You Gotta Have Goals

By:
Maggie Stiefvater
Professional Visual Artist
Published & Award Winning
Medium: Oil
Montross, Virginia
USA
Maggie Stiefvater Author & Artist
Stiefvater Red Easel Gallery

"Memory" - 16 x 16" colored pencil on board.
Copyright 2008 Maggie Stiefvater.
My panel for the Equine Mural Mosaic (which is fascinating -- check it out)

Regular readers will know that I am in love with goals. If goals were a vegetable, I would pick bushels of them, eat them until I was sick, and then freeze the rest so that I could have a continuous supply of goals through the cold months.

One thing I have learned about goals, however, is that, like vegetables, if you don’t use ‘em or freeze ‘em right away, they go bad. Some of them go bad in a spectacular fashion. Like if you vow to lose 20 pounds at the beginning of the year, forget about the goal, and then discover Haagen-Daas ice cream sometime in June . . . not only is that goal to lose weight gone bad, but it’s bad like stinking in the bottom of your crisper drawer bad. With rotten goal juice eeking around it.

And other goals go bad in a sort of failure to stay relevant way. Like if you suddenly crave sweet potatoes and buy a ton of them. If you don’t cook all of them, you’ll have those few lonely ones left over. They’ll never go bad in a fantastically awful way, but you’ll end up throwing them away after eight months because you just don’t want them anymore. So goals should be checked often and the ones that are really timely ought to be attacked immediately.

So enough with the metaphor. I wanted to write a post today about New Year’s Resolutions. Stop staring at the screen like that, it’s rude. I know it’s nearly the end of July (yes, it’s nearly the end. The 21st. Can you believe it?) but they’re still a good topic. Because halfway through the year(ish) is a great time to pull out your Resolutions and see which of them are done, which of them are so irrelevant you’ll never truthfully attempt them, and which of them are oozing stink-juice in your veggie drawer.

Dan Schultz Painting Demonstration

Meet Dan Schultz, a Colorado Artist who works in the classical style.  He teaches aspiring artists and has offered his expert demonstrations to Red Easel! 

Dan Schultz
Professional Visual Artist
Medium: Oil, Charcoal
Colorado Springs, Colorado
USA
Dan Schultz Fine Art
Schultz Red Easel Gallery

West Wind, Oil on Linen, 16x28

For this studio painting I used Claessens double oil primed linen canvas, #15 (my usual painting surface). This painting, as with most of my larger paintings, was completed using a photograph as my reference. (My wife, Sarah, is the lovely lady in the photo. Somehow I doubt she would have been very excited to pose in the middle of a field long enough for me to do the painting from life.)

Step 1:
When doing a painting of this size (or larger), I am most comfortable starting with a fairly detailed drawing of my composition. In this case, I use vine charcoal directly on the canvas. I make sure to take as much time as necessary on this step since it will provide me with the direction I will follow for the rest of the painting. As I draw, I take careful measurements using my reference photo to make sure everything ends up the right size and in the right place. (On a side note, I carefully measure when painting smaller sizes too. I just don't necessarily do a charcoal drawing first.) I always double-check my drawing by looking at it in a mirror. Somehow seeing the image in reverse makes it easier to see my mistakes.

Step 2:
Now that I am ready to paint, I take a few moments to think about how I will proceed. When doing smaller paintings, I will often work on the whole painting at once. But, because this painting is a little larger, I decide to start in one area and work outwards. This way I have the freedom to stop if I need to, and when I return it won't matter if the paint has started to dry because I (hopefully) won't have to work on areas that I've already painted. (I always prefer to work wet-into-wet so I can easily handle my edges without having to repaint over dry paint.) Of course, this requires some planning as I begin, but it's also a fun way to work because I can see the painting begin to take shape fairly quickly. So now all I have to do is decide where to start! I've found that the easiest way for me to establish my value range for a painting is to start in an area with strong, dark values and some good contrast. For this painting, some of my darkest values are in the focal point (Sarah), so it makes sense for me to start there.

Step 3:
I do a lot of squinting at my photo and at my painting to compare the value relationships between shapes. If I get the relationships right, I will be able to continue through the painting without having to go back to change any of the values.

Step 4:
As I continue, I also pay attention the edges between shapes so that they won't all end up looking the same. In order to lead the viewer's eye to the focal point, I make sure to keep my sharpest edges there, while softening other surrounding edges in comparison. One of the keys to good edges is variety.

Step 5:
As I work on Sarah's white coat in the picture, I keep in mind that photographs have a tendency to incorrectly portray color information, especially in extremely light and dark areas. As a result, I must think about the sunlight from the day I took the photo and remember the effect its color temperature had on the entire scene. (This is where all of that continued practice painting from life pays off too, because I have information in my mind from experiences painting in these very conditions.) Since I remember that the color temperature of direct sunlight is warm, I make sure to add warm colors to all the areas of the coat that are in the direct light. As a result, the shadows are relatively cooler when compared to the light areas.

What Work Is This?

It has been a while since we played this game.  But it sure is fun.  At least I hope you think so.  Here is a beautiful work and the artist was groundbreaking in his/her style throughout the 20th Century. 

This great and very recognizable artist passed away in 1986. Do you know who this artist is?   Take a guess.  The first comment I receive who can tell me the name of the painting AND the artist and a little bit about both, will receive 1 month of free advertising on Red Easel with a 125x125 Ad Banner in our sidebar.  And, if you don't know how to create a banner, or need help, we will do that for you too.  Now that's a deal!  So speak up my Artist friends! 

What Work is This?

CONGRATULATIONS TO BILL TEITSWORTH for recognizing this painting as being by Georgia O'Keefe, called "Petunia."  Bill wins 1 month of banner ad placement on Red Easel and I hope our readers will visit his gallery and partake in his magnificent artwork.   

At least once a month I will have a contest for our artists to win valuable ad space on Red Easel.  Hey!  You can't beat a free promotion, right?  I am going to write an article this week about Georgia O'Keefe and her works.  I love sinking my brain into some art history and sharing it with my readers.  We should never stop growing and learning.  It is a lifetime adventure to exercise the brain = creatively and intellectually.

Thanks for participating, Bill!

Bill Teitsworth
Professional Visual Artist
Medium: Acrylic, Watercolor
Moscow, Pennsylvania
USA
Emanuel-Teitsworth Studio
Teitsworth Red Easel Gallery

Susan Vaughn
Editor-in-Chief
Red Easel

Share