BRING OUT YOUR CREATIVITY
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Email Sign Up
  • Ebay
  • Prints
  • Prints

How To Create Depth In Your Backgrounds

11/29/2017

0 Comments

 
​The trick is not to put the same amount of detail everywhere. For areas you want to appear further back, just concentrate on your lights and darks and try to avoid any sharp edges or definite lines. Save that for the foreground.
​Another thing to do is to keep your colors cooler and more muted for things you want to appear further away. Use warmer and brighter colors for things you want to appear more close up.
Avoiding putting a lot of detail everywhere isn’t lazy, it’s actually showing good artistic judgement. When you look at something off in the distance in real life, you don’t see all the detail in it. So it should be the same way in your painting.
You can see me demonstrate these principles in the video below.
0 Comments

Know When To Stop Blending When Painting

11/27/2017

0 Comments

 
​For clarification purposes, I’m talking about blending, meaning smoothing your paint on your canvas, not blending two or more colors together. 
​Okay, this is a bad habit a lot of artists, including myself have. But we need to stop the blending madness. Have you ever seen where you have a ring of paint around an area and nothing in the center? Well, so have I and it’s because we blending too much.
Here are two ultramarine blue spots.
Picture
WRONG
Picture
RIGHT
For the spot on the left, I blended for a long time very aggressively concentrating on the center. You can see that I've removed most of the paint from that area so that there's a ring around the edges. Trust me when I say I've seen spots come out way worse than this.
On the other hand, for the spot on the right, I blended for a short amount of time, very gently; I kept my wrist loose, and concentrated on the edges.
​As you can see, it’s far from perfectly smooth, but that smoothness would be much better achieved by adding another layer or two, after the first layer is dry of course, than painting one layer and blending it to death.
You can see this in action in the video below.
0 Comments

Creating Fine Detail With A Liner Brush

11/24/2017

0 Comments

 
​The first step to ensuring success when it comes to creating detail in this way, is to choose the right liner brush. This is the one I use. 
Picture
​It’s called a script liner brush and you can see the bristles are very long. They’re probably about an inch long and that’s what you want because those kinds of brushes will hold their shapes.
​This is an example of a bad liner brush. 
Picture
​It’s just that it has a bunch of dried paint in it, which of course is bad, but the bristles are very short. As a result, it loses its shape quickly, and you have lots of hairs sticking out in all directions.
​So how do you use this type of brush? First I’m going to show you how to paint super fine lines, like barely thicker than a strand of hair. To do this, you first roll the brush around in some paint.
Picture
You want the paint to be spread along the length of the bristles, like this, 
Picture
​not all collected at the tip. Okay, so when you paint, to make your line as thine as possible, you’re barely going to touch the canvas with just the tip of your brush, like I’m showing you.
Picture
​You can see me use this method in my painting, “Turkey On The Grass”, here 
Picture
and you can see the results in the turkey's eye here.
Picture
​Now sometimes you might want a line that’s a bit thicker than that, but still smaller than what you can get with, say, a round brush. The same principle of rolling the brush around in the paint applies, but instead of just letting the tip touch the canvas this time, you’re going to let part, or all, of the length of the bristles touch the canvas, depending on just how thick you want your line to be.
Picture
You can see these tips in action in the video below.
0 Comments

Art Info:What Influences The Value Of Art?

11/22/2017

0 Comments

 
​Keep in mind, we’re talking about monetary value here, not emotional value.
Who Has Owned The Art In The Past
​If a noteworthy person once owned a piece of art, that can drive its value up significantly. This is called provenance.
Whether The Painting Was Done By A Famous Artist Or An Unknown One
​A painting that had once been believed to have been painted by an unknown shot up in value in value when it was attributed to Reubens. In modern times, this includes social media following and engagement. Something that’s also related to this is how often the artist has already sold, because more you sell as an artist, the more your name tends to get known. 
Whether The Artist Is Alive Or Dead
​Like I said before, when artist dies, he obviously can’t produce any more work, so whatever he has made becomes that much more valuable.
​What doesn’t influence the value of art? How good/detailed it is. The value of art is also has nothing to do with how similar you can make yours in style to that of a famous artist. In fact, if your work looks too much like that of another artist, it will be less valuable, not to mention that you might be breaking some copyright laws depending on just how similar it is. But in the art world, people value, both emotionally and monetarily, uniqueness.
​Now I don’t want you to think I’m saying that if you want to sell your art, you should forget about actually making good art and just focus on getting famous. I’m not suggesting that at all. Honestly even if I could paint and draw stuff that looked like it was done with my feet and people would fall over themselves to buy it, I would still feel the need to make my work the best I can for my own satisfaction. Besides, there is a chance you can make work that looks that bad and have people buy it, but I think you’ll have better chance if your work is of good quality.
sources
sources
What Makes Art Valuable(BBC doc hosted by Alistair Sooke)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a-29jpmXaY

Tips for pricing your artwork - artist vlog w/ Lachri
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPNv-VrErWs
0 Comments

Art Tips:What Should You Color Something That's Black?

11/20/2017

1 Comment

 
You might remember I made a post a while ago about how to paint black hair. But today, I want to talk about painting black things in general.
​Now, I guess you're probably thinking the answer to the question, "what do you paint something that's black?" is "Black, duh." But that's not exactly correct. 
​In fact, I think you should almost never paint something that's black entirely, or even predominantly, black.
​One reason for this is because, in order to have dimension, things need to have shadow and highlights. That means some parts of it need to be darker or lighter than the base.
​Now I think you can see where this becomes a problem because if you've already painted something black, you really can't go any darker.
Take this picture of me in my black leather jacket for example. Here it is with three squares next to it.  You can see, even if that’s a little too dark but we’re getting closer. Now I would say the best match is closer to somewhere between the second and third gray squares, than it was to the first black one.
Picture
​So in reality, when you’re painting something that’s black, only the darkest shadows should actually be black. I can even remember being in my mom’s car as a kid and looking around at the interior thinking, “I know this is technically black, but a lot of it looks gray to me."
In the video below, you can see me demonstrate this concept by painting a board half black and half dark gray.
1 Comment

Art Thoughts:How I Would Handle My Work Being Reposted

11/17/2017

0 Comments

 
Today I’m going to talk to you about how I would handle my work being reposted.
​Understand that as soon as you create an original work, whether it’s a painting, drawing, video, article, you have copyright. So don’t let anyone tell you, well you didn’t register it or you didn’t have a copyright symbol on it, yada, yada,yada.
​I’m going to be covering what your options are and what I would do if A.  Someone has posted your work to one of their social media accounts and is taking credit for it or B This person is not only posting my work to their social media accounts and taking credit for it, but is trying to sell it or has repainted your painting and selling that.
Option One: File A DCMA Takedown Notice:This is internet only.
​There is something called Digital Millennium Copyright Act or DCMA takedown notice. Almost all websites have avenues through which you can send one. Websites promise that if the copyright holder sends one, they will removing the infringing post. Even better some promise that repeat offenders will have their accounts terminated. 
If you don’t know how to send a send a DCMA takedown notice, just look for instructions on the website and you’ll find it.  Youtube makes it really easy. You can find it in the flag option under every video. From the drop down menu, just choose “infringes my rights” and from there choose “infringes my copyright” and from there, it’ll take you to a place where you can fill out this form.
​Do not, I repeat, do not, send a fake copyright infringement notice. This can get you in heaps of trouble and you’ll probably be lucky if the only thing that happens is the account you used to send it with gets terminated.
Option two:Send a cease and desist letter :This is both online and offline
​A lot of articles about cease and desist letters recommend having a lawyer send it for you, but you can definitely write a cease and desist letter yourself. What it is basically you write to the person and say something like, “Hey, I own the copyright to that painting. You’re not allowed to sell it. Knock it off”. I know if someone wrote to me and said that I was violating their copyright, I’d get pretty nervous and I’d definitely stop
​Option three:Suing for copyright infringement
​Now, it’s my understanding that you have to have your work registered with the copyright office to be able to sue, although copyright itself is automatic. I personally don’t have anything registered, but if I did, I would only sue as a last resort, after all other avenues had failed. The good news is, if you do have your work registered and you decide to sue, you are pretty much guaranteed to win that case. There also might come a time when the money you stand to lose by not being able to sue is greater than the cost of registering your work.
​Now what if someone steals your idea? If someone does a concept extremely similar to yours, to the point where you know they had to have gotten it from you, and doesn’t give you credit, that is called plagiarism. Plagiarism is wrong, but it’s not a legal issue. It’s an ethical issue.
​Not every case of someone using the same idea you used is plagiarism, though, even if they’re not giving you credit. Ideas get reused all the time.
​Here’s the thing about ideas. You can’t own them. Ideas are not copyrightable. Only the physical manifestation of an idea is copyrightable.
​I hope this helps you better understand how you can protect your copyright. Do your own research. Like I said, I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t guarantee that everything I said in this video is accurate. I just did my best.
0 Comments

Art Tips:Why I Like To Draw Over My Painting With A Pencil

11/15/2017

0 Comments

 
​Today I'm going to talk to you about why I like to draw over my painting. 
​You probably think the order of painting is draw everything out and fill it in with paint. There's nothing wrong with doing things that way, but I find it difficult when I’m trying to paint around all the tiny details I drew. 
Picture
​That's a pain. 
iI’ve tried blocking in the area and then painting on my details, 
Picture
but I don’t have that much control with the brush. ​
​I personally find it much easier to draw in my details over the painted area with a pencil. 
Picture
​This gives me a kind of map for where things go. Then I can just go and fill in the shapes I drew.
​If you’d like to try this method, make sure the paint your using either has a matte finish or you use a matte medium with it. Glossiness will prevent the pencil from adhering properly. Also, make sure the paint is completely dry before you attempt to draw over it and try to lay it on too thick. This has caused problems in my experience.
0 Comments

Art Thoughts:Are You Can Create An Original Work Of Art By You

11/13/2017

0 Comments

 
You know, only you can create an original, insert your name here.
​I was recently watching a video that was responding to someone’s concern posting their work online. This person didn’t want to do that for fear that someone might copy their work. The answer was if, work that’s any good is going to get copied.
But here’s something else. A copy will never be as valuable as the original and, like the title of this video says, you are the only one who can create an original work of art by you. Take this painting for example.​
Picture
​The photo I’m using comes from a royalty free site, so someone else could paint this image. But their painting will not be an original Sara Millett, because they are not me.
By all means, stand up for your rights as a copyright holder. But don't fret over the fact that someone copied your painting, because that's all they can ever do.
0 Comments

Amsterdam Standard Series Review

11/10/2017

0 Comments

 
​Today I’m going to be reviewing Amsterdam Standard Series Paint for you.
What is Amsterdam Paint?
​Amsterdam is a line of acrylic paints from the Dutch company, Royal Talens, which also makes the lines, Rembrandt and Van Gogh. Standard Series is the student line. Amsterdam also has a professional line called Expert Series, which I have not used.
How Lightfast Are Amsterdam Standard Series Paints?
I talked about lightfastness in my post about student grade paint, but I’ll reiterate it here. Lightfastness is the ability of a medium to resist fading in light, particularly sunlight. Amsterdam has a lightfastness rating that’s symbolized by plus signs.
Picture
​Three plus signs on a tube means that color will resist fading for up to 100 years, “in museum conditions”, according to Royal Talens’s website. Two plus signs means it will resist fading for 25-100 years.
What Is It Like To Work With Amsterdam Standard Series?
​Pretty nice, actually. I would describe the texture as being somewhere between creamy and fluid. I personally find it very pleasant. I’m going to do a quick demonstration for you so you can see how it spreads on the canvas.
My Personal History With Amsterdam Standard Series
​I’ve been using Amsterdam for a few years now. I had been using Liquitex Basics, but the art store I’d been going to and that I really liked, stopped carrying them and an employee told me that the Amsterdam Standard Series line was comparable to Liquitex Basics, so I decided I would start using them, and that brings me to my last point, which is…
How Similar Are Amsterdam Stardard Series and Liquitex Basics?
​​The answer is, similar enough that I can use both in the same painting, during the same painting session and not notice a difference in the textures. Just for this video, though, I’m going to a quick side by side comparison of five equivalent colors in both lines. In the video below, I'm showing a comparison between the two brands.
0 Comments

Art Thoughts:Are Student Brands Horrible?

11/8/2017

0 Comments

 
​Today I’m going to be exploring the question, are student paint brands horrible?
Student brands of paint get a bad rap and from my experience and what I’ve heard from other artists, they don’t seem to deserve it. I frequently use Liquitex Basics and Amsterdam Standard Series paint, both student brands, in my own work and these cards 
​were painted with Cotman, which is Winsorandnewton’s student brand for watercolors.
​Kelly Eddington, of Kelly Eddington Watercolors said of Cotman and Grumbacher Academy Watercolors, “They do everything that watercolors are supposed to do and their lightfastness(that is, how well they resist fading when exposed to sunlight)is very good”. Lisa Clough, of Lachri Fine Art, has repeatedly stated her preference for Liquitex Basics, sighting how their low pigmentation makes them easy to glaze with and how their matte finish makes it possible to draw over them with a charcoal pencil to allow for further layering. She noted in her video “Oil Painting For Beginners”, that WinsorandNewton’s Winton line, their student oil brand, was just as good as their professional line.
​Here are some other artists thoughts on student brands.
Yes...i have fabercastell student grade water color pencils and i have created amazing art work with them.. my art teacher told me artist are not dependent on branded art material. Art can be created with simple graphite pencil and any paper, only fingers do the magic..
I have colored pencils I bought (24 for ~5€ all together!) that work nearly as good as my polychromos. But I dont know if they are lightfast and the colorrange is really small... (only these 24 colors)
I now have good quality watercolour paints for their brilliance but acrylics have wonderful student brands that are affordable for us everyday painters, for practice or for selling. They are wonderful to work with
I personally find Cray-Pas Expressionist oil pastels (student quality) quite decent. I've done entire pictures with them They do have a professional line called Specialists that aren't that much better but cost significantly more. Also Winsor & Newton Cotman Watercolors are pretty good too for being student grade.
I much prefer the Blick brand student oil pants to Windsor & Newton. I own and use both, but slowly phasing out the WNs as I run out. The smoother, more creamy texture of the Blick brand is what I prefer. In my mind the quality is much better for the lower price
​So why do student brands get hated on so much? Well, student brands don’t have as much pigment as professional brands, they have more binder. The colors are often not as vibrant. Something you’ll see a lot in student brand paint that you won’t see so much in professional grade paint is the word hue. That word hue means it’s a lower intensity version of the color. Student lines also don’t have as many colors in them as professional ones, but I don’t think necessarily a bad thing for beginning artists, as if you have fewer colors available it kind of forces you to learn to mix colors. I’ve also seen in stores that the professional grade paint comes in bigger tubes than student grade paint.
​Still, I don’t think any of this a reason to demonize student grade paint or discourage an art student from bringing it to a class. After all, those people are who those lines are made for. 
​Keep in mind, I’m talking about student grade paint for adults. I don’t encourage you to use Crayola or Prang or any of those brands marketed to kids. They won’t give you the results you want and they have terrible, really pretty much nonexistent, lightfastness.
​But Liquitex Basics, Cotman, Winton, and Grumbacher Academy are all high quality, reputable lines that will allow you to make beautiful artwork.
Another thing that gets a bad rap in the art world is working from photographs, instead of from life. I made a post about that too.
Here are my sources for this article.
"Cheap Vs Expensive Paint" by Kelly Eddington Watercolor
"My Top 11 Acrylic Painting Supplies-Supply List From Lachri" by Lachri Fine Art
"Beginners Guide To Oil Painting and Demonstration W/Lachri" by Lachri Fine Art
"Watercolor 101 Materials-All About Paint" by HulloAlice
0 Comments
<<Previous

      Never Miss A Post

    Subscribe to Newsletter

    Sara Millett

    Painter of portraits and wildlife

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016

    Categories

    All
    Acrylic Floral Paintings
    Acrylic Nature Paintings
    Acrylic Painting
    Acrylic Paintings
    Acrylic Painting Tips
    Acrylic Painting Video Tutorials
    Acrylic Portrait Paintings
    Acrylic Portraits
    Acrylic Wildlife Paintings
    Advice About Art Supplies
    Advice For Artists
    Advice For Beginning Artists
    Animal Drawing
    Animal Paintings
    Art
    Art Advice
    Art Discussions
    Art For Stress Relief
    Art Habits
    Artist Questions
    Artists And Social Media
    Art Lessons
    Art Motivation
    Art Thoughts
    Art Tips
    At Thoughts
    Avoiding Blooms In Watercolor Painting
    Avoiding Plagiarism In Art
    Being An Artist
    Canvas Choice
    Colored Pencil
    Color Layering
    Color Mixing
    Color Mixing Exercise
    Composition Tips
    Concepts For Paintings
    Creating Depth In Your Painting
    Creating Texture
    Creative Process
    Creativity
    Dealing With Difficulty In Art
    Drawing Animals In Pastels
    Drawing Glass
    Drawing Portraits
    Drawing Tips
    Encouragement For Artists
    Famous Artists
    Fixing Color Mistakes
    Glazing(technique)
    Graphite Drawing
    Hair In Watercolor
    How To Work As An Artist
    Impressionism
    Improve Your Drawings
    Improving As An Artist
    Inspiration
    Issues With Watercolor
    Landscape Painting
    Lightfastness
    Mood In A Painting
    Mood In Art
    Nature Drawings
    Nature Painting
    Nature Painting In Watercolor
    Nature Painting Tips
    Nature Scenes
    New Ways To Mix Skin Tone
    Originality In Art
    Painting A Deer In Watercolor
    Painting Advice
    Painting Animals In Acrylics
    Painting Animals In Watercolor
    Painting Backgrounds
    Painting Birds In Acrylics
    Painting Birds In Watercolor
    Painting Clouds In Watercolor
    Painting Detail
    Painting Experiments
    Painting Feathers In Watercolor
    Painting From Life
    Painting Human Features In Acrylics
    Paintings
    Paintings Done On Ampersand Boards
    Painting Skin Tone
    Paintings Of Animals
    Paintings Of Birds
    Painting Sunrises
    Painting Tips
    Painting Turtles In Watercolor Pencil
    Painting Water
    Painting White Things
    Pastel Drawings
    Planning Paintings
    Playing With Paint
    Portrait Drawing
    Portrait Painting
    Portrait Painting In Acrylics
    Portrait Painting In Watercolor
    Portrait Painting Tips
    Portraits
    Portrait Tips
    Productivity For Artists
    Product Reviews
    Routine For Artists
    Routines
    Sketching In Watercolor
    Skin Tone Tips
    Thoughts On Productivity
    Tips For Artists
    Tips For Beginner Artists
    Tips For Painting Fur
    Trying New Mediums
    Understanding Color As An Artist
    Use Of Color
    Use Of Color In Art
    Use Of Light And Shadows
    Use Of Underpainting
    Using A Reference Photo
    Using Color In Art
    Using Reference Photos
    Videos
    Watercolor Nature Painting
    Watercolor Painting
    Watercolor Paintings
    Watercolor Painting Tips
    Watercolor Portrait Painting
    Watercolor Portraits
    Watercolor Techniques
    Watercolor Tips
    Watercolor Wildlife Painting
    Ways To Draw Better
    Ways To Improve Your Paintings
    Ways To Use Color In Your Art
    Wildilife Painting
    Wildlife Art
    Wildlife Drawing
    Wildlife In Watercolor
    Wildlife Painting
    Wildlife Painting In Acrylics
    Wildlife Paintings
    Wildlife Painting Tips
    Working As An Artist
    Working Through Difficulty In Art
    Working With Ink
    Working With Pastels
    Youtube

Privacy Policy​
Terms Of Service​
Contact​
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About Me
  • Gallery
  • Blog
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Resume
  • Let Me Make Some Art For You
  • Email Sign Up
  • Ebay
  • Prints
  • Prints