Time to focus on color and painting- HELP

[Dizon]

Hi guys, I've been focusing more time on drawing, cuz as we all know, it is fundamental to painting and sculpture. Now, I want to focus more on painting and color, but I am not sure where to start. Can you guys give me some really good tutorials on painting and color? What are basic fundamentals I need to know?


BIG thanks!

Patrick

[DavePalumbo]

what medium are you going to be working in?

[Dizon]

acrylics...tips on mixing the paint?

[Saga]

well, have you tried the very simplest workouts? Say, colorwheels? you can practice mixing the correct tones and develop your brushing technique by not showing any brushstrokes. Then theres tint/shade scales, too. All very boring, but you gotta start somewhere eh?

[fishw]

Gilead and I have been doing an exercise in painting a still life a day (i unfortunately stopped, but it was worth doing and i plan on starting again). I reckon that's the best way to figure stuff out...by working. You can read endless stuff, but untill you actually play around with paint you're not getting far. Give it a go, it's good fun.

[Dizon]

Gilead and I have been doing an exercise in painting a still life a day (i unfortunately stopped, but it was worth doing and i plan on starting again). I reckon that's the best way to figure stuff out...by working. You can read endless stuff, but untill you actually play around with paint you're not getting far. Give it a go, it's good fun.

that's great! Can you give me advice on setting up a still life? I'll be using acrylics BTW. ANy tips on mixing the paints?

THanks! I still need to buy the materials I need. I wanna post my stuff sometime.

[Flynt]

Thought I would chime in with some of how I learned to mix color.

What I found most helpful was Munsell's color model and then how the pigments I had fit into it.

Munsell broke color down into its three components; value (light and dark), hue (primaries and secondaries and all combinations they can make with adjacent primaries and secondaries, ex: red-orange), and chroma (the saturation of a particular hue or lack of saturation - grayed down)

I then began to learn the properties of all my own paints, ex: burnt sienna, med-dark value, mid-low chroma, belongs largely to the orange hue family but leans a bit toward the red hue family.

By knowing what my paints were classified as when I look at a color to be mixed (if I am going for an exact match) I decide on its approximant components of value, hue and chroma and begin to judge the fastest way to reach it from the pigments I have (which is not always possible I might add).

Good luck with your paintings.

-Flynt

[fishw]

Munsell is the man when it comes to colour theory. If you wanna do a bit of reading up check out this very good summary. As for setting up a still life, play around and and keep it simple. Check out Duane Keiser's Postcard paintings for some inspiration. He's been doing dailies for a long time and his progress is great to watch. He uses oils, but i've been using acrylics and i find them ideal for this sort of thing.
Colour mixing...some prefer mixing on the surface itself, i personally prefer mixing most of it on the pallet (seems to make much more sense to me). I add almost no water...water's just for washing the brush clean. Keep to a limited pallet, but try out different pallets. Get to know your paints and how they work basically. Oh, and Prometheus' big tutorial has some info that'll be useful.

[Dizon]

Hi guys. I plan to do some oil painting soon but I'm not at all familiar with its use and the other materials involved. I hope you guys can help me out with this.

What else do I need aside from the paint, canvas and brush when using
this?

What are the potential health hazards involved?

How do I mix the oils?

Thanks!

[Idiot Apathy]

My Advice? Go through this entire thread:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9562
It's the Life Painting Thread. You'll see some pros' dish out the good stuff in there.

And:
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9504
Color Theory Part 1: Fredflickstone
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=9505
Color Theory Part 2: Fredflickstone

Someone already mentions Prometheus|ANJ's tut as well, it's great.

Oh and we should all check out what Flynt recommends, I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about .

[the_allejo05]

hey patzon finally you decided to paint hehe..since im at the school i do more drawing..but i already on the tonal sketches and then i will start on color ones..
to be sincere the book the i read and started painting with oil right after was alla prima by richard schmidt..it help me a lot especially doing those charts..took me like 2 months to finish them..it help me on going for values..
you can use his colors they are great or sometimes get some basic blue, a red , and a yelllow with white and black if you want...my oil instructor who had been painting for 20 years recomended using three primaries to learn to mix.. (with thalo red, thalo blue , cadmium yellow medium, titanum white and ivory black you can get practically many colors, we did a full color wheel with those three.. simply think of yellow as warm and to cool it down add blue and viceversa..you will get used to how strong the blue is..you just have to try it)
the best way before setting still lifes which are very complicated is copy masterworks..is much easier to copy flatworks (painting from life is very hard)..and the best way to paint is being honest and direct to the color you see , you put what you see, learn to mix on the canvas sometimes..draw with your brush..dont be scared to wipe out something that seems wrong...work from dark to light..from simple shapes to small details..think of the whole..(darks keep them transparent or not very thick..lights go thicker.. I use linseed oil and turpentine as mediums..also a good book on painting is the one by harold speed available on dover publications that explains a bit..on the process is kinda cheap..
but mostly is just doing it and doing it until you master the medium..you have strong drawing skills so painting wont be to hard..i also recomend you the one by robert henri the art spirit..it explains that learning techiques is not that important..direct painting (or alla prima ) think of halls ,sargeant,el greco is the basic way of painting..then comes all those glazes and diferent tecniques.. dont mind your brushtrokes to much think of what you are seing and whant to paint..the paint will follow you (sometimes ) i would not recomend you staying to long with acrylics (although i started with that) ,it dries to fast but it will give you a good start on how paint feels..oil is so much fun can be moved around, changed ,erased ,felt is so adicting hehe.
also try some watercolors..(it is hard as hell but the more you learn from one medium it will help you on others..)
oh for brushes try diferent kinds..i started with filberts ,gave a try with flats but now i like rounds i think they are the best but it depends on you..
i know here in the Mims school they use also a limited palette and then eventually we will use a full one but im not there yet)
have fun..

[Dizon]

Thanks for the great advice Allejo! I hope your Atelier training is going smoothly! I will commence painting soon! watch out for my posts!

hey patzon finally you decided to paint hehe..since im at the school i do more drawing..but i already on the tonal sketches and then i will start on color ones..
to be sincere the book the i read and started painting with oil right after was alla prima by richard schmidt..it help me a lot especially doing those charts..took me like 2 months to finish them..it help me on going for values..
you can use his colors they are great or sometimes get some basic blue, a red , and a yelllow with white and black if you want...my oil instructor who had been painting for 20 years recomended using three primaries to learn to mix.. (with thalo red, thalo blue , cadmium yellow medium, titanum white and ivory black you can get practically many colors, we did a full color wheel with those three.. simply think of yellow as warm and to cool it down add blue and viceversa..you will get used to how strong the blue is..you just have to try it)
the best way before setting still lifes which are very complicated is copy masterworks..is much easier to copy flatworks (painting from life is very hard)..and the best way to paint is being honest and direct to the color you see , you put what you see, learn to mix on the canvas sometimes..draw with your brush..dont be scared to wipe out something that seems wrong...work from dark to light..from simple shapes to small details..think of the whole..(darks keep them transparent or not very thick..lights go thicker.. I use linseed oil and turpentine as mediums..also a good book on painting is the one by harold speed available on dover publications that explains a bit..on the process is kinda cheap..
but mostly is just doing it and doing it until you master the medium..you have strong drawing skills so painting wont be to hard..i also recomend you the one by robert henri the art spirit..it explains that learning techiques is not that important..direct painting (or alla prima ) think of halls ,sargeant,el greco is the basic way of painting..then comes all those glazes and diferent tecniques.. dont mind your brushtrokes to much think of what you are seing and whant to paint..the paint will follow you (sometimes ) i would not recomend you staying to long with acrylics (although i started with that) ,it dries to fast but it will give you a good start on how paint feels..oil is so much fun can be moved around, changed ,erased ,felt is so adicting hehe.
also try some watercolors..(it is hard as hell but the more you learn from one medium it will help you on others..)
oh for brushes try diferent kinds..i started with filberts ,gave a try with flats but now i like rounds i think they are the best but it depends on you..
i know here in the Mims school they use also a limited palette and then eventually we will use a full one but im not there yet)
have fun..