Artist's Tips

I was restoring a brush that had dried acrylic paint deep inside it and someone said I should write these sorts of things down because  lots of people aren't aware of some of these studio practices. They are just random things that I will add from time to time, I hope you find some of them useful.

• Always Draw The Model  Drawing the human figure is the key to all art. No other subject is as complex and challenging, nor more rewarding and meaningful. Because the human figure is so demanding it excercises the full range of artistic skills while also requiring subtlety of perception and understanding of what is being seen. To draw the figure regularly stretches and develops the artist. There is no time when it cannot be beneficial to the sensitive soul.
• An Artist Is A Sketchbook With A Person Attached The importance of jotting down ideas when you have them cannot be overestimated. All too often we have brilliant ideas that are lost because we did not act on the impulse when it happened. I find my mobile phone largely replacing a paper sketch book. It can take photos and it can record video for moving action. It also can record sound. That means literally recording sounds, but also spoken notes that I can make to myself and write down later. Whether a paper sketchbook or a digital camera it is the ability to record sights and life that happen around you as well as the creative thoughts that occur at random that is important. It is no good having a ginormous sketchbook that you only use when going to class. If it is not with you at all times it will miss your most important ideas because they usually occur at the most inconvenient times. A sketchbook should always be small enough to fit in a pocket. The little sketchbooks called Moleskins are great, but the advantage of a mobile phoone with a good camera (see the review of the Sony Ericsson K800i elsewhere on this web site) is that it is even smaller and can make calls as well. Don't like a mobile phone? then get a slim digital camera. Film cameras are not really a solution, the photos cost so much money and time they tend to restrict your ability to record at will. Digital cameras, however are an artist's best friend.
• Be True To Your Heart  Too many beginners get obsessed with the need to be original and to have a style. Males are particularly prone to this. It is unfortunate, especially in light of the fact that some of the most interesting art in history is not known for being original. Rembrandt was never particularly original, for example. We love his audacious compositions that he ignored social convention, but he was hardly the first artist to do that. His dramatic lights were just a variation on Caravaggio's revolution. The life behind the eyes in his portraits just follows the advice of Leonardo. Only his use of drypoint when etching was particularly new. We admire the work of Rembrandt not because he was original, but because he did what he did in such a powerful way. He was really good at doing the things he did. And then on top of that he followed his own heart without compromise. His self portraits are amazing because he was prepared to expose himself to us without embellishing the truth. It is called integrity, and Rembrandt had it in bucket loads. Students often start out with a very clear idea of what their drawings will look like when they get a bit better down the track. The simple line of Egon Schiele is currently a very popular choice. I can understand that, Egon Schiele is one of my favorite artist's. When Schiele did those drawings they had the integrity of being his own style, and being a very experienced artist, his style was distinctive. Those with less experience think they need to emulate a style like Schiele's because their own drawings (unless they are copying a style) seem to lack a distinctive style. What needs to be remembered is that if you simply foolow your heart while drawing and just try to make good drawings (but don't particularly try to make them look like this or that style) they will have a style, a style dictated by your personality. It will be very subtle at first, but over time it will strengthen and become more obvious. This kind of style that just grows on its own will have many advantages but most especially will interest people more becuase (like your personality) it will be unique to you. When an artist's heart is truly on display it is a very special thing. On the other hand, those artist's who persist in insisting that they draw in a particular way (imposing a style on themselves) tend never to gain a truly distinctive style and their work is constantly compared to the artist they are derived from. Often the comparison is not complimentary.
• Colored Paper  Drawing look better when the paper looks better. Part of the joy of old master drawings is the beauty of the paper from soft parchment colors to the soft blue paper that was made in Venice. Most artist's these days pay little attention to their paper and just buy the cheapest they can find. It is almost always stark white. They fail to understand that paper color is a creative decision to be made to enhance the beuty of the artwork. Artist's then grumble that colored paper costs too much. That can be true but there is a way around that. Firstly you can reduce costs by cutting the paper in half, or into quarters. There is no rule that says all drawings have to be humungous. But there is an even greater saving to be made if you tint your own paper. Use white cartridge paper, dilute some acrylic color in a saucer with lots of water, take a sponge and then wipe the color onto the paper. Don't worry about a few streaks or unevenness of color, that only enhances the look of drawings usually. Don't use bright colors. Keep to soft brownish or reddish ochres. Blue is nice if you add a touch of Burnt Sienna to Ultramarine. It will soften the Ultramarine and make it vey attractive to draw on. Don't get the color too strong, it should tint the paper, not cover it in an opaque layer. In half an hour it is possible to tint enough cartridge paper to last a few weeks, and for just a couple of cents worth of color per sheet. So now there is no excuse not to use colored paper for drawing on.
• Cool Colors Mix More Colors  If you were only allowed 3 colors to paint with, yet you had to make a maximum number of hues what colors would you start with? Most people would guess that the 3 primaries are the colors required and they are right but when asked to paint from the primaries most people choose their favorite blue, red, and yellow - Ultramarine, Cadmium Red Medium, and Cadmium Yellow Medium. Unfortunately these three colors together mix poorly. They make a good orange but poor violets and the only green possible is a dull olive color. Most people give up using primaries at this point which is unfortunate because just a small change of approach can lead to a huge improvement in color mixing from primaries. It means learning from the printing industry where all colors are made from the primaries, but they choose cool versions of each - magenta (a cool red), cyan (a greenish blue), and the yellow is a cool lemony yellow. In artist's paints try Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Pthalo Blue, and Cadmium Yellow Light. These give the theoretical greatest range of colors, although for practical purposes replacing the Pthalo Blue with Ultramarine can be wise as most natural greens are earthy and the violets possible from this combination are superb. Having said that, the general advice is: cool colors form a good backbone for color mixing.
• House Paint Is Not A Good Primer  One of the most common ways that artists like to save money is by using cheap white paint to prime panels and canvas with. It is not a good practice for very important reasons. Firstly many of these cheap house paints have poor ingredients. They are prone to breaking down with time. This can have bad effects on your painting 20 years down the track, sometimes sooner. If the substrate fails then the whole painting fails. The results can range from cracking to bubbling and flaking. It is not worth the risk. A good quality artist's gesso may cost more in the short term, but it pays dividends in the long term.
• Learn To Make Web Pages  The web is the future direction for the artist to develop a relationship with an audience. There was a time when the artist had no choice but to use a conventional art gallery as an interface with the public. Galleries still retain an important role, but the internet has given us many more choices. The economic life of the artist has been democratized by the Internet. The artist now can more easily find rewards but there is a cost. Web sites do not build themselves and paying someone to do it can cost more than many artist's can afford. The wise artist goes to the computer section of a large bookshop and finds a book for beginners wanting to make web pages. Like anything, it takes time to learn how to do, but it is not all that difficult to do, and is well within the capabilities of the average person. An easy starting point is to create a blog page, but don't stop there. There is a wonderful new frontier to explore out there.
• Learn To See The Good In Your Own Work  Most artists have trouble seeing their own work realistically. A small number see their work in inflated terms, seeing qualities of brilliance that most of the rest of us find hard to see. Most artists, however, do the opposite, they find it hard to see any good in their own work. Students will commonly say that their work hasn't improved when clearly it has to an independent observor. This can be very frustrating for the student because a feeling of confidence depends on seeing that achievement is occuring. There is also a practical matter of making improvements. That requires not just learning to avoid common mistakes, but also seeing where your strengths are and developing them. It is easy to look at the work of a famous master and make an unfavorable comparison with your own work. It is true that a great artist like Cezanne has wonderful qualities in his work that it is difficult for us to emulate. What the student needs to learn, however, that he or she will have certain qualities of expression that Cezanne would have difficulty emulating. The special qualities of the soul in all of us is unique and quite wonderful and if an artist can allow that to flower in their own work that is a great thing comparable to the work of the famous. Seeing it in your own work helps you to nurture it and grow as an artist.
• Leonardo's Rag  This is advice straight from the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. He said that when you cannot think of an idea to paint or draw, take a rag wet with paint and throw it against the wall. The marks it leaves will be suggestive of landscapes and people and action scenes and animals. These days we call the same idea "free association" and it is a powerful creative tool. It is the same thing as lying in a meadow and looking at the clouds. In that dreamy state clouds can start to look like animals and other things. We can all do this but a wise artist might have a piece of paper and a pencil so that the ideas can be jotted down and expanded on. Treated like a fun game it can be both enjoyable and a way of getting an idea started. You don't need to throw a rag against a wall literally, a piece of paper will do just as well. In the absence of a rag just look deep into the patterns in some stone or tree bark. In fact anything at all when studied with a free roaming mind can start to generate all sorts of unexpected associations that the artist can use.
• Liquid Fixatives  Ever wonder how artist's fixed their drawings before the invention of the spray can? Well they had an even better method - liquid fixative in a bottle. It could be water based but was more likely to be alcohol based with various natural gums in solution. A simple atomiser consisting of two tiny tubes at right angles to each other were used by the artist (blowing through one, a mist comes out the other). It works much like a spray can, although varying effects are possible by varying blowing strength, by using the fixative as direct liquid with a brush, or even by dipping chalks and pastels directly into the liquid. The old masters would often add color to fixatives to tint the paper. Liquid fixatives are better for the environment and offer greater creative control. The atomisers are still available through larger art stores. They only cost around 3 dollars or less. Liquid fixatives are also on sale. I particlarly like the Winsor and Newton one - it is a simple mixture of resin in spirit.
• Loose Is Not The Point  One of the most over used terms in art these days is the word "loose". It implies a certain freedom of mark making and expression that is normally thought of as desireable as opposed to "tight" work in which precision is believed to stifle the creative elements of the work. This belief ignores the obvious, which is that it is possible to go to exhibitions of work that is "loose" and see just as much boring and bad artwork as is found when going to exhibitions of "tight" artwork. Escher is as tight as it is possible to be, yet his work is always astonishing and fascinating to look at. Few would say that his work lacks creativity and artistic intergity. Clearly the idea of the relative merits of looseness and tightness needs re-examinating. The most profound insight in this matter I ever heard came from Paul Delprat. He was talking to a small group of students about this very question. He said "The very best artwork is not loose, and the very best is not tight, the very best artwork happens when an artist tightens up, and tightens up (while he said this he was making twisting gestures with his fingers), and tightens up til nearly at the breaking point, and then he throws it into the wind. It is the release point that is the interesting thing." He is right. You see it in the work of great artists over and over again. It is in the late juicy painterly portraits of Rembrandt, It is in the waterlilies of Monet, it is in the late abstracts of Jackson Pollock. None of them arrived there by trying to let go at the beginning. They got there by gaining mastery over their medium and ideas and at the point of complete control, threw it into the wind and let their unconcious free. That kind of looseness is exciting because it is built on a foundation that was strongly structured at the beginning, and it shows. Fashion requires that the artist be "loose" right at the beginning but that can sometimes get in the way of learning solid basic skills. One of the frustrations of art teaching is that some students over emphasise technical skills when making art, and the others undervalue those same skills. In fact a balance between the two is the hallmark of most interesting art.
• Michelangelo's Rubbish Bin  It is so easy to get discouraged when drawing or painting and it just won't go right for you. Then you look at work by someone like Michelangelo and his work all seems perfect, as if the fellow never struggled as you do. It is an illusion that great artist's never made mistakes when they worked. They all did. There is no such thing as a human being who does not make mistakes and you can bet your boots that there were days when Michelangelo felt like he could do no wrong, but you can equally bet your boots that there were other days when he couldn't make things work like he wanted. You only see the work that he chose to present to the public, but you might be surprised if you could look into his rubbish bin and see the work that went wrong. It is true that the more experienced you get, the less mistakes you make, but you can never eliminate them entirely. So, when a drawing is not what you would like, and you feel like swearing and throwing it in a bin, just remember, Michelangelo also had a rubbish bin, and he also needed to use it. You are more like him than you realise.
• Music Stimulates The Soul  Making art is a very sensual experience. Leonardo da Vinci knew this and Vasari said that he employed musicians to play while he painted. Vasari thought it was merely to entertain the subject - to put a smile on the Mona Lisa for example. Leonardo, however was a superb (and famous) musician himself and understood the way music enlivened his own soul while he worked. Music stimulates memories, it transports the mind to beautiful places, and encourages new ideas to the surface of the mind. Every studio needs a good sound system. I make mixes in iTunes that suit my mood, and then the computer feeds music directly into my stereo so that I can have hours of uninterupted music whenever I work. Alternatively an iPod on shuffle is an excellent way of delivering music to the creative soul.
• Rembrandts Paintbrush  It seems that in Rembrandt's day it was considered uncouth to paint with the fingers, so people noticed that he often would put paint on then smudge it around a bit with his thumb. This method of softening the effect of a paintbrush with a thumb or finger came to be known as using Rembrandt's paintbrush and is a highly recommended method for getting attractive blending of colors and soft edges. Never forget, however, that artist's paints often contain toxic pigments. Never do this if you have any kind of open wound on your hands. Also keep a rag handy - any paint that gets on the fingers or hands should always be immediately wiped off. On the plus side, paint particles are too large to go through the pores of the skin so skin contact with paint should not be harmful - it is turpentine that is the dangerous substance in  this regard, (it should never be on the skin). Never smoke while painting nor eat while painting - both are ways for paint to get from the fingers into the body.
• Restoring Old Brushes  Paint brushes are a huge investment for an artist. I have hundreds of brushes and thousands of dollars invested in them. It is therefore necessary to look after brushes. The old saying is "look after your brushes and your brushes will look after you". Always clean and wash brushes at the end of every painting session. Sometimes brushes get accidentally damaged or get paint dried in the bristles despite your care and attention. Bent bristles on any brush should be carefully cut off with a sharp scalpel blade near the ferrule. and one that is beyond redemption can often be reshaped into a wedge or other new shape to be put among your brushes for experimental work. Oil paint dried into a brush is usually terminal because any solvent srtrong enough to disolve the oil paint is also likely to dissolve the glue in the ferrule, or to soften the bristles themselves to the point of useless for more oil painting. Dried acrylic paint in a brush on the other hand is easy to get rid of. Acrylics always are soluable in alcohol. The most common form is methylated spirits or rubbing alcohol. Soak the brush in the spirits for between 24 and 72 hours dependendin on how much paint is there. Wash the brush in soap and water running the fingernails through the bristles carefully. A fork or fine comb can sometines help. Repeat as necessary.
• There Is No Such Thing As A Truly Muddy Color  It is easy to recognise a "muddy" painting. The colors are drab and lack luster. Unfortunately many artists lay the blame for this purely on the mixing of colors. Using black to darken a color, for example, as if stopping using black will totally stop the production of muddy colors. Now I rarely advocate using pure black pigment to darken colors because there are far more interesting ways of achieving the same result but realistically there is no reason that, if used judiciously, black cannot make beautiful dark colors. It was a common way for many old masters to work, Leonardo da Vinci for example, used mixtures of white, vermilion, ochre, umber, and black to make his flesh tones, yet we do not think of his pictures as being muddy. This is because Leonardo gets his tones right. A muddy color is one that is too grey looking, too neutral. Yet every imaginable color (including all neutral colors) can look beautiful in the appropriate tonal setting. So called muddy colors can look fantastic if the tones are correct. Too often poor tones are misinterpreted as a color mixing problem. it is true that it is a little easier to avoid overly grey colors by avoiding a heavy handed use of black or brown, but there is no substitute for practicing getting your tones just right.
• Using Water Miscible Oil Paints  These paints are a wonderful new innovation for the artist but unfortunately they are often misunderstood. Firstly they are not related to acrylics in any way and do not dry fast like acrylics do. They are like ordinary oil paints and have similar drying times and other characteristics. The only difference is that the oil has been synthetically modified so that the paint is disolved by water instead of turpentine. That is not such an unnatural thing - egg yolk is a natural example of an oily substance with water as a solvent. Egg tempera painting was common practice in the Middle Ages before oil paint came along. Because the linseed oil in the water miscible oil paints dries only slowly then all the traditional oil paint effects like painting wet-in-wet and easy blending of edges can be done just like with conventional oil paints. Winsor And Newton makes the new paints in a wide range of excellent colors plus mediums (including one like Liquin that speeds drying). It is a sensible way of eliminating the toxicity problems associated with turpentine.
• Variety Is The Spice Of Life And Art   Varying weight while using chalk, pencil, or charcoal, or choosing a dip pen or reed pen for pen drawings all helps to make your drawings more exciting for the viewer. Where a pencil line gives emphasis or fades away to nothingness is interesting to the eye. Likewise a dip pen makes a line that varies as the ink runs off the nib making the drawing more interesting to look at. This is why they are generally preferable implements to work with rather than mechanical clutch pencils or pens with an inbuilt supply of ink. The convenience of these is paid for by producing a line that is far less interesting to read.
• Why Realism Is A Good Learning Tool  Both realism and abstraction either fall or stand according to the same criteria. Tone, interesting color contrasts and harmonies, arrangements of patterns and so on. All of this can be learned while painting either realistically or abstractly. The only difference is in how easy it is to learn these things. In a realistic picture it is obvious when things aren't quite right, even to the beginner. In abstract work, however, it is much more difficult for the beginner to see problems and work through solutions. The problems are usually the same, but they are far less obvious to discern. That is why life drawing and simple sketching of things you see is valuable for all artists and all kinds of approaches to art.