Paint Colors for Still Life Fruit

093007 Artist Kenneth John KEN

when i paint fruit, i use these colors, not all the time, but these will give you an idea. titanium or zinc white plus:

pears - cadium yellow pale(or cadium yellow light), cadium yellow deep(or yellow ochre), dioxazine purple. some pears still have a green hue to them, touch these yellow colors with any blue or green.

apples - cadium red, alizarin crimson, cadium yellow pale and sap green (or viridian green).

oranges - cadium orange, cobalt blue, cadium yellow deep, cadium yellow pale.

plums - alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cadium red

bananas - same as pears, except use yellow ochre

watermelon - sap green, alizarin crimson, cadium red, cadium yellow pale

peaches - cadium yellow deep, cadium red

this set of paintings, the backgrounds were made with chromium oxide green and cobalt blue.

Vancouver Canada

Vancouver Canada Coast

092807 Artist Kenneth John KEN

i have only been to canada once, on the west coast, north of vancouver. this is what i can remember of it for this painting entitled canadian coast.

11x14" canvas panel, palette-ultramarine blue, cadium red, yellow ochre, cadium yellow pale, zinc white.

kenpaintings.com

Titanium White versus Zinc White

092707 Artist Kenneth John KEN

the main differences between the two whites is that the titanium white is much stiffer and more opaque, where zinc white is much more smoother, but it's weaker(won't brighten the colors as easily) and a little bit more transparent than titanium. a lot of companies are making what is called soft white, which is a mixture of both. you have to find your preference after a lot of experimenting.

i prefer zinc white because when you use painting knives like i do, instead of brushes, the zinc is much more easier to manipulate and smoother than titanium. titanium white is real pasty out of the tube and when you lift your knive from the canvas, it sticks up and looks like you put a toothbrush on the end. it will do that with zinc too, but not as much. so you have to practice and conscientiously be aware of not lifting straight up from the canvas. this applies to brushes also, when you finish the stroke, you want it to blend, not be choppy.

these little fruit paintings, my customers have told me they love them in the kitchen.

kenpaintings.com

Frederick Waugh

092607 Artist Kenneth John KEN

master artist frederick waugh is probably the best known seascape artist. his paintings look so real and are mesmirizing to look at. look him up for your homework! there is a walter foster book that has about 30 of his paintings in it, but you can also find many images and info on the internet.

kenpaintings.com

Adobe Photoshop

092507 Artist Kenneth John KEN

i love working in adobe photoshop. i started with adobe photoshop 2 in the mid 90's. and have used every version since, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, cs, cs2, but not the newest version cs3. since i no longer am involved with education world, i don't get the free copies anymore! :-(

it's so much fun to create and it is a necessity for artists now. the painting i did below, finished it about 10 minutes ago, snapped a quick digital picture, took it into photoshop, adjusted the levels of black and white, adjusted the skew and warp, cropped it, saved it in a .jpg file and the proper pixel size for this blog and put it on my website, took about 10 minutes. but don't get discouraged if it takes you a lot longer, i have taught photoshop for 12 years at the college level, but even still a lot of my former students are much more advanced at the program now then i am, i know the basics and intermediate level real well, they have moved on to the advanced levels.

if you are new to graphics in ANY form and going to invest in some graphic software, start with photoshop, it is the industry standard for bitmap or raster graphics.

kenpaintings.com

Small Seascape Paintings

Small Seascape Paintings

092407 Artist Kenneth John KEN

4x4, 4x5, 4x6, 4x8, 5x7, 6x6, 6x8, 8x8 canvas panels. i like the one in the upper left, the 4x6, i will make a larger one of that.

palette was cobalt blue, cadium red, cadium yellow pale, cadium yellow deep

kenpaintings.com

Rhythm Flow Using Contrasts

092307 Artist Kenneth John KEN

close your eyes. open them and what is the first thing you see? no, this is not a psychology exam, but a practice to see where your viewer eyes are going when they first look at your art. their/your eyes are going to be attracted to the highest contrast. but contrast isn't unique only to value, light/shade, black/white. you can have contrast of warm/cool colors, size and proportion of shapes, color schemes, directional pointers, etc.

what i am getting at is that you need to control your viewer's eyes in the overall composition of your paintings and in graphic design work. this is called rhythm flow. you want there eyes to go to the first object, then the next and ultimately back to the original contrast so they have viewed and scan the whole painting or graphic. otherwise they just jump around the canvas or picture plane with a big ????

where to place the first contrast? generally speaking, as an art rule goes, make a tic tac toe on your picture plane, the 4 places where the lines cross is usually the best place for it.

in my painting below, i have the viewer looking at the crashing wave first (value contrast), then it flows to the sunset (warm-cool contrast), moving left to the edge, then down to the bottom rocks (shape and value contrast), follows the shoreline(directional pointer) to the next set of rocks, then back to the wave breaking. after that first impression, then the viewer will look at all the other areas, such as the sky overall or the hills in the background, the shore reflections and other details.

kenpaintings.com

Bob Ross

092207 Artist Kenneth John KEN

one of my inspirations in art and teaching has been watching bob ross on pbs television . i started watching him in the mid 80's and i am not the only one, even after his passing, he is still as popular as ever. i think i have seen every episode at least a half dozen times. the first thing that is so wonderful about him is that he inspires you to paint. he makes you feel that you can do it too. makes it look so simple, but as we all know it's just not that easy. his teaching delivery is something i always tried to emulate when i was a professor of graphic arts at community college. even in the instructional dvd's that i have made, you can occasionaly hear me use some of his humor and sayings "it's your world, make it the way you want it", "let's get real crazy here" and so on.

i also love the way he paints, in that he creates his paintings from his memories and mind, he doesn't use pictures or lays out a detailed drawing. he just let's things happen and doesn't get frustrated with a lot of details or corrections. a lot of beginning painters get frustrated because they do sweat and fuss too much over trying to make their paintings look real. when you do paint with no hesitation or worries, you paint quickly, have a very loose impressionistic style and most of all you have fun. you don't have to paint exactly like bob ross, you will find your own style too. it's much, much more important to focus on creativity then trying to paint a realism painting to begin your art career.

here's a very loose, fast, impression painting i did yesterday and i had fun with it.

kenpaintings.com

Standard Frame Sizes

092107 Artist Kenneth John KEN

pre-made or generic frame sizes can be found in any place that sells frames. so when you buy or sell paintings you need to know what is readily available other than a custom frame. the most common frame opening sizes for paintings are 8x10", 11x14", 16x20", 18x24" and 24x36". the next group of standard frame sizes are 5x7", 9x12", 12x16", 20x24". any other sizes, you pretty much have to have a custom frame made, which can be very expensive. most of the generic frames are now made and imported from tijuana, mexico.

these two paintings i did the last couple of days, the first is 11x14", absolutely no problem finding a frame, you can pick them up anywhere, new or used. the second is 8x16" which would require a custom frame because very few manufacturer's make that size in standard sizes.

kenpaintings.com

Loose Impression Style

092007 Artist Kenneth John KEN

sometimes you just look at a blank toned canvas (i tone mine with alizarin crimson or cadium red and odorless paint thinner) and you can see a painting in them. when i am at the beach, on certain days you can see the iceplant and other wildflowers blooming. this painting is my thoughts of some wild red flowers rising in the sun and blowing in the wind!

the loose impression style painting stroke is basically using vertical strokes and horizontal strokes to create contrast. greens were made with ultramarine blue and cadium yellow pale, toned down with alizarin crimson and yellow ochre.

kenpaintings.com

Humboldt County

091907 Artist Kenneth John KEN

the humboldt county area of northern california provides plenty of wave action for seascape painters, here's two of my impressions. palette was ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, yellow ochre, cadium yellow pale and zinc white.

_____

kenpaintings.com

Practice Your Color Schemes

091807 Artist Kenneth John KEN

pick up a design for artists and craftsman type book and scan some of the black and white abstract designs into your computer. print them out and use any media to color or use a program like adobe photoshop to practice your color schemes, relationships and harmonies. i used a great book by louis wolchonok from 1953 and took a few of his fantastic geometric designs and added a bit of color.

kenpaintings.com

Color with Fruit

091707 Artist Kenneth John KEN

an afternoon painting fruit impression oils. you can use your full pallette of colors when you paint fruit, all the fruit colors and the backgrounds can be complementary colors or just about any hue.

titanium white, cadium yellow deep, cadium yellow pale, cadium orange, cadium red deep, alizarin crimson, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, sap green, viridian green, dioxazine purple. this is my palette after doing 8 small paintings.

kenpaintings.com

painting Point Loma California

091607 Artist Kenneth John KEN

i painted a 20x30" fredrix stretched canvas this morning. it is my memories of point loma near the tidepools in california that i visited earlier this week. my palette is zinc white, ultramarine blue, sap green, cadium red deep and yellow ochre.

kenpaintings.com

Paintings for sale at ebay ID: kenp

kenpaintings.blogspot.com

youtube.com/seascapeKen

myspace.com/kenpaintings

The Sea Live

091407 Artist Kenneth John KEN

one of the greatest things that is common amongst artists is their observations skills of the world around them. when i learned to draft in construction years ago, i could and still do, walk around and i see all the perspective lines back to the horizon. other observations of light and shade, atmospheric perspective, why people look a certain way, what catches my eye first, and on and on and on.

i visited san diego for a few days and most always end up at point loma, it has great dramatic views as the ocean hits against the rocks and cliffs. today i was surprised to see the water very muddy, had to have been dirt sliding into the sea from the cliffs, but the area hadn't any recent rain?? it was high tide and the waves were not very big. a lot of the shore rocks were covered, so most of the water was up to the cliffs.

here's two pics from the same spot, first is looking south, the second looking north.

_____

kenpaintings.com

Oil Painting Drying Time

091107 Artist Kenneth John KEN

normally i wait until the surface of the painting is dry to scan them digitally. but for this blog i have been taking a picture with the camera. my scans come out much crisper and higher resolution. the problem with my paintings is when they are wet, they are so highly reflective. you definately cannot use the flash and the lighting has to be just right, which i can't seem to find. maybe one of these days...

the paintings usually take about 3-4 weeks to dry, depending on the outside weather, the hotter the shorter time to dry. i paint really thick, so even though the surface is dry, underneath they will take a few months. the beauty of oil paints is that they dry slowly. the beast of oil paints is that they dry slowly. the beauty of acrylics is that they dry quickly. the beast of acrylics is that they dry quickly.

8x16" cobalt blue, cadium red, yellow ochre, cadium yellow pale

11x14" cobalt blue, cadium red, yellow ochre, cadium yellow pale

kenpaintings.com

Small Size Canvas Panel Paintings

091007 Artist Kenneth John KEN

i painted this little 6x8" canvas panel. pallette-zinc white, cobalt blue, cadium red deep and cadium yellow deep. painting on these small canvases accomplishes several things: the paintings sell quickly, because of a low price and hopefully you make one patron happy so they will buy more in the future and spread the word about you to others. the painting can be a workup for a bigger painting. the painting can be a test of new color schemes, compositions, etc. if you fail, your not losing much financially or ego wise. or perhaps the painting itself is good enough to sell prints of it. they don't take as much time as a bigger painting, but you still struggle just as much to make it interesting.

most days in the studio is a struggle. some days are less and some more. painting is not easy. when i leave the studio sometimes i feel as if i just took a school achievement test, like the SAT or ACT, totally wears you out mentally. when you paint bad, you want to quit, get depressed, feel sorry for yourself, wondering why you even try. look for a part of the painting you did do right. or you need to stay away for awhile, start studying again, analyze and learn from the mistakes and make the next one better. in drawing the saying goes " the bad lines lead to the good lines" and that can be applied to painting also, the bad paintings will lead you to the good paintings.

i like the color scheme and warm-cool balance of the painting.

kenpaintings.com

Paintings for sale at ebay ID: kenp

kenpaintings.blogspot.com

youtube.com/seascapeKen

myspace.com/kenpaintings

Early American Landscape Painters

Early American Landscape Painters

Artist Kenneth John KEN

090907

one of my valued customers bought a seascape painting from me and bought an alfred addy seascape. most of his work was late 1800's to early 1900's. it's beautiful and i see some things i need to work on and some things i do right. transparency of the breaking and splashing water is very difficult, i have been working on it for years, it's especially hard with painting knives, where everything is so opaque. look at the two alfred addy's below.

_____

i love to view how the mid 1900's - current american landscape artists, paint seascapes.

i painted this yesterday in my studio with the thoughts of the above seascapes in mind, but not looking directly at. a 14x18" stretched canvas.

pallette-zinc white, ultramarine blue, alizarin crimson, cadium yellow pale and yellow ochre.

kenpaintings.com

Paintings for sale at ebay ID: kenp

kenpaintings.blogspot.com

youtube.com/seascapeKen

myspace.com/kenpaintings

Art Composition

composition on a 12x36" canvas is difficult, there is not a whole lot of ways to make the panaramic view different. i struggled with the composition, and color, particularily with the greens. i started with the colors:

ultramarine blue

cadium red deep and touches of alizarin crimson on the flowers.

cadium yellow pale, but ended up with cadium yellow also.

the blue and yellow pale mixed greens are too rich and saturated and the cadium yellow mix is too dull, but i found the mix of both to finish off the left side which came out much better on the green hues.



i painted this entirely without drawing, just let it happen, thinking about the river inlets along the coast of the northwest united states. the wildflowers were put in to for eye flow, composition, warm-cool balance. i am disappointed in my values.

my new order from dickblick.com of new big stretch canvases is due. 12x36"are different, difficult and they also require a custom frame.

Digital Graphics

a few years back, a full time artist told me that you will spend half your time with your art and the other half trying to sell it. i think she was being nice, i see it as 10 percent working in your art and 90 percent trying to sell it.

yesterday, i spent the whole day working with video editing, photo editing and web page editing. at least i have a background in computer graphics, so i don't have to spend any time learning all the basics. i use adobe premiere for video editing, adobe photoshop for photo editing and adobe/ macromedia dreamweaver for web editing.

i painted this two weeks ago. it reminds me of northern california and oregon somewhere along the coast, with the pines and spruces. i like the way the trees came out and will attempt another northern coast painting on a 12x36 stretched canvas today.

California Seascape Impression Painting

i painted and video taped a 24x36 seascape painting on a stretched canvas that i salvaged from a yard sale. it had one of those hotel/motel paintings on it. i painted and toned the canvas with alizarin crimson. the colors i used are:

ultramarine blue

alizarin crimson

yellow ochre

cadium yellow pale

i am slowly understanding why robert wood used mostly the primary colors for seascapes. the grays and browns are those you just can't get by using umbers and siennas.

watch the video at my website kenpaintings.com or seascapeKen at youtube.

Seascape Oil Painting

good morning

i am going to paint a seascape on a 24x36 stretched canvas today, should take me about 2.5 hours. i paint fast. i will video tape it. go to my home, kenpaintings.com to learn more about me while i get the hang of this blog and build this site.

i am also seascapeKen at youtube.com and kenpaintings at myspace.com

i paint best in the morning when i am fresh and uncluttered about events that affect you during the day.