Monday's Art Tip 5 - Alternatives to Black

Now, this tip applies to artists that use lines in their work (as I do with my illustrative style), as well as people looking to paint darks and shadows...

The background story - my mother, Diana Battle, is a very talented artist. She can paint beautifully in both oils and acrylics, and is also very confident in pastel and watercolour. The next two paintings (with their enlarged sections on the right) are by Mum.

 

She's always told me there's no need to use black straight out of the tube (in the actual painting, that is - it's still ok to use it as an underpainting or base colour).

She'll choose to use Paynes Grey (which is a very dark navy) or a dark mix of colours, but feels that black out of a tube, like Carbon or Mars Black, is too flat and uninteresting and unneccessary.

So the message is, that using a 'black-substitute colour' creates life in a painting, adding interest and movement.  Here are three black-substitutes that I use often, compared to black, on the bottom right.

Now this tip definitely applies to a realistic-style of painting like Mum's, but it's something I also remember when painting murals - like this recent one here...

At a glance the lines look black, but they're actually painted in Dioxazine Purple (which is my black-substitute of choice). Take a closer look.

Here's a pic of the bottle. I use A LOT of this colour.

And here's a painting I did years ago, where the lines are done in Ultramarine Blue.

In this next painting of proteas (done for a handbag, that's why half is upside down!) the shadows are deep greens and a mix of green with a touch of red (that's another tip - add the complementary colour (from directly opposite on the colour wheel) to darken a colour - ie. add a touch of red to your green and vice versa, add a little purple to your yellow, or blue to your orange... you'll be amazed at how much better it works rather than using a totally different colour from another tube).

I hope that's been interesting! If you're an artist, I'd love to hear about your experiments, and if you're an art-lover, you'll have something more to look for when you see an artwork that you love.

Next week I'm chatting a little about composition. I'm jumping a bit all over the place, but I didn't want to do all the pre-painting tips first. I wanted to give you ideas to use straight away. I certainly hope that is the case!

It's also your REALLY VERY LAST CHANCE to be included in my poppies painting giveaway. Just leave a comment on the Art Tip #3 post here, and I'll be doing the draw this afternoon. Good luck!

Monday's Art Tip 4 - Choose the right white

I first found out that there were different kinds of white many years ago in calligraphy class. We were using gouache paints (a type of opaque watercolour) and I can remember learning that there were four different types of Winsor and Newton whites, and all had different degrees of opacity and permanence.

In my current, painting-in-acrylic world, there are two whites I use all the time. Titanium White and Zinc White. In the pic above I'm holding one of each, and they both come in the tube (Golden Heavy Body) form and the bottle (Golden Fluids).

If you look really closely, just above the colour name on both the tube and the bottle there are three black diagonal lines (the Golden paint people actually handpaint a swash of each paint onto the label) and by painting it over these lines, you can see how transparent or opaque the colour is. You can only just see the lines on the Titanium White tube.

So, now that you know what you're looking for, you can see that Titanium White is quite opaque, while Zinc White is quite transparent. (Just ignore the yellow and aqua splodges on the bottle - things get a bit messy 'round here.)

Great, so how do you use these two types in practice?

Because Titanium White is so opaque, it's great for covering the colours underneath - that means you can paint over parts of your acrylic painting and start again if you need to. I use this white to mix pastel colours and by itself, as one of my last painting stages, to add highlights and my signature 'swirls and curls'.

On the other hand, Zinc White is transparent, which makes it ideal for tints and glazes. To explain a 'tint', understand that when you start with red and add Titanium White, you'll get an opaque, rosy pink. If you add Zinc White, you'll get a transparent, lighter red. I've demonstrated this in the pic below.

I also regularly use Zinc White to overpaint my background colour - to lighten it, without taking away all the colour.

I used this technique to 'knock' the background back on each of the poppy paintings I featured last week.

Don't forget there's another week before I draw the winner of my Poppies Painting Giveaway. So, if you're keen, just leave a comment on this post, telling me which painting you prefer. Great, thanks for that.

Next week, I'll talk about a few alternatives to black and whether you should be using black at all. I can see you're on the edge of your seat!

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If you're interested in buying some of the white paint I've talked about, read on...

FREE POSTAGE plus a free gift

Some brands of paint may not have the Zinc White option, and some may call it by another name, but I do stock both of these whites - and I'm offering FREE Australian POSTAGE for THIS WEEK on any purchase of white Golden Acrylic paint.

I'll also include a free trial size of another Golden paint colour. So if you're interested, just  email me with your order and I'll send you my bank details.

GOLDEN Heavy Body Titanium White (tube) $13.20 AUD

GOLDEN Fluid Acrylic Titanium White (bottle) $20.35 AUD

 

GOLDEN Heavy Body Zinc White (tube) $13.20 AUD

GOLDEN Fluid Acrylic Zinc White (bottle) $20.35 AUD

They are lovely, lovely paints to use, so thanks for your interest!

On Golden watch

As you know, I really enjoy using the amazing Golden range of paints, and that's why I sell it in my Shiny Happy Art online shop, but I have to say I still get a buzz when I'm browsing blogs and I spy a Golden stash in a photo - and it's from the studio of an artist I admire.

The above photo is of David Band's Golden paint collection. His work is symbolic and abstract but I particularly admire the textures and techniques used for his colour blocks. And you can see the influence of Matisse (my favourite artist) in some of his line works.


More info on David and his art and design, see the Real Living blog here.

FREE POSTAGE on all Golden Paints, Gels and Mediums

Yep, I haven't made a big enough deal about it - until now.

Tell your friends, tell your mum, tell your artist neighbour... Golden paints are available from Shiny Happy Art and there's no postage charge 'til the end of Feb 2010.

Quite simply, I was introduced to Golden Paints a couple of years ago by my dear friend (and artist who's work features prominently in my home) Nic Hohn, and I liked them so much I didn't quite 'buy the company', but through my Shiny Happy Art business, I became a retailer of a range of Golden paints, gels and mediums.

At the time, I was opening the studio in front of my house most Sundays (there are advantages to living on a highway!) and I had Nic and Kym Breeze helping me and selling their art also.

So I bought the whole kit and kaboodle. Display racks, lovely boxes of stock, all ordered from the US and taking months to choose and have delivered... and then, as the universe usually conspires to do, it was time to have my daughter who is now 2 and a half.

I kept up the pace for quite a while. We even had a joint exhibition up in the studio when my bub was just 3 months old. But with 3 kids at home, and then my husband heading off to Afganistan for 4 months and the website taking A LOT longer to get up and running than I had originally envisaged (another long story) the studio just got too much for me, my helpers moved away and/or got full time jobs, and things changed. And then they changed even more when my latest little girl (nearly 8 months old) came along.

Now, I'm not overly worried, because these beautiful paints can wait for their discerning owners. They are neatly displayed on their racks waiting... waiting....

And the studio will be open again sometime in the next couple of years! (We've just got to teach a couple of little ones that nighttime is for sleeping...)

From time to time people call or email a Golden order through, and I love having the paints here at my disposal, but I need to decide if I'm going to continue to reorder, or just sell what I have.

So, if you've ever wanted to try Golden paints, now's a great time to go for it.

• I painted the paintings at the top of this post ('A Very Special Occasion' and 'Innocence') using Golden Paints. The gold colour on the green background of 'Innocence' is Golden Iridescent Gold Fluid and it is fabulous to use (and it should be for $35 - it is also a great gift for an arty friend - you can always find a good use for gold paint!).
  

• Read glowing reviews of Golden Paints by other artists at the American Dick Blick's site here.

• And mixed media artist Kelly Rae Roberts loves Golden too (see, here's a pic of her desk!).I like what artist, Kiandra Jimenez, says of them -

- the paint will last in the tube till the last drop. if you take care of your tubes, close them up properly...your paint will not dry in the tube.

- every tube has a hand painted color swatch on the tube so that you can see the color and the translucency of the paint...this is so valuable in choosing your paint colors...you have to be educated about the paints in order to mix colors properly

- I can honestly say that using these products have made me more passionate about painting again...the possibilities...the ways they are constantly pushing the limits and boundaries of painting is astonishing.

All that and the postage is FREE (in Australia) til the end of February.

So I hope I have what you want in stock. Even if you pick your favourite colour and then just pick whether you'd prefer 'fluid' (like runny cream) or 'heavy body' (like oil paint consistency), and order it just to play with, you won't regret it.

All orders are wrapped with care and I always try to include a little extra something for you, and I also draw on the packaging - so you can really look forward to receiving your 'Golden' in the mail.

If you're a Toowoomba local, you can come and browse for yourself! Just call me and we'll make a time.

OK, gushing Golden blog post is now over.

Tomorrow I may tell you about interesting things like the bottle of olive oil I dropped in front of the fridge (pictured below being mopped up with oats because I googled it and someone suggested 'oatmeal' would help, so I tried oats instead, and it worked ok) today... and we'll resume normal programming. (I do have a Valentines Card idea to show you - and I promise it'll be interesting!)


May the creativity be with you.

What's happening here?

Today I'm going to attempt to finish painting some aprons for the school fair this weekend. They'll be worn by the helpers on the cafe stall, and then (hopefully) sold. I've done 3 already and am seriously enjoying painting on fabric again (mixing my lovely Golden paints with some textile medium and then ironing to heatseal). There's not as much prep or cleanup as screenprinting, so might have to have a little play around on a calico coloured tote I'm using as the girl's nappy bag... but right now bub's awake and there's a pile of folding that's threatening to topple and block out the sun. Must be off.

Kelly has Golden and Lauren has Claudia

Here's some visual evidence that the lovely Kelly Rae uses the lovely Golden products that I stock in my studio for sale. I do enjoy the layers and expression in her work, along with the colour! My shiny happy art website is nearly done, and the Golden products will be easily available there soon. I will also be adding them to my anna bartlett site in their own category in the meantime. I really do enjoy using the fluids and the gesso is like the most divine cream...

Enough of that. My sister gave birth to a baby girl called Claudia this afternoon and I'm really chuffed to be an aunty again. It's exciting to think that her daughter and mine could grow up together. I do like being a girl and I like knowing what these brand new little girls have to look forward to!