The “Right” Green. A view from a Green aspirant Painter.

This was written in response to “The hunt for the right green” posted by Danielle a.k.a Beaulieud.  In the AT Members Blog.  4 years of painting as opposed to decades and a hobbyist of amateur status as opposed to full time professionals, the term Green can be safely applied to me.   Having had no training nor education in art I tapped sources like Instructional texts or books, Magazines,  DVDs and on-line sources.

Literally from day one I came face to face with : “ Always mix your greens…., it is better to mix……,  I have problems mixing greens….. and the like.  Living in a tropical country I am surrounded by greens year round and it does come in a myriad of shades, tints, hues, nuances and to the extent that naming them challenges the imagination.   Still, I did not really understand why and what there were these concerns particularly for “Green”.  Why not Red, or Yellow or Blue, or Violet, Orange etc.

Nature provides us with a lot of Green. Color wheel basics say its Blue mixed with Yellow.  Our eyes show it can differ as I said before.  Even a photograph will not show or record it “as seen” and although I believe in painting as realistically as possible, or desired, I have come to the conclusion that “the right green” will remain elusive.  Much like : the "Holy Grail”.

I am saying this in the context of technical artistic expression .  When the “available“ greens  like Viridian, Hooker’s Green or Phthalo Green for instance knocked me over the first time I tried them, I wondered why they were on the market at all.
Green thinking of a greenhorn.   Maybe that was the reason we are advised to mix our greens, so I went on.  Then, being curious or obstinate (even lazy) by nature I tried Sap Green, Olive Green, Green Gold, anything designated green (Recently I ran across a newly launched color by Daniel Smith : “Undersea Green”).

I liked some and I liked how some mixed on paper and came out a different green.    An “Aha” moment  (could have found it in many an article or book but then you’ve got to read and wade through other things that (at that time) did not really appeal to me or just did not “register”.).    So in fact, it was a “senior moment” 

Going back to “those” Greens again  I found they were very useful and versatile as a mixed-in color,  or being mixed in with others, depends how you look at or do it, giving me all sorts of colors.  Some of which I would not be able to mix again if my life depended on it    I know : make notes.  Ear’s don’t work too well when I paint and you can’t make notes while your brush is dancing all over the paper and you are chasing that bead down the paper.  ( By the way , an incline helps with washes, so I don’t paint flat)

Oddly, you can come across it again down the line.  And that in spite of differing paint manufacturers, brush (yes, it has to do with the waterholding capacity), paper and mood.
This in itself is an exciting moment on it’s own, with a delayed action, you only notice it when it has dried J.   There have been excruciating ones too though, fortunately fewer, when I go “Now what ailed me to touch that @#$*% color ?”   Of course it is the pigment’s fault. Never mine.   An attitude that was paid for in the local equivalent of greenbacks.   If you’ve read this far you may be somewhat green around the gills so I’ll conclude :  Give those greens a workout (then you can make notes LOL).

Jen (aka Jaka from AT)

Tips and fun quotes

Something light today.

 

How to feel miserable as a artist (or what not to do)

• Constantly compare yourself to other artists.
• Talk to your family about what you do ad expect them to cheer you on.
• Base your success of you entire career on one project.
• Stick with what you know.
• Undervalue your expertise.
• Let money dictate what you do.
• Bow to societal pressures.
• Only do work that your family would love.
• Set unachievable overwhelming goals to be accomplished by tomorrow. 

 

How to feel fulfilled as an artist (or how to get over your self sabotage)

• Never compare yourself to other artists.
• Know that your family is biased. Whether for or against, their views are skewed and do not represent an accurate reflection of your work in the world.
• Base on your success on how your art has enriched your life and how you feel when you created it.
• Constantly push yourself to expand and learn.
• Know that art can never be measured in dollars and will only ever appreciate in value.
• Trust that when you are making the world more beautiful, there is always enough honest work is not a compromise if it supports the creation of art.
• Remember it is the job of the artist to create new culture, not simply to regurgitate what exists.
• Never expect your family to understand your art, but do your best to educate them about it, patiently.
• Remember what Dhali said: "have no fear of perfection, you'll never reach it".

I've learned so much from my mistakes, I'm thinking of making a few more.

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. Aristotle

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Scott Adams

Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.  Thomas Merton

Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.  Pablo Picasso


I don't have much guts to even try portraiture. However I do love portraits that are well done, especially those of Mary Whyte - like this one.

 Do you have any good quotes to share?

Danielle

The hunt for the right green

One of the challenges of painting landscapes through the seasons is getting the right greens. Spring greens are not the same as late summer greens. I live in the country and when I look outside all I see is a multitude of greens. When I look at my tubes of paints, I do not see any colours that match what I see outside.

There are so many exciting ways to create your own greens that depict the beauty of nature in any season. The first step is difficult and requires that we see the subtle differences in the variety of greens nature has to offer. Since most greens in nature are on the warm side of green and many greens that come already mixed in a tube are on the cool side, it’s important that we mix our greens

There are two approaches to getting at different greens

• Mix green by mixing blue and yellow:  This approach lends itself to such a wide range of greens. Using yellow, blue and brown you can create luminous or intensely dark greens and everything in between.

       or

• start with an already mixed green and then modify it depending on what you need:  This approach may be more convenient for some people. Sap green is often a good start because it can be natural looking. It can be modified by adding a bit of yellow or blue, and it can be darkened with burnt sienna or raw umber. You can also neutralize it with a bit of orange or red.

Both methods will work. The last step is recording the wonderful combinations that you can create. I suggest doing several charts with the various yellows, blues, browns and greens that you have. These charts can be varied considerably depending on what proportion of each pigment is added. They are also affected by the order they are put down, yellow on blue or blue on yellow.

Feel free to share your favorite mix. My favorite is lemon yellow and cyan blue from Maimeri Blu.

Check out the beautiful greens in Joe Cibere's painting

Danielle

p.s., would love to have you contribute some articles

Just Do It!

Everyone has experienced the challenges of getting things finished. Artists also have those challenges and we need to beat those challenges. So what can we do when we need a kick in the butt to paint or finish a painting? Here are a few tips.

1. Show up!
Mark Twain was once asked if he had to wait for inspiration to come before writing. “Yes, I do,” he replied, “but inspiration always comes at 9am sharp, every weekday!”

To succeed, you have to turn up. For most of us, no one else is making us paint. But if you don’t put the hours in, the rest of it comes to nothing. Professionals do; wannabes just think about it.

Ideally, plan a set time for painting and stick to it. If you’re physically there, ready to start, you’ve already won half the battle.

2. Fight resistance
Resistance is what makes you sort through your paint supplies can re-arrange them, instead of painting. In short, resistance is what makes you do something else that feels important but that actually isn’t, at the expense of doing what you’re really meant to be doing – creating. 

A simple way to trap this creeping disease is to log exactly what you do for a few painting sessions sessions, and see how much time you actually spent painting. 

3. Finish what you start, then start again
How many times have you shown a partly finished painting to someone only to have them ask you later how the finished painting looks. Then all you can muster is that “it is not finished”.

Try setting deadlines and sticking to them – come what may. Tasks tend to expand to fit the available time. Deadlines are your friend. Professionals paint, finish, and move on. Wannabes procrastinate and spend more time coming up with excuses than delivering and getting going on the next project.

4. Accept that it’s natural to lack confidence
We are each programmed to think than anyone, everyone, can do stuff better than us. That simply because we’re involved, anything we do is bound to fail.

Writers feel it when they face a blank page and we feel it with a blank page. We all have moments when we feel like we’re just not up to the task. Accept that there will be times when we miss the mark and treat it as training. We always learn more from our failures than our successes. Without the little “nudges” that each almost-success gives us, we simply can’t hit our final, successful goal.

So just get out there and “Just do it!”

Here is a painting by Milind Mulick that some of us will interpret in the coming weeks.

Danielle

p.s., I do not suffer from procrastination for painting. However, I do paint when I procrastinate from other work.  A lot...

Wonderful (and Free) PDF book

A few months ago, Neal sent me a few pages from a book called “The Eye of the Painter” by Andrew Loomis. Immediately after reading those pages, which were full of valuable information, I wanted to buy the entire book. Well the book was first published in 1960 and has been out of print for a number of years. Luckily I was able to find a pdf copy online. Here is the link:
http://illustrationage.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/andrew-loomis-eye-of-the-painter.pdf

The book is about painting (not medium specific, although it’s clear from some examples that he’s talking about oil or acrylic most of the time), however it is one of the best that I have read on painting. Loomis is a master at explaining painting in a very technical way, but he also has an artist's spirit and relay's the fundamentals of layout, design, and color theory in this book. The book deals with various aspects of how an artist perceives beauty and harmony.

It is a very easy to read, and has some elements that you won't find in other artist's books.

If you read this book, I would like to hear what you think about it.

This month is rose month and here are a few roses from Doris Joa.

Danielle