“Stretch” Concept Applied to Painting

Artists create because they are looking to widen their horizons or their passion makes them do so. Some might learn, study, develop their art. They might decode it, try to explain, create consciously. And then graduate to the intuitive phase. It’s very similar to learning a sport; where you first break down the mechanics of a move and with time to learn to do it intuitively. With time we will just make art and won’t think about all the theoretical wisdom we have acquired.

Have you heard about the concept of “stretch?” This is the notion that emerging artists who are trying to grow will exhibit certain types of errors, one of which is the lack of use of full spectrum of values. Not all errors are equally damning and that the number of errors is less important than the types of errors we make.

Students of art who will try to learn by watching a watercolour tutorial or video will likely struggle to use some of the techniques they’ve just learned. It’s probably best to make stretch errors because it pushes your limit rather than using the same old tactics. While the results were not great for the students who exhibited stretch, at least they are trying to apply more sophisticated techniques and will probably improve over the long haul.

On the surface, some mistakes might seem very serious, however, below the surface they present you with the perfect opportunity to learn, to grow and to improve yourself. 

Think back to all the mistakes you made in your earlier paintings and consider how they have strengthened your skills and ability to solve problems. Consider the plethora of skills that your mistakes have taught you, and also how they have shaped your knowledge and development.

Mistakes are valuable. However, for them to be of value, you must first see them as a beneficial and critical part of your life that you cannot avoid and must instead embrace with an open heart and open mind. Who knows, your biggest mistakes could end up turning into your most glorious victories, as long as you are open to learning and growing from the experience.  At least that's what Neal always says.

It’s important that we stop viewing mistakes as something that’s negative and worthless. Instead, begin viewing mistakes as opportunities to re-evaluate the progression as an artist. Mistakes present opportunities to analyze the decisions and techniques you made or used during a painting. As Neal would say, it’s all good. They are evidence that we continue to challenge ourselves and part of the learning process.

We don’t have to make all of the mistakes, sometimes we can learn from the mistakes of others. Here is a little online quiz (only 10 questions) to see if you can identify the weaknesses in these paintings. Try it and share how well you did.  You'll need to scroll down half of the page to start with the first question.
https://www.artbynolan.com/top-10-mistakes-artists-make/

Once you are done this quiz, you will have the option to sign up to a newsletter which you will receive every few days and will focus on looking at the top mistakes that artists make so that you can avoid making the same mistakes in your paintings and drawings.

Today's art find is from a regional artist called Debra Tate-Sears. If you could believe it, this is a watercolour on slate. She first applied a clear coat of gesso to the stone before painting with watercolour. What a stunning effect.

Don't' forget to tell us how you did with the quiz. You may use the comments section below to share your results

Have a good week,
Danielle

Finding Your Own Voice

As we develop as artists, it’s natural to examine the work of others. You’ll note that what attracts you to those paintings isn’t anything technical but more likely the passion that went into those paintings. 

You can apply all of the theory that you know in a painting, but the energy transmitted by your painting will be based on the feelings you have about the subject that you choose.  When a skilled painter finds the right subject, he or she can normally feel the vibe from the painting. Values are important and so is good solid design skills, but none of these seem to matter if the artist cannot connect with its subject. The painting ill lack pizazz.

After painting a few years our techniques improve, but after a while we might start to experience an identity crisis.  Something is missing.  That’s probably the time to think back on what attracted us to art in the first place. What paintings most speak to us? We must find our guiding light.  The combination of increased skills and finding topics that speak to us will only help us progress as artists.

Most of us have tried our hand at a variety of topics with no commitment to any.  However, I’m sure that you probably know instinctively when you are connecting with a topic.

The Art Tutor gallery contains some paintings that were made with heart while others were exercises for practicing techniques. Most likely, you can spot the differences.  It addition, we can all see how some artists have started to develop their own recognizable style in communication their passion.

Not only have the paintings matured in the gallery since we all signed up, I’m also noticing a wider variety of discussions between artists, including the groups. The topics of discussion are much more advanced.

We are all fortunate to be on this journey of finding our own voice with paint.

Here is a painting by Jan Palmer who won first place in the recent “Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors”.

 

Danielle

Leonardo da Vinci’s impact on today’s art

In previous blogs I’ve talked about modern day teachings about art. But to get to where these teachers are today and what we know of art, it took others to make some earlier discoveries.

We all know of Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) because he painted the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and many more famous paintings. These works were made famous because of Da Vinci's understanding linear perspective, his integration of light and shadow, and his superb understanding of anatomy. In his time he was accepted as a very talented artist. Many artists after Da Vinci mimicked his methods in hope to make their paintings more realistic.

He developed a linear perspective that is a mathematical system for representing three-dimensional objects and space on a two-dimensional surface by means of intersecting lines that are drawn vertically and horizontally and that radiate from one point (one-point perspective), two points (two-point perspective), or several points on a horizon line as perceived by a viewer imagined in an arbitrarily fixed position." Da Vinci used linear perspective in all of his paintings to make them more life-like and three-dimensional. He was also one of the first painters to incorporate light and shadows into his paintings as well.   This created the effect of 3D shapes in paintings, as we know it today. Also, because of Leonardo's understanding of human anatomy, he was able to make the subjects of the painting three-dimensional as well as the setting.

Da Vinci's paintings were different than most others painted during the same time. The majority of the paintings of the renaissance period were flat, and two-dimensional, and never very proportional. Da Vinci changed all of this with his new and revolutionary methods. With all of his new painting methods, he changed paintings of the time from flat (2D), and disproportionate to impossibly graphic and real. Although he was such a painting phenomenon, he rarely finished his works, only managing to complete a few.  Less that 20 complete works of Da Vinci exist today. Even so, his impact in the field of art was immense.

Da Vinci did more to create the artist genius than anyone else. By continually stressing the intellectual aspect of art and creativity he transformed the artist’s public status. Invited by King Francis I to live at Le Clos Lucé in France in 1516, Da Vinci designed grand projects: the palace and the ideal town at Romorantin, the draining of the Sologne marshes, the surprising staircase with double turns at Chambord castle, among others – many surprisingly modern challenges. Today, the Château du Clos Lucé holds a wonderful exhibit about Da Vinci about his 10 years in a few local castles. I’m fortunate to have visited this exhibit twice.

Following Da Vinci, there were Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian and so many more artistic geniuses. Who do you consider to be a living artistic genius?

 

Danielle

Evaluating watercolour papers

As watercolourists, we have a huge dependency on our watercolour paper.   There is a plethora of watercolour papers available in stores across the world and online. It’s important to experiment to find which ones (or one) suite our individual styles. I can assure you that paper can make a difference in your paintings.

There are a number of factors to consider when selecting a watercolour paper suited to your style and budget. Here are some suggested criteria to evaluate which paper is best for you. It’s important to note that not all factors are important to everyone. For me I need an affordable paper that doesn’t buckle too much as I don’t like to stretch my paper and can withstand lots of scrubbing, including the use of magic sponge on occasion are necessary attributes.

Brightness: the paper provides an essential background brightness that displays paint colors accurately 

Colour: whether white or tinted, the color is subdued and pleasing and does not yellow or fade when exposed to sunlight. 

Sizing: the paper has an external and/or internal sizing to control the absorption and retention of water; paints do not blotch or soak outward due to excessive absorbency, and paint edges remain crisp after they have dried 

Strength: The paper does not disintegrate or excessively cockle when completely saturated with water 

Receptive: The paper is responsive to all paint application techniques, including all types and sizes of brushes, dilutions of paint, types of pigment, wet in wet methods and multiple glazes.

Durability: the paper resists damage from editing techniques (scrubbing, blotting, scraping, erasing) and the removal of resists (latex compounds, rubber glue or masking tape). 

Bonding: The paper bonds securely with the paint vehicle and pigment, and display dried paint colors accurately and in the full chroma and tonal range (color gamut). 

Archival: The paper will not change color, flexibility or strength over time due to chemicals in the paper, mounting or air. This will ensure that they will last unaltered for centuries under proper care and storage.

Two other important factors are price and retail availability. We must find a paper that suits our style and that we can regularly obtain.

My "go to" paper these days is Fabriano Artistico 300lbs extra white. It's affordable when compared with Arches and resists to a lot of scrubbing. 

If anybody in North American wishes to order a sample box of watercolour paper, you can order it from Legion paper at http://www.legionpaper.com/samples/. I’ve been trying many of the papers in the box and am still sticking with my Fabriano Artistico… at least for now.  My intention was to prepare a table and provide a review of each paper branch. Although each paper performed slightly differently, I realized that the reacted differently due to my style. Hence, who am I to provide a review of various papers.

Neal recently started an interesting discussion on AT watercolour groups on this topic:
http://www.arttutor.com/group/watercolours-group/discussion/watercolor-paper-opinion-and-question

I encourage you to learn about and evaluate papers and put your observations in a notebook. First impressions and accidental observations are easy to forget or to attribute mistakenly to another paper brand or to a different weight or finish. It's much easier to review your notes than to evaluate a paper all over again.

 

Recently, Ingrid helped be discover Jeanne Dobie. I've since purchased her book and am discovering new ways to think about colour. I might transmit some of these learnings in an upcoming blog. Here is a painting of hers entitled Blueberry Cove.

Who wants to write the next blog? 
Danielle