Free Painting Sunsets tutorial

"Sunsets are simply amazing. Every single one is different. I tried my hand at painting them quite a few times, even though, according to the Art Police, sunsets are kitsch. But who cares, I love kitsch..."

I'm thinking about making a sunset tutorial, sometime next year. In preparation I'm working on a series of oil sketches on paper. I filmed the painting process of one of these sketches with my new compact camera (I confess, I'm a gadget freak...) and boiled it down to a short 20 minutes tutorial. The 2 minutes trailer is now on YouTube. If you're interested in the free 20 minutes version, please send an email to info@janhendrikdolsma.nl. Of course you'll then have to put up with my Newsletter every two months...

Economics

Small Wave, oil on panel, 45 x 15 cm

There are two sides to the life of a professional painter: the artistic and the financial side. Most of the time the focus is on the artistic side, probably because it's the most interesting. But for the artist him/her self, the financial side can sometimes be pretty interesting too, especially in times of crisis. Gotta make a living...

I read that only 5% of the artists with a professional training can actually make a living selling their art. The remaining 95% have spouses with a job, or have a job themselves. That was my situation for quite a few years. I had a teaching job for three days a week. It wasn't until 2004 that I quit and started making a living as an artist. Great day for me. I loved teaching, but being my own man, making my own decisions is the best thing that ever happened to me. I still enjoy that freedom every day. But it comes with a cost: an unsteady income. If you want financial stability, you better find a different occupation.

I kept my head above water, during the economic crisis. The internet has been a great help. It enabled me to sell my work online (mostly oil sketches). Selling my tutorials would have been impossible without the internet.

Did the crisis affect my artistic decisions? Sure. I made far more small paintings, even when my heart went out to the larger formats. Gotta make a living...

The good news is that I had a great year so far. Sales are picking up, for the large formats in particular. Got some inspiring ideas for new paintings. I'll keep you posted.

Ugly underpainting

My underpaintings sometimes are plain ugly. Some of you may have had this experience. You start working on a painting and when the first layer is done, you look at the thing and you think: this is never going to work. I'm the worst painter ever. The colors are pale, the surfaces not as smooth as you want them to be and the transitions are off.

Through the years I found out that it's hard to avoid this. Especially with the layering technique I use.  Here's an example:

Sunset, 50 x 150 cm, oil on panel, underpainting

Not very promising, huh? 

In the following layers I slowly built up the colors to the level of saturation I wanted. Because I use quite a lot of medium it took a few layers to get there. This is how it turned out:

Sunset, 50 x 150 cm, oil on panel, finished state

Check out my website for a bigger picture: http://www.paintingskies.com/products/

As you can see the initial color of the sea in the underpainting was quite dark. I added the lighter accents in the next layers. This sometimes works better than the other way around.

Sunset, detail

Anyway, if you sometimes get the feeling that there's a wide gap between what you had in mind and the present state of your painting, remember that's how it's supposed to be. Just keep going and somewhere along the line things will take a turn for the better.

Working on a finished painting

Been working on a finished painting. I do that quite often. I convince myself that a painting is finished, but after some time (a few weeks, months, even a year) it turns out that's not the case at all.

This particular painting had been in an exhibition for six weeks and the moment the exhibition was over I picked it up at the gallery and reworked it. Now it's finished. I mean really finished. I even gave it a new title. Period.

Here are the two stages. The one at the bottom is the way it looks at the moment. The definitive, final, not-to-be-touchedd-again stage. Did it get any better? What do you think? Let me know!

If you want to take a closer look, please check my web site (http://www.paintingskies.com/products/)

Wide Beach, oil on panel, 50 x 150 cm

Narrow Beach, oil on panel, 50 x 150 cm

Painting side effects

I love being a painter. For several reasons. The most important of course being painting itself. Nothing compares to working for hours, struggling to get it right, and at some point look at your painting from a distance and think: "Hey, now we're getting somewhere!".

The Last Quarter, oil on panel, 80 x 60 cm

Another reason is the fact that I get in touch with people from all over the globe. They share one thing: their love of painting. Every now and then I get to meet one of them in person. Like Robert Hobkirk, for example. He's an amazing guy. Lives in Northern California with his loving wife Jeannine and their dogs Belle and Molly. A few years ago he wrote me an email about my work and that was the start of an ongoing correspondence.

Last fall we met at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. He's 71 now, but that doesn't keep him from travelling Europe. We spent the day looking at great art, talking about the price of gas and about our favorite paintings.

Robert Hobkirk is a bit of a Renaissance-man. Not only is he the author of a great art blog, but he’s also the sculptor of wonderful objects made from stuff other people throw away. Not only does he write short stories that are both funny and sad, he’s also an amazing poet, who recently published his first book: Haiku Avenue, 333 haiku poems.

Though the classical Japanese haiku style is pretty old, Hobkirks poems are as fresh and alive as can be. The subject matter ranges from sensitive nature observations to steaks sizzling in a frying pan. I just love every one of the 333. Here's one:

Hard rain after dark

we slept in a driftwood hut

ocean snored all night

Even more recently he came out with a second book: Somewhere Poetry Grows Wilde Under the Eucalyptus. In the fall he hopes to publish some short stories and a novel is scheduled for next year. Just can't wait...

Photographing your work

Some five weeks ago I bought a new compact camera. Not that the one I had was broken or anything, but I wasn't satisfied with the video quality. The new camera is absolutely amazing. HD video quality and fantastic stabilizing.

It also has a time lapse mode. That was new to me, so I had to figure out how it worked. I had planned to make an oil sketch for a possible commission (which I didn't get...) and I thought it might be a good idea to film the making-of as a time lapse. Great fun to see myself as a Comedy Capers character working like mad on this little painting. Hope you enjoy it too.

Now let's get serious: taking pictures of your work can be quite frustrating. The colors are off, the image is unsharp, annoying reflections, what have you. There are a few simple groundrules that can make your life easier, at least when it comes to taking pictures of your work.

Here we go:

- The quality of the light is the most important factor. Bad lighting, bad picture. The best light can be found on an overcast day with diffuse light. Take your painting outside and you'll be amazed by the quality of the pictures.

- When you shoot indoors, make sure you use daylight lamps. Most everyday light bulbs are way to yellow.

- No direct flash. Direct flash equals reflections. 

- Use a tripod. A stabilized camera allows you to use a wider diafragm and higher shutterspeed. Which leads to sharper pictures.

- Treat yourself to a photo software program. It will allow you to adjust  not only lightness and contrast, but color hue as well. I use Photoshop Elements. It has all the features I need and is relatively cheap. Indispensable for fine tuning your pictures.

Success!

Changing Weather, oil on panel, 15 x 45 cm

Painting Questions

Got an email with a number of painting questions from David Barclay. David is a great still life painter. His paintings of musical instruments are really impressive. If you're interested: http://davidbarclayart.com/

Most of his work is in acrylics, but lately he started working in oils. He kindly gave me permission to quote some of his questions.

1. "What would you recommend regarding the series of the oil paints that I purchase?  I have no sense of how much difference there is between a series 1 and a top of the line series 8, so this is a real puzzle to me.  My guess is that it makes more of a difference for some colors than others, but don't know.  What improves as you go up the series "ladder?"
Problem is that manufacturers have different ways of dividing their paints. The only one I know that works with 'series' is  Royal Talens with their Rembrandt line. Series 1 are the whites, series 2 the yellows and so on. In this case it's not a matter of the higher the number the better the quality. My advice is to buy the earth colors, the flesh colors and the greens from a cheaper brand like for example Lukas. Their Lukas 1862 brand has an excellent price-quality rate. When you get to the warm colors it pays off to buy a more expensive brand, like Old Hollandt. Their paints are packed with pigment.

Reflections #2, oil on panel, 50 x 150 cm

2. From watching the videos, it appears to me that when you use W&N Liquin Original, your paintings dry overnight so that they can be worked on again the next day.  Is that right?
Yes. I used to work with traditional media. They took ages to dry. I was forced to work on two or three paintings at a time. Now I can continue working the same painting the next day. Much better.

3. "In your first video you used Liquin Original and in the second Liquin Light Gel.  Did I understand that you have basically switched to the Gel, or do you use them in different situations? Why?"
 Yes, I switched to the gel. For me it works better in getting smooth surfaces, especially with large paintings. I also like the gel better when it comes to glazing. The price is the same. You have to store it in the dark. It hardens under the influence of light.

4. "Do you use alkyd oil paints? Why or why not?
Yes, I have used alkyds. I found it harder to get the smooth transitions I want. Plus they smell funny... But that's personal. I know people who prefer alkyds over oils. One of the advantages is that you can apply a finishing varnish after a few monthts, where as with oils you'll have to wait at least a year.

Evening Breakers, oil on panel, 15 x 40 cm

5. "I noticed as I looked at some suppliers listings of oil paints that there are toxicity ratings that the state of California requires be listed for certain colors.   I could not help but think of your frequent use of your thumb.  Do you do anything to minimize this possible danger?  I would say that I am not an extremist on this front, but would prefer to err on the the side of safety.  (Our joke here is that there are certain chemicals that only cause cancer in California.  A bit of black humor!)"
Since the days my dad worked as a house painter, health hazards have been greatly diminished. Legislation in Europe as well as in the USA and other countries has become much stricter. It never entered my mind that my thumb technique could be a health hazard. Been doing it for over twenty years. I often wash my hands after using my thumb, but that's because my brushes get slippery if I don't.

So much for the Q and A. If you have questions like this, please feel free to ask them. On this blog or through my email: info@janhendrikdolsma.nl.