PALETTE & PAINT: Inexpensive, invaluable painting tools.

Okay, the first one, the plastic takeaway lid as a palette.... 

... it's probably not that revolutionary, but it sure was handy today when I ...

painted up two op-shop found ornate oval frames, giving them a new life.

The second one is the paint brush caliper, now this is a novel idea (if I do say so myself)...

... quite useful indeed. I use these to compare distances between landmarks on the painting.

Also, they are good to measure vertical and horizontal straight lines...

to gauge what lines up with what (not pictured).

If you've got some invaluable equipment you'd like to share with Palette & Paint, please link up.

 

Find out more on the P&P page

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STUDIO UPDATE: My week in photos.

Under painting for an oil painting of a friend's daughter.

Cleaning my palette, it's so rewarding to scrap off the paint and start fresh! 

The Charity Auction for this painting ends in a week, currently bidding is at $160. 

Find out more here: http://traceypotterartist.blogspot.com.au/Luke with Puppy

Glorious ribbons of dried paint! Sharing with Palette & Paint.

A work in progress, Wynnum Pool.

Guess who?

Work in progress, facial features yet to be painted.

Clue 1: They are a celebrity

Clue 2: This person is a fan of my Facebook Page.

My friends at Paint Party Friday, 

Thanks for all your lovely comments and continued support!

Enjoy your weekend xx Tracey

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PALETTE & PAINT: Mark making tools.

I just wanted to show you a few of the mark making tools I have been using to paint lately. I say mark making tools, because if you look closely, you will see a few tools that are not 'brushes' amongst this collection. A cosmetic dual tipped cotton bud and eye shadow sponge brush were used in this sitting.  From time to time I use lip brushes, blusher brushes and eye shadow brushes for softening edges or taking paint off. Think outside the box I reckon.

Above is what my brushes looked like at the end of a painting session working on the fabric and hands of the below painting. Each sitting I use different brushes, it really depends on what my subject is, what size the area is and at what stage the painting it is at.

If you missed last week's post, about Palette & Paint changing up a bit, the blog party is still all about sharing your palette and paint (and paintings too!), however you will not be restricted by having to get a post together 'every Thursday' and there will be a master list of blog participants so every time you post, you don't have to come back and link up on the blog post, you just do it once.

Find out more on the P&P page

 

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PALETTE & PAINT: Temperature of lights and shadows

When I first started Palette & Paint my intention was to share with you my palette & paints and also talk about my studio equipment and about the technical side of creating a painting, however the more informative posts about colour, value, brushes, brands of paint etc. were pushed aside as my time was spent on doing the showcase each week.  Things will be changing a little with the blog party which will free up some time for me to share with you more in depth posts.  I'll be doing a P&P party post a little later today with all the details, but in the meantime, I still need to share with you my palette and paint from last week and talk about colour temperature in lights and shadows. 

Above is what my palette looked like last week, quite the mess! It's all been scrapped back and is clean again - for a short period of time anyway.  I've added some little captions in the photo above to point out some of the features of my palette. The grey scale is handy for seeing just how dark or light a colour I've mixed is. Instead of mixing up all of Sanden's Pro Mix colours and alining them under the standard colours (like Sanden teaches) I now just mix as needed using the guide in the left bottom corner of my palette.  I've listed the standard colours I use in this post from a few weeks back and I'll go into more depth about them in a future post. 

Progress on 'Luke and Puppy' painting

Let's talk about the temperature of colour and more specifically the temperature of shadows and lights being opposite to each other.  I touched on this over on my post about colour temperature and transparency a while ago, the examples given in this post were about warm colours coming forward and used in the lights and cool colours receding and being used for darks. Interestingly enough when  I stumbled onto the work of Daniel Keys recently I discovered that  warm shadow and cool lights can also work very successfully.  Daniel talks about the temperature of the shadows being opposite to the lights in this Youtube video series.

Painting by Daniel Keys 

Sanden also talks about the importance of colour temperature in his book 'Painting the Head in Oil'.  he does not go as far to say that shadows are opposite in temperature to the lights, but he does say to observe what you see and determine what temperature the colour is and paint that.

Also recently I ordered this DVD 'Portrait Painting Duo with Scott Burdick and Daniel Gerhart'

and they talk about colour temperature and the shifts in temperature as the form turns.

All this, and my chat with Tracey Fletcher King yesterday (where we discussed Australian light and the temperature of light and shadow -amongst other things) has got me to thinking about colour temperature more while I'm painting. If you're an artist yourself, is it something you consider while making your images?

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Studio Update.

With the weekend nearing, I thought it would be a great time to do a studio update and show you all what I've been painting this week. I managed to get a painting finished, start two new ones and do countless other behind the scene tasks, which I will not bore you with the details here.

 

 I present to you the gorgeous Shae! 

The finishing touches went on her portrait at the start of the week and I deemed the painting finished.

These two paintings below, I started this week.  One is of the local wadding pool at sunrise and the other is the start of a portrait of Luke with his Mater Little Miracles puppy.  Both are at the very start of creation, and I have lots to do on them in the coming weeks. I will keep you all posted on their progress.

Above is my palette (for P&P), it is a glass picture frame, I work with it on the table easel.  You may find it helpful to know the basic colours I'm using. They are (L-R) Titanium White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Yellow Ocher, Cadmium Red, Indian Red, Cadmium Orange, Burnt Sienna, Burnt Umber, Perm. Rose, Chromium Green Oxide, Viridian Green, Cerulean, Ultramarine, Ivory Black.  I also have added Raw Sienna, Naples Yellow and Cadmium Yellow Deep to this particular palette for these specific paintings (especially the landscape). 

As a side note, for all those who follow along with the P&P party I hold, last week I questioned the future of the blog party and asked if anyone had any ideas for it moving forward or whether or not to continue it, and I was faced with no comments either way, which made me sadly think of fading out the party due to lack of interest. Since posting this result yesterday on the blog party showcase post, I have had a few people voice that they enjoy viewing the party and would be sad for it to end.  If there is enough interest, I will look at the possibility of continuing it, as it is something I enjoy too. So this is the time to speak up and leave a comment.

Linking with my friends over on Paint Party Friday, 29 Faces and Palette & Paint.

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Palette & Paint: The Most Exciting Way to Watch Paint Dry

This afternoon I've been painting some frames to get a few of my oils paintings ready for hanging.

It's been lots of fun getting out the acrylic again and having a play.

I even got out the crackle medium for 'Her Green Bunny'. 

Who thought watching paint dry could be so exciting and unpredictable?!

Yes, that's right, the most exciting way to watch paint dry is to apply a thick layer of paint 

over some crackle medium and watch the cracks appear as it dries.  Oh the things that amuse me :)

 'Her Green Bunny' is now ready for sale and if you would like to purchase her, please let me know.

Happy Creating all! 

Linking with Palette & Paint

and 29 Faces

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Studio Update: Catching you up.

It's been a very productive week this week with lots of painting happening.  I've had many things I've wanted to share with you on my blog, and I'm only now finding the time to do so (do you know how that is?) This post was originally called 'the difference in colour' and I was going to talk solely about what a huge difference the colour (tone, intensity and temperature) of a background makes to a portrait. However as I said, lots has happened in the studio since my last post so I've opted to do a quick photo with caption post to catch you up, we are mostly visual people after all, aren't we?

Day 12 of 29 Faces

Day 13 of 29 Faces

Monthly Painters Challenge Painting for 'Opposite Colours'.

I'm feeling very honored to have won!

My Palette last Thursday for Palette & Paint

Day 15 for 29 Faces

Day 16 of 29 Faces

 Day 17, 18, 19 & 20 of 29 Faces

Day 21 of 29 Faces

Day 22 of 29 faces - Self Portrait Finished! 

I'd like to thank you all for your lovely comments on my blog and let you know that I read your comments and visit your blogs when you do comment, even if sometimes I do not comment myself.

Happy Creating, Tracey.

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It's MOI, I'm painting a self portrait

My palette, for P&P

This photo was taken on Thursday, but I didn't get a chance to post.  I mix my paint on a glass frame. I've been using this method for a few weeks now, and I'm really enjoying it.  Did you notice?  It's a new frame (I accidentally cracked the other one). I like this one better as it's bigger and has a very pretty frame. 

 

Day 7 of 29 Faces

I started by mapping out the composition, following John Howard Sanden's 29 Steps. This one is a self portrait, they are really tough to do, have you experienced that? I really struggled with getting the foundations right, this photo is the second version, I had to wipe out what I first did as the proportions were all wrong. In Sanden's book he mentions that Sargent apparently had no problem wiping out his work (often several times) and starting fresh and he urges his students to do the same if the under painting is not structurally sound - I'm paraphrasing of course :) I'm not sure of his exact words. 

 

Day 8 of 29 Faces 

I Blocked in the dark and mid tones. I really long for the day when I can do a portrait in one sitting, I see lots of inspiring videos of other artist doing it (and Sanden does his studies in one and half hours) and to think, this is sitting two and it's still not even close!

 

Day 9 of 29 Faces

I might regret this in the morning, but I just could not resist to take a photo of the progress on my self portrait. I know the photo quality is bad, the conditions were bad, wet oil and un-natural light make for really horrible photos, and usually I would not put this out there with  my name on it, but I just couldn't resist sharing, as I'm a little behind on the 29 Faces as it is. It's day 11.

I'm also sharing with my friends over at Paint Party Friday. Do go and visit, there are so many wonderful creative folk who share and artist Stephanie Corder (an exceptional painter) is being interviewed this week over on the blog for PPF, do check it out, her work is incredible!

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PALETTE & PAINT: Out comes the bright colours!

 

 

I scrapped my palette clean today (the bonus of having a glass palette) and mixed up some bright colours for Shae's hat.  It's been a while since I've used such intense colours.These just sing and vibrate next to her skin tones. All my colour mixing exercises have sure come in handy for this painting! Thanks John Howard Sanden.

Linking with Palette & Paint and sharing my portrait with 29 Faces.

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PALETTE & PAINT: Mixing Light 1 and a Girl Called Maia.

I put a CALL OUT FOR PHOTOGRAPHS a while back and got some beauties, which I have been eager to get in and paint. I'm so happy that I finally got to pick up the brush to paint an images - as appose to colour charts :) BTW, I'm still accepting photos if you have any you'd like to share with me. 

Above is one of the photo's I received (and my WIP) of a girl called Maia, she is the daughter of one of my online art buddies, she is so sweet, isn't she?  I still have a bit of tweaking to go to capture a closer likeness, and lots more study to do on colour mixing and Sanden's 'Alla Prima' technique, but I'm pretty happy with how this little painting is going so far.

I'm slowly getting through the colour mixing exercises from the 'Painting the Head in Oil' book and I finally mixed up different alterations to the 'Light 1' Pro Mix Portrait Colour,  learning how to change the temperature, tone and intensity of the colour, very interesting and helpful stuff!

 

I'm sharing with Palette & Paint (P&P), if you'd like to too, please do.

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