Studio Lighting for Poor People Who Aren't Allowed to Screw Anything Into the Ceiling.

With the time change this week, I realized that by 4 pm it was too dark to paint in my studio! It usually takes me until about noon to really get in the painting groove, so I was finally forced to make a trip to Home Depot last night and find a solution to my problem. Hurrah! All it took was a couple daylight bulbs, and a $20 shoplight. This was good, because I have chosen to keep painting instead of getting a "real" job, despite the fact that I may need to start eating Saltines for breakfast. 

When my husband came home from work, he said that our living room looked like a meth lab. "Except for all the paintings," he said helpfully.

Useful information: I found that by using a combination of "daylight" bulbs (blue light), and "soft white" (more yellow light), I could actually see the colors of my paint accurately. This is good, unless you are a fan of alarming realizations first thing in the morning. For example, that the gray sidewalk you thought you were painting last night is actually green. (This is a true story, from my more inexperienced days. [Yesterday.])

Bonus tip: It is also helpful to find a floor lamp across the street that your neighbor is throwing away.

Glen Orbik Head Drawing Class

My portrait drawing has taken a leap in the past few weeks, mostly as a result of Glen Orbik's head drawing class at 3Kicks Studio. Here's my drawing from tonight, done in about an hour and a half.

To illustrate just how much I've gotten out of these past few classes, check out my drawing from the first class:

Not too bad, just... boring. The major change, is that I've gone from just trying to make an accurate representation of what I'm seeing, to concentrating on making an accurate, but interesting picture. That's what Glen has been stressing--getting the big shapes in, and then going for a "cool design". If something's straight, make it more straight, if something's curvy, make it more curvy. It's put more of my attention on the fact our job as an artist is not to just copy what we're seeing. Though obviously being able to draw accurately is important, this is the next step.

Meanwhile I've learned some very useful things to understand the head better, which has made my portrait drawing much faster, and more accurate and convincing. The first homework he gave us was to use tracing paper over photographs and find and draw the planes of the head. You can print these same handouts from the website of Glen's teacher: http://www.fredfixler.com/index.php/cave-22/. I highly recommend this exercise--it really makes the planes of the head something you easily and naturally use. The exercises we've been doing from these diagrams have been a key part of what he stresses in finding the rhythms and modeling of the head.

Another thing that Glen has continually recommended is the importance of copying pictures of artists you like in order to learn from them. It really can't be stressed enough. Thought it's obviously up to you, he recommends John Singer Sargent, Andrew Loomis, Charles Gibson, and J.C. Leyendecker--the guy Norman Rockwell wanted to be when he started out.

In conclusion, I very highly recommend this class to anyone who already has their basic drawing skills and wants to be a great portrait artist.

I'm also taking another class, with the incredible Richard Morris. This class is pretty wildly different, and while I'm getting a lot out of it, it's also making my lack of anatomy knowledge painfully evident. Next up--anatomy classes!

Painting on Ampersand Aquabord

I bought a bunch of Bords yesterday at the Utretch art store in Santa Monica. (GREAT store, by the way!) A "Bord" is just Ampersand's way of saying "board." Today I did a watercolor on the Aquabord.

Terrace View, Chicago -- watercolor on board -- 5"x7"

It was an interesting experience working on this clay board, as this was my first time painting watercolor on something besides paper. They say that you can lift the paint back to white easily, but this was not my experience at all. I realized with my first laying of color that once something is on there, it absorbs right into the board--there's really no going back. So I'm not sure why they say that... maybe I'm missing something. I'm used to having at least a small window of time with paper to blot something up, or create a gradation of color. Eventually I learned that if you want to do a wash or a flat, even color over an area, you need to wet the surface first so it doesn't soak right in and create a hard edge on contact. 

One major advantage is that you can spray varnish it and not worry about framing it behind glass--which to me is a pretty big deal when it comes to have to ship the artwork! However, it DOES chip fairly easily. So I would recommend some kind of frame.

Inspiration from switching mediums

I broke out my watercolor box the other day for maybe the second time in several years. Watercolor is what I started with and what got me excited about painting. When I started painting in oil I dropped it completely, and have only done a couple of watercolors sketches in the last many years.

It's been long enough that all my tubes of watercolor dried out! At least I was able to cut them open and salvage most of the contents.

I've discovered switching it up and working in something besides oil gives me a much needed change of perspective. I always seem to realize a different way of approaching things with my paintings when I do a charcoal drawing, pastel, and now watercolor. I love the freshness and immediacy of it--something I'm going try to work into my paintings more.

A little watercolor sketch I did today. :)

A week with The Dude, Saturday with Mozart

I'm coming up to the finish line on a new painting, and what better to keep me company than Amadeus. I've been listening to a lot of movies lately while I paint. I can really only put on movies that I've seen many times, so don't have to pay too much attention and don't have to look at the screen. Unfortunately, I have a very limited DVD collection. So I've watched The Big Lebowski at least 4 or 5 times this week.

It's been around 100 degrees for several days, which has made it even harder for me to get out of the apartment and stretch my legs. Embarrassingly, I haven't even been motivated enough to make the journey down the stairs to our pool. It's too hot! I had to stick my painting in the fridge overnight to keep it from drying in the heat. Hey, whatever works! I put my palette in the freezer if I have a lot of paint on there and won't be painting for a few days. It keeps the paint for a week or two if it's sealed.

The Studio, AKA Living Room

First, an introduction to my painting space, in my pint-sized apartment. Please observe the studio essentials, readily available.

Studio essentials:

A. Picnic basket. Sometimes you just need to get away. Also, sometimes, you just don't have anywhere else to put stuff.

B. Toaster oven. For snacks.

C. A bunch of stuff I should've tucked away before I took the picture.

D. Giant prehistoric television. I've been in an endless debate on whether to toss this thing or not. On one hand, it uses a large amount of valuable space, in relation to the total amount of space I have. On the other hand, I like to listen to movies while I'm painting--preferably ones I've seen 20+ times so I don't feel compelled to watch. Also, I feel that there should be something present that represents a normal living room, for my husband's sake. 

Getting back to it

Hello out there!

Well, I got married, and now it's back from La La Land and back to work! I decided to go very DIY with my wedding, which basically sucked away all of my free time and painting time for the last couple of months. Although I did manage in that time to have my first gallery show, sell my first gallery painting, and finish a couple of doggy portrait commissions, too. :)

Anyway, being a happily married woman aside, another exciting new tidbit is that I am now a proud Mentor Member of the California Art Club. I've wanted to be a part of this group since my introduction to their annual Gold Medal exhibition last year, and now I'll have an oppurtunity to submit artwork for next year's show! Yes! Their website is californiaartclub.org.

Bonus picture of me with my new husband. :D

The Talent Myth

I sometimes find myself in a situation where a person tells me they could never be a painter because they don't have any talent. I tell them that it is a very popular misconception that to be a good artist you need to be born with The Gift. I tell them that 'talent' actually comes from a lot of hard work, and that painting is a skill to be learned, just like brain surgery, or making couch doilies. I tell them that when I was a kid, I wasn't any better than they were.

Usually, this conversation ends with them not believing me, and me thinking maybe it's time to stop trying to talk people into this concept.

Today, that all changes! I have proof to back my reasoning! I am going to show you what my artwork looked like when I was 7 years old. For some sadistic reason my mother recently framed this and hung it in her home, where I can now see it on a daily basis:


Yes. Happy Faher's Day. (See inscription in the clouds.)

This was the best I could come up with before I had training or lessons of any kind, and my 7-year-old self thought it was pretty kick-ass. For some added fun, try figuring out what this painting is actually OF, and then click on the picture below for some startling revelations.

Whooaa!! A new post!

Please forgive me! I have good excuses for why I haven't posted a blog in so long.

1. I moved to a place where I don't have anywhere to paint.

2. I got engaged, and have been very busy being in love with my fiance.

3. I didn't feel like it.

Those are my excuses. Feel free to volunteer any of your own.

The News:

I started my next set of classes with Joseph Todorovich. So far, 3 out of 4 paintings have been very mediocre. I think this is because I've been experimenting with each class this time around, trying new things. I'm learning things, but after awhile I just want to have a nice product at the end. I think there's a balance. I have one more experimental class to go, and then I'm going to go back to just trying to do a good job. But I did paint one that I'm really happy with:

I had my first proper gallery show! And even better, my painting sold about two weeks later! To someone I didn't even know, which is infinitely cooler than, say, my dad buying it. 

Here's the link to the gallery I showed at: The Barn Gallery.

In a couple of weeks I'll be moving again, this time to my very first, very own apartment. One day I will not have to seize control of my poor fiance's living room for my painting needs, but for now it's at least something!

More soon. Love, Nat