Which paint brush is your favorite and why? And which group of brushes would you grab if you suddenly needed to evacuate? Like me, you may also have your favorite palette knife or two. Isn’t it interesting how you have tools in your paint box that are like your best friends? Sometimes you may go to great l
Which paint brush is your favorite and why? And which group of brushes would you grab if you suddenly needed to evacuate? Like me, you may also have your favorite palette knife or two. [Read more…]
Re-Birthing an Old Painting: Painting Over an Existing Painting on Canvas
What do artists do with their old paintings?
How easy or difficult is it to paint over an existing painting? How often do artists rejuvenate a painting?
“Purple Ruffles,” oil, (c)2010, Carol A. McIntyre
While in the process of purging and re-organizing my studio, I came across a couple of paintings that had, in my opinion, ‘lived their life span.’ “Purple Ruffles,” was one of them. However, I was not willing to toss it into the trash.
What to do? Cry? Have a ceremony on its behalf? Resist? Give it away? Play frisbie with it?
I decided to sit back and give it a critique. In this iris painting, I had tried something different, in that I painted the border into the painting and then painted parts of the flower in front of the border. The success of this idea was okay, but what I really liked about the painting was the green and yellow background and the rhythm of the iris petals.
With this acknowledgment, [Read more…]
Complementary Colors Are Dancing Partners | Color Theory Tip
Do we artists dance with colors? I think we do, at least I know I dance with complementary colors. And as with any dancing partners, some partners dance together better than others.
The color dancing partners I am referring to are the color complements (also called color opposites) that are essential in understanding color mixing & experiencing success. As you probably know, the 3 color complements ‘dancing partners’ are:
It is important and very helpful to memorize these partners to maximize your color skills. You can memorize them outright or another way to remember them is by starting with one primary, such as red, and then ‘mixing’ the other two primaries in your head. In this case, the remaining primary colors of yellow + blue = green. Hence, green is the color opposite of red.
Note: Primaries are defined as the colors we cannot mix.
Staying with the musical theme, I encourage my color students to paint chromatic scales using two color opposites pairs. An example is below. I have chosen a pair of complementary colors and then mixed various proportions of the two to create wonderful and luscious hues. You can see all of the lovely colors that can be mixed with these ‘dancing partners.’
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