PAINTING TIPS part two
. The basics of colour are value, hue, saturation and temperature. The value of a colour is how light or dark it is. The hue refers to the colour itself as it appears on the spectrum of colours. The saturation is the strength or purity of the colour. The temperature of a colour is how cool or warm a colour is. For instance a cool colour is blue and a warm is red.
You can paint impasto, or in glazes if you like. Impasto means you put a lot of paint and lay it with bristle brushes, in a way that the brushwork is easily visible. The painting is lively but after the paints have dried it’s difficult to paint over them. The method is used for an ala prima painting as for example were the paintings of the impressionists. On the other hand when you paint in glazes you must use very thin layers of paint. It was typical of the academic painting and the painting of the low countries of the 17th century, with 7 layers of paint.
You may use some of the tips that are following.
Organize your palette. Keep your paints in a standard place. From right to left: White-lemon –deep yellow-ochre- raw sienna-burnt sienna- orange- vermillion-cadmium red- alizarin crimson- burnt umber- vandyke brown-ultramarine blue-thalo blue. In this way you can reach them without difficulty.
When you paint “fat over lean”, because the layers above dry faster than the layers beneath and the colours may crack later, you must increase the proportion of oil medium with every layer you put on the canvas. The reason for doing this is that the layers below absorb some oil from the layers above.
You had better use original pigments, not hues because they are stronger.. Some colours containing led or cobalt speed up drying. If you work in layers you may use such colours in the first layers.
After a gesso priming you may cover the surface with linseed oil or poppy oil ,even a Bob Ross transparent medium in case you work wet-on-wet. In this way you will avoid patches of uneven gloss.
When you finish your painting turn it against the wall so that it doesn’t absorb any dust. When it has dried sufficiently, don’t put it in the wardrobe because it may become yellowish, since some oil come to the surface.
Don’t put too much oil medium when you paint because it may cause deforming of the paint that can not keep its place on the canvas. Use clear spirit that doesn’t leave residue, or smell. Clean your brushes with some spirit, and afterwards with soap liquid. If you intend to paint again soon you may avoid the second cleaning and put the brushes in some olive oil. The remaining paint may be kept fresh in the freezer for a few days.
It is often recommended when composing a painting, that you use an odd number of elements. No one is exactly sure why this works. One theory is that a viewer mentally groups even elements together thereby breaking up the composition. An excellent method for creating a focal point in your painting is by using colour. For instance, you could have a painting that is predominantly blue and make the focal point stand out by using yellow. This warm yellow will stand out against the cool blues in the rest of the painting.
