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  • #992780
    schwabby
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        I have been fascinated with Michal Lang youtube videos lately. I love his art but I am really wanting to know how he is doing his technique.
        In the videos he paints a wide arch of paint, switches to another brush, blends it out and smooths it in a beautiful fade.
        It appears to me that possibly he has coated his canvas – a gel medium possibly?
        I am wondering if he might have gel medium on his brush that he uses to blend his color out with. Anyone have any ideas?
        If you go to youtube and search Michael Lang many videos of his will come up.
        Guess I no longer have a lurker status now…..I would have searched for this but I keep getting a 404 not found page.

        Thanks!

        Schwabby

        #1221074

        Doubt you’ll find anything relevant here with Search!
        People may come up with ideas – but you’ve obviously studies his videos, have you tried experimenting with the ideas – as you suggest here?

        Cheers, Maureen


        Forum projects: Plant Parade projects in the Florals/Botanicals forum , WDE in the All Media Art Events , Different Strokes in Acrylics forum .

        #1221076
        Guide
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            I have been watching him recently as well and I am thinking it is a stumbling technique well executed.

            Click here to go to the information kiosk My You Tube Channel 48hlc48
            The only person you can't fool, is yourself! (Oz The Great and Powerful)
            "If you think you can, or think you can't, your right!"
            "The thing about art is that life is in no danger of being meaningless," Robert Genn

            #1221079
            Explorer45
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                I checked out one of his videos, and it runs at double speed with no narrative, so consequently it has no use as an instructive video. It was also partially edited, but I got the impression that it takes him around an hour to complete one of his large canvases.

                It did not say what medium he was using but I assume it was acrylics, He deploys a variety of techniques including drip art, simply executed by using a water spray close to a mass of colour and allowing it to run down under gravity. Also a sgraffito technique where he uses a tool to make vertical grooves in the still soft paint. He also will drip liquid colour direct from squeezy bottle touching the canvas and work simultaneously with a brush in each hand, one to apply strong colour and the other (possibly water soaked) to aid instant blending.

                The final effect is one of chaotic colours interwoven in the whole with an element of composition between the light and dark areas. The light areas are seemingly very important to him, looking at the disproportionate time spent on them. His approach seems quite formulaic and it would appear that a variety can be achieved between each painting by simply changing the initial strong brush strokes of colour distributed across the canvas. This apparently decides the framework of the light and dark areas for later enrichment when the rest of the colours are added and blended. I noted that some detail was added at specific focal points in one of the light area, but as the video was of surprisingly such poor quality, it was too blurred to describe what it was.

                #1221072
                JamieWG
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                    Wow, I’m so happy to have seen that. Thank you, Swabby, for introducing me to his work. It has tremendous depth, unity and character.

                    My take on materials/techniques is that he might be using Golden Open — at least for many colors, since he keeps going back to that vertical palette and the paint is always wet! Plus, the edges remain workable for quite awhile after he lays down a stroke. That is especially evident at the very beginning. He might be coating the canvas with Open Medium before starting, or something similar.

                    I’m not sure if he’s using a slow-drying white or a traditional heavy bodied white. But what is clear is that he follows the paint. He repaints and repaints entire sections. You see him painting a section, and moving on. But at the next edit you see that section was completely repainted. I suspect these are not done quickly. I’d say several hours to days. There are lots of edits and you can see much was done in the absence of the camera.

                    It looks to me like he’s using a split complementary palette — maybe yellow, a PR206 Burnt Orange or other orangy-red, and Ultramarine Blue, white….perhaps black and one or two other close colors to the others. Split complementaries are able to yield great variety and contrasts, but also unify colors.

                    Great work!

                    Hudson Valley Painter[/url]
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                    #1221080
                    Explorer45
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                        I suspect these are not done quickly. I’d say several hours to days. There are lots of edits and you can see much was done in the absence of the camera.

                        This the problem with video. The video I watched was 23 minutes long, and was run at double speed. Some of the edits I suspect were done to allow a degree of drying, but most of it was continuous work. I still maintain that his time actually applying paint, at least in this case, could not have been much more than an hour.

                        His marketing technique is similar to other professional artists I have watched on video. High speed action, but little or no information, designed to enhance reputation by implying awesome speed and skill, rather than instruction and enlightenment.

                        Good luck to him, but I don’t think he really needs it.

                        #1221082

                        Why would we assume he’s using acrylic paint?

                        A painting is never really done as long as I can get my hands on it.

                        #1221071
                        JamieWG
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                            This the problem with video. The video I watched was 23 minutes long, and was run at double speed. Some of the edits I suspect were done to allow a degree of drying, but most of it was continuous work. I still maintain that his time actually applying paint, at least in this case, could not have been much more than an hour.

                            He has so many videos out there, so I don’t know which one you watched. I did a small format (5×7″) paint-along with one of his Youtube videos today, pausing the video to catch up with his steps. I still think his time frame is several hours. He even stops/edits the video almost every time he goes to reload the brush! All of that goes into painting time, and there were lots of edits where things jumped ahead. I got to the same stage he did with the painting steps he showed in about two hours. I’m sure it would have taken me at least twice that amount of time with a large painting. Then he stopped painting, and all of a sudden it jumped to a final still image that was much more refined, colorful, and detailed. Between the end of the painting steps that he shows, and the final image (where he shows a still pic of the finished painting), it looked like at least another 1-2 hours of work went into it — at least on the one I painted along with.

                            Having done the paint-along, I take back what I said about using a slow drying paint. I think he’s using standard acrylics for the most part, lots of medium, and lots of white.

                            Hudson Valley Painter[/url]
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                            #1221075
                            Guide
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                                From the video I watched it appears he is using Galleria acrylics, lots of blending, scumbling and plenty of plates, trowels, etc. also lots of practice and frenetic effort.

                                Click here to go to the information kiosk My You Tube Channel 48hlc48
                                The only person you can't fool, is yourself! (Oz The Great and Powerful)
                                "If you think you can, or think you can't, your right!"
                                "The thing about art is that life is in no danger of being meaningless," Robert Genn

                                #1221081
                                Explorer45
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                                    He has so many videos out there, so I don’t know which one you watched. I did a small format (5×7″) paint-along with one of his Youtube videos today, pausing the video to catch up with his steps. I still think his time frame is several hours. He even stops/edits the video almost every time he goes to reload the brush! All of that goes into painting time, and there were lots of edits where things jumped ahead. I got to the same stage he did with the painting steps he showed in about two hours. I’m sure it would have taken me at least twice that amount of time with a large painting. Then he stopped painting, and all of a sudden it jumped to a final still image that was much more refined, colorful, and detailed. Between the end of the painting steps that he shows, and the final image (where he shows a still pic of the finished painting), it looked like at least another 1-2 hours of work went into it — at least on the one I painted along with.

                                    Having done the paint-along, I take back what I said about using a slow drying paint. I think he’s using standard acrylics for the most part, lots of medium, and lots of white.

                                    I bow to your superior experience, having seen just the one video. Agree with your last sentence.

                                    #1221073
                                    JamieWG
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                                        I bow to your superior experience, having seen just the one video. Agree with your last sentence.

                                        I’ll let you know if I change my mind about my time estimate too! Out of curiosity, I ordered one of his painting videos. I decided that I need to know what he’s putting on the canvas before he starts, though I suspect it’s water. Try a paint-along; you’ll be surprised by how much more you observe about the process, and if you’re right, it’s only an hour of time invested.

                                        Hudson Valley Painter[/url]
                                        Hudson Valley Sketches -- Reviews/Lightfastness Tests/Art Materials
                                        [/url]
                                        One year from now, you'll wish you had started today.

                                        #1221083
                                        pugster
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                                            ive recently watched some of this guys videos as i like his work , if you trawl through the comments he does answer some questions, he uses standard acyclics and a lot of acrylic medium ( he states in a few of his videos that the blending brush he uses is always wet with acrylic medium ).
                                            i presume you could either water down slightly one of the heavier body mediums or use one of the airbrush fluid mediums such as the liquitex range.

                                            #1221078
                                            janinco
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                                                If you are watching YouTube videos on a computer rather than using the app on a phone or tablet, you can go to settings (gear icon) and change the speed. You can slow it down up to 4x which usually puts it close to real time on a speed painting. You won’t be able to hear the music, but you can see the brush strokes much better.

                                                Jan

                                                #1221077
                                                dgcasey
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                                                    Well, I would think that if a person was REALLY interested in his work they could go to his eBay page and buy his full length videos. I’ve bought two of them and they are well worth the money.

                                                    ---
                                                    Dave Casey
                                                    www.TheDailyPainter.com

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