Etsy Excavations Interview with Diahn...

just a quick note today...

yesterday, lovely diahn ott, whose blog is just as lovely (i adore her fish drawings ), has a feature called Etsy Excavations... where she digs up artisans and artists on Etsy.com. 

i'm so blushing that she dug me up and has posted a lovely Q&A interview .  Thanks Diahn!!  You can also see her work HERE in her own Etsy Shop . 

:]

Free Shipping on Watercolor Paintings December 10-24

•°•°• HOLIDAY OFFER •°•°•

Free Shipping on Watercolor paintings

to Continental U.S. addresses in my Etsy Shoppe

DECEMBER 10-24, 2009

Orders paid for after 12/17 not guaranteed for Christmas delivery.

Shipping to Canada & Mexico 50% off,

max $15 (excess will be credited)

color charts, swatches and wheels... oh my!

last week i wrapped up the huge project of creating color charts. in previous posts i had mentioned that i had chosen to go with 11 colors in my new palette. two sets of primaries, a cool and warm, and additional colors, mostly earthtones, to speed up mixing.


as a stay at home mom, artist, graphic designer, fitness instructor, and art group/therapy leader i don't have time to spend playing with color mixes, i need to get down to business, and fast. here's my complete palette, one color chart for each, plus one chart with just each color right, from the tube:

1st image: left to right then down:
yellow ochre, burnt sienna, mineral brown, burnt umber, ivory black, (last chart is entire palette from the tube)

2nd image: right, left to right then down:
cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow middle, alizarin madder lake, cadmium red light, cerulean blue, ultramarine blue

in addition, i also made a color swatch from the second value down in each string. why? well, i'm pretty obsessive about color in my paintings, i like to work out the entire scheme prior to painting, this way, i can save time, instead of painting multiple color studies or creating color comps in photoshop i can simply lay out my swatches and quickly explore the palette i wish to use.

and then, i quickly mixed up these little color wheels just for reference. the one on the left is cadmium yellow middle, cadmium red light, and ultramarine blue. the one on the right is cadmium yellow light, alizarin madder lake, and cerulean blue.  the center bottom wheel is yellow ochre, mineral brown, and paynes grey.

i didn't include payne's grey in my palette because i can quickly mix a close substitute, although for plein air painting i like to simplify what paints i carry to as few as possible, and i am thinking ahead to some outdoor work i hope to get in this winter.

so there you have it... a huge undertaking yes, but very beneficial and what a huge time saver this will be moving forward. i am working on putting all of these charts into a book for ease of use.

in the meantime, i've got a new skull drawing underway and have five, yes five, pet portraits (gifts not commissions) to complete in the next few weeks.

and ...

i hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving and i extend warm and gracious thank you's out to you all for the friendships and support and all of the lovely and gracious comments i have received over the past year.

color charts - the primaries...

i'm moving right along on my color charts. my new palette consists of eleven colors plus titanium white. these charts, as i like to refer to them as the top half of my palette are my primaries. i had decided on going with a warm and a cool for each.

they are:

• ultramarine blue
  
• cerulean blue
  
• alizarin madder lake
  
• cadmium red light
  
• cadmium yellow light
  
• cadmium yellow middle
  

new additions for me are cerulean blue and cad red light. i'm not sure in the long term if i will keep them but for now i want to see if they are useful to me.

the remaining color charts should be completed by the end of the week. i will post them when completed.

the amaryllis project paintings...

almost a year ago i began this project. it was a great project. my intention was to complete about seven more paintings, but the fact is i am so far removed from this project that i decided it was time to bring it to completion.

this was a challenging and rewarding project. not only was this one vigorous growing flowering plant but it gave me some focus at a time when i really was struggling to find some.

i enjoyed the sequential nature to the serious and i'm constantly sketching ideas for more sequential series.  my black swallowtail project is on hold as the chrysalis is currently wintering in my garage. once the butterfly emerges in the spring, i'll complete the series and also make it available.

i've spent the last few days varnishing, staining and sealing the birchwood cradles and getting the paintings up on my etsy shoppe.  so now they are officially available for purchase!

the amaryllis project paintings will be available for purchase until March 12, 2010. all remaining unsold paintings will go into my private collection and no longer be available, no exceptions.

i have chosen to do this because of the nature of the sequential series, it doesn't seem prudent to me to have miscellaneous paintings hanging around for sale without the rest of the series for an extended period of time.

in addition, i am considering prints of some of the paintings and possibly a calendar with the images. if you care to note in the comments which paintings (by day is fine) you would love to see prints of, that will help me narrow it down.

in the studio i am moving right along on my color charts . i have four and half finished so far and hope that i can finish them all off in the next two weeks. i may even make a few color wheels specific to my palette of colors.

mounted a nice large sheet of paper the other day which means i'll be starting my next skull drawing as well. so there is a lot going on in my studio. i don't want to start any new oils until i complete my color charts so be patient with me.

defining my new palette...

if there is one thing i know for sure, it's that when i have time to spend drawing or painting, there is no time for dawdling and contemplation. i need to get to work. my time will be limited and is usually based on the length of my daughter's nap or how late i think i can stay up and not suffer for it the next day.


with that in mind i've spent weeks now, streamlining my processes and setting my studio up to be as efficient as possible. i created multiple workstations so there is no cleaning up to work on something else and i can move from one to the next as needed.


one thing that has been looming over my head is my palette of oil colors. my previous style used many many glazed layers of translucent color. therefore my palette was made up of semi-transparent and translucent paints.


moving forward those paints just aren't going to work. and since i am not a wing it on the go type of artist. i like to know what i am doing, what i am using, and exactly how and what to do to get what i need out of my paints.

so i've spent the past two weeks mixing and testing everything from whites to color and narrowing down to a palette that i feel i can start with.

when deciding on colors my main priorities were selecting primaries i liked, and additional colors that would speed up my mixing process. i also took into consideration what my subject matter was going to be. in addition, alizarin crimson is a color i had in several brands so i tested them as well. i've used Schminke Mussini Alizarin Madder Lake for several years and wanted to see if for any reason i might prefer another brand. but nope, stuck with it. just love it. W&N was more pinkish to me and Grumbacher too, i liked the slightly toned down mixes i get with Mussini's AML.

here is my test swatches for whites. previously i used zinc white because i enjoyed it's crisp cool whiteness and translucent qualities. i was introduced to flake white in a workshop, which is similar but more semi-transparent, and titanium white, which is nice and opaque, although with a slight warmness to it.

i selected three primaries: cad yellow light, ultramarine blue and azilarin, plus mineral brown to see any differences when mixed with each of the three whites. i felt the colors did not vary much from each white, but the transparency was the key difference.

while i still prefer the coolness of zinc white, i had to go with titanium for the opacity and feel the warmness will complement the skulls and bones i will be painting. but... i think i will keep flake white on the side, for those moments when i want a little more transparency.

now that i have initial selections, i am making color charts for each color i have selected plus a few more just for color theory purposes.

cadmium yellow light color chart

i could go into the benefits of color charts with you but you can read that on tons of other blogs. my goal is to not only have the understanding of how this new palette of colors interacts but a fast reference to use until i am familiar with them to cut down on mixing time...which is huge when your painting time is limited.

i'm sure all stay at home mom artists can understand that. :)

studio sale ends tomorrow

visit my etsy shoppe 

my studio sale is coming to a close tomorrow. these are the last paintings that remain. at midnight i will remove these items from my shoppe and they will no longer be available for purchase.  they've had a good run, time to retire them.

['this old tree' has sold direct from my studio and has been removed from my etsy shoppe]

and since it's halloween, i have to post a skull, in which this one seems to be most fitting...

happy halloween

this bird is brainless...

skull: pheasant | 5x7 inch graphite on bristol mounted to board | 2009 | available 

upon careful observation i am happy to report that there is no brain left in this skull. whew. 

i love this little skull. it's very tiny and delicate. can't wait to use it in some paintings.

a skull of a different kind...

 

skull: human | 10x8 inch graphite on bristol mounted to board | 2009

introducing my latest skull drawing, here it is... or should i say he... or she... i'm not sure which but i refer to it as a he. just seems like a guy to me.

overall, i figured between 25-30 hours to complete. i think if i could have sat and worked on it straight i could have done it in much less time, but when you have to stop and start as much as i do, it takes a bit to get back into 'the zone'.

this pic is a scan. my camera is becoming useless. ugh another electronic that needs replaced. unfortunately, my scanner really cast a shadow on the texture of the paper so it's grayed down the bright white of the paper some. but i think you get the idea.

i've included some detail shots this time. the key to keeping the gradations, especially the light values smooth and even is to work very slowly with a sharp point.  i'm very precise with where i begin and end, no haphazard scribbling. the sharp point really gets down into the grain of the paper, whereas a dull point would skip over most of it

i prefer to use one of those mechanical pencils with the thick lead (not one of the writing kind). the majority of this drawing was completed with a 2B lead.  then to really build up the background, which is about 8-9 slowly built up layers, i used 4B, 6B, and some 8B pencils.

little gourd - 6x6 inch oil on canvas

little gourd | 6x6 inch oil on canvas | 2009 | available

turns out, after stepping away from this little painting for a day, i ended up not doing very much more to it. a little tweaking that's all. a nice warm up, helped me make some decisions to streamline and be sure my process is as efficient as possible.

working from home, with a very active 3 year old and no sitter requires efficiency.

my newest skull drawing is almost complete. I think 1-2 more good sessions should do it. hopefully, by end of week I will be posting that one.

now, on to some new paintings...

available in my etsy shoppe