Making lines with Robert Joyner

Virginia painter Robert Joyner demonstrates three ways of creating lines in this YouTube video, Acrylic painting tutorial. Brushwork Part 1.

First, he demonstrated using a liner brush, a very long, slender brush beloved by signpainters.

Next, he demonstrates sgraffito – the technique of scratching lines into the paint and letting the paint color underneath show through. He shows how to do this first with a palette knife, and second with the end of the handle of your paint brush.

Joyner's style is very loose and painterly, with thick layers of paint laid on lovingly. It's fun to watch him lay down the paint, and cut back into it to create lines. You can see his work at http://www.robertjoynerartist.com/.

Painting demonstration follow-up

My Calistoga • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Wondering how that demonstration painting turned out? You can see the results (so far – it's not completely finished yet) above, and I posted the process here:

Painting Demos at the Napa County Fair (the beginnings of the painting)

"My Calistoga" - continued progress (everything done after the fair ended)

You can see lots of scumbling and tinted collage elements, and get some ideas about combining collage and painted elements in an art piece.

If the collage elements intrigue you, I teach them in my Painting Collages workshop, which is coming up this Saturday, July 23rd, at the Calistoga Art Center. You can find more information at www.NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com/painting-collages1.html.

Painting demonstration at the Napa County Fair

I'll be giving painting demonstrations this Saturday and Sunday, July 2nd and 3rd, at the Napa County Fair. From 5 to 8 p.m. on both days, I'll be at the Calistoga Art Center, which is a part of the fair for the first time.

I'm still debating as to what I'll be painting... maybe landscape painting one day, maybe mixed media the next? Come by, and be surprised! (I hope in a good way.)

Another little review

Remember focal point?

No? Here's a review of my posts on focal points to date.... If it's new to you, start at the bottom and work your way up. Understanding how focal points work is essential in the process of painting, if you want to create paintings that work (in abstract work, too).

A little review...

Here's a collection of some of the posts I've written on different painting topics over the course of this blog. If you want to learn - or refresh your memory - about how to start a painting, you'll find some good information here.

Click here for posts on Thumbnail sketches

Click here for posts on Blocking in a painting

Click here for posts on Negative space

Happy painting!

By the way, my next Painting Landscapes workshop is this Saturday, June 25th, at the Calistoga Art Center, in Calistoga, California. It's the only time I'll be teaching it this year. You can learn more about it here at my workshops website, NapaValleyArtWorkshops.com.

Jackson Pollock dancing with the brush

Hans Namuth's photograph of Jackson Pollock at work

Inspired by Jonas Gerard's dancing to paint? (If you haven't been introduced to Jonas Gerard yet, see my post from December 7, 2009, Dancing with the brush.) We are lucky to have film of Jackson Pollock painting, too – see examples at Jackson Pollock 51, which you can see on YouTube.com. Although he did not paint with the same sense of joy you can see in Jonas Gerard at work, he worked spontaneously, dancing with the brush (or stick) and paint.

Ed Harris, from his film Pollock

The scenes of Ed Harris as Pollock, painting in the film Pollock, are wonderful to watch, too. Here is a scene on Youtube.com – the clip is called Jackson Pollock dancing colors – he is painting his first monumentally large piece, after having torn out the walls of his studio in order to fit the canvas. Harris gives the viewer a good sense of the visceral, subconscious, dancing quality of the act of painting as Pollock practiced it.

It makes me want to get out a very big canvas, and dance....

Spring 2011 painting class schedule

Just-Spring • © 2010 Karen Lynn Ingalls

We're into the second week of the March/April session already (remember, no class this Friday) – and here's the class schedule for the rest of this spring:

April/May: (Note the week off for spring break!)

Wednesdays: April 13, spring break, 27, May 4, 11

Fridays: April 15, spring break, 29, May 6, 13

May/June:

Wednesdays: May 18, 25, June 1, June 8

Fridays: May 20, 27, June 3, 10

Location:

The new Calistoga Art Center,

Napa County Fairgrounds, Cropp Building,

1435 North Oak Street, Calistoga, California

Remember scumbling?

Three Palms for Gail • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

Scumbling (sounds like stumbling, but with a "k" sound) is, for me, one of the most useful techniques an artist can learn. I've used it in several places throughout the painting above. It's a particular kind of brushwork – using it, you can create wonderfully magical effects. To scumble, you drag a dry brush lightly loaded with paint across another color.

Detail, Three Palms for Gail • © 2011 Karen Lynn Ingalls

When might you use it? Anytime you want a transitional area between colors (in portraits, in landscape paintings, in painting skies, for example). Above, it not only helped create an atmospheric effect in the skies and distant mountains, but it also added a kind of laciness to the palm fronds. Scumbling is a way of blending color that allows the viewer to blend the colors with their eyes....

Want to learn more? Here are two earlier posts that discuss it thoroughly:

Scumbling shows how scumbling was used by Rembrandt and Modigliani in portraits.

Scumbling video lesson with Jan Blencowe links to a demonstration of the scumbling technique that Blencowe uses to create a beautifully atmospheric sky.