Michael Chesley Johnson, one of my favorite painters and bloggers, wrote recently about the use of photography vs “painting from life”. It’s a really wonderful post, check it out.

I admit it, I struggle with the color green. Don’t know why, just do. The first step of revovery is to admit you have a problem, right? So, as I would with any problem, I need to practice and study to fix it. This is a study in greens I did the other day. It was an “etch-a-sketch” study, in that I painted it, wiped it off, and did it again.  Never be afraid to wipe a painting.

Do you have any advice?  Do you have problems with greens too?

Greens Study - Oil on Linen - 12×9

Here’s the second study I did the other day in Pacific Grove using the “brush in front” technique. I think the values/colors are good, but I probably could have “pushed” it a bit more, ie, widen the value/color range. No regrets. Every painting is a lesson.

Rocks & Surf (Pacific Grove) - Oil on Linen - 6×8″

Meanwhile, I did an bad painting Sunday.  Yes, I’ll share it. There are lessons in those, right?

• Consistent paint quality. Even while a student (I still am!), don’t buy the so-called “student grade” paints. They’re somewhat less expensive, but you’ll pay for it in frustration and poor quality results. When you’re learning, you need to learn with the materials that you’ll paint with for a life time. Whatever brand of paint you choose, when you know you’re happy, stick with it. Most of my paint is by Classic Artist Oils. They are incredibly cheap in large quantities (10 oz “guns”) and used by many masters, including Ken Auster and Ovanes Berberian. I do use Gamblin occasionally (especially their mediums, which I love). Their Permanent Alizarin is allegedly the only true permanent Alizarin Crimson on the market.
• Are “Student Grade” Oils really cheaper? I did a quick price comparison using the Winsor Newton prices on Dick Blick vs. Classic Artist Oils. Even with a sale running right now at Dick Blick (far below retail prices), the high quality Classic Artist Oils rival Winsor Newton’s WINTON student grade. Eg, For Ultramarine Blue, the price per oz was: WINTON: $2.13/oz; Winsor Newton Artist Oils: $4.90/oz; and Classic Artist Oils: $2.40/oz. So even while on SALE, Winsor Newton’s Artists Oils cost double the price of Classic Artists Oils and comparable in price to W/N student grade WINTON oils. It pays to buy in larger quantity.

• Your easel is your foundation. Easels can be the most difficult decision you’ll make for outdoor painting. I use OpenBoxM for small kits that I take hiking, and a Soltek easel for larger works outdoors that don’t require too far of a hike. Be warned, however, Solteks break constantly. I’m currently testing a 12×16″ palette OpenBoxM easel as my primary outdoor kit. So far, so good. I’m phasing out my Soltek due to technical difficulties. If I could afford it, I may buy two like Ken Auster, who assumes one will always be in the shop while one is in working condition.

OpenBoxM 12×16″ Palette Pochade, Tripod Mounted

Soltek Easel, all-in-one, but unreliable

• Brushes with body. Flimsy brushes without enough hair are frustrating! I use only pure hog hair bristles brushes, and sometimes the synthetic/natural bristle blends by Ultrect. Brands I trust include: Dick Blick Masterstroke; Robert Simmons; Winsor Newton Rathbone and Utrecht.
• Painting surface is objective. Of all materials, I think the surface you paint on is the most personal. I prefer a smooth surface with just the right amount of tooth. For me, that’s a double-primed linen (naturally, the most expensive!). It just “feels right”. My advice is to try everything, every surface with every combination of preparation (gesso, primer, etc). I use RayMar’s double-primed linen panels (as well as their panel carriers for storage).
• Studio light intensity and color must match the viewers. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve painted a work in my studio that I thought was perfect, only to see a dark, less intense version in the gallery or home of the collector. Just as you don’t paint in direct sunlight outdoors (because it results in dull, dark paintings when viewed indoors), you should moderate your indoor studio lighting. I tend to paint indoors with too much light, and when that painting is put in my living room (for example), it looks much less impressive. I try to get in the habit now of placing a painting I’m working on in my living room with typical nighttime “indoor light” to see how it looks.
• Use anything and everything. One of my favorite artists to watch is Camille Przwodek. She’ll use anything and everything at her disposal to make a painting work: the end of a brush, a scraper, paper towel. No one is going to judge your painting’s quality someday based on traditional technique, it’s the end result that matters to them. So use the opposite end of the brush, your fingers, whatever you need to create the effect you need.

What did I leave out? Let me know in Comments, and I’ll add to this post.

Yes, the weatherman lied yet again. A “partly cloudy” forecast ended up some sun, with lots of fog. Oh well. In the end, I’m happy with today because comparing a painting done on a gray day with one on a sunny day is a good lesson.

I’m sure you’ve heard artists say, “I paint the light”. The color and quality of light effects everything we see. My favorite light is late afternoon, least favorite gray days–but each is a learning experience.

Here’s today Ice Plant painting done on a gray day, compare with the one below it down in late afternoon.

Ice Plant (Gray Day) - Oil on Linen - 8×10″

Here’s a side-by-side comparison.

Ice Plant (Late Afternoon) Oil on Linen - 8×10

Ice Plant (Gray Day) Oil on Linen - 8×10″

This reminds me of a book on this subject, Kevin Macpherson’s “Reflections on a Pond“.  Kevin pained the same scene outside his dining room window hundreds of times.  The variety of the images is incredibly striking.  Well worth picking it up from his site.

The other day I wrote about painting with the “brush in front” technqiue.  I use this to get accurate color/value.  The paitning is now dry, so I was able to get a digital scan to post.  These scans (I use a Cannon Scan Lidi 20, about $60!) are much more accurate than taking a digital photo.

Rocks & Surf (Pacific Grove) - Oil on Linen - 8×10″

I used a lot of paint in this picture, a lot of it the muds I keep in the corner of my palette (green, red, blue piles of left over paint).  I’m really happy with some of the details, and would to paint an entire painting with this level of bravoro. I love the “painting within a painting”, ie, the fun abstract detailed strokes that make up a realistic image at a distance.

Rocks & Surf (Pacific Grove) Detail

On another topic, the more I look at the Ice Plant study I did the other day, the more I like it.  So, tomorrow I’m off to Pacific Grove and the same spot to paint a larger version (16×20″). I need a piece like this for the Laguna Plein Air Painters Association (LPAPA) “Best of Plein Air” show in March.  If you happen to be in Pacific Grove tomorrow, I’ll be on Sunset Drive, where it forks just past the lighthouse.  Join me!

Found out today I got accepted to the prestigeous Telluride Plein Air Festival!  This is just a bit intimidating. A great group of artists participated last year, including many friends such as Keith Wicks, Kevin Courter, Clark Mitchell, Charlie Muench, Paul Kratter, Barry John Raybould, and Jeanette LeGrue. See here for a list of the artists accepted this year.

I was also invited back to Gold Country Plein Air again this year (May 3-5) at the Vault Gallery in Sonora. I did a series of posts from there last year, including the painting below.
Wow.  Should be great fun.  I plan to blog daily from all the events I paint in this year.  Better start learning to paint

Spring Morning, Sonora - 10″x8″ - Oil on Linen

Great paintings have a great underlying abstract design, typically based on 3-7 large abstract shapes of value. If you’re a representational artist, don’t fool yourself: perfectly painted detail only matters if it sits within a broader design of interesting abstract shapes. Those few big abstract shapes will make or break a painting. No amount of detail can save a poorly designed painting.

As painters, we’re at a big disadvantage in our rapidly evolving culture of shorter attention spans and immediate gratification. How much time do you give a novel before you decide to finish it? Hours, probably days. The average viewer of a painting evaluates it in seconds, and then may linger for minutes if they like it (watch people in a museum

The eye first registers the big abstract shapes, delineated typically by value differences or sometimes hues of the same value. In any case, that first impression is of shapes, not subject matter. Abstraction is hugely important to get the viewer’s eye, but you’ll keep the viewer based on the painting-within-a-painting. Think of the abstract design as the first layer and the detail, color, subject–everything else-as the ‘icing on the cake” that the viewer will enjoy once you’ve got their attention.

When I paint, I start with a notan sketch that identifies the 3-7 big shapes of value and keep each shape together by staying within the value family of the shape. I then have fun within each shape with color, texture and warm/cool, saturated/gray color. Here are sample notans where I’ve taken the same scene I tried different designs:

Sample Notan Sketches - Click to Enlarge

Here are some tips for designing a painting in effective abstractions.

• Design a value scheme with at least one dominant value, and others subordinate in unequal proportions.
• Divide your picture into at least 3 and no more than 7 shapes. Here’s a quick and easy exercise you can do anywhere: with a sketchpad, look at a scene, and decide where those 3-7 big shapes are, and draw them as interlocking shapes. You’ll almost certainly have to make compromises to abstract the scene, such as merging values together, but this is a necessary part of design (see notans above).
• Limit your values. Some of the strongest designs are just 3 values. it’s really difficult to keep to a solid, limited value structure, but well worth it.
• Here’s a tip to simplify your values: If–like me–you’re near-sighted and wear corrective lenses: slide your glasses down to look at the scene (blurring it) and view your work surface with your glasses as you look down. If you don’t wear glasses, blur your view by squinting (note this is less effective as squinting also darkens your view). I almost always paint most of my painting without my glasses on as I love focusing on accurate color and value first. It works!

Snow Creek - Oil on Linen - 10×8″ - Private Collection

Got two studies done today, here was my setup. I don’t have great photos of the two, so will post later. Today I really focused on color and value using the “brush in front” technique. Basically, I start by dip the opposite end of the brush in black and hold the brush between the me and the scene. I do the same with white. In this particular scene, the darkest dark could be represented with the black (or lighter) and the lightest light could be represented by white. This tells me that I can paint this scene with the range of pigment I have.

Then, for each color, I mix on the palette then hold in front of the object/shape I’m painting and do a direct comparison. If the color/value is indistinguishable from the thing I’m painting, I know it’s write. This is a great way to match color/value, but won’t help you push color. That’s another step!