Oil Painting In Cowboy Boots 101

[theBoardLady]

Well I finally got around to finishing (I think) the still life of the pear and apple. I'll set up a different one and start on that one. Here's what I did.

CC's welcomed

[jennaboo88]

Wonderful advice, Jim. Thank you. I would never have thought to add a bit of complementary color to the mix to make the colors more subdued and thus more real. I have been searching for still life items that speak to me. I put a few things together and have some ideas, so I hope to get back to painting soon.

Diane, great painting! It has nice warmth.

[gakinme]

Thank you, Jim, for your comments and input.

I get to add colors now? Yes. I already have another still life in mind. I'll do one this weekend.

[Catherine1]

Everyone is doing a really good job on this!

Here is mine. In using only the three primaries it did not go well in finding colors that I needed. The color charts came in really handy. But I missed orange.. and cad red.. So badly 8x10..
So happy to be able to use other colors now .

The setup had to be moved several times so the set up changed a bit. The lighting was not the same as in the pic though I can see I still screwed up the darker values and transitions. Yeah.. Transitions.. How do you do approach it Jim when you have such a solid contrast from one value and another? No hair to fuzz it out with.


Last one I did


One of the first I attempted.. (There are 3 in between)

[Donald_Smith]

Thanks for the advice Jim.

Diane and Catherine, both of you painted very nice paintings.

Donald
PS: Wishing I could find the time to open a tube of paint....

[steveoreno]

Heading to the art store today.....count me in.
Steve

[jennaboo88]

Beautiful work, Catherine! The progress from the first painting to the third is so great! Both are really nicely done, but the newest one is so crisp with gentler colors. Great work!

[jim56]

Diane, beautiful work. Way to go. Good job on the values.

Originally Posted by Catherine1

So happy to be able to use other colors now .

You guys crack me up with your obedience. Like if you cheated, what could I do about it? It is funny to me because when I have taught the same thing in a college class (where people are paying big bucks–to the college not me) the students would cheat right in front of me and them argue with me about it.

Catherine, for a minute I thought the second image was another photo of your still life set-up (not of the painting). So I guess I have to give you an A.

If by transitions you mean edges, then squinting is the way to determine hard or soft. Sometimes I just experiment just to see what looks right. I am still learning that one myself.

Steve, welcome aboard. Just read through this thread and jump in wherever you want.

[jim56]

I was asked about colors looking too chalky in a painting. That is usually when you are trying to paint the lighter areas of an subject. It stands to reason that you would just add white to the color of the subject. But as you lighten a color with white, it does lighten it but it also cools, it also looses color intensity and it looks chalky. It needs to lighten and it needs to be warmed with color.

So in the case of a red apple, the areas in light needs more yellow added as the value of the color gets lighter. That is where "the only thing that matters about color is how it looks in relation to the color next to it" come into play.

[gakinme]

Diane, what a rich colored piece. Love the contrasts of colors.

Catherine, I thought the "last one" you did was a photo too. It's so good. But I like the first one you did too. The warm color of the duck vase really brings a hearty feel to the painting.

Alright, here's my second experiment.

On Tuesday, I set up my two model heads in the garage and tried very hard to paint it.

The first night, it was so awful I looked at it with distaste and ready to pack away all the oil paint for good.



I consoled myself and did a soft pastel piece instead so I wouldn't be discouraged.

I doodled an oil pastel piece and it was equally bad and I gave up.

Today, I redoubled my efforts and tried an acrylics piece which is laughable and a watercolor piece that was abandoned quickly and it became oil pastels instead. You could see them all here.

Then looking at the awful oil piece, I tried to salvage it.


I don't know how to add colors to the face to reflect the glow and highlights and instead, went back to what I know by wiping bits off with paper towel. It's troubling that after a few days, if I moisten the paper towel and wipe things around, the underlayer gets disturbed if I am heavy handed enough. But at least it's salvageable unlike acrylics.

I think I loaded too much color on the girl's hair and I can't get the streaks of highlight at the end of it. I also errored in moistening my brush and so it blended all the colors. Perhaps I have to wait for it to dry for a few days to add the final highlights of hair. But this is such a difficult piece I'm not going to work on it anymore. Painting landscapes is so much easier.

And of course, having to imagine skin tone from white and gray models is harder than I thought. Plus I need bigger surface. 9x12 inch is just too small for two heads.

[jennaboo88]

Great work, Sandra. I love your heads. Very cool!

[Catherine1]

Sandra.. Your paintings are getting more and more painterly all the time. You really do like to tackle the hard ones!!
Thanks Jen.

Jim,
Adding white has been a frustrating experience. I can't get the color to match if I don't add white, when the color matched it was chalky. With the yellow being added the temperature of the color changed so much that the balance was off over all on the piece. The color charts helped as long as I was working on a unpainted area of canvas. All bets were off when I needed to repair or adjust. I don't favor glazing in my painting, though I admit to using it on the goose to get around some of the chalkiness.

While I was gallery sitting Sat. a customer asked a question about painting and how she could never do it. (Which to me is just plain silly.) The flower pots were sitting on a table by the window, I grabbed a canvas and brush, I painted while narrating to her the questions I ask myself as I go. I would look at her and wait for her answers. Painted her answer if correct, or painted the answer I had and telling her why hers might not be quite right. After about 15 minutes another gal walked by.. She said... "That is just so pretty!" so of course it was done. (Per your instructions Jim. ) Bev will be checking out WC and this thread too.

Questions...
I loved the gooey look of the table and reflected lights on the left hand side pots and they seem to stand out the most. So its not always the drawing or perfection of form as much as it is about what the artist sees and is infatuated with at the time of painting that makes things work best?

If this is true, how do you make what was the primary draw to you dominate while still keeping the secondary elements or colors at bay in a large piece.. How do you approach what surrounds the element that draws you in? (the pot on the right was not the draw in for me and I got lost a bit when I tried to paint it in)

Those other stills were grunt paintings (No fun.. lots of sweat and nitting). I tried to apply some of what I learned in this painting. I think now I have formed better questions. Better questions= better answers, which = better paintings? So is this a better painting over the others? I think some elements (left half) might be because of the loose transitions perhaps?

Well at any rate.. Sorry for all the questions..

[Donald_Smith]

Catherine,

I look forward to reading Jim's reply, but I can give you my thoughts on the subject. In your painting, you basically have an annologous color scheme going on from Red, through orange then a lot of yellow, then a touch of green. Then you have this nice BIG purple pot. The purple pot stands out because it is contrasted against all that yellow, and the other colors are down played because of the yellow / purple color contrast.

So you have two things that draws the eye to the purple pot, big size and the contrast. Those are two great techniques for drawing a person's eye to a subject. So, if the purple pot ISN'T the subject, then you need to paint it orange, and small and make the pot you WANT to be the subject, big and purple.

I hope that answers your question.

Donald
PS: There are other ways, like bright colors in the subject, and grayed colors everywhere else, or thick paint in the subject, and thin everywhere else, just to name a couple more.

[jim56]

Sandra, you get the persistence award. Sorry you had so much frustration. But even though it was a struggle I try to remind myself that painting is learning even if I don't come up with something great each time. Your still life is really quite interesting. I would have tried just painting it just as it was. Trying to imagine flesh and skin tones I know would be too much for me.

Originally Posted by Catherine1

I can't get the color to match if I don't add white, when the color matched it was chalky. With the yellow being added the temperature of the color changed so much that the balance was off over all on the piece.

Looks like you have to keep mixing. It is a matter of color sensitivity. Maybe yellow is not the answer. You are recognizing the color is too cool with just white or by adding yellow it changed too much. If you know it is "too" anything keep trying until it is "just right." Sometimes I have mixed and put paint on the canvas many times until it is right. You will have to wipe it off if it is too thick to paint over but keep at it. Fight this battle here and now and next time it will be easier. You might find the answer is a color you never would have imagined would work. But when you put it on the painting it does. In reality it is probably a color in between ones you have already tried.

I think you are seeing more that you have had the ability to paint. That is better than not seeing it. By seeing it, it spurs you on to find the color and acquire the ability to paint it. Many painters don't see it and they never grow because of it.

Originally Posted by Catherine1

So its not always the drawing or perfection of form as much as it is about what the artist sees and is infatuated with at the time of painting that makes things work best?

If this is true, how do you make what was the primary draw to you dominate while still keeping the secondary elements or colors at bay in a large piece.. How do you approach what surrounds the element that draws you in? (the pot on the right was not the draw in for me and I got lost a bit when I tried to paint it in)

First question yes and no. Yes you may be drawn in by reflected light but you can't make it the main event if it really isn't in real life. You might crop it differently to eliminate other elements. With experience you can bend reality to give more emphasis to one area but it still has to read as reality or it will look like a poorly done painting.

The good artist does edit the reality he sees but I think it is leaving out the details that are not necessary to the essence of the subject. Yet he can play up other details like reflected light. But they must take their proper place in the context of the whole.

I barely understood your question now I am barely understanding my answers—so I hope some of it helps.

[Catherine1]

Jim,
I was hesitant to ask these questions because of how subjective they are. I'm glad that some of the substance of what I was trying to ask came across to you. Bet you get asked these type of questions all the time in classes. Probably much easier to respond when you have the student in front of you than trying to type it all out.
Thanks for the explanations and help..

Originally Posted by Jim

I think you are seeing more that you have had the ability to paint.

After pondering this, and since you have mentioned this before.. Perhaps I would be better off painting "simple" things, like a spoon, pencil, or dish for example, from life?

Originally Posted by Jim

artist does edit the reality he sees but I think it is leaving out the details that are not necessary

Then what disappears during the squinting process is a good road map (for now) as to what to leave out?

Your answer on the mixing helped me see that; My use of glazing, instead of mixing, was making excuse and allowing me to slide by without taking the painting process to correct end. From now on I will mix till I get it right, painters honor..

Thanks again Jim.