Archives for April 2012

Self Improvement

William Schneider · Apr 30, 2012 · 1 Comment

"A Man of Sorrow" by William Schneider OPA

As artists, we need to ask ourselves “What is my goal?”
Is art just a pleasant hobby? Or, is the goal is to become the best artists we can be? If so, how?
Think of the game of golf. The high handicapper plays round after round… with little improvement; the touring pro practices in order to elevate his game. Tiger Woods is renowned for playing 18 holes in a tournament and then going straight to the practice range to fine tune.
The best artists set aside time for self-improvement. Practice doesn’t make perfect… “perfect practice makes perfect.” Or as my friend Dan Gerhartz says, “Attack your weakness.” Isolate the problem area and work on it. In other words, set up a self-study program. Here are some things you can do:
Drawing (proportion or shape)

Copy heads from the makeup ads in Seventeen or Alluremagazines. HINT:
the proportions on the reference and use the same relative proportions on your drawing.
Get the Bargue / Gerome book, Drawing Course (Dover Press carries it). Copy the drawings. These are the plates used to prepare students for the French Academy des Beaux Artes.
Join a sketch group in your area.

"Jealous Circle" by William Schneider OPA

Values

Make some full-value drawings of a plaster cast using one light source. (Squint to simplify the values.)
Paint a monochromatic head study (use terra rosa and wipe out the lights with a rag…you may need to use some mineral spirits on a q-tip to get the highlights)
De-saturate an image of a Sargent or Zorn painting and copy it in raw umber and white in five values.

Color

Make color charts. Richard Schmid describes how to do them in his book, Alla Prima (NOTE: You can’t just look at them; you have to actually make them yourself to get any benefit.)
Google “Henry Hensche”. Find a description of his training exercises and do them. The more you do these exercise, the more sensitive your color perception will become.

"The Old Radical" by William Schneider OPA

Edge control

Squint, squint squint!!! Identify the sharpest edge on your subject (while squinting) and compare all other edges to it. If you can’t see a clear edge when you squint, don’t put one in your painting.
Copy a head by Fechin.

Design / Composition

Find a copy of Creative Illustration by Andrew Loomis and study the sections on composition (Google him; there’s a site where you can download the book.)
Buy Edgar Payne’s Composition of Outdoor Painting. Copy the “design stems”
I have released a DVD called Composition Secrets of the Masters that includes a number of exercises. It is available at www.lilipubs.com

"Russian Oligarch" by William Schneider OPA

We live in a marvelous time. DVD’s and workshops allow us to study with today’s masters. You can even get a complete art education online (check out the online programs available at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco). The Internet also provides access to the great art of the world. Or we can scan an image from a book and blow it up in Photoshop so that we can copy paintings…without traveling to museums in Paris, Madrid or New York and applying for permission. I copy a masterwork at least once a month! (I have an inexpensive HP printer-scanner-copier that will generate images of surprising clarity. HINT: when scanning, set the program to “de-screen”. This will remove the halftone circles used in the printing process.)
One final thought: paint as much as you can from life (even though many of the above exercises rely on photos.) The camera lies! In a photo, values, edges, and color temperature are always wrong and half the time the proportions are off as well. In other words at least 3 of the 4 elements of representational painting are wrong in a photo reference. Read what your favorite artists have to say on the subject; the pros work mostly from life, amateurs often work mostly from photos.
Good luck and happy painting!

Workshops, Classes, and Demos

Richard Dziak · Apr 23, 2012 · 6 Comments

As I’m sure most of you have noticed is that there has been a tremendous increase in workshops just about anywhere you may live. And, I would venture to say that painting in oil workshops may have started to, or already have, overcome the number of those in other media. Classes have always been popular whether they are at a museum or someone’s basements, and demos, are demos…
Which of the three do you think offer the most to the artist in terms of value for your money?
I have taken a couple of workshops, and have given several over the years. I haven’t really taught any classes in oil painting, but I am an experienced teacher. Demos, well, seen many and done many.
With that in mind, let me give you my thoughts, and then you can bombard me with your objections, or, better yet, your support.
Most of the artists I’ve had in my workshops either don’t really need my instruction at all, because they are well on their way, or they would be better off taking classes. What’s the difference? Well, the key difference is “Time”. Workshops generally last anywhere from 1-7 days and in most cases are very intense. They can be expensive, especially if not given nearby. Classes, on the other hand, generally span several weeks, but are limited to 1-3 hours per session, and offered once a week.
The experience I have gotten in giving workshops has been, for the most part positive. Although I did give a workshop “Painting in oils, en plein air”, in which half the class didn’t want to go outside to paint. Then they complained that they didn’t get enough attention because I spent most of the time with those that painted outside the building. But that’s ok. The other workshops were better, but after they were over, I wondered how much good I really did.
Most of the students/artists wanted to paint like I paint. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to paint like anyone else. It’s like why would anyone want to sign their name like anyone else? Later, I would see paintings at local shops and shows that I actually thought I had painted. No, just knock offs of what I do when I paint, done by previous workshop students.
Now, I have to ask, who gains more here? The student that picked up on some techniques and palette use that they may, or may not use in the future, or the instructor, who now has been complimented by copy, and getting his or her name spread around in the art world? I’d say the latter.
I know many of you say that it is of equal exchange, etc. and after 3 or 4 days of intense painting from sun up to sun down did wonders for your work. Of course it did! But what if you had done the same thing on your own? Now, I know we all learn from others, and you can’t beat the camaraderie, but give it some thought. If I were to take another workshop, it would be to go to some exotic place to paint new sites, and get to know other artists. To me, that would be where the value lies, and the most fun. We all know that there are workshop junkies that are looking to find their own way… but through others?
Now what about classes? Well, I like the idea of “Time” being on my side. In a class the subject is more focused, i.e. perspective, figure studies, etc. And, you have time to absorb what was instructed. Then you go on your way and do what is assigned and bring back your efforts the following week. To me, this is a much better scenario, usually less expensive, and we can pick what we want to learn. We also have the social aspect, and it can be fun.
That leaves us with demos. Well, I like demos. Everyone likes demos. Why, because we don’t have to do them. We just watch, and let the demo person do all the work. They are even more appealing if informal, and you can leave when you want without making a stir.
In conclusion, let me say that I wrote this blog because sometimes we as artists shortchange ourselves, and the thing we need the most, may not come from the obvious. We all have to go and find our own way, and a little help along the way is always welcomed. But let us go forth with confidence, cut ourselves some slack, and have some fun with this crazy thing that we seem so desperately NEED to do.

If you’re interested in joining or hosting workshops and classes in your area, visit www.oilpaintersofamerica.com/workshops.

Staying Organized As An Artist

Ms. B.R. Gates · Apr 16, 2012 · 6 Comments

Artists have individual ways of keeping records. My way might be of interest to other artists. This is my 70th year as a practicing artist. The first twenty years as a commercial artist began in 1944 in the Frankhoma Glass Factory in my home town. I worked as an apprentice to John Frank, the owner, making the designs for glass milk bottles. I also worked for a while designing wallpaper and even designing tomb stones in double line for sandblasting at “Rock of Ages Monuments”. While I was designing the tombstones, my father-in-law bought me a small set of oils and thus began my lifelong passion.
My first gallery affiliation was in Taos, New Mexico in 1957 and as I began adding galleries I started an inventory list and began numbering my paintings. I just hit number one thousand. I also keep separate lists for the water color, pen & ink etc… My inventory goes across the page from left to right with if the painting was sold or a gift, the number, name of painting, and finally any information about the subject matter. I also kept my slides in a book, organized by the number of the painting, until digital prints took over. I also put a photograph of the painting on a 5 x 7 index card with the painting information on the back. Those are kept in plastic index card boxes. When a painting goes out to a gallery, is entered in a competition, accepted in a competition, is sold or is taken out of inventory for any reason, I write what is happening with it on the back of the card and it is placed in the appropriate box.
I have also organized my photographs by subject matter, so I don’t waste a lot of time hunting for a photo. It also helps me narrow down the subjects I really love, because I don’t have enough time left, at 85, to paint all of the exciting subjects I have photographed. Staying organized is usually difficult for artists as most of us are right brained, so I keep my price list, inventory, client list, Gallery list, current prospectus for shows, consignment sheets, etc.., in a leather bound notebook with handles, similar to brief case. It takes a while to set all of this up, but it does save time when you are not spending hours looking for something and have more time to paint.

Want more information about staying organized? Read Kurt Anderson’s article on “Practical Accounting and Administration for Artists”

Why I Paint En Plein Air

Kathleen Dunphy OPA · Apr 2, 2012 · 7 Comments

The thermometer in the car topped out at 104 degrees on the way home. I walked in the door after a frustrating morning out in the field feeling spent and exhausted. I had set the alarm for 4 a.m. so that I could get up and get out to my plein air destination right as the sun came up on this summer morning. But ignoring all my plans, Nature took her own course and decided to cast a few stray clouds on the horizon, just enough to obscure the sun and completely change the look of the scene I set out to paint. I tried to be patient and wait it out, but by the time the clouds passed, the sun’s angle was too high for the effect I wanted to paint. And after that it was just too dang hot to stay outside any longer. Argh. It’s times like this that I can’t help but think about the comfort of the studio and the quick snapshot I took of the scene when I drove past it last time I was in the area. And the question that so many people ask me: Why plein air? Why not stay in the studio and use those great photos you took? Why haul all your gear out there and stand in the heat/cold/wind/bugs just to do a little painting you could whip out in your climate-controlled studio in no time?
The answer is simple: no painting done from a photo can ever compare to the energy, immediacy, and sense of place that can come through in a plein air piece. Somehow the feel of the day, be it heat or cold or wind or just a perfectly pleasant morning, makes its way down the arm and off the brush and onto the canvas. I wish I knew how it happens so I could fake that quality in the studio, but that’s the magic of plein air. Our experience comes out on the canvas. All our senses help to create the painting, not just our vision. We hear the cows lowing, we feel the breeze, we smell the hay…..it’s all there on the canvas. Even my worst plein air pieces have some small element of that particular day in them. I feel like I’m recording a moment in history: it will never be July 28, 2011 at 6:00 in the morning ever again in the history of the world, but now I have a little bit of it on canvas. How exciting is that?
Not all of my paintings are completed on location, and I paint many larger works entirely in the studio. But every piece I paint has its genesis in plein air studies. Working solely from photos leaves my paintings looking flat and unexciting. I use my reference photos to jog my memory or to help me come up with better designs that I may have overlooked when I was on location. But I can’t tell you how many times I’ve discarded a studio painting because I didn’t have enough plein air information on the scene to make the painting look convincing and alive. All the answers are outside, and even the most frustrating day of plein airing brings a more acute awareness of the subtleties of painting from life. Those skills honed outside make the studio work that much easier and fun.

"On The Way Home" by Kathleen Dunphy OPA

The day after that disappointing plein air excursion, I went out and hit it again…driving to that same spot and waiting for the sun. And this time it was perfect–all the things I love about painting outside came together in a couple of magic hours. I painted two quick studies for a larger studio piece I’ve had rattling around in my head for some time now, then rewarded myself with a loose, just-for-the-heck-of-it study on the way home. Standing in the shade of an oak tree with my dogs lounging around my feet, painting blooming oleander and distant hills with no expectations in mind except for the fun of putting paint on canvas: that’s just about as good as it gets. And that’s why I plein air.

Archives for April 2012

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