Painting of the Day: "A Golden Interlude"

  "A Golden Interlude" by Diane Weiner

24" by 21", Oil on Linen

  I really like animals, and I feel cows are a really important part of humans' life, whether they know it or not. We drink milk, eat cheese, have beef. All these produce come from cows. And they look really cute and most are really gentle. Thus, a painting (Diane Weiner has done a series of them...) seems like a really good way to showcase the best side of them.

  The warm glow of the sun, accentuated by the shadows on her face. Plus, I like the subtle hues of pink and lilac on the background.

Link to her website right here: http://www.dianeweiner.com/

Recommended Artist: Catherine Lidden

  Today's recommended artist is Catherine Lidden. She does her works in pastels, primarily on Colourfix paper. Here is a selection of her works.

 "Ancient Wisdom"

"Serenity" 

"Stripes Are In"

"Egg and China"

  Would you believe that the painting above was done in pastel? I thought it was done in oil. I couldn't find her website, but here is a link to see some of her art, and you can contact her at cjlidden@yahoo.com.au

Ten suggestion for the Professional Artist

Recommendations made by artist Randall Lake to Stephen Parphen during a painting trip to Europe in 1984.

1.  Believe in yourself.  Be tenacious, tough-skinned and your own most severe critic.

2.  Do not expect financial susses.  Pursue art because you love it-whatever you love doing you will do well.

3.  There are no short-cuts in this profession.  For most of all, creativity has more to do with daily work than momentary inspiration.  Don't wait for the grand vision; work and re-wok. When inspiration does come, your skills will be up to the task of using it effectively.

4.  Do not expect or depend on external praise. It is the norm of the gallery, dealers, art center and museums to look upon the undistinguished artist with indifference.  Accept it: Society does not owe you recognition or a living- that you must earn by your services to the society in which you live. 

5.  Painting is not a nine-to-five profession. It is life work, which demands that your  schedule will be vary. If the imbalance makes you feel guilty, then teach.

6.  Although Ralph Vaughn Williams (1872-1958) was a composer of music, the advise he gave to young composers at Cornell University in 1954 is equally applicable to the visual arts "  Musical invention has been described as an individual flowering on a common stem.  Now young composers do not try to be original; originality will come by itself if it is there.  However individual your flowering may be, unless it is firmly grafted on the common stem, it will wither and die ... Try the beaten track first; if an irresistible impulse leads you into the jungle, be sure that you know the way back."

7.  Learn the basic skills of drawing and composition in high school and universities courses. Although taste may change, the basic skills do not.  If your instructor wants to teach "creativity", change classes and lear academic discipline instead. When you become an artist, "creativity" comes naturally. It can not be taught.

8.  If you want to be a realist and paint the figure, learn anatomy to perfection early on in your career, and never, never thing you have "mastered" the figure. Take Winslow Homer's advice to his students:  "Paint figures my boys; leave the rocks for your old age-they're easy."

9.  Try many art forms and take ricks.  By that I mean go beyond what you are comfortable doing. If what you are doing doesn't have a possibility of failure, nether will it be brilliant. Exceptional accomplishment in any of the arts has always been the result of risk taking.

10.  Always remain a student: learn through research while remaining flexible. To paraphrase Henry Matisse: "One should never become a prisoner of one's style or reputation."

Credits

Recommended Artist: Thomas Easley

  Thomas Easley's roosters just caught my eye with their energy, their rhythm, and how he perfectly captured their personalities. Of course, he does paint other subjects, one of them being realistic wine still life, and I assure you, he does it just as brilliantly.

  As his website states: "Easley Roosters are more than simply roosters. They are proud creatures beaming with confidence and sure of their role in the world. Painting a rooster embodies the joy of creating and provides Thomas the challenge to capture their attitude, yet maintain the elegant grace each possesses. It is artwork for fun, meant to celebrate life and stimulate a visceral connection."

  Brilliantly said.

  He has been a self-taught artist, and has held his brush for 30 years, and I do think it shows in the confidence of his brush strokes.

  If you would like to view his wine still life, or available prints of his work, view his website at: http://www.thomaseasley.com/

My Workspace

  This is my workspace. It's situated in our living room, facing a window whose view is of some sky, a part of a small hill and lots of high-rise buildings. I also have a study room, in which my mum does her day job in. I have my still life set up there and draw there at times too. However, most of the time I'm at my table.

 Here's all the things I have on this small workspace.

Recommended Artist: Bernard Scholl

  Working in the "Trompe L'oeil" method, Bernard Scholl is currently in France. Light is omnipresent in each artwork of Bernard Scholl, but it is a light that cherishes what it touches. It is light which bathes the work in silence and serenity, that makes the end result remarkable in its virtuosity.

  Although I don't fully appreciate hyper realism, I'm sure some of you might enjoy the poetry and symbolism behind these wonderful paintings. Thus, do visit his website right here to view more of his works.

Painting of the Day: "Chalkboard Universe"

"Chalkboard Universe" by Rob Gonsalves

  Our featured Artist for today, Rob Gonsalves, hails from Toronto, Canada, and was born there in 1959. The first thing I thought when I saw his works were "Surrealist", yet, on second look, his works do not quite fit in that movement. He prefers the term "Magic Realism" to describe his paintings, (A term coined by him.) and has been influenced by Magritte and Escher.

  One of his works, "The Sun Sets Sail" was used as the cover for the "Masters of Deception", released in 2004. He's in all, a brilliant Artist, so do check his blog out.

Recommended Artist: Phil McAndrew

We're back with our "Recommended Artist" segment.

  Today, I'm featuring Phil McAndrew, whose website's url is just brilliantly thought out and humorous at the same time. Check it out: http://philintheblanks.com/

  This reminds me of Loca, the pug who can't run. (It's a funny video, I promise.)

This is too funny.

Very nice monochrome piece.

I can imagine the guy going, "We were out in the open sea, alone in that terrible storm on that fateful day. You wouldn't believe how bad the weather was. The sea was rocking.

The large angry waves were trashing our little ship..."

And I just love the expression on the kids' faces.

  He's a cartoonist, an illustrator, a writer, and a comic artist. Check out his advice for artists in a post titled: "Super Obvious Secrets I wished they'd Teach In Art School". It's written with wit, has sound advice, snippets of personal stories, and truths about artists. A must read for all.

Book Review: "Colored Pencil Solution Book"

  It's a brilliant book written by Janie Gildow and Barbara Benedetti Newton, covering subjects that are difficult to render in colored pencils.

  The first chapter covers the basics. From what a good workspace should be like, different types of colored pencil brands in the market, erasers, sharpeners, different types of papers and their differences, fixatives, and what to look for when buying a colored pencil. The book offers a good run down on the basics, with the added tips of certain things to watch for. (For example a slip sheet to prevent smudges on your work while drawing.)

  The next chapter covers composition. The chapter has a good amount of illustrations and examples to aid beginners in understanding how to identify what makes a good composition. Page 33 even has a small list to show how you can effectively judge a composition on whether it'll work or needs improvement.

  After, I would have expected the authors to go right into demonstrations and the like, but they didn't. They covered basics, such as how to transfer a line study onto the actual surface you want to work on, layering, blending and burnishing, how to remove some pigment, and the use of solvent in an art piece. I really enjoyed page 46-47, as they explained how you can draw on a black background. (I'll give you a hint: think reverse grisaille.)

   Pages 52-53 were interesting also. Showing how one can add interest to your work by using different strokes on your paper to provide excitement. The pages cover the vertical-line technique, juxtaposing colors, and the open crosshatch technique, which are all brilliant.

  Chapter 4 then moves into color theory, talking about the color wheel, the temperature of colors, and values. The complementary wheel on page 63 is by far the first of such that I've seen and I'm hoping to try it out some day soon. Then the chapter goes on to talk about shadows and forms, and different ways to create impact on your work

  The last three chapters are the chapters that are laden with demonstrations. All demonstrations have line drawings, which you, the reader can use, from the back of the book. All the demonstrations also clearly show what kind of surface the artist uses and what colors were used.

  The 5th chapter covers "reflection and transparency solutions", and talks about metals, glass, water, semi-transparent subjects, mirrors, and the elusive single drop of water. Chapter 6 offers solutions to render textures, such as fabrics, indian corn, the smooth waxy surface of peppers, and velvety roses. While the last chapter, "problem subjects and fixing mistakes" is very interesting for the little problems that can cause big headaches when we don't know how to fix them.

  "Learn that all is not lost when you make a mistake." as the authors write. From repairing dents and nicks in your paper, to lightening your colors. The authors even share what to do if you've stained your paper with coffee or raspberry juice. The chapter ends with a few more demonstrations on difficult subjects. The anatomy of lace is broken down for you. (They're very good at rendering lace.) There's a mini demonstration on how to draw a basket, how to make stripped fabric look believable, and how to draw fringe.

  All in all, I've learnt a couple of things from this book. Like, that layering in uneven patterns make for a far more interesting subject, how to draw on a black background, the complementary color wheel, (which I've never seen elsewhere before.) and the vertical line technique.

  "Colored Pencil Solution Book" has a good coverage of the basics, and a beginner reading it will understand the materials needed, and the different ways colored pencil artists draw. For advanced artists, the book offers a few good techniques, and help on how to render subjects. (And I mean, how many book teach you how to remove coffee stains from your art work?) With an easy to follow layout and beautiful design, it's a good book to have in your shelf for reference.

An Artist's Basic Lighting Tutorial

  There are very extensive Photography guides in the web, but a lot of them cater to avid photographers. You could always take a look through them. My little tutorial will, however, focus more on the "Lighting" aspect of photography. It will show you how lighting affects a picture.

Before the tutorial though, I have a few tips to share:

1. Use a tripod. Just, please do. It'll give your image more stability, and more stability equals to more information in your pictures, which in turn makes it easier to draw from them. And while you're at it...Use the timer on your camera. It will prevent the shake that happens when you take your pictures.

2. Aperture. Smaller stops (larger f numbers) produce a longer depth of field, allowing objects at a wide range of distances to all be in focus at the same time. So, the smaller the stop, the more details you get in your background. I would say it is especially useful in photographing still life.

3. Set your Sensitivity meter to 100. I don't know about your camera but mine has its "Auto setting" set to 100, and there must be a reason for that. Noisy images are hard to work with. "Noise" is the grainy speckles that come up on your pictures when you set the Sensitivity meter too high. I actually made the mistake of setting my meter to 800, the highest setting on my camera, and kept getting noisy images but not knowing why. The bigger the number the better, right? Not so much... Think of it as an age.... When you reach a certain age, you'll start getting wrinkles. (You go higher than 100 on your sensitivity meter, you start getting noise.)

4. To make white things look really white. Set EV conpensation up by 2 notches. I learnt this because I stumbled upon a very good wildlife photography book in my local library. Your camera sees white things as a middle value, namely grey. To compensate for that, you "add light" to your pictures to make them white. Focus on the object once, adjust EV compensation, then snap away.

5. Have strong lighting. (Unless of course a dreamy effect is what you're after.) Lighting greatly determines what kind of pictures you get, how much values there are in your picture, and whether or not you'll want that picture as a reference. Which brings me to my tutorial.


  To show you the difference between good lighting and bad one, here are two pictures with the exact same composition, but with different light sources.

Without Lighting.

With Lighting.

  The first picture was taken on a cloudy day, without artificial lights. Of course, there are times when natural light works, however, today was not the day. The second picture is much better because it has a wide range of values, from white highlights to dark shadows. It was taken with a single artificial bulb on the left of the camera.