As you continue to learn to paint, you are going to find that a knowledge of “values” is important. The two extremes of values are black (very dark) and white (very light). The tone, or value, of a color is more important than the hue. For example, a light red might be balanced by a dark, deep red, or a paler shade. They are all red, but the values are different.

A painting requires these differences to avoid being mid-toned. That is boring. Value or tonal contrast creates interest and excitement in a painting. A good painting will have lights and darks and mid-tones as well. In order to see how this works, try this:

Place your color (try black) on your paper. then gradually add white to it, making streaks of color change under the black. Eventually reach a very light tone, or white. This will give you an idea of what values are. Now try it with other colors. This simple exercise will help you to be a better artist.

A value checker is a useful item. Usually red in color, it is a transparent sheet or tile that can be used to see the darks and lights in your painting. You may consider the painting finished and need to check that everything is okay. Or, you may be struggling with “what is wrong here?” and it may be that the values need repair. In any case, learning about values is an important lesson.

Click Here to check out the Value Checker offered at annewhiteman.com!

You now have your painting tools assembled. Make sure that you know where everything is. Place your canvas on your easel; put your paints onto your palette (either paper or hard surface) Lay out the colors you intend to use. Make sure your brushes are clean. Have your painting medium (turpentine, oil or whatever) in a tin, glass or other container made for that purpose. I clean tuna cans after use and use that to hold my brush cleaner. There are items made to hold your cleaner if you prefer, some with a ring in the bottom to help clean the brush. Have either paper towels or toilet paper handy, or, if you prefer, cleaning rags. Remember to dispose of these paint-cleaning papers or rags carefully as they can combust and cause a fire..

Once you are set up, draw a one inch border around your canvas. This is to remind you not to paint all the way to the edge with parts of your painting that you don’t want to “disappear” when you go to frame it. You are ready to go! But wait! What are you going to paint??

You can paint from a photograph you have. Or, from a picture in a magazine or calendar. The problem with the latter is the magazine art may be copyrighted. If it is, you must identify the source of your painting as coming from a copyrighted source, and you must change a percentage of the picture so it will not be a copy. You may be wanting to copyright your own works one day. There are a number of sites on the Internet that explain what the copyright laws are. I won’t go into that here.

Or, you could purchase my Inspiration CD with over 500 photographs you are able to use for painting your artwork. While these photographs cannot be used commercially without permission, the CD comes with permission to use for painting.

You are ready to begin. First, draw your Horizon Line (or eye level) on the canvas. This will determine perspective for your artwork. Unless you are painting in the abstract, this level determines where everything will sit and be sized on the canvas. You may now start drawing. I used the paint thinned way down to draw. I find this makes my work looser and less rigid. You may prefer to use a pencil and draw your subject. Later lessons will give more information on perspective and how to draw certain objects.

If this is your first painting, just go for it. Don’t worry about the details, draw it as you want to see it.

You may or may not want to put an “underpainting” on the canvas. This means you would choose a basic cool or warm color that would cover the entire canvas. Choosing the opposite color on the color wheel will give depth to your painting. In short, this means that if your painting will be basically green, (as in a landscape) a red underpainting or an orange one would be what you use. The same for a seascape, you would use an orange underpainting. If you are going to do a painting with a lot of yellow, you may use a violet or purple underpainting.

Simply paint a “wash” of your color over the entire canvas, either thinly or heavy, depending on how much importance it will play in your finished work. You can let this dry, and then draw on the canvas, or you can do a thin wash over your drawing so that you can see it. I do not use underpainting often.

When you paint in oil, keep in mind that a canvas has many little indentations. Make sure your paint is thick enough to fill the indentations, or you may wind up with a lot of little “vacations” (areas without paint that look like little white spots).

Okay, you have your canvas ready, and your drawing done. On to the next lesson.

We have a number of new galleries in the area as well. Heartfelt, Crystal Art, The Red Bluff Art Gallery and The Big Picture are the newest. It is pleasant  to display works in these venues and to see to works of my fellow artists as well.

I continue to paint mostly in oil, but my watercolors are getting notice as well, as are my pen and ink drawings. It is always a great pleasure when someone purchases a painting because they enjoy looking at it and want it in their home. It is an even greater pleasure when they consider it a treasure to own. I have paintings in people’s home and businesses going back many years, and I often think of those art collectors enjoying my work in their personal space. Artists, for the  most part, paint because their soul tells them to, but there is joy in sharing with others as well.

As the site builds and I am able to present more artwork, perhaps even some of my fellow artist’s work, I hope you will come back often to see what is here. Just as we all flock to the art shows in our town to see what has been accomplished, it can be a pleasure to see new creations that have just been brought into the world!

God Bless, anne

Oil paints are a classic media. They have stood the test of time and have been used for hundreds of years, are durable and maintain color. They are slow drying and allow the artist to make changes and to rework the painting during the drying time. The colors can be opaque or transparent. Used with a variety of added mediums, they can be used in a number of ways, most of which will be discussed in the lesson sessions.

You will need brushes. What kind of brush depends upon you, the artist. They come in natural and synthetic. Many new students start with bristle brushes, but experimenting with different kinds will help you find your favorites. Once you know what your preferences are, you should buy the best you can afford. In starting up, you might want to start with a less expensive set of brushes that are of varying sizes.

Traditional oil painting brushes have long handles, so that the artist can work at some distance from the canvas. The hair is generally firmer and stiffer than for a watercolor brush. Some prefer the shorter length as well. I use both.

No matter what your choice, you must remember to clean the brushes carefully after every use. This is of major importance. Many artists use odorless turpentine for this, and some even use turpentine as a medium.

I personally do not like the effects of turpentine as a medium; my preference is linseed oil or a mixture of oil and turpentine, or a special medium like Copal Oil Medium. The latter gives your oil painting a lovely sheen and dries faster. You also need a jar with a tight-fitting lid for your cleaning fluid. Putting a stainless steel scrubber in the bottom will allow the paint that is removed to gather in the bottom of the jar and keep the cleaner usable longer.

Cleaning your brushes is a very important step in ensuring a longer life for your brush. In the case of oil paints, the brush should be cleaned off thoroughly starting with solvent and rags or tissue. Once the brush is fairly clean from the solvent, rub the bristles in a glass or plastic jar with either a brush conditioner or a human hair shampoo. Give the brush a good final rinse and squeeze out any water. Dry the brush with its hair end lower than the handle end to prevent water from loosening the handle and the ferrule. Dry brushes can be stored bristle up in a jar, or laid flat.

A palette knife is a useful tool for mixing and/or applying oil paints to paintings. They come in varying sizes. You will need at least one. You may also want to purchase a paper palette on which to mix paint. However, a sheet of glass (Tempered), Plexiglass or a board covered in plastic wrap can also work as a temporary palette.

At this point, we still have not discussed the actual paint you will need. There are regular oil paints; and water-based oils (often used by people who have allergies to solvents.) Water Mixable oils can be mixed with regular oils; but when used on their own they clean up with water.

My choice is to have a set palette of colors and to mix whatever colors I need from these. You need both opaque and transparent paints. (Read the tube to distinquish each so you will be aware of its type.) You can start with small tubes of paint to determine if you like the brand or not. This is not a good area to economize, but brand name student paints are fine. Some “cheaper” paints will just frustrate you and even ruin your painting. I have experienced this myself.

My favorite color palette is:

Titanium White or Soft White; Yellow Ochre; Cadmium Yellow Light (or similar); Cadmium Red Light (or Bright Red); Aliziron Crimson, Burnt Umber; Ultramarine Blue; Cerulean Blue; Burnt Sienna; and Permanent Green Light. Sap Green and Cobalt Blue. Note there is no black.

Some may benefit from having Paynes Gray in their palette, but black can be easily mixed, and black from a tube is flat. Some Cadmium colors are quite expensive, and some are sold as a “hue.” The Hue will work for your purposes, at least while you are learning. As time passes, you may want to choose other colors to have on hand. The ones mentioned here are pretty basic and fairly easy to work with.

Once all of these items are gathered, you are almost ready to put a brush to … what? Canvas? Canvas Board? Masonite? The choices here, are once again, many. The purchase of a stretched canvas or canvas board is usually the first choice. Some come already “primed,” and some you have to prepare yourself. You may want to purchase a can of “gesso,” to prime your canvas and make it ready to hold your paint.

Some people who are just starting out using oil paint will economize by sharing with other artists in student situations where people are painting together. Once you have your own supplies you will find that many will last for a very long time … well kept brushes, tubes of paint, etc. Once you have assembled your supplies, move on to a new lesson!

Plein Aire artists often say you should not paint from photographs because they do not display all the nuances of painting directly from your subject. I won’t argue the point, but I will say they are right about one thing … you do  have to look carefully at whatever you are hoping to paint.

To begin: All artwork that uses realism as a base starts with the Horizon Line. The Horizon Line is eye level from the perspective of your painting. You must first determine where “eye level” is in your painting, because all of your subjects are created by using this. We will learn more about this in a lesson on perspective, probably one of the most important lessons to have.

I recommend that, before starting to create a painting, that you take several walks or drives, looking at the world around you. Find the horizon. Look at the color of the sky at different times of the day and in different weather. Find the color in everything you see. How many colors can you find in a rose? How about a mown lawn? A tree? A baby’s hair? A wooden fence? A Vase? Oranges? How about snow? How many colors can you see in snow … is it warm, or cool in color? Look, and see.

When I travel long distance by car, I look at the world around me to find things to apply to my  painting.  When I look at the sky, I see how light hits the clouds. I see the colors that can be seen in the clouds. If the sun is going down, or coming up, I look to see how the glow affects surrounding areas. All of this becomes useful in landscape painting. When I go into a wooded area, I look at the different kinds of trees. Do the branches point up or down on the pines? What color are they … and not just “green.”

Speaking of trees, one student came to class all excited one day after being sent outside to observe some trees. She said she had made a big discovery. You can see the sky between the branches of the trees! Now, that may sound silly to some, but she had been painting for some time and her trees were always a heavy mass of color. Children paint that way. It had been difficult to explain to this artist that she needed “air” in her trees, so I sent her outside to look around. It was an important improvement for her.

Another thing to look for is “Air Space” around your items. In landscapes, this means that the division between objects needs a little distance painted in. We will discuss that another time. The same holds true when you are painting still life. The Vase, or Flowers, or fruit do not butt up against one another. They touch, but there is a sense of a little distance. If not, you have grapes merging into the wine bottle you are painting.

There is so much to see! Shadows, lights and darks, colors, the effects of sunlight and rain, the shimmer of water … the artist must truly look and see. Did you realize that water usually reflects the sky? “Not so,”said one student. “The river is green. Not blue!” So we took a short drive to the river. Yes, there is was, a green river. But the sky was still reflected in the small waves and still areas of the water. What was even more interesting is that that “green” river had MANY colors in it.

While you are looking at your water, in terms of painting, note the reflections. Look at puddles alongside the road as you travel. Are you aware that reflections go straight down no matter where you move to? (Meaning, of course, with their own unique bends or shapes.)  All too often I have had students who painted  reflections as angled toward the beholder. If this is confusing, take a look at reflections and you will see what I mean.

There is so much to a lesson in “Seeing” that isn’t included here. A big step in improving your artwork or learning to paint is in making an effort to see perspective, colors, light, effects, and more. Take a sketch book and make picture notes. You will benefit from it … without exception!

Happy Painting! Anne

Artists are a strange breed. They appear to come fully equipped with a desire to create … whether it be music, like my son Tom Whiteman, or painting, like I do. God supplies us with the talent and the desire. What we do with it is the important part.

If you attend “art groups” where people meet and paint together, you will find that artists are very helpful toward one another. Rarely do you find judgmental responses to requests for help on your project, whatever medium you may be using. This, too seems to be a part of the art spirit artists are born with. Artists are probably one of the most enjoyable groups of people to work with.

Then, of course, there is the stereotype of the snobbish artist standing by his or her work, looking down on the observer who “doesn’t understand it.” Artists do travel to the beat of their own drummer, so to speak. Not everyone will “get” your painting or piece. Nor do they have to. What your work represents is you and your art spirit.

My work is a part of me. Sometimes I paint with realism, sometimes I paint with a free and easy brush, whatever comes. I may use oil paint (my favorite), watercolor, pen and ink, color pencil, or another medium such as gouache. I am not fond of acrylic because it dries a little too fast for me.
I enjoy the part of oil painting that allows me to “redo” and to rethink my picture. “The Joy of Painting”, to quote Bob Ross, is just that, joy.

I have had friends comment on how fast I paint. The length of time one takes to paint a canvas is not the important part … the finished product is. Some may take weeks or months, or just a day or couple of hours. My early teacher, Sadako Mano, finished a painting in an evening on a regular basis. She is a Foster Books author, and was not shy about sharing her technique.

Please come back to this site and visit with me from time to time. I’ll be including ideas and lessons for you.

http://annewhiteman.com/whitemanartblog/category/art-lessons/ The First Lesson!