Most of painting, you will discover, comes from you. Nobody else. You can learn some points and principles, but largely, it is you who are the deciding factor of what goes where, how, when and why. This seems like an obvious statements when you think about it, but it is good to call this to your attention. When you watch a video, say like Bob Ross painting, don’t you say in your mind, “No! Not there!! What are you doing!??” You are the deciding factor when you paint.

Portfolios are great to show off work. However, you must realize that many colors cannot be seen and some not at all through the camera’s eye or scanner. Two of the worst offenders are ultramarine blue and most any quinacridone. If you look at the picture of my wine bottle, it is made up of ultramarine blue and quinacridone violet. In reality it is a reddish-purple color, which is far different than the one you see. Most artists know what ultramarine looks like. Now look at yours and if you have a digital camera handy, take a picture and compare. They are not even close! For instance, the camera makes ultramarine look like a transparent cerulean! In reality, it is a translucent and bluish red pigment! The camera deletes the red altogether!
So, what can you do for a normal portfolio? You can create small paintings up to 18×24”. Create eight 9×12”, eight 6×4” and 18×24” on watercolor paper. Do your very best to show off what you are capable of. This sounds like a tall order, however, when an artist peddles art, wouldn’t you want to show some respect by showing off REAL art and not prints that can’t even get the colors correct? I guarantee you will get a great response by doing this.
These three sizes will each make up one portfolio, one you’ll carry at all times, especially if you are going to public places and might meet people. The 9×12” is your better portfolio, use that to show potential clients. Now for your big portfolio, use that to peddle local galleries and juried shows (when granted permission) and customers who are looking for bigger paintings. When the galleries ask, yes, this one is inevitable for the dinosaurs, you have to get slides for certain galleries and shows. I can’t help you with that, so get about three copies of 10 of your greatest paintings and create slides. No, they never return slides, it’s money down the damn drain.
When creating a portfolio (any of them) have three to five papers inside, centered perfectly in the sleeves. The first one is the cover sheet, second one is the contents (list all paintings and the pages they are on) third one is your statement, fourth one is your resume, and the last one is the bibliography. Have all neatly typed and readable. The resume can be forfeited in the tiny portfolio. The statement can be combined in the resume or bibliography if done tastefully.
Be prepared to answer the most bizarre questions about your paintings. Basically, know your paintings inside out!
Portfolios
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Painting

OK, so what I am gathering is that art marketing books and seminars (at least the bulk of them) are full of sh–! The bulk artists and teachers who preach their books, have not made their goals, nor have they put their artwork into any good galleries or any gallery for that matter. I USED to teach that swill (doing what I was told basically), however, it will be no more! I will no longer teach what I have been told, I will only teach what I can prove! Tried and true from now on!
So the next question, is how? How do you get your art into the galleries? How do you sell your art? I cannot answer the first question as I’ve only done shows and sold art, but never had gallery representation. However, I can tell you the second question at least the one that has worked for me time and time again!
I’ve been going by the books for the past five some odd years at no avail. When I do sell my artwork, it is always by word of mouth or direct conversations. Go directly to the people you know well. Talk to them, their friends, employers, or anyone who seems to be interested in art. Those are the people who are likely to purchase paintings from you or at the very least give you a commission to paint their kids and pets. This is what I know for a fact that has worked for me for years. Web sites are great, but only as an ongoing, constantly updated portfolio. You can show anybody your art, answer questions, and show new works at any time. You can even sell on the Internet, however, this hasn’t worked out for me yet. It is recommended by me to update your Web site with new works about once per week. Meaning, add new works, put up a blog (hence this journal). Another one is to get a MySpace account, add people daily and TYPE TO THEM! Develop relationships, and market the hell out of your work to the people you can. You never know who will enjoy your work! I do not paint very classically or fine arty. I paint more metaphysical, sci-fi and creepy (even for me sometimes). But my customers are so different from what I have ever expected. I was expecting gothic chicks and metal heads, but surprisingly, they are mainly wholesome middle-aged people with their mom and pop shops or something to that effect.
New experiements will be held and will be written here. This is my personal online journal, so I can learn from my mistakes and accomplishments, as you can too.

For those artists who do not get to paint or create very often, you are not alone. When I was younger the only time to paint was never, nor could afford to. My solution to the nagging creative side of the brain was to purchase a sketchbook and some pencils. The book was sketched in about once per week, elaborate drawings. Sketch books can last for a very long time if you take care of them, as well as give you a chunk 80 plus pages to play with. The trial and error sketches were drawn on cheap typing paper, or any scrap paper, which got thrown away. Eventually, it worked out to sketch a few times per week, and I took on whatever commissions that came my way. Usually, it would be portraits and favorite animals that paid from $10-$75. Savings eventually paid for some paints, brushes, easels, and other goodies. The point is, if you practice even with modest amount of time and materials, you will develop your art skills and give you a few more luxuries.

Keep your pigments consistent with each medium you choose to use. Whether your preference is acrylics, oils, pastel, watercolor and/or colored pencils, your knowledge of color mixing will greatly increase if you keep the palettes the same. In other words, don’t buy the sets, buy individually. This will cost more, but will greatly benefit your learning to mix colors and your art.
Each brand and medium have many different names for the same pigment. A great idea is to learn your pigment numbers. The four mediums shown above are Golden Acrylics, Van Gogh Oils, Faber-Castell Colored Pencils* and Winsor & Newton Watercolors.
You can find the pigment name and number on good paints. The number can be located in the back or the front of the tube and looks like this: Ultramarine Blue, PB29. Poor quality paints usually come with a tell-tale sign such as a cute name like Pumpkin Orange or Frog Green. Others have normal pigment names, but do not have the pigment number. Aside from Old Holland, which I think doesn’t provide a number, stay clear from the number-lacking paints.
Some pigments like PY3 have many names. PY3 is basically a light yellow-green. The names could be Hansa Yellow Light, Hansa Yellow Pale, Lemon Yellow or Brilliant Yellow, depending on the manufacturer. To find out the pigments of each paint, visit the manufacturer’s Web site. Here are some of the most popular brands of acrylics (at least in my area):
Links will open new a window.
Golden Acrylics
Liquitex
Utrecht
Daniel Smith
Winsor & Newton
* Colored pencils users: you’ll have to compare the approx. color and the name and color with your paints. They don’t always have the pigment numbers.

If you do not want to show any preliminary sketch lines when the painting is completed, find a light gray pastel pencil or light gray charcoal pencil. They blend into the picture and erase easily. Yes, with yellows, they will tarnish the color. Any preliminary sketch will dirty the yellows. For paintings with bright yellows, select the lightest pastel pencil you can see on the canvas.
I don’t recommend the harder pencils that are light, they do not erase as easily (regarding the drafting 4H, 3B, 6B types). If you are doing a specific tonal painting, try finding a neutral colored pastel or one that matches that matches the mass tone of your picture.

I needed to practice some drawing today. It is a boring and tedious process most of the time, but playing around, I discovered a great way to hone in on the skill. Freehand spirographs. Those little pinwheels are hard to do, especially with a technical pen. For those who’ve never played with a spirograph, it looks like this one:
To begin, take a pen, and start at the edge of your imaginary circle. (No fair cheating and draw a circle before hand). Draw a thin oval shape, but before you touch the beginning of the first line, move the pen slightly to produce another oval next to it, meaning //. Do this until you’ve completed your flower. Try to get a good center going.

The problem with this conundrum is that there is so much to learn in painting. As you evolve, so does your art. Painting is a discipline. And as in life, you have to put your own personality into it. When you paint to please only yourself, that is how you develop your own style. A good idea is to at least once per week lock yourself in your ’studio’ (a kitchen table work just fine too) and create whatever meets your fancy. You know you’ve developed your personal signature when hours have flown by and you are still happy. So many artists paint what they don’t want to in order to make a buck. Yes, I’ve fallen into that trap many times. It is detrimental to your health as well as your art because it causes stress, anxiety and that reduces your quality of your life and art.
Many artists also fall into the trap of ‘you need to go to art school, college, etc.’ in order to become a great artist. Not really. I’m pretty accomplished as an artist. I took a drawing class in college, the rest of my education has been through the public library system of books. It’s a constant learning process and self discovery. You cannot put yourself through a cookie cutter college and expect to know everything about art. Classes and colleges show you everything you need to know in like a few weeks, which took the great masters their entire lifetimes to develop painting day and night. If you can absorb all that in such a short time, kudos.
I do not claim to know everything about art or painting. But I know you can tell the difference between my commercial paintings as opposed to my self-guided personal paintings. There’s a certain rhythm that flows, creative juices if you will, that comes when one is perfectly content while painting. It feels very much like a meditation. At the end of the meditation, you feel either fully rested or extremely exhausted. Either or, you should feel happy and content. That’s when you know you’ve found what you are looking for. Follow that rhythm and you will have great paintings. You can see the artist’s state of mind when looking at a painting.

I kept some of my favorite paintings from the beginning of my painting education. The supports use are watercolor paper, canvas, bristol board, Yupo and canvas board. Some with black gesso as the ground.
The watercolor paper that were not gessoed, the colors are vibrant because of the light being able to shine through. The ones that were gessoed look great and are very strong and stiff… highly durable and are in great condition.
Inexpensive cotton canvas are in horrible condition. Gessoed yes, but they are cracking and not even a year old. Do not buy cheap no-name canvas!
Normal canvas are in great condition, even after 12 years. I use brand names like Fredrix, Monet, Vincent or even Dick Blick.
Canvas Board are horrible due to warping from humidity (every once in a blue moon). These were the Fredrix brand.
Bristol board I’m debating. The paint looks good, but it leaves the paint more shiny than on watercolor paper. Plus it is harder to maneuver the paint on bristol board.
Yupo, is actually easier to paint on. If you get the right amount of paint, you can over throw the smooth palette-like consistency of the paper. I’ve only had that for several months, so the durability and deterioration are still up for debate.
My favorite support out of all the choices is definitely watercolor paper. Watercolor paper 140lbs. is resilient, and easy to store, manage and frame. It is great also to have 8 to 10 well-made paintings to put in a portable portfolio to show people. It is next to impossible to get the machine of a printing service to get the colors correct! Same with cameras.
Stretched canvas is my second choice. Yes, ready-made canvas is more expensive than home-made stretched canvas, however, I still recommend paying the extra dollar and having a canvas stretched by the professionals. The canvas just looks better than artist made (unless of course you, are talented in this area, as well as have the room to do this). The reason I like ready made canvas is it looks professional and they are ready to hang as soon as you completed the painting. No framing, no fuss, no muss, just hang and you’re done!

“Me, not the paint….
Hi There,
So…I am about to embark on my first go at painting with acrylic (or anything else, for that matter). I was inspired by an abstract that a coworker did. It is really just a canvas streaked with color (hers is blue & green). I want something similar for an empty wall that is driving me nuts….but I didn’t want to pay her $450 to make me one.
I went to the art store and bought the colors that I want (I think) and the canvas. Now I am scared to start. I know NOTHING about this, but I found your website and you seem like the expert.
Here are my initial questions…
1. I am assuming to make the blue paint a light blue, I just add white until I find the desired color. Is that right? Do I need to add water??
2. If I want streaks of white, is it better to paint white streaks or wipe off paint to reveal the white canvas beneath?
3. Can you layer this type of paint?
4. Can I mix these paints on a paper plate, or something else around the house, or do I need to purchase the plastic thing? (you are probably cracking up by now)
I would appreciate it if you can shed any light for me on these questions or any other helpful tips for an ABSOLUTE BEGINNER. I am fully aware that I may hate this thing after I do it, but just don’t want to waste my initial investment by making a rookie mistake!
Thanks in advance.”
Kristin
Thank you Kristin,
Congratulations on your first step towards being an artist! To answer your first question, yes. You need water in a tub (jars, bowls or anything to hold water will do), blue and white paint, brush(es), a tub of water, a palette and canvas. However, a paper plate isn’t a good idea for a palette because the plate will take the moisture right out of the acrylics. Use a spare ceramic plate, or just a piece of wax paper will do fabulously. Take a piece of typing paper and tape it to a board. Use this for practice. It’s cheap and easy. Then take a brush and dip it into some water. Always keep the brushes moist. Next, take the brush and dip it into the blue. Use the brush as a spoon and scoop the blue and put it elsewhere on the palette. Then do the same thing with the white, but make it close to the blue. Rinse the brush (good habit to get into). Then take the brush and mix the blue and white together. When you are done, look at the color closely. Do you like? If not, adjust with more blue, or more white until you got the correct color. That’s your base color for the picture, so when you learn how to mix that color, make a batch of it and tone the entire paper. (Basically color the entire paper with that color).
You will notice that the paint will begin to skin (begin to harden on the top like magic shell ice cream topping). When this happens, if you have a mister, great, periodically spray your paint. If not, take your brush, dip it into the water, and put a drop of water into your mixture.
The next step is a bit more difficult as it is most definitely your judgment call. This is where your streaks come in. Do you want it thick or thin and wispy? To make it thin and wispy, add water to your mixture, as well as more white or blue depending if you want it lighter or darker. Do some practice streaks on an extra sheet of paper. If you like, apply the same principles to the typing paper. If you want it thick, take a brush and scoop a bit of it and put it on the paper, next you smooth it out with a light touch. In other words, have your brush a bit higher off the paper. You know when you put icing on a cake or cupcake? It’s the same thing, don’t squash the icing. Once the paint is dry (about 10 minutes) you can put another layer over it.
Once you get your basic idea down and the colors down and are more confident, go ahead and dive into the paint and make your painting! Remember, it’s only paint! Don’t be afraid!
Cheers!