Notes From Artist Jackie's Studio
A Free Newsletter for Those Who Love to Paint
Copyright 2005 - For Personal Use Only
Color of the Month
Burnt Umber 
A deep warm brown that is a wonderful color to have on your palette. A small amount mixed into white creates a warm beige that can be used for sand as well as a base for flesh tones. Mixed into a gray it creates a nice tone for tree bark. Its rich brown tone is great base for dark wooden objects. Mix it with ultramarine blue to create a rich dark almost black color. I use it to add to cadmium red to create the shadow values, I find it creates a richer color than using black. Keep it handy, it can be used many ways in your paintings.
Tool of the Month
Freezer Paper
We all have seen the traditional palettes and you probably know that you can purchase disposable ones as well. Why not save a few bucks and create your own disposable palettes with freezer paper. Find it in a grocery store near the aluminum foil. Use it with the shiny side up. You can cut it into any size you want. You can tape it to a table, to a sheet of cardboard or to just about anything. You can have multiple sheets around, use a different one for each painting and save it until the painting is done. You can fold it up between sessions or put it in an airtight container. When you done with it, let it dry and toss it away. No messy clean up. So get yourself a roll and give freezer paper a try.
A Soft Touch
There are many wispy items you may want to paint: a fluff of feathers, fine hair, dandelion seeds, clouds, fuzz and Spanish moss to name a few. How you paint them can make a difference in your artwork.
The approach you use will determine how successful you are. If you take a single color and lay down a few light brush strokes you may get an acceptable result. But to add some punch and richness to your art consider a more painterly technique.
Wispy things always need a background. Choose one that will give enough contrast to show off the item. Paint it and give it enough time to thoroughly dry before continuing this technique.
Soft effects take time and a gentle patience to get the best results. Always keep a light touch. Most wispy things still have form so don't loose t by skimping on values, use at least three. To make it more painterly use a different hue for one of the values. For example instead of light, medium and dark blue replace the light blue with a light violet or pale pink.
Unlike most times when you should use the largest brush you can, for wispy things, use one that is smaller than usual. Place a few dots of the darkest value in the general area of the item's shaded or shadow side. Gently blend the dots in the direction of the form of the object. Then using the medium value place some dots in the area they belong. You will probably need more of these and its OK to overlap the darker area. Now place the highlights where they belong and blend them in the direction needed. Be careful not to over blend, let each of the values plus the background show. Too solid and you loose the wispy-ness. Lastly, add a few more dots of the highlight value in its proper place and blend it lightly. Always blend in the direction of the form of the object and you will get the shape even though the paint is not solid.
Try this technique the next time you want a wispy look and you may get the softness you desire.
Sample Palette
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