they show up very well on black background.  Unless you particularly want some white paper showing, it is much more difficult to get effects on white paper.

This is the same boy who saw leprochauns in an Irish forest and drew them for us (below) so its not surprising he has a touch of magic in his artwork!

Of course many Artists over the years have become renowned for their beautiful glowing pastel work – Edgar Degas (for his magnificent ballet paintings & portrait studies) and Henri Toulouse-lau-trec (for his great impressions of French characters, particularly those frequenting the Moulin Rouge nightclub.  Who can forget his amazing Can-Can dancers admired by elegant men in top hats?)  

Tony and I were lucky enough to see the originals in Paris last year and they have stood the test of time.  Pastels are usually framed under glass with a backing to prevent moisture. A cardboard matt surround prevents them from touching the glass.  We were disappointed however in most of the overseas galleries we visited to find all these wonderful paintings (oils, watercolours and pastels) presented in very dark rooms!  OK so they want to preserve them against fading, but if people can’t view them sufficiently to enjoy their vibrant light and colour – what is the point?  The exception was the top floor of the D’Orsay    Impressionist Gallery in Paris, which was flooded with natural light and a joy to the eye. 

It is helpful to approach tones as falling into 3 categories: dark, medium and light.  If your paper is any one of these to start with, you will need to add the other two in pastels. (e.g.  If paper is dark, add medium and light tones leaving the dark paper to represent the darks.  If paper tint is medium in tone, then add the darks and lights. If paper is light in tone, add the darks and medium tones in pastel. By doing this first, you may decide to leave much of the paper colour untouched.) 

Just to finish up now, here are some pastels of mine that show different forms of rendering and subject matter.

Drawn from life, I called this one ‘Relaxation’…

This next one was an on-site study of Wollombi wattle next to our camp site.  It was a glorious yellow against the incredible blue sky that day and the dry texture of the pastel suited perfectly an impression of  the dry fluffy wattle blooms.

For added interest, here’s a close up photograph of some wattle blooms.  There are hundreds of varieties of wattle (or acacia) growing in Australia, to suit every environment. They all take turns in flowering so as to provide ongoing food for native birds, animals and insects.

If you want to travel ultra light (or need to work quickly, as in a life drawing group) you can still achieve dramatic artwork by using  only black and white pastel on strongly coloured backgrounds…

This one, of Australian Eucalypts (or gum trees) I chose to render in all vertical strokes, giving it a softened atmospheric effect. You can see the colour of the paper I used at the bottom RH corner – a dark warm brown.

Here is another rendition of the Australian bush where I worked on a tough paper undercoated roughly with acrylic paint which gave a textured surface for the pastels. I used a brush and water to wet the pastel in some areas to turn it into a “paint” and settle it into the texture.  When dry I sprayed with fixative to prevent rubbing.

The painting below is a moonlit bush scene. It is done in acrylics but I plan to execute it in pastels.  The colouring is very dramatic and unusual and gives an air of mystery. I will use either a deep blue or black background when rendering it in pastel…

Here is a pastel study of one of Australia’s “bush babies” – a BRUSH TAILED POSSUM.  As a ground, I undercoated a rough watercolour paper with acrylic first.  By using a medium tone, I needed only to put in the darks and lights, letting the paper show through for much of the sketch.

I have a soft spot for these beautiful soft furry shy possums and used to feed them by hand as a child.  Being nocturnal, they would romp around noisily on our tin roof at night so my father wasn’t too pleased!

When Tony and I travel, we usually take pastels for convenience.  You can see some of our small ‘travelling’ studies in the post about Ireland.

I hope you have enjoyed this topic and don’t forget, if you would like to add something – please make contact via comments. 

Cheerio Pastel People!

Julie