Painting trees in winter

Painting trees in a winter landscape requires an important amount of observation, as does a number of other subjects.

It's important to notice the different parts of the tree: trunks, limbs, branches and twigs. These follow a certain growth pattern. One example is how the limbs attach to the tree. Branches are heavy and have a base to support them. There are usually a high number of branches and twigs. Also branches always divide in two at the ends.

Look carefully and you will see that the thicker the limbs are the darker they become. Pick a major limb and follow it until its end. See how the value lightens in the same proportion, as it becomes thinner until they practically become invisible by merging with the sky. Obviously it will be too overwhelming to paint every limb and branch that a real trees has. As always artists must simplify.

It's also important to notice that branches never grow straight. They form nice angles that give them their character. Some trees have more gnarled branches than others.  Another point to consider is the angle of the tree branches as they split form the larger limbs. The lower the branch the more open the angle. As the tree goes higher the angles tend to close.

Consider the following:

• Make sure both sides of a limb don't run straight and parallel to each other and/or other limbs.
• Make them look round by lightening the value where the light hits and rendering reflected light.
• Consider that some branches project outward towards you and farther from you, the latter would lighten in value even if the branches were thick.
• Limbs will cast shadows onto each other on a sunny day.
• Add character by putting in cut off limbs, squirrel holes, bark peeling off, leaves that didn't fall, a bird's nest, etc.
• The shadow side will pick up some reflections from the sky. Add touches of sky color to this area.
• Variegate the color of bark. Even though in nature their color seems to be a brownish gray add blue combines with siennes, umbers, ochers, reds, even green moss. Mix these colors on the paper instead of the palette.
• Preferably don't allow your tree to shoot up straight. A leaning tree is more interesting. Make sure it leans into the picture.
• At the top of the tree there are many little branches, many more than at the bottom.
• Don't allow the tree shape to fit into any geometrical shape such as ovals, circles, triangles (for pine trees) etc.
• Don't overdo the amount of branches. Open areas are good for breathing space.
• Some branches break off during their life span.
• Snow stuck to branches is a lovely sight.

Today's artist find is Edmond Henry Osthaus.

Have a great week,
Danielle

Challenges of staining colours

Ever notice that some paints are more difficult to lift or leave stains on your plastic palette.  Once applied on paper, these colours will sink quickly into the fibers of the paper making it difficult to “lift” or remove.

Some colours such as phthalo blue or dioxazine violet stain quite heavily.  No amount of sizing can change the fact that the paint is difficult to lift.  Apparently many of the staining pigments are synthetic organic or inorganic pigments.  It appears that recent manufacturing methods produce pigments that are more staining and less transparent.

It might take some time to learn which colors are staining. To speed up the process you can easily test them by painting squares of color on paper  and allowing them to dry completely.  Then run the paper under water and use a clean brush to gently scrub the paint swatches and rinse off the paint. Any colors that sit on the surface of the paper will come off, but those that sink into the fiber of the paper will leave a stain.

The easiest way to identify a staining colour is to read the labels on paint tubes.

Today's artist find is Dan San Souci

Have a great week,
Danielle

Inventory of your paintings

If you've been painting for a couple of years, it's likely that you have a few paintings around the house or studio. As a result, you have probably said to yourself  that it’s time to make a list of your paintings for a number of reasons including  making sure that the works are adequately insured and know what has sold for how much. Keeping an inventory of your paintings could appear to be a daunting experience and you might have been procrastinating about it.

In reality, preparing an inventory of your art is not that hard to do, as long as you understand it takes time and as long as you have a system.

So where do you start? Here are some of the information you should keep

• title;
• date of creation;
• measurements;
• sale status;
• client name if painting has sold;
• exhibits where painting has been exposed; and
• small image.

Some people suggest numbering all of your paintings.

All of the above can be easily stored in an Excel spreadsheet for tracking purposes. There are also online service for inventory of your art.

In addition, some artists have labels to the back of their paintings to provide some of the information you are looking for.

This week's artist find in Matthew Bird:

Have a great week

Danielle

Challenges of hot press paper

I’ve tried painting on hot press paper and find it difficult because it’s seems impossible to paint on top of any layers. A dried layer of paint gets stirred up at the slightest touch of a wet brush.

Is there some secret to painting layers on hot press? Or does hot press require that you paint each section in one sweep?

Hot press paper is indeed a whole different experience than cold press or rough paper which is my favorite. I haven't figured it out but it appears that it's preferable to paint in "one sweep"  which means less water than I normally use. It's also a good idea to let the colours mix on the paper with hot press, rather than glaze in layers.

Other tips I've read include using staining transparent pigment for the first layers and to use the more opaque non-staining paints as the final layers.

I've also heard that it might be possible to use lots and lots of water to soak the paper before applying paint. This allows the paper to soak the pigment into the fibres of the paper but you can only do this on the first layer.

The smoother the paper, the more suited it is to dry-brush and the more difficult it is to get smooth, soft effects from water-blurring, since even drying is harder to achieve. 

This weeks artist find is Anna Masson.

Have a great week

Danielle