Notes From Artist Jackie's Studio
A Free Newsletter for Those Who Love to Paint
Copyright 2003 - For Personal Use Only
Color of the Month
Yellow Ochre - A strange but wonderful color. It is one I use constantly, a main stay of my palette. Its not a bright, sunny yellow. The actual color does vary by manufacturer but is generally a mustard, golden shade. This is a color that shows up everywhere in nature. Most brands are opaque - check the label.
Yellow ochre is a wonderful gold color to use without having to deal with the harshness of a bright yellow. Add a touch to Titanium white for a warm basic white. Add it to a purple for a great gray. Add some to any gray to warm it up. Try using it for yellow flowers, saving the bright yellows for the highlights. Use it paint gold jewelry or brass candlesticks.
My favorite use for yellow ochre is in landscapes. Its a great sandy soil color, it creates wonderful highlights for any green or brown, and use it to create sunlight on a sidewalk. It's the brass ring to keep on your palette.
Tool of the Month
Pliers - a very useful tool to keep with your supplies. Use them to: loosen stuck caps on tubes of paint; squeeze out the last bit of paint when the tube is almost empty; tighten the ferrule of a brush; pull the staples from the stretchers; or secure the hanging wire while framing.
What's Your Line?
Although most of painting is creating areas of color, sometimes you do need a line. You can use a line for: a clothes line, fence post or rail, tree limb... Here are a couple of easy ways to paint a line.
- make a series of small dabs of paint along the line you want, then with a clean brush, connect the dots.
- thin your paint to the consistency of hand lotion. Load a liner brush with the thinned paint with a twirling motion. Draw with it, laying it almost on its side, continue to twirl the brush as you go.
- use the chisel edge of a large flat brush, again using thinned paint. Hold the brush straight up and down relative to the canvas and tap it gently. This will give you a straight line as long as the brush is wide. Continue to shift and tap for a longer line.
- again using the chisel edge of a large flat brush with thinned paint, holding the brush straight up relative to the canvas. Place it gently onto the canvas and keeping the brush straight up, slice the brush across the canvas, dragging out the line.
For any of these techniques, always smooth out the brush after you load it for a cleaner line. The pressure you put on the brush will also determine how the lines come out, practice will give you the variety you can achieve. You don't even need to use a brush, sometimes a toothpick or other sharp object will give you the line you need.
Its nice to have all of these styles of lines in you arsenal to use for the right line in the appropriate situation.
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