Textured Layers

Compressing Time with Videos

I can finally demonstrate my method of painting intuitively in the studio.  Thanks to the convenience and quality of the ipad camera and easy editing software, I can compress an hour of studio time into a mere two minutes of video time.  I can work on multiple paintings and resort the movie clips into seamless footage that hopefully tells the story of each painting's development.


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I'm presenting a "Textured Layers" demo at the Hunterdon Watercolor Society on April 1st.  Having only an hour to demonstrate, I will bring six paintings in various stages of development.  The members will be able to view the online tutorials to watch how the various stages of the paintings were created.  I will demonstrate adding a new layer to each of the samples.  The final painting will be a completed painting.  That will leave five for the next demonstration, each one stage further along.

Stage Two - textured with mouth atomi er and saran wrap

Textured Layers

Exercise - Creating a more neutralized Color Wheel

A more neutrali ed color wheel ...

In the last exercise I used aureolin yellow, permanent crimson and phthalo blue.  In the following demo I am using raw sienna, cadmium red deep and ultramarine blue.  At the end of the video I show a comparison of the colors in identical color schemes.  The second video demonstrates how to make the scaled color mix strips that will provide more information about the wonderful transitions between the two primary colors you choose to create your wheels .... and ultimately, your expressive paintings.

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https://vimeo.com/62700184

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For this color wheel I chose a color I never use..... Cadmium Red Deep.  I am surprised at how lovely the mixes are.  This exercise is great for opening up ignored tubes of paint and discovering new ranges of color.  The paperclip in the red paint was used to coax the pigment out of the tube!  Notice that I keep the primary colors completely clean and unmixed.  I wash my brush constantly so that I don't carry unwanted pigments into my mixes.  In the following video I show you how to paint your color strips.  The music is a bit wonky...... I've uploaded it multiple times without being able to correct it.....  I'm still learning how to make my own videos!

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Remember to label both your color wheels and your color mix strips.  Be daring!  Try pigments you think might be terrible when mixed..... see what happens.
Exercise - Creating a more neutrali ed Color Wheel

Exercise - Color Scheme Game Color Wheel

Create a Limited Palette Color Wheel

Using the Color Wheel Game Templates, you can easily and quickly create a color wheels for a limited palette of one yellow, one blue and one red.  In the following video I used Aureolin Yellow, Permanent Carmine and Joe's Blue.  I label every color wheel so that I know which pigments result in the mixes on the wheel.  I save the wheels for future reference.  You may be surprised at some of the extreme variations available from a limited palette of three tubes of paint.

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The video is 8 minutes long.... it may take a while to upload.

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This week's exercise is to make at least four color wheels using different combinations of a red, yellow and blue.  Try to use a cool red (Ali arin or Crimson) and a warm blue (Ultramarine) in one of your wheels.  In another, try a warm red (Cadmium or Scarlet) and a cool blue (Phthalo).  It's not necessary to have the templates to make the color wheels.  You can simply draw circles and divide them into twelve sections.  The color wheel template kit is available here.

 
Exercise - Color Scheme Game Color Wheel

A Night of Jazz in Portland, Maine

Live Ja in Portland, Maine

The Mark Chillemi Quintet played to a full house at Blue in Portland, Maine.  I love seeing an attentive, listening audience in a bar that supports live music!  We were lucky to find the last two seats at the bar in the back of the room.  People kept pouring in.  I could barely see the musicians, but their music filled my ears without obstruction.



I'll post the weekly bog exercise tomorrow....... my brain is on overload, juggling the joys of life as an artist and the gift of being able to express that journey with the world.... both close and far.

Ladies listening from the bar, Blue, Portland, Maine

Sketchbook Drawings: Drawn first in ink with vintage Sheaffer fountain pen, followed by watercolor using a waterbrush.
A Night of Ja in Portland, Maine

Color Mixing Science Lesson

A first attempt at an online video post...

My twenty minute science lesson was captured last week during the Color Scheme Game Workshop sponsored by the National Association of Women Artists in New York City last month.  Thank you, emka!  It was emka's first attempt at using her phone to capture a video.  I think she did a great job.  It's up to me to figure out how to rotate the frames within the video..... eventually, I'll figure it out.

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https://vimeo.com/61845730

 

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The Michael Wilcox Color Wheel is a fabulous visual aid to teach the science of light waves as it relates to mixing pigments.

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After spending the entire day teaching myself how to use imovie (with the help of online tutorials)  I am ready to tackle the rest of the videos emka shot during the workshop.  I'll get better at this.... I promise.

 
Color Mixing Science Lesson

Brain Overload and Online Tutorials

Online Tutorials .... Integrating Technology

I'm taking the week off from posting a Monday Exercise.  I'm happy to say that I've been out late again painting musicians (at Hat City Kitchen) and syncing my high tech devices together so that I can film and post while traveling as well as facilitate creating online tutorials.  I'm off again to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Big Ed Sullivan's Monday Night Blues Jam in New York City.  Being an artist has its ups and downs.  The ups definitely outweigh the downs!



I arrived at Hat City Kitchen too late to sit close to the band.  Instead, I sat all the way in the back by the door.  The music was great and the crowd was fun to paint.

Guy wearing hooded sweatshirt, checking his phone.

three ladies sitting at the bar

Rob Signorile's Band at Hat City Kitchen, Orange, NJ

Watching the crowd enjoy one another ... and ... the music!

 

 

Paintings: drawn first in ink with a dip pen, followed by watercolor

 
Brain Overload and Online Tutorials

Portrait Demo at Essex County Watercolor Club

Demonstrating Intuitive Painting

I've been invited by Essex County Watercolor Club to demonstrate painting figures, not an unreasonable request considering most of my exhibited work is either abstract or figurative.  The difficulty in demonstrating my method of painting figures is that I paint them intuitively, not academically.  I don't use a model when I work in the studio. I allow figure(s) to emerge from many layers of thrown and splattered paint.  The features, character, personality and narrative is never predetermined.  The figure and I are, at first, total strangers.



These large, studio paintings, either oil or watercolor, are created over a period of one to three consecutive days.  Each session lasts six to fourteen hours.  For me, the experience is thrilling.  For an observer, the experience would be dreadfully boring.  I can't imagine asking someone to watch me spend hours controlling puddles of water with an eyedropper, or to watch me watch the colors, tipping the paper this way and that..... maybe ..... or not ...... depending on how they are drying and which direction they are flowing.  Demonstrations are usually only an hour to an hour and a half in duration.  Until now, I have turned down requests to demonstrate my figurative painting.

Ladd - the man behind the camera - filming at a Blues Jam

My other method of painting figures is also intuitive.  I paint people doing what they love to do, mostly musicians and dancers.  The energy of the creative artist in action, combined with the energy of the audience, ignites my creativity in a way that nothing else does.  Every experience is a surprise, unique and invisible.  Each moment vanishes instantly.  All that remains is the energy of consecutive moments in our shared space ..... and the image of that energy expressed in ink and watercolor on my paper.

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Portrait Demo at Essex County Watercolor Club