posted May 27, 2009 03:45 PM         

As far as subjects, I saw a perfect art piece for my room in that art store. I don't know how it was created, but it looked like wood blocks extruding from the canvas (not a painted illusion, real blocks), and they were painted in a myriad of warm colors. It was framed in dark wood like my new bookcases, so if I had that piece it would allow me to set up my room with quite a few colors without anything clashing. I'm thinking of using that as the inspiration for my first piece. I'm not going to build an artwork like that, but I can use the same multi-colored approach to allow myself a lot of options for decorating my room.

posted May 29, 2009 10:47 PM         

Sorry, it took so long for me to get back.

Basically, you can just start painting on your canvas if you are using acrylics. Priming is really only necessary for oils, though I sometimes prime my canvas (with gesso) for acrylics if i dont want the indentations from the weave of the cotton to show. When using acrylics you can lay it on as thick or thin as you want, so this isnt often a big deal as the weave gets covered up by paint anyway. And sometimes you may want the weave to show through or like the effect it makes. Most of the canvases you would by in an arts and crafts/art store come primed and ready to use. It will say so on the label. You should be good to go. If you do decide to prime with gesso first, have some fine sandpaper ready for when it's dry and lightly sand it down for a smooth surface.

It's up to you what kind of quality paints to get. If I were you I would go to a craft store and pick up an assortment of cheap acrylic paints instead of buying a few basic more expensive colors, because then you have to worry about color mixing too. This way, you have a ready made color palette with as much variety as you choose. For about a dollar each, you can get decent paint already mixed to the colors you want, that will work just fine for what you are doing. Try Folk Art Acrylic Paint, usually found in the woodworking section of arts&crafts stores.
They have some (with a gold label) that they call "Artist Quality" too.

There are all kinds of cool mediums suitable for acrylic paints that can give a wide array of effects to your painting. Liquidex makes some great ones. I like their modelling paste and gel mediums. If you want texture or to try to acheive something like the painting you described above, you could get it with one of these mediums. First you would put the modeling paste on the canvas how ever thick you want and sort of carve out what you are trying to achieve and after it dries paint over it. http://www.dickblick.com/products/liquitex-acrylic-mediums/

Though you dont *have* to with acrylics, you might want to get varnish to put over your finished piece to preserve it's life. I use a gloss medium&varnish at the end. This can also be used throughout the painting's layers to increase depth of color, intensity and transparency. Also it can be mixed with paint to extend the paint and give it better flow - acrylics tend to dry very fast.

Hm....what else can i think of...?

Brushes. Pick up an assorted set of nylon or synthetic brushes. A nice wide Flat for initial washes and large areas and a few different size Rounds would be good along with some smaller Flats or Filberts.

Old combs, brushes, credit cards, string, your fingers, cups, coins (for circles), toothpicks, cheesecloth, bubble wrap, sponges, etc. can give some really cool effects too.

Most important, have fun. I'm sure it will turn out great.

Hope that helped. Keep us posted on your progress and maybe show us how it turned out! Can't wait to see what you come up with from your photography and the projector too.

posted May 30, 2009 03:27 PM         

I noticed that the canvases did say that they were primed.

I saw some wood rounds next to some craft clock mechanics. I had the idea that I could make a Randall clock (copy his round icon on to the face). That would be funny. Not sure if there would be a market for it, though.

I saw some unfinished boxes made to look like books. I thought that would be fun to paint, and use as a place to dump the stuff from my pockets at the end of the day.

Right now all these ideas are going through my head. The painting is still a bit intimidating. The Capricorn/Virgoness in me doesn't really want to waste money wrecking perfectly good canvases.

That projector I've ordered was a really good price. It was at least $20 less than I've seen it at the majority of places.

The site where I got the projector had an interesting medium I wanted to see if you were aware of. It's called Sauce (Saw-oose).

ABOUT SAUCE:
Sauce is unlike any other medium! Pronounced sau-ooce in Russian, it can be used crushed, and applied with stomps or tortillion, drawn as like a charcoal or pastel or blended with water and painted. Its a term refers more to its depth of use and richness in character!

Sauce Sticks have been described as a cross between Conte' and Pastel.

Sauce is primarily a black and white medium with a tonally superior to charcoal. It offers a smooth, velvety appearance possessing great depth, solidity and subtlety. It dissolves in water to become a dense ink too. http://www.madisonartshop.com/sawoboxseof1.html

posted May 31, 2009 08:19 PM         

One thing I still wonder about is ...are acrylic paints thin? Or how do you thin them for a wash?

posted June 01, 2009 09:08 AM         

quote:

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But, then, I have a few
guilty pleasures of my own.

For one thing,
I like to suck eggs.
Is that bad? :d

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*snorts coffee out of nose* Good one Valus

Top poem T!

Just do it AG!!!! And enjoy.

posted June 01, 2009 03:07 PM         

Yeah, i've seen those wooden book boxes. You could buy a distressing and/or crackling medium and make one come out really old and cool looking. I actually have one that I keep my incense & tea-lights in, but i bought it - too lazy to paint one. Theyve got all kinds of neat stuff at Michael's.

Don't be intimidated by painting. You kind of have to force yourself to jump into it, like cold water. What's nice about acrylics is you can paint over a "mistake". it might take a few coats, but it's really hard to screw up with acrylics. If you "wreck" your canvas, take some Gesso and smooth it over the painting and you have a blank slate again! Buy a little bottle of gesso anyway, in case you like part of the painting, but want to cover up another area and start over on it.

Acrylic paint is not thin, you would thin it with water as you paint and because you'll notice it dries quickly you'll want to add some water to your brush when you go back in to pick up more paint. Do NOT let it dry on your brush!! There are also Flow Mediums for acrylic paint you can pick up from Michaels, that will slow drying time and make the paint easier to work with. Water is easiest & cheapest though. Make sure you rinse your brushes thoroughly clean during and especially when you are done painting. If you let acrylics dry on the brush, youve ruined the brush. Acrylics dry to like a plastic and are permanent. Dont get any on your rug.

If you want a watercolor effect keep the paint really thin with water. You can wet your white canvas first with a big flat brush and dab or splatter paint on it and it will give a transparent watercolor effect. This way the paint will spread and flower and do all kinds of things on its own. If you like something the paint did, let it dry before going back into it. It might be tricky for you to know when to let an area dry first or if you should go right into it with another color while still wet. You'll have to play around and get comfortable. Wetting your canvas with water first, then coming in with washes of paint, will give you a nice base of color before you start getting into the details or meat of the painting. Or you can apply it full strength directly from brush to canvas and you'll get thicker textures and stronger color - or a little bit of both. I suggest picking up a gloss medium and applying it over layers of your painting. When the gloss medium dries you go over it with somewhat thinned out color and the underlying layer shines through and gives it a lot of depth and jewel-like richness - thin layers of colors that are able to shine through each other, instead of getting covered up, when you use this medium. You can do this as many times as you want and with as many layers ass you want. It really helps the painting come to life whereas when the acrylics dry on their own they can be kind of flat and dull. Hope that makes sense. You'd have to paint two pictures the same way; doing one without gloss medium/varnish and one with, to see what I mean.

It is good to do some rough sketches of your ideas, some pre-planning and figure out where you are going to place your darks and lights, find points of interest and make it cohesive. It's good to place dark areas next to very light ones and do the same with complimentary colors. You dont want the same tone throughout and even though you migh be useing an entirely different color, it could be the same tone or shade as the next one and that makes for a boring painting. Youre into photography so this probably makes sense. The colors and percentage of light to dark or one complimentary color to another all depends on the mood you are trying to achieve and you'll have to wing it and figure it out as you go. It's good to step away from the painting for awhile, and not look at it for like a day, because when you go back you'll see what your next move to make should be a lot easier than if you didnt. It's like a puzzle or chess game and sometimes it's difficult to figure out what the next move should be. When you put it away for a little while and come back you have ah-ha moments and what needs to be done jumps out at you. Adding just one simple thing or color can really change the entire painting sometimes and you have to compensate for whatever you did afterwards, elsewhere in the painting. There's so much....really you just have to do it and get into it and go with it; let all your inhibitions go. You have to be able to relax and know that you can fix any mistake. It's really important to do a little planning though and then just get into it, dont hold back. If some paint drips somewhere, you might find that it was meant to and leave it there. Try to stay loose and not control every little stroke or you will get frustrated. Make quick confident strokes and in no time you will be comfortable with the medium, see how it works and become "friends" with it and you'll be working together.

posted June 01, 2009 03:15 PM         

quote:

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Do you keep a container with thinner handy to throw your brushes in when you're not using them (while painting)?

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posted June 01, 2009 03:18 PM         

quote:

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I just realized that I have a fabric & craft store, and another paint supplies store also within two miles of my new place. Now I'm going to have to compare prices on the painting supplies.

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posted June 01, 2009 03:21 PM         

...why do my threads always take sharp turns?