Category: Newsletter

Anyone who knows me at all knows that in art, I’m not much for rules. It’s art – not brain surgery! If it works, I say, do it. There are only a few exceptions, and those have to do with technical things. Things that would greatly reduce the life time of the final painting. In oils, there are some things that you can do incorrectly that would cause your oil paint to crackle when it dries. Sometime, even crackle and fall right off the canvas in chunks! This can actually happen in weeks, as well as months or years. That I do try to avoid. So what are the rules? Simply put – 1. fat over lean and 2. thick over thin. The word ‘fat’ refers to the amount of oil in that particular pigment. Each colour has it’s own ratio of oil to pigment. The most oily are white and yellow ochre. There are differences in some of the other pigments too, but I have not seen them cause crackling – feel free to comment if you have had crackling involving an underpainting of colours other than those two – I’d like to know. The rules only kick in when you have a dry layer of paint that you are wanting to put another layer of paint on top of. So, a dry layer of white (or a mix containing lots of white) or yellow ochre risks having additional layers crackle as they dry. Stirring oil mediums into subsequent layers of paint is one solution. The problem with that is that mediums tend to leave that surface in that area much glossier, which can be unpleasing. As for rule number 2, when you think about it, thick over thin is really the same thing. A dry thin layer of oil paint has less oil content than a thicker layer of paint put on top. However, if all of the paint is wet together at the same time, the oil has a way of evening itself out as it dries, and you can ignore both rules. /  You can see a video of this portrait “Blue Eyes” being painted here on YouTube… Cheryl O Artist – YouTube 

Sharpie markers are an attractive art impliment when you want to make a strong black line. However, you need to be very sure that you are not going to want to change that line, because Sharpies are very permanent. Plus, they will bleed up through subsequent layers of acrylic paint, making changing those lines almost impossible. In painting, it’s safer to use a dark paint and a rigger brush for dark lines. In the acrylic painting on the left, I did use Sharpies to make the rigging on the boats. Here is a link to some fun art that was made with Sharpies. And no, fun though it is, I don’t think I’m doing this to my car. “Awesome Artwork Made with Sharpies“. 

One concept that people new into painting have a hard time grasping is that paintings can often go through stages, some quite ugly, on the way to a great work of art. Sure it would be nice if every stroke, every layer in a painting made the painting look better and better; but that is not always reality. Particularly with freer techniques like the wet and wild ones, you can have quite a mess at some stages. So why use those techniques? Because there is no other way that you get the dynamic colours and shapes that can happen when working very loose. In any type of paint, you can then go ahead and add or cover details until the painting is as realistic or refined as the painter wants it to be. The creative spirit seems to respond in exciting way to these messes as well, ending up with a wonderful work that simply would not have happened with a more controlled approach. If you want to try this, but don’t want to let go of the brush, here is a suggested playful exercise. 1. Use a large square brush (1 inch square) and a canvas or paper at least 10 x 12 inches 2. Squint at your reference so that you see only large shapes 3. Force your hand to move quickly and establish those shapes with rapid brush strokes and bold colour 4. When most of the canvas or paper is covered, stand back and decide where you want to go with this experiment. Watercolour paint can be lifted and added. Acrylic can be let dry and painted over. Oil can be lifted away with a thirsty brush, or painted over both wet or dry. If the dry oil base includes a lot of white, you will need to work thicker on top, or add mediums to subsequent layers. Most of all, in any paint, have fun, and keep away from those finicky little brushes as long as possible! (Watercolour painting by Cheryl O)