“Incognito” A quick look at how Glazing can change a watercolor

This is a painting that is ready to be glazed.  It is completely dry  (more than 24 hours)  and will accept a new layer of paint very well.

The final finished painting is at the bottom of this post.

This is how the painting looks before I have glazed it.  Take a look at the painting and you will be able to see how different a painting can look after glazes have been applied.

You may also see area or shapes of some things which haven’t been painted yet.   Some direct painting or glazing with the same color will also need to be done to bring the values in line.  Values are difficult to determine unless you can see how  all the various colors and glazes effect each other.   Often an artist should go back and take a look at anything that has been changed just to make sure that anything that needs tweeking gets tweeked.   This means perhaps darkening an area previously thought to be OK.

Above you will see a section of the painting.  Look at the light green leaf here in the middle, I will glaze over some burn’t senna and  then some green and  last some pink which should push the leaf back a bit and look  like a shadow.

You can see this in the next photo below.

Under the bright orange leaf there is also an area which is not defined, look at this area and see how it will be redefined by direct painting & glazing. This photo above shows how I changed the shape of this area (under the large orange leaf).

Next look at the photo below… there was a very light  shape which was only painted a light grey blue but was left mostly white.  You can also see the blue leaf’s edges (in the corner) was given a blue and purple glaze .

 Here is the that same area and you can see it has been painted around (negatively painted ) also a few direct touches help to bring a little critter to life.

 

Below in the next shot there is an area of the painting I had to grey up a bit while defining the finger like shape.  I glazed over this area with Phatho blue.

Then I decided to scumble in some Andrews Turquoise and some Cerulean blue  Both are a bit opaque and can be layered rather then glazed. Opaque paint will sit on top of the first layer of paint, in this case the dark blue paint.

  This is the right hand lower corner of the painting, You can see I put in various colors as glazes to give the butterfly shape some dimension and I also added some colors to his body for a little more emphasis. 

 Here is the final painting.  Notice I also painted the little vine like branches again so they would stand out against the background.  I also glazed the big brown leaf at the right hand bottom corner with bright red so it looks a bit brighter.  These things are subtle but often these little tweeks are all a painting needs.

 

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Tips for Glazing over a layer of paint in Water Color

This painting is about ready to be glazed. See my next post to see the various ways I used glazes to change this painting.

Glazing is a very simple thing to do but one must always remember that the
First tip: paper has to be bone dry before a glaze is attempted. Often I wait 24 hours for my paper to dry but a blow dryer seems to work for most. If you are a beginner, I would also recommend that you….
Second tip: glaze over pigments (colors) which are more likely to stay put. example…. rather than glaze over cobalt blue try painting a color over pathlo blue. Cobalt blue is a great color when you need to pick up color…
( something to remember when you want some white or light in your blue sky) and because of this it has to be glazed over very gently.
Third tip : When Glazing over one pigment with another its good to use transparent pigments so the two will look like a stained glass window and what you will see is a third color created by the two… If you use thick paint with a lot of opacity the result will be less dynamic.
Fourth tip: don’t plan to brush over the first layer more than 2 times (later you may be able to but only with experience) … If your third color (the color you created by painting over the first with the second) isn’t dark enough try to paint over the first layer again after you have dried the paper again.
Fifth Glazing tip: Your brush should not be sopping wet with the second color and water…this very wet mixture may reactivate the first layer and you do not want to pick the first color. The brush needs to have enough paint to get the area painted with as few strokes as possible. After you have wet your brush, pick up your paint, then remember to lightly touch the base of your brush against dry towel (paper or cloth ) to remove any excess water.

When inspiration is low, rather then trying to paint a painting… try to learn more about your color palette by creating a Glaze test box.
A fun exercise for learning great combinations or what a glazed color will look like is to make up some small 3 by 5 cards you can keep in a recipe box with notes. You will find your favorites and will also be able to see which colors are easier to glaze or more difficult to glaze over. I used a large 1 1/2 inch flat brush and just painted (usually in one stroke) squares of color on each card, allowed them to dry, then painted over the squares with a second and often a third color.
TIP
Writing down the specific brand of paint used and the color combinations is important. I also put in a note for myself (I have no memory) as to which layer (or order) the colors were painted in.

Without the struggle it wouldn’t be worth it! Keep painting.
Shanti Marie
ARTIST

Not for sale but a picture of my cupcake tins

Not working on a painting today but for the next few days getting reacquainted with my watercolor supplies. In the picture above you can see what my watercolor tins look like. Many of you are familiar with my work and understand that I like big bold color. Choosing the cupcake tin for my watercolor paints wasn’t my idea but when I saw other artists doing it I knew it was for me. I had been trying to come up with a palette that would hold at least one large tube of paint. The cupcake tins actually hold two if I fill them to the top.

Lately, I’ve been busy but when I find the time to paint I’ve been oil painting. I’d like to start my daily painting regime again with watercolor so I’ll start by giving you a re capp of my supplies and my process. Check back and I’ll post this information as the weeks go by.

Since I’ve been painting for a number of years I have a pretty large inventory of paintings and of course many are of my favorite subject…KOI. Its interesting when often I’m asked about my Koi paintings. It seems some people think I should always paint them while and equal number of folks thinks it would be boring to paint the same thing over and over.  Although no two of my paintings are the same the subject matter usually centers around water and Koi.

This leads me to ask how often should we change our art, style or process? Is it better for artists to cultivate variety or consistency?  Galleries tend to encourage artists to keep creating the same thing (that sells) over and over again. While artists, in general, like variety to stay motivated and inspired.

There are two schools of thought here. The first is consistency. Consistency in our work allows us to keep experimenting on one theme and to go deeper. Many artists paint one type of painting and become “known” for their Portraits/figures, or landscapes, and even wildlife. They continue to explore the endless methods and palettes until they approach what they believe is their own style. Usually an Artist will get very good at what they do using this approach.

Variety, however, is an important ingredient in our work, helping to keep our ideas fresh and our approach on the leading edge of the trends and new materials available to us.  This is another important aspect of being an artist. If we are so consistent that our work is repetitive, we do not grow as artists and the work will suffer. Yet, when we are so insistent on variety that we will not allow ourselves a chance to see the things from every angle. We don’t allow ourselves the permission to paint the “thing” over and over.  Then work may suffer as well. Sometimes it is important to continue in a series until its right for us. By using or incorporating and throwing out ideas without fear of poor paintings then we may find what we are looking for. Rather than bouncing around from style to style and never allowing ourselves to take a concept deeper. we may find it difficult to “find” our style.   If this sounds like you, allow yourself the PERMISSION to work thru a subject if only to explore the thing until you have tried everything and thrown out what doesn’t work for you and hopefully  you’ll find a more personal or meaningful way to express yourself.

Of course “balance”, may be the key here and the key to successful personal balancing is paying attention to how we feel. As our needs change, our feelings will let us know. Sometimes we may need to allow variety and experimentation to take us out of a rut, and re-energize our work. At other times we may hit on something that really gets us excited. These are the times to stretch 10-15 canvases ( or paper) all at once and create a series to see how far we can take that one idea. We can be anything we decide or so they say, we can also paint anything… anyway, this is your choice, we have the ability and the freedom to either be consistent or ever changing.

Here is an interesting take on our ability for variety, taken from a quote from Robert Anton Wilson in his book “Prometheus Rising” (New Falcon Publications, 1983, p.125). Just prior to this, Wilson describes the human survival instincts that involve both consistency and variety;

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, design a building, conn a ship, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve an equation, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

so with that said….Buzz off…

Wild Acres workshop retreat October 1-3rd 2010

Sunrise from my room the first morning at the  2009 workshop.

Wild acres is a great place to be and to be there with a group of like minded artists is even better!

Plan to join us as The Charlotte Art league and Wild Acres joins up to provide you with a one of a kind experience.

Prominent NC Artist, Diana Arvanites and me, Shanti Marie  will be there to provide  instruction, tips,  & techniques  to create a piece of art that looks and feels like encaustic without the hot wax.

Are you a creative type who would like the opportunity to experiment with various mediums? If you are then give yourself a special gift this year and spend the weekend at Wild Acres with Prominent NC Artist, Diana Arvanites. She will assist you in a learning experience that will be both fun and relaxing. You will learn how to use various mediums to achieve a look of ancient encaustic without the use of Hot wax and blow torches. Feel free to allow yourself the time and in this environment the space to experiment with some new techniques that you can take back to your studio and incorporate into your own work. With experimentation and guidance you will you be able to create something unique and truly your own. This event is sponsored by the Charlotte Art league. And in cooperation with Wild Acres Mountain learning Center in Little Switzerland, North Carolina. Wild Acres is a true retreat undisturbed by traffic and the noises of the city. Located on Pompey’s Knob, near the Blue Ridge Parkway, it is situated on 1600 acres at an elevation of 3,300.00 feet. Inspiration exists behind every tree rock and sunset Acrylic wax? Yes, you can achieve encaustic wax effects with acrylics. It can be mixed up to look just like encaustic, creating beautiful transparent and translucent layers that simulate the qualities of wax. It is a viable alternative to the hazardous process involving solvents and heat. In this workshop you will learn how to create wax-like surfaces that resemble unrefined, yellow, and pourable bleached beeswax. All without the wax! Explore your style using collage and embedded images with acrylic gels and poring mediums.

These are two examples of the surface created using mediums.  You can also use paint, transfers, collage and many other techniques you already incorporate in your work.  Its endless really.  Your only limited by your imagination!

The price  for food lodging and instruction is $285.00 double occupancy or $50.00 extra for single or private rooms.   This is  from 3:00 pm Friday October 1st to Sunday at noon.

come joins us!!!  the class size is limited so email me asap if you want us to hold your place.    email :shantmarie@aol.com  we take pay pal and checks…

Dogwood Blue 4 by 6 watercolor on 300 lb paper

This little painting would look great if you love flowers or if you have a thing for dogwoods.

The color blue just seems to perk these little flowers up and makes them come alive.

$50.00

“Golden Light” 8 by 10, oil painting landscape by Shanti Marie

This painting has a little texture. This is oil on wood. $75.00 USD.
I love these colors!

Leigh Anne’s Snow Day

5 by 7 $50.00 watercolor on paper

Pink Roses for you

1/4 sheet of watercolor 11″ by 15″ not for sale…. This painting will be saved in my files for future classes.

This painting is the finished product of one of my lessons. If you’ve been following on my other bloghttp://freeartlessons.wordpress.com/ you will see I took a photo of a rose. Next I drew the rose and transfered it using transfer paper to watercolor paper. I started out painting a light value of yellow and then painted one glaze of pink at a time, waiting in between each layerof paint to dry before painting the next layer I painted Quin. pink and magenta and sometimes light light primary rose. building up the layers. Then I painted the background a light value of sap green, cyan blue, quin pink, purple and perelene green. I painted most of the leaves negatively and layered the background with the same colors until the background was a deep value while allowing some light areas to survive. Of course after painting the dark background, the rose looked a bit light so I had to darken several areas of the rose so that it worked with the foreground.

Snow tree

This painting is painted with the Zoltan Szabo knife technique. He taught this technique to me during my first session with him. I’ve used it ever sense. Its fun, quick and provides a great line for trees, grass and rocks.
Watercolor on paper 5 by 7….$ 50.00

Oil painting repair

Here you can see the edge of this large Koi painting… if you look closely you may find there are two small holes… Ouch! yes this hurts.. The painting fell and when it fell I had just tightened the canvas so it was PERFECTLY TIGHT… and of course as with” Murphy’s Law” it fell down on two pointy bottles which punctured the canvas. I’ve made a repair by gluing a new piece of canvas onto the back side and will now paint the front so there isn’t an obvious rip.  Geeze…  What r ya gonna do?  The customer was notified of this mishap and I’m breathing a tiny sigh of relief as he still wants the painting and doesn’t think there wil be a problem with the painting once I’ve painted over the patch. Whew… still bugs me … I’ll get over it. Of course…  I need to secure these canvases even when I’m not painting them.   At the time I had just leaned it up and was stepping back to take a look at it to see if all the wrinkles were gone.   OK OK I get it…  live and learn.    Oh yeah thats my studio kitty,  ”Chubbs”.

Endurance

6 by 6 gessoed masonite

For those that have been following my entry into the Cal show, I didn’t win any awards but I am thrilled to have my work hanging in the show along with so many other great artist’s work.

The show had a good variety of art and I feel there was a good mix of mediums and subjects. Landscapes, figures, sculpture, realistic work and abstracts were well represented. I noticed the judge had a preference for work which left something for the viewer to determine.  Art where everything wasn’t spelled out seemed to be the theme of the show.   Also: artists who used a variety of edges, ( although one piece which won an award was all hard edge) and or used a veriety of textures seemed to be well represented. 

You can”t really sum up a show because there were the exceptions for all of these things… but if I were to sum up the show… I would say…less is more.

 

Ancient Ritual 118 ACEO Sold

2.5 by 3.5 $15.00 Watercolor on paper
This ACEO is part of my ancient ritual series which explores the use of ritual to mark the passing of time and events in our lives.
This blue is cerulean blue, one of my favorites!
Quin gold is used and of course the old work horse… burnt sienna

For those that so not know… ACEO stands for Artist Collector’s Edition or Original

I closed down my ebay store today, its too difficult to be selling in so many places. You end of spending too much time on the computer. I want to paint not sit around writing copy and uploading photos. I’ll open it during the Winter months when things are slower.

Fantasy Koi lV

16 by 32 inches watercolor on Gessoed . $ 400.00 Masonite.
This is one of my larger paintings and it is very intense.

A workshop DVD review

This review of an instructional video was written by my good friend Adele Greenfield.     I thought you might like to check this video out.  I have used this approach in the past and it’s a good way to paint an abstract design if you feel your stuck or blocked, it may help you get a jump start.     John Salminen, AWS, DF, NWSA Designed Approach to Abstraction Review by Adele Greenfield John Salminen’s video should come with a warning, “Watch the first part of this DVD passively and you will miss out!” His is no ordinary demonstration. You’ll take a journey into abstract shapes and values and learn everything you need to know about design. He invites you into his world and, at the beginning, it’s like he’s beside you every step of the way as you draw with him and design your painting with him. The key words here are “with him.” Yes, it’s the next best thing to his being in your studio, holding your hand to start you off and get you into his process so it becomes your process too. While he takes you step-by-step at first, don’t panic. This is definitely not a cookie-cutter approach, stifling your creativity. He helps you make choices that keep your work intriguing and varied so you have a wealth of shapes with which to work. You’ll look for irregular, unpredictable, and oblique shapes, dealing in pure abstraction with no recognizable subject matter. With his examples, you’ll know exactly what he means.The beginning is structured so you’re comfortable enough to get to the place where you can become painterly and . . . creative. Once you have your design, then it’s time to watch him assess and refine his piece. Here, it’s up to you. Pause and go to your own painting on occasion or watch it straight through to see how he works, taking in his many lessons like how to knock back intense areas, “sealing off any exits,” and avoiding monotony.John says that every strong painting begins as a strong design, the common language binding all styles. Value is his favorite design element and he describes his paintings as “value dependant.” Closely related middle values can make a piece glow and are the strength of watercolors. Watch as he introduces intermediates to add transitional passages, helping you move from dark to light areas. You’ll see how he works with the 9-Value System, from the lightest light (white of the paper which is number 1) to from the darkest dark, number 9. In every painting, he says that we have an obligation to fully represent all the values we’re capable of, including the very dark ones, which many watercolorists shy away from. State the extremes, even in a high key piece. But there needs to be a visual linkage, a visual pathway, among the various shades.John’s approach to beginning the painting is unusual, using tracing paper and then transferring lines and shapes that produce surprising results. Tracing paper gives you layers to work with and lifting a piece isolates various shapes.First, you will make some simple linear drawings and he gives you specific criteria. He’ll show you how to combine them and you’ll see interesting shapes come together in an unpredictable, random manner. Then you’ll make decisions – light, medium, and dark values. And again, he explains this thoroughly so you cannot possibly go wrong. During this process, he throws out valuable bits of information such as “even when it’s broken and fragmented, the eye will follow a dark shape more than it will a white shape. Keep the light shape intact.” He helps you focus on the relationship of shapes, illustrates ways to provide a visual pathway, and points you toward your center of interest, telling you how to make that area sing. Following the mostly 80/20 ratio, he spends time explaining and demonstrating dominance, curvilinear and geometric shapes, and the use of warm and cool colors. Among other things, he’ll show you how he masks areas, lifts paint, and adds calligraphic lines. John discusses the difference between a trick and a technique and then emphasizes technique, integrating a little collage, incorporating texture, and creating a push/pull illusion. He likes putting dark acrylic into a corner, turning it into a black void and giving the piece much depth. Then he shows you how to smooth out the surface with a dry brush. You’ll also see how to use a mouth atomizer, the most effective way to spatter, and even how to sign your name.Once you get used to this way of working.  You’ll never be stuck for an abstract design idea. And when it comes down to it, even the best realistic painting has the underpinning of a good abstract design.

Silk and Silver watercolor 6″ by 9″ still life

6 by 9 50.00  I painted this last year but I decide to post it again because it did not sell.   We get about twice the number of hits these days… so I thought it would be a good painting to display.I wanted to put something up for Daily Painters today and since I was working on my larger piece most of the morning, which I usually do on Sundays, I didn’t get a chance to photograph anything else.  I have some aceos…. finished, but I ‘m too tired to get them out and post them.  Maybe tomorrow.  If you would like to go to see  what I’m up too…my Work In Progress or WIP go to : http://h20color.wordpress.com  this is my painting a week blog. Its 35 inches by 35 inches.