“Little Girl” – 11″x14″ – Acrylic on Canvas
Winter is now getting to me…
I need my plants to shine…
Everything I see looks grey…
I finally have my sign…
Snow drops and crocus…
Purple Siberian squills…
Soon my sleepy street…
Will be full of daffodils…
The seasons will change…
And my hand is dealt…
Thank God this freeze…
Will eventually melt…
Wash away the salt…
Take away the grey…
Just need to get out…
To run around and play…
dreaming of spring – chriscondello
First blooms of 2013… 3/4/2013
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
chriscondello 
A good book, if you could get it: R Smith (2003) The Artist’s Handbook. The complete, practical guide to the tools, technques and materials of painting, drawing and printmaking. London: Dorling Kindersley.
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There’s a blog I follow: http://inspirationimport.wordpress.com. She seems to be a student and is posting her works in progress. You’d benefit …
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Normally, yes. Some people sign it on the top left or right, or, what is the usual trend, at the bottom right. Obviously quite small so as to not drown the painting in one’s signature. Date and sign even sketches or doodles, so you can track your own development. Besides, you might get famous and then even a doodle might be valuable to a buyer! (tongue in cheek a little bit but it has happened.) Henri Matisse signed his work top right, I think, Irma Stern (she sells for millions these days too), also signed top left or right. There is a new trend that the work gets signed and dated on the back of the artwork. Working from an artwork you admire is a fantastic way to develop your own style and mark – simply acknowledge it when the artwork gets signed.
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I wrote a bunch more than seems to have originally posted… I came into a mountain of those giant coffee table art books… I mean a mountain… These books are the only means I have to learn right now… I’m so thankful for them it’s sick…
The girl is from a Picasso painting… “Girl with a dove” though i omitted the dove, and lowered the arms to suit my study… I’m working on color mixing, which doesn’t seem to always go as planned… I’m aware of the basics… I have been painting for a long time… But before when I wanted green… I just mixed any old blue and yellow together… An huzzah… Now I want to be more specific and try to expand… But I’m noticing that not all paints mix as they should… There are inconsistencies that you would never know existed unless you actually mix the pigments yourself…
In the past two years I have become more interested than I have ever been in my life… Even if I never sell a painting… It feels good… I mean it feels really good to paint… And when I’m done… I can reference my moods… And now when I see other artists paintings… I feel something different than I did 5 years ago…
I’m sure you understand… And if you don’t… Am I going crazy?
I’m trying to learn about color from the books… I also have old copies of Johanne Ittens “the art of color” and “the elements of color”… Though they can be somewhat difficult to read… For me at least… I would be interested in suggestions of books that anyone would recommend…
And as far as referencing the original… Title of original and Artist name? In this case…
Child with a Dove – Pablo Picasso
Thank you for the suggestions… I might make a paper card to place in the back of the painting as well… I bought a painting at an art festival where the artist put a card in the back of the painting with the painting info on it… Contact info as well I think… Even the slip of paper was a piece of art on its own… He also signed the front…
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Hi Chris, First: no you’re not going crazy. Of course I understand. Making art is the same as eating and dreaming. Something one just has to do or else …
I can give you some guidelines. If you have an email address I can scan in some stuff I have here today already and let you have it. I wonder now if there would be some efficacy in doing a post on the basics for the benefit of others as well that may be out there that needs some input.
As far as referencing the artwork (in this case the Picasso): title of painting, name of artist and date of the painting. If the painting is untitled then that is what one quotes. It’s a perfect way to learn. I’m now wondering which artist I can refer you to to look at but for the moment my mind is a blank. I’ll think some more. This Picasso is from the time he really painted. This may sound like sacrilege to some but I do not think his cubist works are the best he ever did. Look at his ‘pink period’ and ‘blue period’. If you do a search with those words you’d find it. A computer screen is not always the best way to look at an artwork but it would do. Do you have a library close by? An art gallery? I suppose you’ve done a colour wheel? Some libraries and museums offer classes for free. I’ll help as much as I can from South Africa via email.
As far as mixing colour is concerned, you’re quite right. It’s a journey. I can spend quite a bit of time getting just the right hue I’m after. Make sure that you’re mixing oil with oil paint; i.e. don’t try and mix acrylic with oil. Won’t work. Greens: prussian blue with cadmium yellow gives one green (with almost infinite variables by adding more blue for a darker green or more yellow for a lighter green, and adding white in small amounts will give hues that could keep you busy mixing for weeks. French ultramarine with cadmium yet another green, cobalt blue with chrome yellow yet another, then there’s lemon yellow, yellow ochre and so on and so on … Try not to use black from a tube, it can have a dulling effect. Mix your own by : prussian blue, alarizen crimson, yellow ochre and a bit of Viridian Green. You’d come up with a really vibrant really dark colour that will resonate with the other colours in your artwork.
You obviously know your primaries. French Ultramarine, Alazerin Crimson and Cadmium Yellow are the ones we were taught are the three main colours. These are derived from nature or animal products. From these the entire scope of possible colours should be possible.
Look at the old masters, Van Rijn, Jan Vermeer, (Dutch schools), Goya (Spanish), Poussin (I think he was French), Constable (British school), Turner. Try and copy one of them and you will learn a lot.
Working from a book is not always viable. Try and work from life. What I mean by that is: paint your garden for instance – in which case, look at Claude Monet, one of the impressionists. You’re going to enjoy Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. Just chucking out a few names to start with. Set your easel up in your garden (preferably out of the sun or else wear a hat) and paint. Maybe draw first, just to get to know your subject matter really well, and then paint. Try different mediums (it can get expensive), like water colour, acrylic, oil, oil pastels and so on. They last a while so it’s sometimes worth it. Oil always needs to go onto a primed surface. If you paint with oil onto paper the paper will rot away in time and there’d be nothing left of your artwork.
Drawing is the basis of all artmaking (at least that’s the way I learnt and I subscribe to it). There are people that go straight into sculpting or painting and produce excellent work. For instance, Michelangelo was first a sculptor before he became a painter. Look at his and Leonardo da Vinci’s and Rafael’s drawings and paintings.
Wow! a months worth of work in one comment! As anytime, anything. I love to help. Artists need the support.
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Is this your painting? Very different to everything else you’ve showcased. Always date and sign your work (this is really good advice). If it’s a copy of something, date, sign your own name with a nod to where you got it from. I seem to recognise this little girl but don’t know where from right now.
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Do you date and sign the work on the front…
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