One Down More to Come

The orange painting is finally done!  What a relief!  I have been wanting to bring the final product to you so you could enjoy it and see what I was wanting it to look like for so long.  I hope you like it and have had as much fun as I have doing these videos.  My videos might be choppy and not the best quality but, we will get better as we do this process together.  I do hope you learned something.  I have all this knowledge in my head and I would love to share it with you and I hope that some of it got to your ears.

Here is a close up of the finished painting.

I do want to apologize for the brightness in the video and how you can not see much of what I am doing.  It was just so bright outside that day from the snow that using white on camera was really out of the question.  If you like this painting but not the fruit, say you want a blueberry or pear let me know and I can paint one for you.  This painting is up in my Etsy shop and ready for purchase at the link here:

Etsy Shop

I will not be doing anymore videos for the next few weeks because I will be traveling and I need to think up some new things to show you.  I plan on just doing some fun videos for information that you can use.  I will of course keep posting blogs and keeping you updated on any art I will be working on.  The painting videos will come back just not for a few weeks.  If you want me to answer any questions you might have about any art related topic, let me know, either here or in person if you know me, and I will answer them at the best of my knowledge.  

Do not forget to check out the video, the link is below.  I hope you enjoyed these first videos!  Take care!

Watch the Video Here!

Slice

I have finally painted the slice!  Well...so far.  Once you watch the video you can see I get a little confused and I tried to cut out the bits where I got frustrated.  I started off painting it without really knowing how I wanted it to come out and you can tell.  I had to do some major problem solving throughout the video.  I do plan on going back into it this week.  But no worries I will just give an update in the next video about what I did instead of prolonging the completion of the painting.  What happened was I layered on too much paint and it just got muddy.  I kept changing my mind and instead of scraping off paint, I kept layering on more.  That is the downfall to painting thickly.  You make a muddy mess.  I plan on getting all problems solved before the next video installment.

In the video I give some vocabulary for you to learn.  Hue, Shade and Tint.  Here are the definitions according to Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

Hue: a color or a shade of a color

Shade: a darkened area in a drawing, painting

Tint: variation of a color produced by adding white to it

So, if you ever hear me talking about a "hue" know I am just meaning a color.  If you ever hear me talking about a "shade" or a color, it is that color+black mixed in.  And finally, if you hear me say "tint" I am talking about that color+white mixed in.

I hope that helped clarify it for you.  Sorry that the video was cut a lot because of my frustration.  But you will find that happens when you paint...you get frustrated that the painting is not working out.  Those are the moments you just need to walk away and come back later.  At least, that is what works for me.  I hope you enjoy the video and look forward to next week when we FINALLY finish the painting! YAY!  I will now leave you with a picture of an orange....all this talk about oranges makes me want one.  Take care!

WATCH VIDEO HERE!

Seeing Things Differently

As I wait for my video to upload I usually try to write my blog.  I am so impatient when it comes to the computer.  I grew up in the time when I am used to getting information right away.  This week I re-worked the orange that I started and I like how it came out.  I do not plan on touching it again and will finally be able to move on.  I know you as a viewer are thinking "finally!"

During the video I talked about what I wrote about in last week's blog.  About taking a picture with your camera to see the contrast in your painting better.  I think a lot of the reason it works is it makes you see your painting in a different way.  You begin to see all the flaws or the good parts of your work.  Do you ever feel that way when you see yourself on camera or in a photograph and think...."what am I wearing" or "is that how my hair really looks".  I find myself doing that when I re-watch the videos.  I think "my goodness Brenna....why did you wear that shirt" or whatever critiques I have for myself.  Even my painting I think looks different in the video then it does in real life.  At the end of the video I include the pictures I take in the video at the end of the video so you can see.  You might think too, that painting looks different!  Here are the pictures:

I like the painting so much more in real life then in the video.  But, the video is there to teach you something new, not for the best quality cinematography.  See how the black and white filter shows you the contrast in the painting?  It helps me see if I need to add anything.  I am happy with how it came out and plan to keep it as is.  I am excited to start on the slice next week.  I might even work on it this week during my son's nap time.  If I am not tired from the night before with him waking up.  So keep coming back and seeing what is going on and I hope you are getting something out of this blog and video series.  If you would like me to help with anything or answer any questions you are having, please comment below so I can address them for you!

Watch Video Here!

The Value of Color

I finished my second video and as I filmed it I realized I need to talk to you about the value of color.

The definition of Value according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary is:
 the relative lightness or darkness of a color, the relation of one part in a picture to another with respect to lightness and darkness.

When people think of value they usually think of the range between black and white.  Well, color has a value too.  I will show you how you can do this by showing you a little trick I figured out.  In my video I explain this too, but, color a piece of paper with the colors of the rainbow, for time sake, I found a picture online:

I took a picture of it instead of just copy and pasting it to show you my trick.  Now change the mode on your camera to "black and white" now take a picture again:

Are you surprised by what colors are dark and which are lighter?  I know I am always surprised that red is dark.  But, it makes sense if you heard in my video that when adding red to a lighter pigment like yellow, it dominates the yellow.  So, if you are painting an image and you do not think you got the value right and know you need to add some lightness to the image, take a picture in "black and white" mode with your camera.  That will show you if you need to add more value and where and how.  

Like last time, I kept walking by the painting I am showing you in the video and I realized I need to add more.  So next week, I will keep working on the orange to get it just right before I work on the slice.  

I also wanted to add the link to the article I talk about in the end of the video about the history of paint.  It is very interesting and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  

History of Colors

Also do not forget to watch the video here:

Watch Video Here!