Mini Madness !!

Mini's, mini's, mini's!!!

Sharon Arts Gallery in downtown Peterborough, NH will be hosting their annual Miniature Exhibit for the month of December. It's a great show, and I'll have a number of paintings there.

I went really small this year, and have nothing over 4 inches. One painting is only about an inch and a half tall! This one is about 2 inches long, and is titled " Strip Tease". I think still life artists are obligated to paint peeled oranges, for some reason, but I do enjoy painting them.

Here's another, which is a very small copy of a self portrait by Monet. Colors are a little better than they appear in this photo...

And one more.. which is called "Ground Beef". I am not showing my favorite little guys - you'll have to come to the Miniature Exhibit to see all of them!

Youtube and You

I wanted to write just a short post tonight about a great resource that some of you

might not know about. I'm sure the vast majority of you are familiar with youtube.

Youtube.com contains videos of every possible subject matter, but of interest to us is

the wide selection of painting videos. There are tutorials and demonstrations of just about

every facet of painting. There are portrait painting and figure painting demos.

Still life techniques, and lessons. Landscape and plein air tutorials. You name it, youtube has it.

I've included just a sample here. I regularly visit youtube and check out the oil painting videos.

You can reach some good ones by any simple search. Go to youtube.com, and type in any of the following:

oil painting lesson

oil painting demonstration

oil painting techniques

oil painting still life

oil painting portrait

oil painting landscape

Lilliedahl videos

That last one I've included because some of the best full-length oil painting tutorials are produced by Lilliedahl. Their videos are high quality, and the artists presenting the demos and lessons are masters of their craft. Most of the Lilliedahl youtube videos are short "teasers"... excerpts from the full length videos - to inspire you to purchase the real thing. But there's plenty of good instruction, and inspiration to be had by watching them.

You'll find some not-so-great ones also, but even those can be instructive in their own way.

Some artists that you could also search for by name are:

Jeffrey Watts

Gregg Kreutz

Robert A. Johnson

David Leffel

Richard Schmid

But just browse through and check them out! Youtube is a great thing!

Here's one sample:

Color and Aerial Perspective: "A Whiter Shade of Pale"

The following is the outline for our last day of color class. We talked about, and practiced painting, what happens to color as it recedes into the distance.

Flashback! Remember that song by Procal Harem? A "whiter shade of pale" is a good catch phrase for today's lesson.

Just remember the principle of “more and less.”

Close objects in a landscape have

MORE intense, pure color.

MORE contrast in values (between light and shadow sides)

MORE defined edges

MORE detail

Distant objects in a landscape have:

LESS intense, pure color.

LESS contrast in values. (between light and shadow sides)

LESS defined edges

LESS detail.

Yellow is the first color to "drop off" as distance increases. That means that any object whose color is yellow, or contains yellow (greens, browns, oranges, warm reds, etc.) will lose more and more of that yellow hue as they get further away. You'll need to lighten and gray the yellow to portray this distance. Gray it by adding its compliment, purple. You might also want to consider using a cooler version of yellow in the mix. For example, a bright yellow clump of daffodils up close could be painted with almost pure cadmium yellow light. Far away, that daffodil color might be better represented by mixing some cad lemon ( a "cooler" yellow) with white and its compliment, purple. (or a mix of ultramarine and alizarin) Sometimes I've also used yellow ochre for a situation like this, as it is a cooler, duller, grayer version of yellow.

Red is the next color to drop out of the equation. So, reds tend to get cooler, and more pinkish purple as they get further away.

Blue is the last color to drop off. That is why we often see distant mountains as blue. all the red and yellow have diminished and we're left with those bluish notes.

As objects recede into distance, color will get lighter and grayer and COOLER in temperature. All the colors fade out and lighten to eventually reach a pale gray. (remember that song title?)

White is the only exception to this rule. White gets darker and grayer..

See illustration above to see how this works in practice. A red barn and tree are shown close up, mid-distance, and far away. The color swatches show the shadow and light colors of each group. The swatches are the shadow and light sides of barn color, tree color, grass color and barn door color.

Notice how the color, the temperature, and the values changes.

Close up: Colors are rich, warm, and intense. There’s a lot of difference in value between

the light and shadow sides. The inside of the barn door is a deep warm black. Details are evident.

Mid-distance: The colors have gotten slightly cooler, and grayer in tone.. There is not as much difference in value between light and shadow sides. Not as much detail is evident, and the black of the barn door opening is now a dark purplish brown.

Far away: The colors have really gotten lighter, and grayer. There is barely any difference in value between light and shadow sides – really only color temperature notes the difference. The deep shadow of that barn door is now a purplish blue.

That's it! Pretty basic stuff, but as many of us have been painting beautiful autumn foliage, it is good to remember that those vivid reds and golds of trees near us are just not going to be that same intensity further away. We can use the principles of aerial perspective to enhance the sense of space and distance in our paintings.

A Little Artistic License

I'm taking a break from other topics to just do a brief explanation of how I might find a painting

in a photo reference from a scene.

This is a photo taken by a friend of mine, Tom.

He sent it to me in the hopes that I might paint it, and it was such a great photo, I knew right away that it had good potential.

I loved the warm colors, and the great value contrast between the boy and the dark tree shapes behind him. I have blurred this photo a little to reduce all the tiny detail. This is just less distracting for me, and I can focus on the larger shapes.

I didn't think this needed a great deal of editing, but I did see one change I wanted to make right away. Here's a few plans, drawn in Photoshop.


In our western culture, we read from left to right. This includes paintings. We tend to enter a painting on the left and read across. So, if the center of interest comes right away, the eye stops there and has no desire to continue into the painting. The boy and boat came "too soon" into the journey in the painting, and I knew that I needed to move them.

Also, I felt that the weeds which run across the bottom of the picture could be arranged to create some directional lines to further lead the eye into the painting. Additionally, and this is a small thing, but the boy's head and the tree behind him have an unfortunate alignment, and one of them needs to move over! Look for these kind of things as you design your painting, and make intelligent choices to avoid them being a distraction in the finished work. finally I cropped the whole thing down to concentrate on the boy.

Here is the finished painting. You can see that I moved the boat over further to the right. It is definitely the focus of the painting, both by color and value contrast. To get there, I opened up the water a bit at the bottom of the painting, and the line of the water lilies now lead the eye up toward the boat, rather than blocking the way into the scene. The few brighter tree trunks catch the eye, leading it then to the dead stump, and then back to the boy. This kind of circular journey keeps the viewer engaged in the painting, and is a good thing to aim for.

That's it! Just a few design changes! Artistic license? Nature seldom, if ever, hands us a perfect composition, so these decisions we make are what really creates art out of what we see in front of us. Beware of trying to be too literal and copy what you see - design it!!

What Color is White, part 3: Temperature

We've been talking about how to approach painting white objects. Rather than just focusing on the local or native color of an object (whether it is white, or any other color), we will want to

ask ourselves some questions to help us observe what is really going on with light, shadow, value, color temperature, etc. The third question is:

3. Is the color warmer or cooler than what it is adjacent to?

To really observe what kind of color note to put in your painting, look at how the object in question relates to its environment. Just as the value needs to be evaluated, so does the color temperature. Is it warmer? Cooler? White objects, whether they be part of a still life, or in a landscape, even though they are "white" can still be either a warm white or a cool white. White objects in particular can have really subtle differences and it can take careful observation to see these nuances. The teapot in the painting above is really a creamy white, with some imperfections in the glaze, being quite old. The bowl was more of a bluish white. It was very subtle in real life, and you may not be able to tell from this photograph.

And another question is:

4. Is it getting reflected light? Any remotely smooth surface is almost certain to have some reflected light if there is bright illumination. This happens outdoors just as much as indoors. The shadow side of a white house can have rich, beautiful color reflected back up onto it, from grass, or flowers, or anything else that might be nearby.

The teapot above has reflected light from both the bowl, which shows up as a slightly bluish reflection, and the tabletop itself and grapes, which add a reddish glow to the underside of the spout. Below is the painting and I have edited out those reflected lights. The shadow still reads as a shadow, but the teapot no longer relates to the rest of the painting - without the reflected lights, not only is a chance for beautiful subtle color variation missed, but the unity of the panting suffers as well.

What color is white, part 2 (with cows)

I promised cows, so here she is. What a lovely lady. She is really a great example to illustrate the point of our second question. That question is:

2. Is the value darker or lighter than what it is adjacent to?

It's all relative. It matters little what the local or native color of an object is. Much more important is how is the light or shadow affecting that color?

And here's where our bovine friend comes in.

Look at the black portion of her coat where it is in the sunlight. Now look at the white portion of her coat in shadow. Let's say, under her belly behind her front leg. Can you see that the white in shadow is actually darker than the black in sunlight? Who'd a thunk it?

If we get caught up in what the native color of something is, we'd never think to paint the shadow white that dark, or the sunlit black that high in value! That's why we need to carefully observe and check our values against one another.

A white church silhouetted against a morning sky could easily be quite a bit darker than the sky.

If you find yourself having to paint outlines around a white building to get it to "show up" against the sky, then it is probably a matter of incorrect values.
Here's the Cutler Bldg. steeple here in town as an example.

We've already seen in yesterday's post that the shadow portion of a white teapot can be very dark.

Here's another picture of cows just because I like 'em.
Tomorrow, maybe we'll have baby ducks or kittens or something.

What Color is White?

Actually, the question could be, "what color is anything?" but I've chosen white because we often, as painters, get hung up with the color of something we're trying to paint, and white seems to cause the most problems of all.

Here's our first example:

that sample cropped from the painting is part of the white teapot. "But it's not white!" you say.

THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT!!!

What happens to us as we stand before a landscape, or a beautiful still life arrangement, is that we look at the objects and think of what they are in a literal sense. "That's a white house", we say to ourselves. Or maybe, " I'll be painting that beautiful white ceramic bowl with the blue design on it."

What we are really painting is how our eyes react to the light, or lack of light, on an object.

A better way to approach painting anything, no matter what the object, is to first ask a couple of questions.

1. Is it in the light or in the shadow? (news flash: it has to be in one or the other!!)

2. Is the value darker or lighter than what it is adjacent to?

3. Is the color warmer or cooler than what it is adjacent to?

4. Is it getting reflected light?

5. Is it part of the focal point of this painting?

I'll be looking at those questions a little bit in the next few posts. For tonight, here's the first one.

1. Is it in the light or in the shadow?

What we're really painting is how our eyes react to light. So, forget for the moment what you think the literal color of something is. Forget that it is a "white house" and just look at how the light is falling, or not falling on it. Paint that color, whether it be a pale yellow or a deep purple, or a greenish orange. A good rule of thumb is that if something is in shadow, it's probably darker than you think it is.

Another consideration, especially troublesome with white, is that you almost NEVER use pure white. A white ceramic bowl, in the light, will still not be pure white. You must leave room for that very brightest spot of highlight where the light hits the high point of the object. THAT highlight MIGHT be pure white, but if you paint the whole lit section of a bowl white, then you have nowhere to go to put the highlight. So, consider a "light white" for your lit section, and a "dark white" for the shadow side.

Next post: Cows and values!

Form Shadows and Background Color

Here are two small still lifes. I'm using them as an example of a principle about light and shadow and background color.

In a still life, one of the important things to consider is the background. The background doesn't just represent the "back" of whatever space you are painting.

It is , or should be, representative of the air and the atmosphere surrounding the focal points. Your objects need to exist in space.

By the way, while I'm thinking of it, consider giving your still life objects MORE space than you might initially be inclined. One of the common traits of beginning artists is to paint that pot, or the apple, or whatever as large as they can fit on the canvas. Let them breathe! Give them some room! Up front and in your face can be a valid compositional decision, but if you will take time to study some of the great paintings, you will notice that there is some comfortable distance between the viewer and the objects portrayed. Try it!

Background color can be light or dark, it can be generally warm or cool. These two paintings are examples of a darker, warm background, and a lighter, cooler background. Background color is an aesthetic decision that you will make as you arrange the still life in the first place.

However, having decided on your set up and the background color, you have also determined, in part, the form shadow color of your objects.

How does that work?

Since the background is at least in part the "air" around your objects, as the form of those things recede into space they have a little bit more of that air or atmosphere between them and you, the viewer. When you are trying to "make that pot look round" what you are actually doing is trying to show how the form turns back and goes further into space. One way to help create this illusion is to include a little bit of the background color into those form edges. Take for example, the leaf that is in the first still life, that is on the right side of the stem. It is further back in space than the more brightly lit leaf, and you can see how it has much more of the background color floated into it. You can also see this in the shadow side of the pot... there is a bit of that background in there, and the effect is that the pot is round, and the edge turns back into space.

In the other still life, the background color is lighter and cooler, but the principle still works.

Look at the lemon slice in the background. Compare the color of that lemon to the foreground slice. Can you see that the further lemon slice contains some of that cooler greenish gray background color? If you have trouble seeing it, try squinting. Squinting is a great way to reduce superfluous detail while you are painting, and renders the major values more clearly.

There is an important principle to remember, and that is this:

COOL LIGHT/ WARM SHADOW.

The overall shadow color in a still life should always be warm!

Unless you're painting objects on a sunny windowsill, then you should consider that the light represents cooler, natural north light. This means shadows will be warm. So, if you have a cooler background color, as in the second example here, it is only a touch added to the native color of your object, or mixed into your overall shadow color. Don't make the mistake of thinking that you can just take your background color and use that as shadow color. This is where the intelligence and keen observation of the artist must come into play. Look at the whole lemon - can you see how the overall shadow color is very warm, an orangey-green, and the reflected light from the table top is even warmer, but right at the top edge of the shadow form, there is a bit more of that background greenish gray color. There's no reflected light there, and no direct light, so the background color has a bit more influence.

Well, this is alot to think about, and there are no quick fixes or "systems". There is only the intelligence and observation of you, the artist, making decisions which best further the concept and design of your painting. If it were easy, anybody could do it, right?

Donations for a Good Cause

I have always felt that being able to spend time doing what I love so much is a real blessing. I'm quite thankful to paint full time, with all the

joys (and sometimes frustration!) that brings me on a day to day basis.

So, I feel it's only right to give back a portion of my work, and I make it a point to donate art

for various charities, good causes, and Christian ministries. I make no apologies for being a person of faith!

This small still life (8x10) entitled "Stoneware and Peaches" is donated to the Jaffrey Civic Center. The Civic Center is really a gem; it hosts many art exhibits during the year, juried competitions, and art classes, besides offering meeting and classroom space for numerous other community events. So I'm happy to give this work to them for part of their annual fundraising appeal. The building was built around 1960, and is not handicapped accessible. We are currently raising much needed capitol to install an elevator, so that anyone and everyone can enjoy the exhibits and other functions at the Center. This painting is being raffled off later this month. Tickets are only $5, so if you'd like to purchase a chance for this painting, please contact me directly at deb@debpero.com or call the Jaffrey Civic Center at 603-532-6527. And here's the sales pitch: Don't delay, tickets are going fast! :-)

Working Like Mad and Using Canvas Scraps

Oh boy, this time of year gets really busy! Besides working on our mural project here in town, which turned out to be just about a full time job the last 4 or 5 months, I've got several shows to prepare for. More about those later, but mostly lately I'm painting like mad. This little painting is one I finished this week, entitled "Carnation and Old English Creamer". (you can purchase this painting here. And on a composition note, I originally just had the carnation and the creamer. Knowing that having just two items in an arrangement, I would have to work to be sure one was the focus of attention. I thought that by softening the edges of the carnation, and making the creamer very sharply defined, that would do the trick. It did not, and this painting suffered from the "one for each eye" kind of syndrome.. Where do I look? At the carnation? At the creamer? I realized that a spot of rich color would tip the scales in the favor of the creamer, and added the single grape. That did the trick, don't you think?

Since everybody is budget conscious these days, I thought I'd share a tip for using up some smaller scraps of canvas. Since I sometimes pick up odd size frames at our local frame shop, I need to custom make a painting surface for them. There are two ways to do this. First is to create a panel by cutting a piece of masonite ( I buy a whole sheet, prime it, and then cut it to size.) You can see how to make your own panels here.

The other way to create a painting surface in an odd size is to use canvas scraps. If you buy rolls of canvas, then you'll have odd pieces left over here and there. Keep those to use for projects like this. I also buy pre-primed canvas pads. These come in various sizes up to about 18x24 and usually contain 10 sheets of canvas per pad. I like to get 16x20 size.. It is about $14, and I often use these sheets for odd size works. Just measure out what size I need, draw the outline on the canvas, and paint! Then, once the painting is dried, I will cut the painting out of the larger sheet and affix it to a backing board. This board can be anything from a piece of masonite to plywood, to gatorboard - anthing that can provide a non-warping sturdy surface to glue the canvas to.

Here's what the painting looks like before I cut it out of the pad. This one is a really odd size, 4x10, but I have a nice little frame for it. While painting, I just use the pad itself (has a heavy cardboard back) as a nice support. I use a 3M spray adhesive to affix the canvas. It sticks like, well, glue, but if I need to remove the canvas for any reason later down the road, I can carefully peel it off the backing with no damage!

Painting Workshop!

I will be leading an oil painting workshop entitled Color Camp! on Wed. mornings, beginning Oct. 14 at the Jaffrey Civic Center. The workshop will run for 3 successive weeks, 9am - noon. Each session is $35. You can call the Civic Center at 532-6527 to register for one or all three sessions.

This will be a fun, light-hearted workshop chock full of some good, useful info. Though primarily geared towards beginners, we already have a number of seasoned painters attending, and it will be a good review of some basic principles of color and how to make intelligent color choices in your painting. With the group attending, we should have some great discussions!

Here's a basic overview of the three sessions.

Color Camp

Not rules, but tools!

As artists, we want to use all the tools at our disposal to help us create good, solid paintings. These 3 sessions are designed to review some basic principles of color that can help us make intelligent choices as we work. Consider these some added “weapons” in your arsenal or tools in your toolbox that you can pull out when you need them!

We won't be trying to complete polished paintings, but rather we'll tackle some exercises to re-enforce each day's lesson. In addition, each day we'll look at a "problem painting" that contains a common error. Heck, it might have several problems! Based on our color lessons, the class will "dissect" the poor painting and decide what's wrong and how to fix it, and then you'll get a chance to create your own "new and improved" version!

Session 1: When You’re Hot, You’re Hot!

Color Temperature: It matters!

Why can’t I use the same colors to paint an orange that is sitting on my kitchen table as an orange sitting outside on my deck railing? In other words, how does outside light differ from inside light? One word: COLOR TEMPERATURE! (okay, okay, that's two words). Tip: This might be very useful info if you want to paint still life or landscape... or interiors.. or figures inside or outside... or old cars rusting under a tree... or maybe a package of neon gummi worms....

Where is this orange? Outside or inside?

Session 2. Good Morning, Sunshine!

Portraying Time of Day in Your Landscape

What’s the difference between morning light and late afternoon light? Is there a difference? How do we make our paintings look like morning, noon, or evening?

Look at this poor painting. I can't tell what time of day it's supposed to be. And there are some other real errors. Should we shoot it and put it out of its misery? Wait, there's hope! Come find out how we can correct and improve this baby.

Session 3. Way Over Yonder…..

The effects of Atmosphere on Color.

When is a red barn not red? What happens to autumn foliage on that distant hillside?

This painting has a problem. Actually, it has several glaring problems, and these problems are common errors that can be avoided by understanding some simple principles of color and design.

Do you know how to fix this painting?

Well, come join us for some fun as we focus on color! There are about 3 spots left in the class.