Starting to paint

aww, thanks slammin420, it's cool to help ya out.You sound really aware, and together. I will send your astrology reading over tomorrow. It really is indicative of strong artistic energies. i was just in a hurry when i made that first post and couldn't do much more. What's funny is i haven't even posted my art here before, and it wasn't untill i got a bit annoyed, that i hauled off and did it. So it all worked out for the best!
So anyway, working with oils in the way i have been painting, is about working in layers. If you are going for realism, like what i do with the botanicals, then the great thing about using mediums is that you can tweak colors around, and make thing look richer and fuller by adding thinned colors and adding hints of turpentine,to scatter the filmy paint layer about, and then blend stuff with soft brushes. You will have to experiment. Keep lots of clean rags around to wipe off paint with and get most of the turpentine off too. let things dry for a day of two befor you go for more layers. Get some soft fluffy brushes for blending, but you can use the stiffer, boar hair ones for regualr brush work, although i like small fine soft sables too. I use "filberts", they have tapered edges. Keep a few big jars of turpentine so you can always have a clean supply, when it gets too filled with pigment, all your colors will get mudddy, so you have to change it frequently. But it settles and you can pour the old off and let the gunk sit at the bottom.Also get one of those sculpting tools at "michaels" that has the little curved sharp end so when you hate something you can just scrape it off and start over. even after it has dried.

I just pm'ed back a very kind sister on how to get a pencil line drawing up on the raw canvas, so if you want i will send that over to you too. also, check my original post for mediums to try... as for oils, get the cheapest you can find..michael carries most brands. no need to go for huge dollars, they can get expensive. danielsmith.com has great Quinacqudrone (sp?) pigments in really vivid reds and pinks.

Um, lets see what else? The most important thing i think about painting is having an intense love for something that you want to portray, in my case, i love plants, they totally intrigue me with their form and color. Just learn how to stare at something so much that you are tripping on it, and let your heart be filled with amazed wonder at it, and then you will be motivated to carry on. And remember also that other people will actually pay you money, (or want to trade) to own something that they in turn love, because your heart connection is that real to it, and the energy just carries on, out into the world. And of course, as i know you know, there are countless ways to paint, wild and crazy,( check out Paul Mcartneys work! yeah, the beatle!) very spontaneous and free.

Just remember that you can add twenty layers of paint, start thin and go to thicker, or stay with thin all the way. I have gotten into using metallic acrylic paints over the initial oils after they dry, that can be cool for effects. Have fun, let something stand for a while and go back to it..it takes alot of time to make good art, it doesn't ususally happen overnight! nothing is set in stone, oils are very forgiving...(just like me! lol) pm me for anything else, and thanks for letting me help you, like i was helped, a loooong time ago! ~otter

ps. canvas is gonna be your biggest expense, so check out misterart.com, they have good deals. Flat board canvas is ok to experiment on too. just remember that you can keep working on something till you like it, scrape off the really rough paint, heck you can even paint over something with white flat house paint and start all over again. Just think of it as something that may cost $25 in materials, if it's a small canvas, and much less if even smaller. I spend about 60 to 70 bucks to get a painting done, with canvas, new brushes and a few new tubes of paint i may need at the time.... but i sell it for $1500-3600 so it's a good deal. Oh! don't use "gesso" as a canvas surface prep, it makes the canvas like a chalk board and the paint goes on really dry and icky, you lose that butttery feel, you want to paint on regular primed canvas, just like it comes,ready for paint, no need to prep it with anything else.

 

wow i'm taking your advice too... i'd love to try oils, and you have totally inspired me to, otter. *claps with excitement* i'd love to hear more advice.. if you have any more!

oh i have a question, how do you sell your work? -do you do a lot of commisioned stuff? -do you often work on more than one piece at a time, or several?

 

I love your work Keanua Otter. All I have is writing..

wish I could express myself through paintings and drawings and stuff. Though i can do unique things with random objects, maybe I can take pictures if you don't understand - though I need to become better at picture taking too.

Long winded but my point is, keep up the good work!

 

hey, thanks guys. I had no idea this thread would go this way! It's been crazy! anyway, i hope the painting tips really help you all. I do know one thing though, i am spending too much time on hip forums and not enough time painting! lol. It's so addictive!

Tigerlilly, yes, i do alot of commissions. When i first started showing in galleries, i also had alot of word of mouth sales through friends. When i owned a bookstore, i sold alot from there. I shall start an new thread soon and discuss all this on it, cause you guys have reinspired me alot and i really, really appreciate your interest. I have been going through alot of career and lifestyle changes recently, getting into other types of spiritual healing work to earn a living, as well. I need to be with people, sometimes being a full time artist is very isolating. Not to mention the fact that it is precariously feast or famine, depending on what canvases one has for sale, when and where. *sigh* And as i may have mentioned, i am moving into different themes that interest me, that may not be as popular, i don't know at this point.

Carlfloydfan, thanks for your comments too. The irony is i really admire your writing and wish i could express myself as well as you can! Your rants rock! I think just being on this forum has helped me alot, cause i am a combo of being an introvert and and extrovert. Picses/Aries cusp. ( 3-22-56 Day of Direct Current, On the Way Of Inspiration, no less!) I have my issues, just like everybody else, one of these days i will be brave and let ya in on some. In the meantime, feel free to pm me, i will always try to help. Maybe this thread will just get really going and slammin420 will have inspired a whole lot of other artists too, just getting these tips out there. hope so.

 

Everyone is an artist and would include you, Carlfloydfan!

 

cool. yeah, go ahead and send the message about getting pencil line on raw canvas my way.

thanks everyone whose been replying to this thread and giving advice, best i've gotten on the subject so far.

 

ok everyone, here is my reply to xxxxx...(she had some some kind words in her pm!)

hi xxxxx, thank you, as you can probably tell from this thread, i really appreciate your reply! To answer your question, absolutely yes, i used a projector to get the image pencil outlines on the canvas. I have changed tactics now to something that works much better, that i will share with you since you are so sweet to pm me. I first started with a very small photo shots and put it under a projector you can buy at michaels called a "tracer" for about 60 bucks. The images must be really small, about 1x2-3 inches or so. Then you just trace along the projected image with a pencil and get a very crude line drawing. they have to be taped down to a flat surface cause the hot bulb makes them curl etc, and you have to positon like crazy and it's a pain. But this helps tremendously of course just to get something that resembles the initial image, but i have found that the proportions in relation to each other have a tendency to shift around. Not such a big deal with plants, but it can be annoying....

so here's what i dreamed up all by myself, never heard of anybody doing this but it is really easier to get an accurate transfer image on the canvas. start with a photoshop image with a low resolution of about 100 pixels. Burn it to a disk and take it to kinko's and have them make you a copy in black and white on big paper. they go 36 inches wide by whatever, so you can do 36x 48 or 30x30 or whatever size. It costs about $5 per image. Then go over to staples or office max and get some good old fashioned carbon paper...$11 or something like that. take your canvas and spread the carbon paper over in in rows and tape with scotch tape, so it just makes one solid piece to cover the canvas, then lay your black and white over that, tape it in place in a couple spots at the top, so you can still lift it up to make sure your tracing is coming through, and trace the outlines, with a pen. Push hard to make sure it comes through. Don't try to get too much detail, cause you'll prolly paint totally over it anyway, you just want a basic outline so your proportions are correct. I have started using this method and it really keeps things correct. And of course you can use the same carbon paper over again. I hope this helps you. I don't know if slammin420 has answered yet, boy i hope he gets some use out of this thread! Thanks again sweetie, and keep in touch.love otter

 

hi guys...here's some more ideas about the "art of oils"and a question from kinky ramona. This is from her pm to me...She's cool with me sharin' it...

From KR: I also wanted to tell you how amazing your paintings are. You taught yourself how to do that? In jr. high and high school, we had the same art teacher and she was horrible (the type who only favored certain students, so they were the ones who got actual "lessons" and good grades). I didn't even last a semester in that class. I love to draw and paint both, but my moments of "talent" come out in bursts. My pictures don't have much depth to them, shading was never something I was taught, just something I was expected to see and imitate. I'm still working on it. And as far as painting goes, my canvas is actually just posterboard and my paints are acryllics and watercolors. I want to spring for a real canvas one day, but I'm afraid once I get it, I'll be afraid to mess it up. I suppose I'll have to get over that whole psychology, but it's always been this incredibly difficult thing of mine. When I was a child, my dad would bring home printer paper for me to draw on and I'd sit and just stare at it for hours, afraid to waste it. I've always been weird like that. Anyway, I've talked your ear off...or eyes out...or whatever. So, I'm going to close now. Your work is awesome.


My answer: Kinky Ramona sister, hi, thanks for sharing that, it's really been awesome for me to get this connection back, cause i haven't been showing my work anywhere for over a year (!!) and have been trying to get some other stuff working in my life etc. and this forum has kinda busted that showing-my-work thing open for me again. I am glad to help you.

In reference to your canvas issues, i totally relate! That is why i think my work evolved to such a high level of technique, i can't stand waisting money on crappy art on an expensive canvas! So that is what is really great about oils. YOu can start out with a substandard first layer, that you think looks like crap, and then let it dry and start adding another layer of color, sometimes thin enough so you can still kinda see what is underneath... or, completely cover it, it's up to you, and it's all ok. just keep in mind that there is *no way*you can make a piece look amazing without some layering. Does that make sense?
It is OK to just keep workin' it till you like it! that is a big mental hurdle to overcome, i know, cause we think it is just gonna happen, and that if we are struggling it means we are crappy artists, which just isn't true. There are just not enough layers yet!What you are saying about art teachers is just another bizarre thing i have known for years about them.
In fact, when i had my store, it was funny cause everyday people would come in and see the art and just RAVE, go like nut's, oglingly and admiring them, with compliments etc. (and purchases!) and then one day someone would come in and kinda sneer and not say anything, just look with a turned down nose attitude. I swear that happened 3 times, and i find out they are ART teachers. One was so rude, when i found out he was an art teacher i gave him a huge lecture and basically ran him out of my store i was so pissed. I have heard this over and over again from kids in art shcool. They can be critical asses that destroy inspiration in budding artists! I should have been an art teacher, cause i am on the "Way of Inspiration", and might have been one of the good ones. *sigh* So glad to help out now, this forum is so great for that!
Ok, so for mediums and techniques. again, i love oils because they dry slowly, and you can moosh paint around and get that blending thing goin' on. Acrylics are freakin' alot harder for me, but they still have there place in certain situations, but oils are much easier, i think. if you are going for realism..some peeps don't want something to look real, they want a flatter, more suggestive, decorative aspect to the image, and other paints are great for that look too.
But if you invest in a collection of oils and canvas, they will last through alot of paintings, and you can get your experimenting down, and eventually something will start to look great. Just take time and go over a canvas again and again and freakin' again untill you like it,till it feels right. Do not worry that the Art Police are going to come and say' "oh you silly, self-delusional non-artist! you are working too hard at this you are incompetent and a fraud!" no, no no, this is not the case! It is agony sometimes to get it right. Learn how to stand the sometimes heartaching pain, and you will break through! It takes years sometimes, or it may just happen sooner, i don't know, but don't give up, and just paint!!! Thanks again for your kind words. Keep in touch and keep makin' art!....*lovin' you*...otter
ps, slammin420, i hope you get bunches of paints for christmas!

 

Hey Slammon420!

Oil painting, painting w/acrilics, and watercolor are one of my fav things to do, besides writing and reading of course! Try it all out and it bve a blast.

 

i have read this whole thread...
and i just wanted to say.. wow ...keanua otter thank you for sharing all of that

 

Otter,

I admire your work.
Beautiful!!

I too have a thing about blocking.
I bought a bunch of large canvases from Currys in Canada before they stopped shipping to the U.S..
These are 36X48, 30X36 etc..gallery wrapped and I paid about 4.00 each..AACCKK!!
Can you believe it...*sniff*..

Anyway, they have sat for a year now, me nervously looking at them and petrified to unwrap and actually apply a medium.

I paint in acrylics...trying to eek out a bare living. I sell about 1/2 to 3/4 of my stuff on auction.
CHEAPLY!! But we need very little to get by and I no longer have the moneyto buy materials...husband laid off and sickly...

BUT!!! You have inspired me to get out my tubes and tubes of oils...and unwrap those dusty canvases. I have been painting on salvaged wood...

Thank you sister for the fine sharing you are doing here....we are blessed to connect with you.

Any words on my Bday are greatly appreciated if you are so inclined.


Slammin' thank you for starting this thread, paint freely.

Love to you,
teepi

 

teepi sister, thanks for your thoughts. once again, i guess the inspiration on this thread is workin for all of us!
Wow! those canvases you got from canada were uber-cheap!!! That was a dream come true! i ususally pay 'tween $17-50+ a canvas, depending on where i have to get them. Misterart.com is pretty good, but the shipping costs is where they hit ya. 60 bucks shipping alone, for three big ones, so i may save a little but..
anyway, i have to tell ya, that i saw your adorable fairy image on your sig a while back, and i thought to myself how much i wish i could paint like that!!! just fresh and free and fun! i love the colors in that and the little shroomy and her stripes! so it was neat to see her again in your post here! i think you should definitely work up a bunch of that theme of *her* and create a real character identity.so do more!! She is so cute!!! and in your other work, i think you have alot of talent in creating strange and mythical type characters and should keep up with that aspect. i really like the woman with the fish wrapped around her neck! reminds me of Frida Kahlo's work... very nice. so go all out on these cheap canvases and price them on auction for waaay more than you have been. i think that fairy theme could be big for you. also... may your husband find that the "lay off" leads him to better ventures and his health is restored with rest and love. (ps. really try to get gary goldshneiders astrology books, they will change your life.)

 

come do drawings sister, thank you too! *big hugs* come do oil paintings with me sometime!

 

i would love to be able to learn from you first hand..
you just have a way about you and i find the way you teach to be truely inspiring

 

come do drawings......aww, thank you.... i am in louisville, kentucky and you are more than welcome to come to my studio! i would love that. maybe we can meet up at the national gathering this year.

 

I thank you Keanu Otter for reminding me that an artist at heart! I hope someday to put my painting online to show you and everyone who appreciates art in its many forms.

 

ya know, you sisters are givin' me ideas!!! it would be awesome to paint at the gathering this summer in colorado! get everybody together to do a group mural or something fun! we could work on unstretched canvas, just roll it out and tack it 'tween two trees or something, and just let everybody participate.
Merry Christmas to all of you!

 

patchwork kid sister, i am really touched by your poetry, the blue wolf brings me memories of my true heart, and how i long to be free again. thank you for reminding me of that! blessings!