Tag: artistic journey
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How to Create a Body of Work and a Distinctive Style as an Artist
If you’re looking to get gallery representation, or to sell your art in some other, more innovative way, we have to assume that you already have a body of work that consists of at least 20 or 30 works in a style, medium, colors, and subject matter that distinguish you from every other artist in some way. […]
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Amateur vs Professional Artist
After visiting two art exhibitions, one put on by my local art club and the other by a group of professional artists, I realized that whilst the amateur show had many ‘nice’ paintings, and showed a high level of painting ability, the professional show had many more paintings that had that ‘wow’ factor that made […]
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Color Theory Lesson: Avoiding Black for Shadows
Think about how much is truly black in nature. Shadows are not simply black nor a darker version of the color of the object. They contain the complementary color of the object. Take, for example, the shadow on a yellow object. If you mix black and yellow, you get an unattractive olive green. Instead of using this […]
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Complementary Colors
The complementary color of a primary color (red, blue, or yellow) is the color you get by mixing the other two primary colors. So the complementary color of red is green, of blue is orange, and of yellow is purple. What About Secondary Colors? The complementary of a secondary color is the primary color that […]
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Tertiary Colors
Browns and grays contain all three primary colors. They’re created by mixing either all three primary colors or a primary and secondary color (secondary colors of course being made from two primaries). By varying the proportions of the colors you’re mixing, you create the different tertiary colors. What’s the Easiest Way to Mix a Brown? […]
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Mixing vs Buying Ready-Made Colors
Color mixing gives you a range of colors with a minimum number of tubes of paint (very useful when painting outside your studio). If you’re using a lot of a certain color, you’ll probably decide it’s easier to buy it in a tube rather than mix it up again and again. But you’ll find that […]
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Warm and Cool Colors
Every color has a certain bias towards what’s called warm and cool. It’s not something that’s overwhelming; it’s subtle. But it’s an important element in color mixing as it influences the results. As a group, reds and yellows are considered warm colors and blue a cool color. But if you compare different reds (or yellows […]
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Watercolor Painting Tips for Using Masking Fluid
To apply frisket, I use a plastic dental toothpick shaped like a not-quite-right-angled “L”. I have a whole plastic container of them that I got at the drugstore. It is wonderful for applying frisket. The short “L” end can lay the frisket down in a narrow ribbon, and the pointed end is obviously useful. The greatest […]
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Reasons Why I Hate to Stop Painting….
What things or events stop you from painting or interfere with your painting? And which do you hate the most?There are a lot that I relate to really well, and I’m sure you will to! 1. The phone or doorbell rings (again and again, and won’t be ignored.) 2. I have fix lunch or dinner […]
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5 Ways to Destroy Your Artistic Creativity
It’s to be expected that there will be ups and down in your level of artistic creativity, that some days you’re full of new ideas for paintings and others your brain feels dull. But there are also environmental and personal factors that can sap your energy for painting, so you end up having more dull […]
