Signing your artwork

Signing a painting is a very rewarding as it signifies that we are sufficiently satisfied with our painting.  When demonstrating authorship of our work, it is important to consider placement and appearance within the compositions.

Here are three considerations when signing a painting:

 1) Placement:

• You want to make it blend in with your art, not conflict.
• We tend to expect to see signatures in the lower right hand corner.
• If right hand corner is too busy, try the lower left hand corner.

2) Tonality:

• When deciding on a hue and value for the signature, consider how much attention you want to bring to your signature
• The greater the contrast with the painting, the signature might be intrusive
• Select a hue or value that is commensurate with the tones of the painting.
• Consider using a colour from the painting.

3) Style:

• Sign in the same medium in which you created the painting
• Make it easy to read
• Keep the style consistent from painting to painting
• Try not to make your signature too overbearing that it detracts from your work.

 Lastly, it is suggested that you date your paintings, either in the front or back.

Here is a painting from Chris Forsey

 

Danielle (aka beaulieud)

Quinacridone colors

 My first experience with quinacridone color was gold. I've since acquired a couple of others.

What gives the quinacridones such vibrancy? They come from a family of synthetic pigment used to make high performance paints and they have outstanding transparency and color intensity. They come in range of pink to purple and gold to sienna, they are lightfast with a clarity traditional pigments cannot match.

Would you believe that these synthetic colors were created in the 1960s for use in automotive paints, where brilliance and lightfastness are essential.

This family of colour is ideal for watercolours since they combine the power of staining pigments with the luminosity of transparent pigments. In addition to producing glowing washes, they have incredible depth of color and can be lifted easily while still wet. 

Quinacridone gold is so useful I have included it in the warm yellow section as a primary yellow option. I've heard that some artists use this in place of yellow ochre. Although I don't have quinacridone sienna, it seems to make a lovely convenience orange.  Quinacridone rose and quinacridone violet are fabulous for making purples that glow. In the near future, I hope to acquire quinacridone burnt orange which could be used to replace burnt sienna in a palette as it is also a neutralised orange.

Which is your favorite quinacridone?

This John Lovett painting makes great use of quin gold.

Danielle

p.s. we've had more than 1,000 views in the past 4 weeks.

Brushes: natural vs synthetic.

Brushes have been a much talked about topic on Art Tutor and has many aspects. Here are some extracts of discussion that have occurred. The first one on the natural vs synthetic brushes

1. Brushes made of natural hair or synthetic filaments or a mix of both. If you are against animal products being used then that is out of the equation. In animal hair Kolinski Sable is the ultimate, each hair has microscopic “barbs” (for lack of a better word) along the strand, that’s why they hold a tremendous amount of water and point beautifully to a needle-like tip. They are also the most expensive. But prices vary from one maker to another. And escalate as the brush size grows bigger.
2. There is a less expensive variety: Red Sable or from other animal sources like : Squirrel or Mongoose. The squirrel “mops”, the bigger ones can function like a mop but they do point nicely unlike regular mops.
3. Synthetic filaments have come a long way and some are manufactured to resemble the sable hair structure. They have more “spring” but their water holding capacity will always be less than sable. They can last as long as Sable but you need to take care of them the same way. Sables get damaged when you scrub vigorously with them or use them often to mix bigger quantities of paint. Because we tend to do that with synthetics, knowing they are more rugged, it can shorten their useful life. Don’t throw those away; they are great for painting foliage.

  

A lot also depends on the way you paint i.e. technique used, support/paper used, a lot of dry brushing or more wet-in-wet etc.

 

The above was contributed by Jen on AT (aka JAKA)

 

 

Next week, I’ll post more about which brushes you need. Feel free to let me know which topic you'd like to see in this blog

Lastly, I don't know how many of you are familiar with Villager Jim (http://www.villagerjim.com/). He is a wonderful photographer and posts some of his photos on Paint My Photo to allow others to use them as inspiration for paintings.  Here is his post for today.

 

Painting Loose

Firstly, this will be a discussion on painting Loose and Loosening up. For the sake of discussion let me clarify these two terms which at times are used interchangeably while I consider them as referring to two different issues.

Painting loose refers to the act of painting i.e the physical effort (standing, positioning your easel/drawing board, location, making strokes) , the hardware i.e type and size of brush, support/paper, palette, paint, masking fluid etc.,the technique applied.

Loosening up relates to the painter. A major factor or actor playing a leading role. Mainly: the mental state of the painter, tendency to a certain approach in composition or color choice, preference (love of) of a given subject. Attitude. Smile

"Tips for painting loose" will sound like : Give yourself a time limit, paint quickly, "use a ridiculously long brush" among others. And there lies the pinch. That painterly loose painting we strive for is: "the sum of all parts". No amount of or any particular tip will give us that result. But each does contribute.to the process.

Give yourself a time limit, paint quickly.

Let's ask why? Won't that result in random and uncontrolled strokes? Anything done haphazardly cannot masquerade as spontaneity, which is what we are after. Spontaneous strokes appear dynamic and suffused with energy. Fewer strokes preserve freshness and bring out the transparency of pigments. Randomness will appear sloppy. Makes sense, but with speed accuracy is affected. We should not take speed literally.

What is implied: the painter can only achieve speed if he/she can do it with confidence. Confidence meaning that the stroke is visualized and executed at the spot it is intended and look the way it is visualized, and having the effect desired,...by the painter. And the painter knows he/she can do it. For the simple reason that he/she has done it more times than they care to remember.

Exercise...practice...booooring. Sian Dudley's "Dictionary of marks" was one of the earlier vids on AT. For a reason Smile It is the FIRST in my favorites folder.

Now that sweeping slashing brush stroke is driven by the painters belief in being able to pull it off. That is a big step towards "looseness". Most likely "tight painting" is a result of being tidy and a commitment to precision. That was how I started out and watercolor was the toughest medium to try to do it that way. Mind you wonderful results can come out of it, often with a high degree of realism, however it won't be "loose". At times it appears "documentary", done "by the book" . But not the kind "you can't put down".

Making a sketch is one of the first steps to get a feel for the composition. Once paint is put to paper the lines become only indicators, beacons as it were and it is here that a precise carefully made stroke will lose against that spontaneous slashing stroke delegating accuracy to nether levels Smile Trading it off for speed but gaining "character". Much like the character lines on my face LOL.

Joseph Sbukvic in one of his videos used the term "...and so, once more into the valley of death", he was putting finishing touches that would "finish" the painting. In the sense: make or break it. It’s been hardwired in my brain ever since. I'll close this comment by summing up that we need to work on confidence in handling brush and paint so we can make the stroke we want, when we want and know where to put it.

Jen (aka Jaka)


Jen, thanks for this article on painting loose.  I hope other AT members will contribute articles of their choice in the future. 
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Danielle (aka dbeaulieu)