Painting Videos Now Up!

Half Dozen- 12" x 20"- oil,  by Greg Newbold

The landscape painting tutorials I filmed with the Kimball Art Center are now up on YouTube. The painting contest for grades K-12 goes from now until November 17th, 2013. Students can upload their paintings to the Kimball Art Center site here. I am told there will be prizes. Here is a link to all of the videos.


The lighting was not as bright as I had hoped, but it was done in house on a budget and overall, I like the results. The information I share will be very helpful if you have beginners in your house or if you just want to check out how I painted this one. Disclaimer: the final painting was finished up in oils since I will be sending it to my gallery.

Kimball Art Center Video Tutorial

Half Dozen- Oil over Acrylic, 12" x 20" by Greg Newbold

Last week I had the chance to film a painting demo for the Kimball Art Center in Park City, Utah. They hare holding a painting context for children in grades K-12 in conjunction with their current exhibit "Painters of the Wasatch Mountains". Children will have an opportunity to enter their own lansdscape painting and have a chance at prizes.

Blue taped filming area with my equipment set up

The goal was to break down the painting of a landscape into segments that were each 2-5 minutes long and to make it understandable for young kids without boring older students. Easier said than done. I divided things into segments such as materials, choosing a subject, basic color mixing, value patterns, blocking in, pushing and pulling and finishing up.

The camera was above me on a tripod.

We determined it would be best to paint the demo in acrylic paint even though most of my landscape work is oil paint. We decided that acrylic would be the most readily available of any medium and be the most versatile for younger kids.

my hands were the only part filmed- OK by me.

where the acrylic painting stopped at the end of filming

Filming took place over two afternoons (due to some camera issues) and then I finished the painting up at home. I actually did paint the final layer in oil, but most kids wont understand the difference or even be able to tell when the final painting is flashed on screen. After getting the painting back in the studio, I decided to add some interest and color to the far background. It felt a little too flat, so I added a tree line and some blue hills.

Thanks to Jenny Diersen, Educational Director at the Kimball Art Center as well as the rest of the staff who helped make this an enjoyable experience for me. I would do it again anytime.

I am still waiting to see the final cuts of the demo and I will post the links when I get them. 

Inventing Color from Black and White Reference

I did this as a demo for my Illustration 1 students to explain how I make the jump to a full color palette when working from black and white reference. I think this is a valuable exercise for any artist as it forces you to think outside of the box instead of relying on whatever colors are in your photo reference. This challenge was probably as beneficial for me as it was for the students. First, I found a photo that I had taken  at the Getty Museum of a Roman sculpture.

I liked the way the light played across the various planes of the head and the structure of his head was appealing. I knew that working from black and white would force me to think about the basics of color so I set a couple of parameters for myself. One was that I would consciously create a temperature shift from light to shadow and that regardless of the colors I chose, meaning that if the light source I defined was cool, I would paint the shadows warm and vice versa.  I would also maintain a strong value pattern from light to dark. Given these guidelines, I also wanted consciously chose colors that I do not normally work with, forcing myself to invent palettes out of my comfort zone.

The results were delightful and surprising. I found myself fully enjoying the experimentation and being excited by the way certain colors looked against others. Although in some respects the color palettes are not natural, I think they are all believable for the reasons I set as parameters from the beginning: the value patterns were maintained and the color temperature shifts from light to shadow. Each of these versions also has its own unique mood as well. This is an oversimplification of the concept of temperature shifts and they can often times be more subtle than what I did here. Creating color studies like these can be valuable in defining what you want to achieve in a particular piece. These head studies are 4" x 5.5" and I took about an hour and a half to paint each one.

Master Illustrator Copy part 2

My version of N.C. Wyeth's Treasure Island endpaper (detail).

In my last post, I showed my version of a J.C. Leyendecker painting. Here's my copy of a classic Wyeth image. As I painted, I determined that Wyeth must have given a slight warm tint to the canvas or possibly he was using a warmer version of black since his darks have a warmer cast than my version. 

Here again, the scale and medium used in the Wyeth piece are vastly different since my exercise was painted roughly 7" x 10" and Wyeth's is likely somewhere between 30" to 48" in width. Mine is Acryla brand gouache and Wyeth painted in oil. That said, it was very fun challenge to try to capture Wyeth's brush strokes and value arrangement.  

Using Gold (Metal) Leaf

Detail of my distressed metal leaf frame

I'm starting a new portrait commission for a client/friend of mine Jeff Dinardo. I wanted to do something that looks like an Old World artifact, so that included creating some sort of gold leafed frame and panel to paint on. It will be a portrait reminiscent of an Italian Renaissance painting, so the old look is certainly in order. If you have never used foil leaf or any kind of antiquing, I recommend giving it a try. It's not as hard as you might think once you get the hang of it. I show this process in depth in my painting video "Conquer Your Acrylic Demons, so you can check it out there as well.

These supplies are readily available at craft and art supply stores as well as online. If you can't find these brands I am sure other brands will work equally well. It took me a couple tries to start getting the results I wanted.

Liquitex acrylic color (I chose a Red Oxide and Taupe mixed together, but about any contrasting color will work)
Old World Art- Gold Leafing Kit # 831
Jo Sonja's Decor Crackle
Sandpaper

Here's a sequence of how I applied the gold foil (it's just gold colored metal as real carat gold would be ridiculously expensive).

First, I sanded and prepared the panel. It was a little bit rough to start with so I worked it smoother. This seems sort of counter productive since things only got rougher from there. Step two, was to mix up a brick red acrylic color to coat the frame with.This coat of  serves two two purposes.

First it seals off the wood a little bit and second it gives a contrasting color that peeks through gaps in the metal leafing. Step three was to use the decor crackle to leave a layer that would crack. I put it on under the leafing since I wanted the gold to show the distressing. You brush it on and leave it as it immediately starts to crack and working it just messes with the crackle pattern. You can put it on thick or thin. The thicker the layer, the wider and deeper the crackle pattern.

Once the crackle is completely dry, you can move onto the next step which is to apply the metal leaf. First, apply the gold leaf adhesive with a brush. It goes on like very fluid rubber cement. Be sure to clean the brush thoroughly as the adhesive will gum up a brush when dry. The next step is to apply the metal leaf. The foil is whisper thin, so you need to take care in application. I used a soft 2" brush to aid the application process. I did not want an even application, so I purposely laid it down with gaps and cracks in order to give the appearance of a distressed  and aged surface. If there are spots that are not covered enough, I go back and add a little foil. It took me about 6-7 sheets of the foil to cover the whole frame edge.

The frame is currently too shiny for my taste, so next, I will glaze it down with a brownish acrylic glaze and rub it back, leaving "grime in the cracks and accentuating the crackle texture.. I also plan on sanding areas and adding more distressing. I'll show this in the next post along with the drawing which has been approved by the collector.


Part 1 of this project
Part 2 of this project
Part 3 of this project
Part 4 of this project (finish)

Have a Scary Halloween!

Clown-Fish; 5" x 5" acrylic on paper, by Greg Newbold

Here's another one of my goofy fish that I finished just yesterday. It seemed appropriate for Halloween. This one is a little creepier than usual, but still pretty funny. It's getting shipped off to a fundraiser for the Westmont Museum of Fine Art in Santa Barbara, California. Everyone was given a 5" x 5" piece of BFK paper to do anything they wanted on. My friend Scott Anderson teaches art there and when I saw his contribution, I was a little embarrassed by my previous effort. It was a fun drawing, but not typical of my painted work. I asked for another shot and this is what came out of it. I did it as a demo for my Illustration 1 class at BYU. I have seen a few on the pieces for this show posted online and I think a few people are going to end up getting some little gems. I'm tempted to bid myself.

Conquer Your Acrylic Demons- Now Available!

You may have noticed a link button to the right of my blog for my new instructional art video Conquer Your Acrylic Demons which is now available at Folio Academy.com. Though it has been up online for a week or two, this post marks the official launch. The video contains three hours filled with me creating an entire painting in acrylic and explaining every step along the way.  I am really excited to share it with you and hope you will all take the time to check out the sample clips here. Folio Academy was recently launched by my fellow artist friends Will Terry and Wayne Andreason and it is geared to fill the gap between traditional art instruction and the dubious quality of most free art videos you may find online on sites like YouTube. All Folio Academy videos offer instruction from professional artists and illustrators who make their living creating art full time. I am proud to join this group of inspiring and accomplished artists. The online site is set up a bit like itunes in that once you purchase a video, it is yours to access and watch whenever you want, as often as you want. You can also "gift' videos to that budding artist in your life. There are instructional courses for all ages and ability levels. Please take a minute to check out Folio Academy's courses. I think you will be impressed with and interested in what you see.

Let me know what you think!

New Painting Video Sneak Peek!

I just got  the news that my new painting video "Conquer Your Acrylic Demons is nearing launch. Here's a sneak peek of the YouTube trailer. The piece featured in the video can be seen in this previous post. I'll clue everyone in on where to buy it as soon as it launches.

Help- My Video Needs a Title!

Devil Fish (detail)- acrylic on board.

I just got word today that my painting in acrylic tutorial video is nearing the end of the editing process. I will be doing some audio overdubbing and then finishing touches will go on and it will be ready to sell. We are projecting a launch sometime in the next 2-3 weeks. Only one thing is missing. I need to come up with a catchy title that acts both as a teaser to lure in interest and as a descriptor that gives enough info to let viewers know what this video is all about. I'd love your brilliant suggestions for a video title. The video is an acrylic painting demonstration of the above image. It needs to be catchy and make clear that it deals with painting traditionally in acrylic. My first thought was something having to do with the little Devil-Fish I painted (Devil in the Details?) Still percolating- help me out! If I choose your title, I'll figure out something cool to send you as a reward.

Angel-Fish

Angel-Fish, 9" x 9" Acrylic and metal foil.

Anyone following this blog has probably noticed a bit of an obsession with fish. It started out innocently enough with a small demo painting of a fat fish for a class I was teaching and has since morphed into a series of progressively goofier fish since then. To date I have painted over a half dozen of these critters and I am sure there are more to come. Click the links below to see some of the others in this crazy fish family.

Cat-Fish
Dog-Fish
Angler Fish
Devil-Fish

Filming a Video Tutorial

Devil-Fish- 9" x 9" Acrylic and metal leaf

Last Friday I filmed my first art instructional video. As I mentioned in a post last week, I created a new version of my "Devil-Fish" demo painted in acrylic. We laid down about 5 hours of raw video and it will be edited down to somewhere around three hours of instruction. I go through the process of creating an entire painting and I show how I work along with some tips and tricks.

Getting set up to film. The live camera area was inside the blue tape.

Starting from a sketch I progress through initial washes of color, applying texture, creating a faux distressed gold leaf frame, building up the image layers and putting down final touches. It was a lot of fun as I worked to talk about why I do certain things, and explain what it takes to create a successful painting.The raw footage that I saw was expertly filmed and I think people will get a great view of how I typically work in acrylic.

The working set-up. I could reach for anything 

I needed out of camera shot and bring it into the shot.

I have a few finishing touches to put on the fish for a final shot and maybe a few voice over dubs in order to finish up. As soon as it is put together and launched, I will let you know how you can get your very own copy.