Tag: painting
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Tips on Painting Ideas
By Marion Boddy-Evans I think one of the most important things to do is keep receptive to ideas. Open your mind so you visualize compositions. You have to always be thinking about painting. I see something and say how can I paint this? If you only copy from a photo eventually that’s all you will be […]
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Bubble Prints
By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Bubble prints are like fingerprints, except made with bubbles. You can make bubble prints and learn about how bubbles are shaped and how pigments combine to make different colors. Bubble Print Materials Bubble prints are made by coloring bubble solution, blowing bubbles, and pressing paper onto the bubbles. You need brightly-colored […]
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Is it Okay to Use House Paint For Art?
The question of whether it’s okay to use house paint rather than artist’s paint is one that comes up in various forms, but all seem to be motivated by the desire to save money. Personally I think you’re best off buying at least students’ quality paints, or saving on paint by creating smaller paintings. In […]
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Should All Three Parts of a Triptych Painting be the Same Size or Not?
By Marion Boddy-Evans Though most people do use identical sizes there’s no reason why you must, no set convention. Do what feels right for the painting. I once did a triptych which was to hang on a wall alongside a staircase that was open to the living space of the house. I painted it on with […]
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Elements of Composition: Rhythm
Don’t think that rhythm is something that belongs to music only, or perhaps poetry. It’s also one of the Elements of Composition, helping to lead the viewer’s eye across a painting. The example I’ve shown here is of a extreme landscape format, considerably wider than it is tall. To get the viewer’s eye from one edge to the […]
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The Fried Egg School of Painting Composition
By Marion Boddy-Evans Question: The Fried Egg School of Painting Composition “Is it a rule that the focal point of a painting should not be in the middle of the canvas? What if you have, let us say, a face with a crown on the head, nothing else other than the background, would that be wrong?” — Vivien S […]
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How to Set a Price For a Painting
Setting a price for a painting is hard. If you overprice your work, you may not sell anything but, conversely, if you under-price it you may not recoup your costs or get taken seriously. Here’s How: Research the market to find out what other artists are charging in your area. Prices will be more in […]
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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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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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Choosing Art as a Career
So you want to be an artist… is this a realistic career choice, or are you going to live in a cockroach-infested flat for the rest of your life, fulfilling the “starving artist” stereotype? In short, the odds of being a successful fine artist (someone who makes a living by creating original, one-off pieces of […]
