A rat's journey into art. Acrylic paint.

[cause the rat]

So here it is. A work in progress. You'll be able to see all the steps I took to make it happen. Or fail. I'm going to try things I've never done before. I have a concept for this one. The house, people and yard will be in dappled shade. The bird feeder, garden under it and the cat will be in bright sunlight. Hopefully making them the center of attention.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1465260

[cause the rat]

I think it would be best form this point on to start a thread in the Artwork, Techniques and Tutorials section of the forum. Save the rest of this space for finished work only.

[cause the rat]

Got a second painting up at WetCanvas. My very first land scape in acrylics. I can point out six major mistakes.



I learned a new trick today! On a mac you have to jump through hoops to do this.  The actual painting is a bit darker than what's displayed.

[FarFar]

Not bad at all!

[cause the rat]

Thanks FarFar. Despite all my mistakes I'm doing the happy dance. It doesn't have that artificial candy color look to it. Like you would see in most acrylic works. Still need to learn to mix my colors duller. That takes some practice. Because we all tend to like brighter colors. To much of them and a painting can loose a lot of depth.

Painting this one over again. Trying to fix all eleven mistakes I've found.

[FarFar]

Thanks FarFar. Despite all my mistakes I'm doing the happy dance. It doesn't have that artificial candy color look to it. Like you would see in most acrylic works. Still need to learn to mix my colors duller. That takes some practice. Because we all tend to like brighter colors. To much of them and a painting can loose a lot of depth.

Painting this one over again. Trying to fix all eleven mistakes I've found.

That's the nice thing about most artwork....you can do it all over again if needed!

[cause the rat]

 I play guitar. Had a great teacher. He taught me to practice the stuff I was having trouble with first. Keep playing it till I could play it with the same ease as the rest of the piece. Then practice the entire piece. That's the approach I'm taking. I'll paint the entire picture. Pick out what I need to practice on. Practice those things. Then repaint the entire picture. It's useless to continue to paint an entire picture over and over again. End up getting better at what I may already be good at. And reach mediocracy with what really needs work. That's what I did with skies. And what I'm still doing with people. Because getting good at figure painting means getting good at anthro shapes as well.

The best part of being able to paint things over. I can re gesso this piece. And paint right over it. As many times as I want. With watercolor it was one attempt and toss the paper.

[cause the rat]

Love the  'not been posted for at least 180 days" warning. Let's me know it's been a wile. . I stopped trying to paint with watercolor because it was frustrating. One mistake and you have to start over. Chose acrylics because oil is out of the question. Toxic fumes from all the chems you need to play with oils. There are two reasons I put acrylics down. The first is they try quickly. I'm talking bone dry in five minutes or less. And with extenders and retarders meant to keep the paint usable I got a total of seven minutes of work time. A 'wet pallet' kept my mixes good for a wile. A longer time if the pallet was closed and I wasn't painting. I was going through tubes of expensive paint because 80%+ was drying on me faster than I could use them. I like mixing colors. Rarely ever use paint straight out of a tube.  So any hope of getting the look I want and painting in the different styles I like can only be accomplished if I learn to paint an entire piece of work in seven minutes or less. I found a product that will let me paint like an artist. More on that in a bit.

The second reason I put painting on hold is something I just recently learned about. And I learned I'm not the only one who suffers with this. The good news is, if you can call it that, one it will never go away and two most professional artists have this. So if pros have it and I have it then I'm that much closer to becoming a pro!!!? I can dream! It's call "The Artist's Curse." When you look at a painting I've done you see the sky, buildings, people and things. What I see is a mess of ugly brush strokes. This blob of color next to that one. An endless mindless mess of formless ugly splotches. I will never actually see what others see when they look at one of my works. Never. You have no idea how liberating this information is. How deeply it has effected me. What it means to me. Guess you'd have to go through it to understand.

On to the paints I'm going to play with now. The company is called Golden and the acrylic paints are called Open. Bought some. Put some out onto an open pallet and left it there. Uncovered. This acrylic paint was usable for more than three hours. Have yet to see how long my color mixes will last in a covered pallet. Some folks on line report up to seven days. This means I'll be able to walk away from a painting. Come back in a few days and all my covered mixes will still be usable. My color mixes will last longer than most of my paintings! I can paint. Let it dry. Sand it down. Re apply a good layer of gesso. Let that dry. Then start a new painting with the same color mixes. I'll be able to use the paints I have now. Because Golden Open acrylics will mix with all of them. Knowing the mixes drying time will shorten depending on the amount I mix in.

Happily getting back into my mindless mass of ugly brush strokes!

[cause the rat]

So why hasn't there been any paintings pictured? When your that disgusted with your work you'd understand. As stated before I might as well been painting with crayons. These paints I'm using now has opened up a new world of possibilities. And I'm taking it as far as I can go. Right now I'm learning to color match. This involves both the color and how bright or dark that color is. ( hue ) Blue is my problem color. Been able to match other colors within two minutes. Up to five minutes for some. But blue. Here's where the problem starts. Natural color pigments are never true colors. So there is no true red, yellow or blue in artist quality paints. So blue shifts to either green or purple. The guy I'm learning from at drawmixpaint.com uses a limited pallet. For blue his choice is ultramarine blue. It shifts toward the purple side. If you know color theory you already know yellow is the opposite of purple. And yellow and blue make green. Oh, if it was that easy. In a perfect world you'd add yellow to cancel out the purple. Then add a bit more to bring out the green. In the real world you end up with blue/gray. A bit more yellow and you get a blue/gray/green. Honestly believe this is why the old masters never painted a full blue sky. Well that and a blank blue sky is boring to look at in a painting. I'll be spending the rest of this weekend learning to make this work. 

One thing in color matching I've seen that really stands out. When you put the color you've mixed next to the subject it's perfect. When you finally get a group of colors mixed and look at your pallet? There is no way those colors are right. It's an illusion. The colors will only look right when they're with in the context of the over all scene. By themselves on a different color background they look horrible.  So those great looking oranges, purples and reds you see in a sunset are actually fleshy muddy grayish blobs. Put all those ugly colors together and you get a great looking sunset. You might be able to see this on your own. Been a long time sense I've played with Microsoft Paint. Hopefully this is still possible. Paste a picture in paint. Make it small enough to give yourself some room to have three squares. One black, one white and one gray. Now put a row of smaller squares in each. Using the eye dropper tool pick up a color from the picture. Use it to fill one of the squares in each of the larger colored squares. Color is completely different when taken out of context.

[cause the rat]

This is nice. Kind of like a blog. A place where i can share one failure after the next. Actually I think that's funny. I can laugh at my failures. Be nice to have other's see humor in them as well. Hoping at least this is informative. In case any other furry out there wants to do traditional art. I wasted some expensive paint today. There is good news. After having the paint sit out for seven hours it was still usable. That's like way longer than the usual seven minutes I was fighting with before. What I learned today. Turning ultramarine blue into a lighter more green shade blue is impossible. Mixing these to pigments will always give you a grayed color. And here's why. Already stated that artist pigments will never be a true yellow, red or blue. Ultramarine blue is on the purple side of blue. Blue and red make purple. The yellow that's suggested to use is Cadmium yellow. And guess what. It's on the orange side of yellow. You get the drill. Yellow and red make orange. So if you mix blue, red and yellow you get tacky greens. Dull greens like olive and army greens. So I'm trying to mix orange and purple to make blue. There is no magic formula that will ever get this to work. I know what your thinking. But rat, My printer only has three colors and black. Your right. It has cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Or in the artist world of paints, cobalt teal, quinacridone magenta and cadmium lemon. The black is a mixed color. Without knowing what colors are used we'll just call it black. Millions of colors out of those four choices and the white of your paper. I have those three paint colors as well. So I guess the next questing would be, "why don't you use those three colors for everything?" The answer sounds both counterintuitive and obstructive. To many color choices. Color harmony is what makes a piece of art look natural. Something rarely seen in digital art. The color you see outsider depends on how that color is being lit. The color of the sky effects everything. The same goes for indoors. The color of the room will effect the color of everything in it. Color harmony. Well before i get into a long winded and un necessary rant I'll leave it here.

[cause the rat]

Back to paining. Leaning away from using most of my poisonous paints. It's makes it easier to wash up when I don't have to wear gloves. Still using Cadmium red light. That red seems to work with everything. Kinda hard to replace. Anyway. Spent a good time today trying to match colors for a challenge on the Wet Canvas forum for acrylics. 'Do a landscape in the style of an Impressionist'. I chose John Singer Sargent. He's mostly known for his portrait paintings. Very few landscapes. He did very little blending. Mostly a crazy mix of brush strokes in every direction. A good one to see this in is his "A Capriote, Rosina Ferrara". Even the colors he used were off. In some mostly toned down or even grayed out. In other paintings bright and almost over saturated. Like in his painting 'Landscape with goats".  I can't say enough good about these new paints I'm using. Was able to spend 20 minutes trying to match one color. Without out the paint filming over. So much more like real painting. I'm having fun again. Will post when I have the pics up on Wet Canvas.

[cause the rat]

Well it's past August and I'm still working on that painting. I started slapping paint on the canvas. The farther I got along the farther away I got from my target. So I walked away from it. Not quite starting over. Because the composition is good. I don't want to be a landscape painter. So I'm replacing the field and far away trees with buildings and a street scene. May even add more people.

Here's a link to the page on Wet canvas I posted pics on.
https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/whats-on-your-easelwoye-august/page/4/
Scroll down to find the post by "wet rat".

[cause the rat]

Created a thread on Wet Canvas on this painting. Be a lot easier to fallow than hunting through a community thread.

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/my-sagent-attempt-the-ongoing-joy-of-throwing-paint/#post-1333511

As stated in the thread. I don't want to be a landscape painter. Urban scenes. People at places is more of what I want to do.

[cause the rat]

Don't fool yourself. Probably the hardest thing for someone to learn. Especially with artistic ventures. Like when I decided to base most of the music I sang on a technique I just learned. To fall flat on my face. In front of a crowed of people. Or when I'm painting. Decide to go way off base. Throw paint. Loose myself in left field. Then step back and look at it. Come to realize it's wrong. Or better put, lacking the discipline I already know. At least when I'm painting I'm not standing in front of a group of people. 

Added another pic to my WetCanvas post. Along with a description of what I did wrong. Knowing and doing is something you have to learn to put together. Or in my case, I know where I want to go and I'm not doing anything to get there. Really hope by posting what I'm doing wrong and how to correct it will help someone. Achieving depth is a painting is something you have to learn to do. Relying on perspective alone doesn't work. Both color and detail play a big role. I've seen pros fall on this one. Watched a pro on line paint. Known for his photo realistic work. However on this painting he used the same color intensity and detailing for everything. Background and all. In the end it looks like a bunch of pictures clipped and glued together. Hours of work to achieve something with the depth of a piece white paper. The first painting I watched this guy do that turned out really bad. Not going to give a link. Rather this guy be known for the hundreds he's done right.

Back to painting! Done kicking myself over this. It's time for me to do something else I can kick myself for! 

[cause the rat]

Going back to basics before I continue. Been some time between trying to paint. When I started to learn watercolor I spent hours learning brush control. I'd paint out the alphabet. Then brought it down to the smallest I could paint. Lots all that control. Plus there's a big difference in the flow of water and acrylic. Acrylic paint doesn't flow, it clings. Totally different feel. And speaking of feel. With acrylics I can feel the brush on the surface as I paint. Couldn't do that with watercolor. The brushes I liked were supper soft synthetic squirrel hair.

Here's where i differ from 99% of other beginner painters. You learn technique first. Lean how to put the brush where you want it. Then how to get the results your looking for. Everyone preaches 'loose painting'. "Never learn to control your brush." Then they spend years. Painting after painting. Learning to control their brush. Sorry, I don't think that way. As a musician I learned technique first. Then how to play. Learned beat and timing. Then learned how to add feel. As a singer I learned scales first. Then how to forget about them and add feeling. Like everything else you have to learn the basics first. It's like trying to multiply in math before you know how to add. It doesn't work. I've watched the same painters for a few years now. Every painting is the same. They never get any better. I don't want to end up that way. Not promising to be a pro artist. Or a good one for that matter. Don't want to end up like most painters I see. Painting the same thing over and over again. With each painting looking the same. I realize most people paint for fun. I have a hard time doing anything just for fun. The learning process. Figuring out what does what and where it leads. How to do something is what's fun for me. If I end up liking to paint I'll continue with it. Right now it's fun to learn.

[cause the rat]

After covering five 12x16 sheets of watercolor paper with a single brush technique I finally think have it! That's right. five sheets. To get ONE technique. Five sheets of single line paint brush strokes. I'm either persistent or crazy. I'm enjoying this to much. Go with crazy. Either way it was worth it. I'll do this again tonight to make sure it works. If I can repeat it three days in a row I know I have it down. Now to reprime these sheets with gesso so I can paint over them again.

haven't posted this yet on WetCanvas. Wanted to tell you all first. I'm that excited about it!

[cause the rat]

Doing my crazy obsessed happy dance! I don't need to wait for a third day. At 90+% success rate I'm very happy with it. Not quit what Sargent was getting. May never be able to mimic the results of oil paint with acrylics. But very usable. I've tried it with both stiff and soft bristle brushes. Got the same results from each. So it's the technique, not the brush that matters. I'll be using this technique to finish out the painting.

[cause the rat]

Wish I had more time to do this. Even though the painting is taking forever to complete I'm still learning a lot. Especially when I do exactly what I tell myself over and over not to do. Paint with bright candy colors. End up doing the very thing I can't stand. It's what acrylic paint is best known for. Gaudy, overly bright candy paint. There is a reason for that. Artist grade acrylics and oils have the exact same pigments. The exact same intensity of color. The big difference is the drying time. Oils can take weeks to dry. Regular acrylic paint can be bone dry in five minutes. Doesn't give much time to work with. The acrylic paints I'm using stay wet for a good hour on the painting. And can be reworked and blended up to a few days. The mixes I make on my air tight pallet can stay workable for well over a week. So I have no excuses for ending up with candy colors.

One of the online painters I follow said it best. People like bright. New painters tend to make things brighter than they should be. Over saturated colors make for a bad paintings. A mistake I'm happy to admit I've made and know to fix. If I actually put to practice everything I've learned doing this painting my next one will take less time. Wont be a master piece. Looking forward to learning from my next painting too.

The more I struggled with watercolor the farther away from what i wanted I got. The more I struggle with acrylics the closer I get to where I want to be. Lesson learned.

[cause the rat]

I know I've said this before, but fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals and more fundamentals. I think they deliberately stuck the word 'fun' in fundamentals. To try to make us think fundamentals are fun. Nope. Not fun. But important. I could be tossing up one painting after another. Trying to get it all at once. Putting out one bad painting after another. This would be fun. But it would take forever to get better at painting. The bottom line is if you can't put the brush where it needs to be. If you can't control your brush strokes. Your not going to be able to paint it the way your really want ti to look. Every time someone talks about learning to paint all you hear is "you have to learn to paint loosely." And even worst, "Paint goes where it wants to go." The truth is the only reason you have to learn to paint loosely is because you have to learn brush control first. Then ease up on control.  Paint goes where it wants to go means you are paining sloppy. Big difference between sloppy and loose. Because I've started to get serious about painting I've paid more attention to other peoples work. The beauty of the web is you can view works done for years by the same artist. Which brings us to one of my favorite words. Catawompus. Means askew, out of proportion and bad perspectives. For the most part their art is just as catawompus today as it was five years ago. No fundamentals. No brush control. It's no different than having the same hand writing today as you did in kindergarten.

Brush control and arm strength are to the two things I'm working on now. Arm strength because holding your arm out from your body for an hour or longer at a time takes some getting used to. And a good strong shoulder to boot. The more tired my arm gets the shakier my brush work is. As for learning brush control I'm writing out sentences with the tip of a round brush. Everything from one inch down to collage rule. For two hours a day. I made rule lines in a word program and print them out as needed. I now have page after page of this stuff. Wrote on a collage rule size the 14nt of this month. I'll compare it to the same rule on the 14nt of next month. To see how much I've improved. For all the time and concentration I'm putting into this it's working. And I'm learning things along the way. Like when you spend all your concentration on your brush stroke spelling goes out the window.  And  I've learned the only difference between the point on a size 2 round and a size 6 is how much paint they hold. You can get the same fine line with both. So if I use a size 6 I'm dipping back into the paint less. But my arm gets tired quicker.

I know all I'm dong is rambling with nothing to show for it. Kinda off kilter for an art thread. However what I hope to accomplish is inspiration. And a bit of solid teaching to boot. I'm taking my experience as a musician and applying that to painting. And my experience of teaching others to play. With al that under my belt it's easy to spot both good and bad habits. And why some people get better quicker than others. The phrase 'Natural talent' is a joke. It's a favorite phrase repeated by people who make every effort not to put effort into what they are doing.

[cause the rat]

Man, to think someone would have the nerve to have an art thread with no art.... Ya, I know, nothing to show.  But plenty to talk about. First I want to congratulate myself. Yay! I'm narcissistic!  The exercises I'm doing. Touch the surface with the point of the round  brush only. To get as thin of a line as possible wile writing with paint. The brush I'm using is a size 6 round. The fibers are 7.0 mm wide by 27 mm long and come to a sharp point at the tip. Any amount of pressure or slight movement widens the line you make. Proud to say I'm getting lines as thin as you would with an ink pen. Not all the time. But I can get this more often now than when I started. When I started these exercises I could not hold my arm out in front of me for more than a few minutes without my arm twitching. Even the slightest twitch sent the brush off in all directions. Now i can hold my arm out for a bit more than a half hour. Relieving it only to get more paint.  What this means is now I have a longer time to do the exercise. Why am I doing this you ask? Well, hopefully you asked....  The answer is brush control. The only way to get this is to practice this. Over and over again. Because you have to build up your muscles to hold your arm out. And you have to learn the finesse to control your shoulder, arm, wrist and hand. Yes, I could get  this tossing paint on a substrate over and over again. But why take years do learn something that I can learn and THEN use it to paint. To tell the truth tossing out a lot of bad paintings would be a hole lot more fun.  There is a personal reason why I'm doing this. Take a look at that unfinished painting of mine. All those marks I made for flowers. First those are not the marks I wanted to make. Secondly I wasn't able to put them where I wanted. They ended up where they are. Looking the way they do. My lack of brush control was frustrating. That's why the lady isn't finished. How could I possible make her look right without brush control. Will she look human when I'm done with her? Probably not. But I'll be a lot happier knowing that my end result is because I don't know how to paint. Not because I can't control my brush. There is still so much to learn!

So how can you apply this to digital art? You have to be good at drawing before your good at digital art. If you can't control your stylist your not going to be able to draw what you want. Make each mark count. Make each line count. Get into the habit of making each line and shape you do the best you can do. Even if you have to do it over and over again. Practice what your bad at. Take every mark, line and shape you make seriously. Why should you be one of those people who eventually get better.  When you know how to do it now. You hear this all the time. "It takes 10.000 hours to get good at something." I'll share a personal story here. It took me less than 3000 hours after starting guitar lessons to knowing 500 different chord forms and learned how to solo. I was playing jazz . Because I put the effort into it. 'Natural talent' is a battle cry for people who don't want to put an effort into what they do. Yes you can spend 10.000 hours doodling. It's a lot more fun than taking the time to l earn what you need now.

A side note. I'm having a real problem making a long straight line with a paint brush. Tried everything I could and nothing worked. So I went to you tube. Watched a painter who sells his works in the thousands. He put the edge of a straight wood dowel rod on the edge of his canvas. Held this rod at an angle to keep it off the paint. Then rested the side of his hand on the rod. Held the brush like you would a pencil and made a straight line. This made me happy. I now know I am just as good at free handing a straight line as someone who sells their paintings for thousands of dollars each!

[cause the rat]

When I started this exercise I really did not know what I was doing. Thought the alphabet and painting out sentences would give me a good visual reference. Easy to compare from one week to the next. Thought using a brush bigger than needed. Hard to control. Needing a touch so light you can't feel the brush against the substrate. As crazy of an idea as flipping fried eggs in a skillet with a long handled shovel. Thought "why not." had no idea if this would help my brushwork and control at all. When I started this i had real problems keeping my arm from being jittery. Once my brush was steadier I got serious with this.Did this exercise twice a day. An hour each time. for 17 days now. So today I wanted to see if I was getting any results. Set up a gesso covered piece of watercolor paper. Picked up a flat brush and painted. One brush, one color. Did this mind numbing exercise help? HUGE! Night and day huge. My brushwork was way more precise. And an unforeseen benefit. I could feel the brush react to the gesso covered surface. Perhaps all this barely touching made my hand more sensitive to the business end of the brush. I'll keep doing this til the 14th of this month. Giving myself a full month. To compare that sheet to the one I did when my shoulder was strong enough.

An I having fun doing this exercise? No. This is mind numbing, boring and frustrating. I'm taking each stroke, shape and line seriously. Concentrating on every move I make. Seeing the results today makes this exercise only slightly less miserable. But worth every moment spent. Seeing the results is vindication for my resolve. Inspiration to continue.

I'm a beginner. I have no idea what I'm doing. No idea where I'm going. Can't even say I'll be a great painter. The only thing I can do is take my experience as a musician and apply it to painting. Talent takes effort. Mind numbing frustrating effort. The more effort you put in the more you'll be able to do. The more you can ddo the more fun you will have. When put;ting everything you have into something becomes a habit people wil call you naturally talented. 

[WhiteShepherd]

That is true. The more you work on something the better you get at it. Though it can take time. I bet Kada-Ru could give you some insights. She loves watercolors and paint. Also a suggestion why not apply for a Furtopia web hosting? It's free plus you don't even need to know how to make a web page (it has it's own gallery if you don't have your own web page) and you could then link your art directly here in the forums as well as other websites if you wished.    Web hosting application page: https://services.furtopia.org/f_application.shtml

Some cheese for thought?    WhiteShepherd

[cause the rat]

WhiteShepherd. Thanks for the invite. I've been following the progress as the hosting was moving along. I'm not a furry artist. OK, I'm a furry. But my works aren't. If I do paint something anthro I do plan on posting it here. Right now I have nothing to show. Other than page after page of me writing with the tip of a round brush. Lots of me convincing myself that this exercise is working. Be as mind numbing to read as it was to paint.  In a few days I'll start working with flat and filbert brushes. To better understand what I can do with them. Once I do start painting I know I will find something else to accomplish before I go on.

I do have a way for folks here to follow what I'm doing. Links to threads I make on an art forum. Like the one below showing the painting I keep referring back to.

https://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/topic/my-sagent-attempt-the-ongoing-joy-of-throwing-paint/

It's good to hear of another furry who uses traditional mediums for art. I'll have to check out Kada-Ru's works.

[cause the rat]

I know. As far as internet time line goes it's been over a decade sense my last post. Between death, hospitalizations, family and now work I really haven't had time to do anything. The only real setback is I haven't been able to show just how much better this idea of learning is. Learning to do something takes effort and work. It's not fun. But way more productive than mindlessly doing the same mistakes for hundreds of hours. I know. As both a student of a really good teacher to becoming a teacher myself. I've both experienced and seen the results. I repeat the same thing over and over again. Because I keep hearing the same thing over and over again from on line instructors. Everyone of them say this in their own way. "Mindlessly go at it every day. You will eventually get better." That doesn't work. Spend some time doodling and having fun. Noting wrong with that. Spend more time practice what your having trouble with. Even your doodles will come out faster and better. And be more fun to do.

Before you ask, no, I'm not going to talk about what's all been going on. I like to keep my privet life away from my internet life. That way i don't have to deal with privet life on line as well. Thanks for being understanding.

[Iara Warriorfeather]

I know. As far as internet time line goes it's been over a decade sense my last post. Between death, hospitalizations, family and now work I really haven't had time to do anything. The only real setback is I haven't been able to show just how much better this idea of learning is. Learning to do something takes effort and work. It's not fun. But way more productive than mindlessly doing the same mistakes for hundreds of hours. I know. As both a student of a really good teacher to becoming a teacher myself. I've both experienced and seen the results. I repeat the same thing over and over again. Because I keep hearing the same thing over and over again from on line instructors. Everyone of them say this in their own way. "Mindlessly go at it every day. You will eventually get better." That doesn't work. Spend some time doodling and having fun. Noting wrong with that. Spend more time practice what your having trouble with. Even your doodles will come out faster and better. And be more fun to do.

Before you ask, no, I'm not going to talk about what's all been going on. I like to keep my privet life away from my internet life. That way i don't have to deal with privet life on line as well. Thanks for being understanding.

Cause, I send you my condolences. Grieving makes artwork difficult, I know this firsthand (er, paw?). Take care of yourself and doodle/paint when the muse is ready.