Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Farm Geese, Toulouse Geese, Art tip #9

" Going Places"
Day 1
Oil on linen
Here's a painting I began yesterday with a general rough-in around the birds. Everything is pretty soft so far, I didn't want to leave any hard edges until I get the geese roughed in. I am using a pre-mixed palette. I had some fun comments the last time I posted the stages of a painting. Usually I don't like to show a painting until its finished. But here in the art blog world there are so many artists who love to see how other artists work. I know I do. Stay tuned.
Art tip #9: This I learned from Daniel Greene. Instead of using the terms warm and cool to describe a color use "blue-ish" or "yellow-ish". This makes total sense. If a color is hard to identify, usually a very grayed, dull color ask yourself if it is "more bluish or more yellowish". Then you'll know how to start mixing it. I've heard some artists call Ultramarine Blue a warm blue..I've always considered it a cool blue because it is more "bluish" than "yellowish". To me Cerulean and thalo are warmer because they are going towards the yellow side of the color wheel. Ultramarine is a blue-violet. I'd like to know your thoughts on this topic. Thanks for visiting my blog!

6 comments:

Terry said...

Looks like a great start to a fun painting! I'm one of those artists who really enjoy and appreciate seeing how others approach a work, so thanks for sharing. Regarding your art tip #9 - I like the "more blue or more yellow" approach - its more helpful to me when I am trying to figure out a problem color. And I totally don't get where ultramarine is being called a "warm" blue, but I have seen it referred to that way a number of times. If anyone else understands why it is called a warm blue (and can show me a blue that is cooler) I'd love to learn about it....

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks, Terry, for your thoughts. It looks like I won't be painting today either. We have wonderful water from our own well and wouldn't you know it would break in the middle of winter? So my day has been spent finding a snow removal person. We have about 24" of snow on the ground right now. I'm sure we'll be back in business soon.

Kelley Carey MacDonald said...

Loved it that you posted your work in progress! As to the 'warm' and 'cool' I just always figured I was dense, because, as you said - one teacher would say ultramarine is 'cool', and another would say 'warm' - same with cerulean, alizarin, viridian, and all sorts of purple. Good idea, and thanks for making me feel, well, less 'dense'!

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks for your feedback Kelly. In my next post I'll talk about the "language of color". I've had a huge head cold and haven't made it to the studio for a few days, just hunkered down with a good book and my pug, Jack.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing your work in progress. It is instructive to see how you approach a painting. And I was happy to be able to see your premixed palette. I know you've mentioned that you do this, but I like to see how you laid the colors out.

Ginnyntex

Jennifer Bellinger said...

Thanks, A. I usually lay the colors out according to the color wheel and my chosen color scheme left to right and values 9 to 2 top to bottom. I use 10 as white and 1 as black.