Oil Painting Tips – How To Keep Your Colors Pure
oil painting tips in this article will help relieve some of your frustration and enable you to finally enjoy painting.
BE CLEAN AND ORGANIZED
I know for some of us, it can be very difficult to maintain a clean and organized painting environment. Sometimes we can get very caught up in our work and things can get sloppy. The last thing you want is to become a sloppy painter as your work will suffer. Break the habit early and try your hardest to develop clean and organized painting habits.
Your Palette
First, you should get into the habit of laying out your colors the same way every time you paint. This is just good practice and keeps the painting process flowing nicely. Arrange your colors along the edges of your palette leaving a lot of room in the center for mixing.
Don’t be afraid to squeeze out a good amount of paint, especially your whites. You will be more productive if you aren’t continuously stopping to squeeze out more paint.
Make certain to include all of the colors you think you will need to complete that session of painting. Again, this will make you more productive.
When adding paint to the palette, I have found that squeezing the paint out in long lines, as opposed to puddles, keeps my colors cleaner. When you have puddles of paint, they tend to get soiled by other colors when mixing. With a long line of paint, you can just take paint from the end as needed and not dirty the rest. Keep some rags or paper towels handy for wiping your palette knife clean.
It’s a good idea to continuously wipe your palette clean during the painting process. There is nothing more frustrating then trying to remove dried up oil paint. Keep some alcohol handy so that you can keep the mixing area of your palette clean.
If you don’t want to fuss around with a regular palette, why not try a disposable one? They are basically paper with a plastic coating that prevents the paper from absorbing the oil. The beauty of the disposable palette, is that you can simply throw it in the trash when you are done. Using a disposable palette will definitely help keep your colors clean as you will be starting with a clean surface every time you start a new painting session.
When mixing your colors, use your palette knife and not your brush. A palette knife can be wiped completely clean so there is no chance of your colors becoming contaminated. Your brush is made for painting and not mixing and you can shorten the life span of your brush if you are continually mixing with it.
Brushes
I like to have a handful of clean brushes near by when I am painting. This way, I do not need to stop and clean my brushes when I am working with a different color and there is less risk of the wrong colors getting into the mix.
SATURATION OR BRILLIANCE OF COLOR
When a color is squeezed straight from the tube, it is said to be high in saturation or brilliance. This is because it hasn’t been mixed with any other colors. The more colors you mix together, the duller they will become. It has been said that one should not mix more than three colors together and this a very good rule to follow. If you mix more than three colors together you are kind of defeating the purpose.
Why is this so? Let’s say that you are going to mix a brown. You decide to use red, yellow and blue to create your brown. You then decide to mix in a bit of orange. As you know, red mixed with yellow will create orange. So there is no need to add the additional color.
No one ever said it is a sin to use color straight from the tube. If you are painting something that calls for brighter color, why not use paint straight from the tube without mixing. Sometimes we get so accustomed to mixing color, that we neglect the pure color that is right in front of us. When using pure color though, try not to over do it. Too many bright colors can create havoc in a painting. Try and add bright colors against a duller surrounding so that your bright colors really stand out.
LIGHTEN OR DARKEN WITH COLOR
What is it that most of us do when we want to change the value of a color? To lighten a color, we usually add white and to darken a color we use black. You should always look for the opportunity to use color to change the value instead of black and white. Adding white or black to color will diminish its brilliance, unless that is the effect you are shooting for. A great example of this is using Yellow Ochre. If you want to brighten and lighten this color, instead of adding white, try adding a little Cadmium Yellow Light.
I hope this article has given you a little more insight into keeping your colors pure. Remember to practice oil painting as often as possible and never give up, no matter how frustrated you get!
Plein Air Painting Demo by Robert Lewis
This 
plein air painting demo is presented by award-winning plein air artist Robert Lewis. The demo takes place on a bluff over the Monterey Bay.
Composing a Portrait
This article merely aims to highlight the key “rules” of composition, and focuses primarily on a head and shoulders portrait of a single sitter.
Principle point of interest
Any image requires a principal point of interest, and in a portrait this is usually the subject’s eyes.
Whether the cross is slightly to the left or right depends on which direction the subject is looking. If they are looking to the left, there should be more background to the left, so the cross is placed the the right of centre. Conversely, if they are looking to the right, the cross should be placed to the left. This helps prevent the viewer’s eye from being drawn out of the picture when it follows the subjects sight line.
When the subject is facing directly towards the camera, consider the direction of the shoulders. Here the aim should be to have a little more space in front of the subject rather than behind them. So, if the right shoulder is nearest the camera, frame the shot so their eyes are also right of centre.
Returning to our imagined cross on a face, if this is upright, the portrait will appear very formal. This is often a good option for more mature subjects. Tilting the cross to either side creates a diagonal axis to the features, which suggests movement an vitality, and is often best for younger subjects.
Triangles
Composition is always improved by the creation of triangles. When composing a portrait, try to visualize the outline of the subject fitting into a triangle.
Tall triangles in an upright format suggest height and dignity. In a landscape format they hint at confinement or struggle. Low triangles in a landscape format imply stability. In an upright format they give an impression of weakness. Triangles tilted forward suggest movement, and titled backwards they imply liveliness. Tilt too far in any direction, and stability will be lost unless a second stabilizing element is introduced. If someone looks like they are about to fall over, it should tell you that the composition of the shot is wrong (e.g. A head tilted greatly to one side may need a hand to support it. Introducing an arm bent at the elbow creates another triangle and so restores stability).
Lines can be broken so long as the eye can easily skip them. Lines can also be imaginary, or implied. For example, a viewers eye will always tend to follow the subject’s line of sight.
Tones
Our eyes are always more attracted to light tones than dark tones. Directional tendencies can be created by tones, so for example, if there are two or more adjacent light areas, the eye will travel from one to the other.
In a portrait, the face should be the principal attraction, and therefore lighter. Any other light area (clothing, hands) need to be subdued in tone, Avoid strong patterns (e.g. clothing), as these can compete with the face for attention.
A portrait needs to be tonally balanced. This means not having all the dark tones on one side, and all the light tones on the other (Unfortunately, this is what we see in a typical wedding photo of the Bride and Groom!).
Backgrounds
Working as a portrait artist, I rarely reproduce the background in a reference photo, for good reasons, and choosing the background for a portrait is probably worthy of a dedicated article (see Backgrounds).
All I am going to say here is that the simplest consideration is either a light or dark background. Dark backgrounds are commonly see in classic portraits. Light backgrounds are currently trendy in modern photography. For my purposes, a light background works best, because it is makes the outline of the subject easier to see.
Colour
Colour harmony and behaviors are an important element of composition. Colours convey mood and depth. Cool colours appear to recede (blue-greens, blues, purples), while warm colours appear to advance (yellows. oranges, reds). Cool or neutral colours work best for backgrounds, while warm colours in clothing help give a portrait depth.
Colour choices depend on the subject. Blondes and brunets have differing requirements; blue works well with the former, while blue-greens/greens better suits the latter. Somber colours suit older subjects, while vibrant colours go well with young subjects.
The key aim should be to choose colours that compliment, and are sympathetic to, the subject’s colouring.
Footnote: There are circumstances when these “rules” may be broken, but the intention of this article is to convey simple guidelines applicable to most situations.
Portrait photography from a Portrait Artist’s perspective. Portraits by John Burton
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_A_Burton
http://EzineArticles.com/?Composing-a-Portrait&id=1886214
An Introduction to Color Theory for Painters
color theory is to peek your interest and hopefully cause you to study this topic further on your own. Understanding color theory is perhaps one of the most important aspects of becoming a good painter. When you understand the elements of color and how colors interact with one another, you have unlocked one of the biggest puzzles of painting.
WHERE DOES COLOR COME FROM?
Our beautiful world of color is only possible because of the solar spectrum. You can certainly do your best to mimic natural sunlight with today’s technology and they have done a pretty fine job of that with full spectrum lighting. But even full spectrum lighting is not as true as sunlight. One only needs to spend a day painting outdoors to see how your color pops out at you under natural sunlight when compared to indoor lighting.
So what exactly makes a rose appear “red” or grass appear “green”. In the green grass, you are only seeing green because the grass has pigments in it that absorb all colors of the solar spectrum except green. So green is the color that is reflected back to your eyes. The same holds true for the red rose, only the rose absorbs all colors of the spectrum besides red.
THE COLOR WHEEL
Sir Issac Newton laid the foundation for today’s color wheel with his experiments that began in 1666. Since then, many variations have been developed. A color wheel is essentially a diagram that represents the colors of the visible solar spectrum. Your basic color wheel consists of six colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
Another popular color wheel called the Munsell color wheel, is slightly more involved. Instead of 6 basic colors, the Munsell wheel consists of ten colors: red, yellow-red, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, red-violet and violet.
PRIMARY COLORS
The primary colors are red, yellow and blue. These colors are your base colors from which all other colors come from.
SECONDARY COLORS
When you mix two primary colors together, you get a secondary color. The secondary colors are orange, green and violet. Orange is made by mixing red with yellow. Green is made by mixing blue and yellow. Violet is made my mixing blue with red.
TERTIARY COLORS
Tertiary colors are made by mixing one primary color with one secondary color. For instance, mixing the primary color blue with the secondary color green, will give you a tertiary color called blue-green.
COMPLIMENTARY COLORS
These are colors that are opposite from one another on the color wheel. Red and green, blue and orange, yellow and violet, are examples of complimentary colors. Complimentary colors are colors of extreme contrast. When used together in a painting, they can produce brilliant vibrant images.
ANALOGOUS COLORS
Analogous colors are colors that are close to one another on the color wheel. They more or less will produce harmonious effects with very little contrast. For instance, a violet, red-violet, and blue-violet are examples of analogous colors.
HUE-VALUE-INTENSITY
Hue: Without getting too technical, and to put things into laymen’s terms, hue is just another word for color. For instance, grass and leaves are two variations of a green hue.
Value: Value refers to how light or dark a color is. Colors like pink or aqua are identified as colors of high value. Colors like maroon and navy are identified as colors of low value. If you produce a painting with predominately higher values, the painting is referred to as a “high key” painting. On the contrary, paintings produced with predominately lower values, are referred to as “low key”.
Intensity: Intensity refers to a colors brightness or saturation. Intensity refers to how pure a color is. For instance, if you were to use cadmium red straight from the tube, it would have a high intensity. If you were to mix it with another color however, its intensity would be diminished.
TEMPERATURE OF COLOR
Colors have temperature, referred to as warm or cool. In painting, reds, yellows and oranges are referred to as warm colors and blues, violets and greens are referred to as cool colors. One of the biggest lessons you will ever learn about color temperature though, is that the appearance of color can change drastically depending on its surroundings. For instance, a certain yellow would appear much hotter if it were surrounded by a violet then say an orange. Another important lesson in color temperature: Warm colors will advance in a painting and cool colors recede.
Artist Spotlite – Daad Abi Saab
Artist: Daad Abi Saab
Location: BEIRUT- LEBANON
Title: The Rocky Shore
Medium: Oil
Dimensions: 50cmx65cm
Support: Canvas
More About this Painting: I really enjoy painting and drawing a lot of different subjects with different mediums. But my favorite would have to be oil painting on canvas and my inspration is nature, landscapes and seascapes. This art work is a view beautiful scene from Lebanon which located on the eastren shore of the Mediterranean Sea. I hope you like it.
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