And more sketches...

I've been playing more with Paper 53 on my iPad.  This is just a quick Christmasy scene that I made up -- mostly so I could make snowflake dots!!  I'm learning a lot about getting deep color, using the tools with white or light colors to lift out areas (the glow around the stars and candles, for example), and generally having way too much fun!!

Earlier in the week, I did a favorite little critter from my past. There's a long story behind my interest in frogs and someday when I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll share it here.  I used the frog drawing to try out the felt pen tool and also to work on my smooth washes.  I'm pretty happy with the results!!

I also got another stylus after reading reviews online.  My new stylus is a TruGlide -- with a fun red case and a microfiber tip -- and, happily, it was quite inexpensive. It zooms around on the screen like an Olympic figure skater and is great with the drawing/painting app. Between the Sensu brush and the new stylus, I should be able to create a wide range of effects.

Onward!! Have a great weekend!!

More fun with the iPad...

 

Almost every year, my fascination with Chinese Lanterns leads me to buy a bunch at the local supermarket floral department with the intention of sketching them or including them in a painting. And every year, I eventually tire of them sometime in December and discard them -- mission unaccomplished.  Not this year!! I am so intrigued with the Paper 53 app on my iPad that I sat down after dinner the other night and came up with this little drawing.  I'm learning as I go.  The short video tutorials included with the app cover a few basic operations and the rest is just a matter of experimenting.  I discovered I really like the pencil tool in the expanded tool kit: although it doesn't give quite the same control as a real pencil, the line appeals to me.

In the last drawing, I used the "loup" feature which allows you to create a magnified area so you can add text or fine details to a drawing. In this one, I discovered that I could reverse the areas that got a bit too dark by selecting the pencil tool and a cream color from the palette and cross-hatching the areas that I wanted to de-emphasize. Overlaying them with lighter color washes mellowed out the line work.  I'm still not happy with my handling of background washes -- they're a bit too splotchy and clumsy looking for my tastes. That's my next challenge.

My first iPad sketch...

This is a pretty simple little sketch -- my first try at Paper 53.  I just got my first iPad for my birthday, after dithering about getting one for at least a year. I downloaded Paper 53 (free) yesterday, then shelled out a grand total of $9 for the add-on tools and palette and started playing.

I also bought a neat stylus/brush that I'd seen in an art supply catalog recently. I got mine through Amazon and couldn't be more pleased.  It's a Sensu, made by Princeton Brush Co.  The brush isn't essential, but it does give a reasonably good feel of actually painting. The only thing I'd like would be a way to control the size of the stroke, but you just get a single weight line -- good for filling in some color, but not quite as sensitive as a real brush.  This is what the Sensu looks like -- it's like a travel brush, with the brush stored inside the handle.

Although there is a built-in palette with about 15-20 fixed colors, the Color Mixer add-on is a worthwhile addition. It was only a couple of dollars and it works much like the color controls in Photoshop -- slider bars let you control the hue, the saturation, and the value, so you have almost unlimited choices.

All in all, a fun app and the iPad is fantastic. Can't believe it took me so long to take this step!!

My "secret project"...

Schnozz

watercolor, 6" x 6"

Chris Beck

I spent most of the month of August on a project that I couldn't discuss until it was finalized. Just got word that it's a go, so....

Sometime last spring, I was invited to be the guest columnist for one of the features in The Artist's Magazine. The Brushing Up column is devoted to technical matters of painting and my article covers one of my favorite art products -- masking fluid.  There are tips on purchasing and handling it, as well as ways of using this versatile product.  Schnozz is one of the paintings I did specifically for the article and there are stepped out examples of how I painted each one.

My article will appear in the January/February 2014 issue of The Artist's Magazine -- due out in early December.  I'll be sure to let you know when it's available.

Zombie Peeps...

Zombie Peeps

watercolor, 6" x 6"

Chris Beck

Last Easter, I found a box of oddly shrivelled green Peeps on the shelf at one of the local stores and initially rejected them as too creepy for Easter. But when I shifted my point of view, I decided that they might be just the thing for Halloween, so I went back and bought them. (I laugh to recall that I was worried they might not be there when I went back, two days after I first saw them. Guess shrivelled green Peeps don't say Easter to anybody else either!!)

Despite the fact that I had all the "ingredients" for a funky Halloween painting, I had a lot of other things going on and pretty much had abandoned the idea of a Peeps painting this year. But yesterday, I woke up with a bolt of inspiration.  I didn't actually get at the painting until mid-afternoon and I finished at midnight (with time out for dinner) -- quite possibly a record time for me.

So, for your Halloween viewing pleasure, Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you: Zombie Peeps!!

A Pirate's Ransom...

Capt. Hook

watercolor and gold leaf, 4" x 4"

Chris Beck

After seeing some dynamite paintings of autumn leaves with stunning gold leaf backgrounds by my friend Carrie Waller, I decided to try gold leaf to cover a dull and muddy background (don't ask!) on this painting of one of my vintage salt shakers.  I'm very happy with the results and it reminds me of an icon painting now -- no blasphemy intended.

It's been ages since I used gold leaf, and then it was to cover a little wooden box as a gift for a friend.  I'd forgotten a few things in the intervening years. Such as: don't breathe any heavy sighs of exasperation when things aren't going well because you'll only increase your exasperation as bits of gold leaf in your work area scatter like real-world leaves in a windstorm!! And: be sure you don't inadvertently get any sizing (basically diluted glue) on your fingertips or they'll be gold-leafed along with your art and there'll be little holes in the gold leaf on your painting!!

It was a fun experiment and I may try to do more with this technique, but right now, I need to prep a demo I'm doing next Wednesday for one of the local art leagues.  Hmmm -- wonder if they'd like to see a gold leaf background?

Flying with the birdies...

I'm working on a special project right now and can't say any more about it, but thought I'd give you a little teaser of one of the paintings that I'm doing for it.  Once again, I'm playing with my collection of salt shakers and hope the results will be pleasing to all concerned.

Tech Talk: Replacing your Mission Gold paints

For those who have been following the reports I've made on my tests of Mission Gold watercolors, I have some encouraging news to share.  I have been in email conversations since late June with Dennis Kapp, the Chairman of the Martin F. Weber Company -- the distributor of Mission Gold -- and he has asked me to share this offer.

As previously reported, according to Mr. Kapp, Mission Gold has reformulated 50 of the 90 colors in the original line, replacing pigments of poor lightfastness with more dependable ones.  Mr. Kapp is offering to replace any fugitive color from the old line with its lightfast equivalent from the newly formulated colors.  It doesn't matter if the tubes have been used, or even emptied.  As long as you still have the tubes, you can return them for replacement.

To receive replacements, send your old tubes* of fugitive colors -- along with your snail mail return address -- to:

Dennis Kapp

4444 Lawton Street

Detroit, MI 48208
 
Phone: 313-895-0700

You will receive, by return mail, a new tube of the equivalent color for each tube of the fugitive colors that you send in.

I am sharing this news in the interest of my readers, but I do not have a full list of pigments used in the original line and cannot answer questions about specific colors.  You can check my previous blog post for details on the colors I tested.  I believe some of the same pigments were used in making other colors as well, so you may be able to determine whether you have fugitive colors by checking the labels on your tubes and comparing pigments to those covered in my review.

For those interested in learning more about pigments, I recommend two websites -- Art is Creation and Handprint -- or books by Michael Wilcox and Hilary Page.

* I'm adding my suggestion: Out of consideration for the people who will be opening your returns, remember to pack the tubes in something that will prevent them from being squashed and ruptured in the mail.

Splash 14...

My copy of Splash 14 arrived a few days ago -- with my fun ducks featured on page 55.  North Light Books does a fantastic job -- the quality of the book is exceptional and I'm thrilled to be in the company of so many wonderful artists, many of whom are my friends. 

Each Splash book is a treasure trove of the best in contemporary watercolor and a wonderful source of inspiration. You can order from the North Light Books shop -- they have both hardback and e-versions available.

Tech Talk: Lightfastness tests – finale

full view of test card at 6 months

sun-exposed half on left

same card – sun-exposed half moved to right

This is the last post for the lightfastness tests of Mission Gold watercolors that I began in mid-January.  For the last month, I had the sun-exposed card in a window that got much more sun and there was even more fading to the dodgy colors.  As I explained in detail last month, the fading was not unexpected because the pigments used in those colors are rated as poor to fugitive.

Since I posted my previous update, I have had several emails from Dennis Kapp, the chairman of the board of the Martin/F.Weber company, which distributes the Mijello Mission Gold watercolors in the U.S.  Needless to say, he was not happy to see my negative review and said he wished I'd told them about my tests so he could have given me newer, more lightfast colors.  Fortunately, I kept the email correspondence I'd had with his employee, starting with the sample set I received in mid-September, in which I'd pointed out that there were problems with the pigments used in the line.  Although she told me in early January that they were beginning to look at lightfastness matters and would update me, I never heard another word until I received Mr. Kapp's first email in late June.

According to Mr. Kapp, Mijello has reformulated 50 of the 90 colors in the line after receiving feedback at a watercolor society opening last year that there might be a lightfastness problem. (I strongly suspect that the feedback to which he is referring was set in motion by my comments to a watercolorist friend during the National Watercolor Society reception in late September last year.  My friend brought my concerns to the attention of a watercolorist friend of his -- a woman who had been distributing sample sets of Mission Gold at the NWS reception. But perhaps somebody else also expressed alarm about the pigments.)

In his first email, Mr. Kapp listed the pigment changes to the paints that I tested. I've checked them against the lists of reliable pigments, and they are all acceptable.  He also explained that they are creating two versions of some colors -- those labelled as "bright" will be less lightfast.

Mr. Kapp tells me that they have been shipping the newly formulated colors to their dealers for about 60 days now and have instructed their dealers to give replacements for any of the fugitive colors, even if the tubes have been partially used.  

I applaud the company for taking this step, but I have to caution you to be careful. Dick Blick is the only major art supply house that is selling Mission Gold, as far as I can determine.  There is no indication that they are selling a reformulated line and the product numbers are identical to the sample tubes I received last fall.  The local art store that carried Mission Gold removed the product after seeing my lightfastness tests last month. They said nothing about being offered the newly reformulated paint that has supposedly been going out to dealers for the past two months.  If you decide to buy this line of watercolors, ask questions and do some research before purchasing.

Here are some ways to check on pigments: both Michael Wilcox's The Wilcox Guide to the Best Watercolor Paints and Hilary Page's Guide to Watercolor Paints are available through online booksellers, although both are now somewhat out of date -- quite a few new pigments have been added to the world of art since they were published.  I also know of two websites that deal with pigments: Handprint and Art is Creation -- Handprint is chock full of information, but the pigment charts on Art is Creation are much easier to read.

I hope you have found this series of posts instructive and helpful. I strongly feel that artists must demand quality materials -- to accept less is to dishonor our time and talent.