OIL PAINTING WITH GAINOR ROBERTS

Transcription

1 OIL PAINTING WITH GAINOR ROBERTS Composition Construction Tone Reconstruction Painting Ending THE SIX STAGES OF PAINTING MATERIALS GUIDE This list is intended as a starting point in acquiring artist materials for oil painting. If it seems bewildering to you, you are not alone! If you all ready have paints and brushes bring them along to the first class. Some paints are not recommended for fine arts purposes and certain brushes and other equipment are not satisfactory for this style of painting. However, we can go over what you have and make adjustments as necessary. I have gone into quite a lot of detail to familiarize you with the huge assortment of materials available on the market today. I believe that fine art deserves fine equipment and cheap, messy, or second-rate materials will produce inferior paintings. However, there are many student grade materials on the market, as well as lower priced professional equipment. Plan to spend at least $150-$200 on setting yourself up if you have nothing (excluding easels and other equipment like tables and chairs.) Oil paints last indefinitely in the tube, and most of the equipment I have suggested here is not too expensive. There are many discount catalogs listed in the back as well as some area art supply stores. The Internet is an excellent source of supplies. You may purchase/borrow supplies from me for an additional $50 if you are unsure about buying supplies, and I usually have extra brushes for you to buy or borrow. Palette Wood is preferable. Any shape, any size. Seal with polyurethane, (preferable) Tung Oil or clear shellac, or rub numerous coats of good quality linseed oil into the palette before using it. You can darken it with stain, or let it darken naturally over time. Some people paint on masonite palettes, which is OK but I find them very dark. They also absorb a lot of oil. It would be better to paint a piece of masonite with glossy paint. This way you can give it any tone you like. Grey would be preferable. Second choice is glass or clear acrylic that can be placed over a gray paper or placed on a table. Don t use white paper peel off palettes, or other white palettes. It is extremely difficult to deal with that bright white and to judge your values as the painting progresses. (Grey paper palettes can be found in art stores). I don t like the feel of paint sliding on glass or plastic, and prefer the feel of wood under my brush. It allows me to have more control when loading my brush. Colors I am using for my own work, SoHo brand paint (from Jerry s Artarama) and a variety of higher grade paints like Windsor Newton Artist Oil Colors, Grumbacher, Rembrandt, and Gam- 1

2 blin, and occasionally the very expensive Old Holland brand. Most paint manufacturers have a line of student grade oil paint, Winton by Windsor Newton, Academy for Grumbacher and so on. There are many manufacturers, almost all have their good points, and in the end paint is a matter preference and feel. Student grade paint is much cheaper than professional lines of paint and will work fine for starters. The difference between the good stuff and the student stuff is how the color is derived; student grade paints are usually mixes from synthetic organic pigments which are from petroleum and coal rather than from pigments dug from the earth like cadmium based pigments. Most of the colors I recommend are fairly standardized among the big name manufacturers, but specialty colors are frustratingly different among the paint companies. If you choose to use student grade tube colors you will find a confusing assortment of names on the tubes. Most student grade colors have the word Hue as part of it s paint name. So Cadmium Red is finer and more expensive than Cadmium Red Hue, the latter has no cadmium in it at all, but is a mix of synthetic organic pigments. If you are a newcomer to art and artist supplies it would be a good idea to ask for help in a Art Supply Store, especially if you want to use less expensive types of oil paint. It is also a good idea to shop around. Two different manufacturers in two different catalogs on my desk at this moment sell Cadmium Red; one goes for $37.50 per tube, for top of the line - best quality paint, while Cadmium Red from the other, which is acceptable quality, is only $7.49 and the cheaper Cadmium Red Hue from the same manufacturer is only $3.19! Please do not buy colors that are named as flesh or sky blue there is a bewildering assortment of colors available and experimentation is costly and risky. The following color selections are time-honored suggestions. I am not opposed to using many other colors and regularly do so myself. I use burnt sienna and raw umber often but I do not suggest that beginners should use these colors because they require experience to keep them from becoming muddy, and the purist impressionist painters seldom used dark earth colors. Buy 37ml size tubes, unless you intend to do a lot of painting. You will use lots of white and so you can buy a large tube of Titanium white if you like. I usually come to class with a tube or two of my favorite colors that I have not listed here, and will give you some to try if I think you need a squirt of magenta or sap green to make your painting better. The impressionist palette is based on the 3 primary colors. Most of the impressionist painters had a warm and cool primary on their palettes, and this is a good place to begin. Cadmium yellow light (Lemon Yellow) or Cadmium Yellow Pale Hue Cadmium yellow medium (or Hansa Yellow) or Cadmium Yellow Hue Yellow Ochre Cadmium Red Light or Cadmium Red Hue Alizarin Crimson Cobalt Blue or Cobalt Blue Hue French Ultramarine Blue Titanium White Optional: Viridian Green (get a green if you can afford it) Cerulean Blue or Cerulean Blue Hue Winsor Red, Grumbacher Red or Napthol Red Raw Sienna 2

3 Naples Yellow (lead based and therefore more toxic than other colors) Cadmium Orange or Cadmium Orange Hue Left to right: Round, Bright, Flat, Filbert these are bristle brushes. I prefer Filberts Left to right: #2 and #10 synthetic round Brushes You can not have enough brushes! Buy inexpensive or moderately priced brushes because you will be doing a lot of scumbling (scrubbing) in this method and it wears down brushes quickly, although this is not always a bad thing. I prefer filberts as I like the look of the stroke, but you may prefer to use rounds, flats or brights. Buy bristle brushes for painting and small rounds in synthetic (cheaper) or sable (expensive) for detail work. If you think it s a minefield with the colors, wait until you deal with brushes. There are hundreds of different brushes, each with a different number, manufacturers, types, and techniques. I want you to keep it simple at first, so buy these brushes: 1. A #2, #4, #6 bristle filbert for oil painting. Oil painting brushes have long handles. 2. A #2 and #4 round, synthetic or sable for detail work make sure it has a long handle. Turpenoid or Mona Lisa Available in pint, quart or gallon containers. It must be used in class because it is odorless. Please make sure you buy the odorless kind there are several brands of Turpenoid look for Weber brand in the blue and white can. It is expensive, but I ask you to buy it because many people, including me, are sensitive to the smell of regular turps. It s available in pints, quarts and gallons and may be recycled by allowing sediment to settle and reusing the clear liquid remaining so I always have one glass jar for gunk and another working jar for my recycled solvent. You may buy Mona Lisa brand solvent also, which is odorless. It is important to have odorless solvent because so many people, including me, are allergic to turpentine. Charcoal Buy a small quantity of soft vine charcoal. You will need only a few pieces of charcoal. Palette Knife Buy the kind that is bent in the middle. For scraping your palette, and sometimes your painting. There are many types on the market, I like the blunt end, bent in the middle type. These are not designed for applying paint to the canvas. Ask for a palette knife not a painting knife and don t buy plastic. Canvas Select stretched canvas, 11 x 14, 12 x 16 or, 16 x 20. More advanced students may want to work on 18x24 canvas for a Painting Intensive Week. Cotton canvas is cheaper than linen and fine for 3

4 BRAWNY SCOTT student work. Don t work on canvas panels or other cheaper alternatives. I usually have extra canvases for sale to students. They are priced higher than the average art store! Brush Wipes (Blue Paper Rags) Scott Paper Company makes a blue paper rag on a roll that is excellent for brush wiping, which is a must in this type of painting. You can find it in the automotive sections of Sam s Club, Wal-Mart, and other types of department, hardware or paint stores. Brawny has shop towels on the market now, and they are available in supermarkets. Cloth wipes are OK but I find that these blue rags are better even than cloth. They do not cost too much, last a long time and are much superior to paper towels which will create more of a mess than they wipe up. OPTIONAL SUPPLIES Small jar of Artist grade linseed oil. Use this to season your wood palette. Occasionally It s mixed with paint, but only if the paint is very stiff and thick. I do not use linseed oil (or other additives on the market). There are technical reasons for this which I can explain in class if asked to by my students. Soap type Brush Cleaner from the art store or bar soap like Ivory, or liquid dish detergent. Depends on what you have and how much you want to spend. I do use the Art Brush Cleaner because it conditions the brushes and they last a little longer. Paint Box or tote for your gear Art stores sell wooden paint boxes with a place to store your palette, and in some cases they come with a palette. They feature compartments for paints, brushes and tools. They are not cheap! (Stay away from boxes that come with the paint and brushes, you will buy colors and brushes you might never use.) Fishing tackle boxes are plentiful in places like Wal-Mart and the Plano brand box is excellent for paint boxes. You may want to improvise a tote of some sort for your gear, but bear in mind you will have to transport your palette, which you might not want to completely scrape down after class if you plan to work on your painting at home. A palette full of wet paint can become a hazard in your car! I am using a plastic tool tote which works perfectly well, and is quite inexpensive. Boxes, canvas bags, or special plastic totes for fishing gear are great and easy to find in most hardware and department stores. You often can improvise a plastic box that will take a wet palette. For you handy folks devise a box with a device that holds your palette against the floor of the box, or against other supplies. Glue a short piece of wood to the top which will be enough to keep the palette from flopping around when the box is carried. I made the palette box shown on the left. Easel A sturdy metal folding easel can be a great investment for painting. They typically cost between $40 and $60 and can be used at home or on location. A French Easel folds into a small parcel and is a wonderful addition to painting gear. Usually it features a drawer for paint and a wet canvas may be carried on it conveniently. Usually these are fairly expen- 4

5 sive $200 or more. but you can find them for a lot less these days. The French Easel pictured here was purchased in Italy 40 years ago and has seen a lot of miles. Fighting a wobbly easel is exhausting. Many people like to use a table top easel and I am fond of one called the Van Gogh Easel which is currently priced at $25 in many online stores. Jars I advocate having two jars with lids. They don t have to be very large I like the Paul Newman Salsa jars, it has a wide mouth but is small. I use one of them while I m painting for rinsing my brushes. When I am finished I pour off the paint laden solvent into the second jar, and let the gunk settle overnight. I then decant the solvent back into the main jar and use that until I am finished for the day. This way I save money on solvents and when the gunk jar is really gooey I cap it and throw it away, instead of pouring my turps down the sink, which is a big no-no! Bring one with you to class, leave the second one at home and when you get home, clean up your brushes and attend to your solvent jars. Gloves Protect that manicure from paint and solvents with latex gloves if you want. Drop Cloth Since many of my classes are held in private homes it may be necessary for you to provide something to put under your work station. This does not need to be very large, but needs to be large enough to take a palette dump, or turpentine splash. I like the new Neat Sheet which I found in the picnic section of my supermarket and also at Babies R Us! It is fairly large but could be cut or folded, or used under two students. It can be put in the washing machine. Hardware stores and Paint stores will have many choices of drop cloths from canvas to plastic, but be aware that plastic drop cloths are very slippery and can be dangerous in a class setting. Home Depot sells a kind of paper drop cloth that has a plastic moisture barrier on one side. It is great for the accidental turpentine spill. A shower curtain works well but is also slippery. Table and Chairs The goal is to be comfortable. Bending over, reaching, and other contortions will cause you and your painting to be pained, and will lead to great fatigue. Small folding snack tables work well for holding a palette and turpentine jar. If you are going to stand at your easel, you will have to improvise a way to hold your palette, an arm palette is good with a thumb hole, or a stool to set your palette on is also a good idea. A snack table with an overturned box will bring your palette within easy reach if you are standing. French easels have a drawer that you can pull out to put palette on, but I find they are wobbly and prefer a small table at my side. Bending at the waist every time you want to load your brush will exhaust you. A lightweight plastic deck chair is good to bring, if you can fit it in your car. Other types of folding chairs should be tested for comfort, before the class. If you just bought a new easel, and want to sit at your work, check out the table and chair to see if they are the correct height and allow you to paint with your hands free, and your body relaxed. I bring my supplies in a plastic bin mounted on a luggage carrier. When I unload all my equipment I overturn the bin and use it as a table. Lamps We may need to provide extra lighting for a night class, or even one during the day if the room is dark or the sky overcast. In this case, a clip on light, available from hardware stores will do nicely. 5

6 A FEW NOTES ABOUT MY CLASSES AND THE WAY I APPROACH MY ART AND TEACHING From Webster s New Encyclopedic Dictionary ART noun 1: skill in performance acquired by experience, study, or observation synonyms: SKILL, CRAFT: ART may be distinct from the other two in implying personal, unanalyzable creative or imaginative power and resource; SKILL stresses technical knowledge and proficiency gained through practice and experience; CRAFT implies expertness in workmanship. 1. I believe students should not work from photographs until they know how to paint from life. Photography has a place in art, for sure, and I work from photographs regularly, but until you know many subtle points of painting, it is better to work from life. 2. We will start with a still life, probably some fruit and drapery. Cézanne said that if you can paint apples you can paint anything. They are not easy! 3. Paint, brushes, materials are very much a personal choice. My Materials Guideline is a place to start. It is always best to keep things as simple as possible. 4. I learned the most from watching my teacher demonstrate painting, and fixing student s canvases. This raises a potentially thorny issue. Some students do not want to have the teacher touch their work because they want to use the time in class to create paintings that they can sell or exhibit. I do not believe that work done in a classroom should ever be sold or exhibited, as it is not indicative of original work (usually) and there is always the possibility of teacher intervention on the canvas. I will, however, respect a student s wishes in this delicate matter, and not work on student s canvases if requested. 5. We will be working in Impressionism. There are several definite stages in the painting process which is like making a foundation for a house we can t start to add trim moldings until the basement is dug and the studs are in place. A good foundation is essential, and the method of working this type of canvas helps students to see color, values, and design. I make a distinction between painting and drawing. They are related, but drawing is allied with the trim moldings and applied after all the foundation work is in place. Instead we try to see planes, shapes, negative space, light directions, and color, rather than making details out of the objects we are painting. The definite stages of painting helps the student and professional painter alike work through difficult and challenging paintings and gives a road map for knowing where you are and where you are going. 6. I believe that drawing is a skill that can be honed by working at it, studying the figure, and constantly striving to improve that skill. I encourage you to continue to draw whenever you can, as often as you can, but I am not teaching drawing which I treat as a separate study entirely. There are several excellent books on the subject, and drawing groups may be found locally in nearly every community, and I usually have a supply of my book Understanding Drawing for sale at my classes. 7. I am not teaching you how to be creative. This is left entirely up to you. Creativity is the part of art that is about the artist how one sees, how one relates to the world, how one wants to find a voice. Imagination and creativity come from inside. My role is to give you the method which was given to me, which allowed me to find a voice, express my passions, and stimulate my thinking and feeling so I could let my imagination and creativity fly. Eventually, the techniques I teach will become second nature, like handwriting, allowing the artist to use his tools and methods to say whatever he wants unencumbered by rules and guidelines. 6

7 TAMPA AREA STORES SOURCES AND SUPPLIERS AOE N. 56th Street (Temple Terrace), Tampa, FL Fabulous prices on practically everything they carry. MICHAELS (various locations) Michaels carries some good brands of paint, canvas, brushes, Turpenoid, palettes and charcoal. Be sure you are buying name brands of paint. You are better off buying individual tubes of oil paint, not sets. ************************** CATALOGS AND INTERNET AOE also has online ordering and shipping. Utrecht has a catalog and a website many fine products here and Utrecht brushes are cheap and fine. Daniel Smith catalog : website Although located in Seattle, Washington, Daniel Smith s catalogs are very good reading, and they ship fast. For those who don t want to go shopping you can get everything here. Cheap Joe s catalog website Good source of stuff catalog is amusing. Prices excellent. Shipping fast. Many items are backordered. Best to check with them by phone to make sure what you want is in stock. Dick Blick - catalog website Reputable source of supplies, catalog is great reference for supplies, and some items are very nicely priced, although not all. Not too fast on shipping. Pearl Paint - catalog Pearl website One of the best. Their New York store, on Canal Street is an adventure not to be missed! Big catalog, prices good, shipping OK. Stores are in many cities in the US. Rex Art a Miami based art company with website at Their prices are excellent, and shipping is free for orders over $100. Jerry s Artarama is another fine discount art supplier. They are located in many cities as retail outlets as well as having a large web presence. Get their catalog for more detailed study of supplies. 7