Saturday, July 30, 2011

Project Runway

My favorite REALITY show is back on!
I love Project Runway!



When I was still in high school I sewed all my own clothes and even made a few amateurish attempts at designing a few of my own outfits. And I loved FASHION ILLUSTRATION.

Most of you probably don't remember when the Sunday Paper was packed with ads from the department stores, hand drawn illustrations of the new spring fashions, the back-to-school clothes or the beautiful wedding and prom dresses, all drawn in black and white. Fashion Illustrating was my career goal, I said so in my yearbook, and planned to study it at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).

I wish I had had a glimpse of the future, an idea of what technoloy would do to the art world.

Photo-
graphy
stole
my career.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Glazed Elephants



Finally - Finished -
the Glazed Elephants!
In some areas this painting has at least 10 layers of glazed color, other areas only 4 layers. The layers remind me of my colored pencil process, layers and layers to get to the color you want. I imagine, if I knew anything about watercolors, the layering process is probably the same.


Someone asked what kind of glaze paints I used - just regular acrylic paint in a tube added to an acrylic Glazing Medium (very little paint and lots of medium).


I'm going to try this glazing process on a landscape painting next. I usually avoid landscapes, but I think I could get some nice effects with the glazing - oh but I do have major problems with the color GREEN!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Still Glazing . . .

I've been so busy with LIFE that I haven't been able to paint as much as I'd like - but I'm up to 8 layers of glaze. I've added real balloons to float around with the balloon elephants. Now I have to add more glazes to the balloons and fix their colors and everything needs highlights and is the sky blue enough?

Monday, July 18, 2011

ACRYLIC GLAZING - TIPS

Tip No. 4:
Use a Light Ground


I usually avoid a white canvas to start, so this is new for me.

 
 
 
 
 
Tip No. 5:
Glazing Mediums
 
Don't thin with water, water ruins the consistency of the paint
 
 
 
 
Tip No. 6:
Use a Soft Brush
 
As you can see here, even though I used a soft brush, it was a square one, and you can see the brushstrokes.
 
I'm up to four layers, 10 more to go - maybe.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

ACRYLIC GLAZING ~ TIPS

Tip No. 1:
Get to Know Your Transparent Colors
I thought if you added glazing medium - they were all transparent!


Tip No. 2:
Be Extremely Patient
This only happens if there is a good movie in the video machine










Tip No. 3:
Glazes Like Smooth Surfaces
That's true, see the ACEO to the right, the Acrylic glazing on this watercolor paper just looks like watercolor 

Monday, July 11, 2011

ACRYLIC GLAZING

"A glaze is simply a thin, transparent layer of paint and glazing is simply building up color by applying thin, transparent layers one on top of another, dry layer. Each glaze tints or modifies those beneath it. So why is glazing something that can trouble, and even threaten, artists so much? Well, while the theory may be simple, putting it into practice takes patience and persistence to master."



So true! Sounds so simple, but when you are used to mixing colors on a palette - building thin layers of paint instead to get to those colors is a bit daunting. And keeping the glaze thin enough and the waiting - oh the waiting for the layer to dry! 

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Back to Work . . .

I've straightened the studio and removed all tell tale signs of
Alice and the White Rabbit.
Time to Get Back to WORK,
now that my lawn is at "Captain Crunch" status
I won't be spending every spare minute cutting it.
First I need to re-write the 2011 To Do List,
as I've added 3 new projects and lost interest in a few others.
The To Do List is a living ever evolving document.
I have been thinking about trying acrylic glazing in my new projects.
In my research of this, I've re-discovered one of my FAV artist.
What an inspiration!

2022

   Merry Christmas