Just in time for summer, Golden Artist Colors’ OPEN Slow-Drying Acrylics Landscape Set is ON SALE at 30% OFF! Designed for the traditional painter looking for an alternative to oil paints, plein air painters, and/or acrylic painters whose palettes need to remain wet far longer than other acrylics. Blend, soften and shade with traditional painting techniques, reduce skinning on the palette during long painting sessions, both in studio and outdoors. The Golden OPEN Slow Drying Acrylics Landscape Set includes seven (7) 22ml tubes: cadmium yellow primrose, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson hue, cadmium red light, ultramarine blue, manganese blue hue, and sap green hue. Also includes one 59ml tube of titanium white and one 30ml bottle of OPEN Thinner.
Tag: plein air
Plein Air Painting Session: LA Central Library on World Book Day, April 23rd with Roofless Painters
Attention oil painters! Join Roofless Painters for a very special plein air painting workshop to celebrate World Book Day (Tuesday, April 23). They’re painting the Los Angeles Central Library from The Bonaventure Hotel. The workshop is $75, and all painting materials are supplied (medium-OIL). Setup and clean-up is on them, too – just show up and paint!
TUE April 23, 10 am – 1 pm, Roofless Painting Session on World Book Day: LA Central Library from the Bonaventure Hotel, 404 S Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90071
We have been granted access to the Bonaventure Hotel to paint the LA Library from their pool deck. The views of the iconic library form the iconic hotel are incomparable.
We first met the Roofless Painters at the 2016 Los Angeles Plein Air Festival, when artist Julio Panisello won the Grand Prize for his oil painting of Angel’s Flight. A talented artist, Julio is also a beloved educator and the inspirational founder/leader of Roofless Painters, a nomadic painting atelier in Los Angeles.
Oil on Canvas, 18″ × 24″
Gamblin’s Alternatives to Titanium White
Gamblin Artist’s Oil Colors makes more of their artist’s grade Titanium White than any other color… by far. For most painters, it’s the first white we use. And for some, the only white ever used. There are some good reasons for this. Gamblin Titanium White has a strong tinting strength and an unparalleled, beautiful texture. It’s terrific for direct painting techniques and for quickly lightening the value of other colors.
With that said, many painters could be better served at times by whites other than Titanium White. Swapping Titanium White for any number of alternatives can solve problems and create meaningful, new artistic possibilities. Let’s explore a few.
Pure White
Whether the painting in question is abstract, representational, a bit of both or somewhere in between, there are situations where the use of straight, pure white is called for. For these situations, we recommend Radiant White, our brightest white. Radiant White has a high content of titanium dioxide pigment and is bound in safflower oil, yielding a bright white that has a neutral temperature. Our testing indicates that safflower whites hold their colors best over time.
Tempering Tinting Strength
No white pounds color down like Titanium White. It’s high tint strength can overwhelm colors, making them appear chalky in tints. A number of our other whites contain less titanium dioxide, which means a lower tint strength, and in turn more saturated color mixtures as well as more subtlety and control in color mixing.
If you find Titanium White a bit too strong in mixtures, we’d suggest trying our Titanium Zinc White. We designed it to be the perfect, all-around mixing white and to have the perfect texture to support the work of painting.
Flake White Replacement combines a lower tinting strength with a dense, ropey texture. Even stiffer than Titanium White, but less powerful in mixtures. Titanium White in our 1980 line is a valuable alternative when an even lower tint strength is desired. Titanium Zinc White and 1980 Titanium White are both bound in safflower oil.
The swatches below show Titanium White, Titanium Zinc White,and Titanium White 1980 mixed 5:1 with Quinacridone Red.
For comparison sake, we prepared the same mixtures, but reversed the ratios – 1:5 white into Quinacridone Red:
How about matching the color of your white to the color of your light?
Gamblin Warm White and Cool White are designed for painters who want to factor the color of the light into their color mixtures. The color of the light source influences all of the other colors in the painting’s subject matter. Using a white that matches the temperature of your light makes it much easier to create a consistent quality of light and color harmony throughout your painting.
Why not take this a bit further and use other high-value colors as your white? Below are a few examples.
Portland Grey Light
“Using Portland Grey Light as a white is great for tonal painting. It is slightly darker in value than pure white so the value range is limited on the light end. But what is most exciting to me is its effect on color. It creates lovely harmonious mixtures when added to the cadmium colors on my palette. The result is beautiful half tones that are not as chalky as they would be if white were used. These harmonious, greyed-down tones sit beautifully together on the canvas as a result of them each having a common ingredient…Portland Grey Light.”
– Eric Jacobsen
jacobsenfineart.com
Titanium Buff
In our discussion of colored greys, we consider Titanium Buff to be a yellow-grey. When used as a white, it simultaneously mutes and warms colors and results in a subtle harmony.
“On an Alaska fishing trip in early July, I shot a photo as first morning light permeated the distant misty landscape and played across the ocean surface with a warmth that belied the cold morning. To capture this unique atmosphere back in the studio, I set aside my usual Titanium White for tinting and switched to Warm White and Titanium Buff. Warm White was used in a limited fashion for my lightest values and highlights, while Titanium Buff was used in nearly all color mixtures. As a muted tinting color, Titanium Buff unified and subdued my color palette helping to better capture the scene.”
– Dave Bernard
Gamblin Product Specialist
Portland Warm & Cool Greys
“I found my paintings became chalky and dense due to the overuse of Titanium White. So, I set that tube a bit out of reach on my palette and now use Portland Warm Grey or Portland Cool Grey when I am looking for the “right white.” There is very little real white in the natural world and these soft grey tones have proven to be a good option on their own or as a basis for mixing other colors.”- Kris Ekstrand
www.krisekstrand.com
Still Life Painting Session @ Grand Central Market with Roofless Painters – April 6th
Attention oil painters! Want to paint some produce together? Join Roofless Painters for a still life workshop at the one and only Grand Central Market, in DTLA’s Historic Core this Saturday, April 6th from 6-8pm. The Roofless Painters will set up easel stations around the produce stands of one of the market’s vendors and paint them from life. The workshop is $50, and all painting materials are supplied (medium-OIL). Setup and clean-up is on them, too – just show up and paint!
SAT, April 6, 6-8 pm at GRAND CENTRAL MARKET in DTLA’s Historic Core.
We first met the Roofless Painters at the 2016 Los Angeles Plein Air Festival, when artist Julio Panisello won the Grand Prize for his oil painting of Angel’s Flight. A talented artist, Julio is also a beloved educator and the inspirational founder/leader of Roofless Painters, a nomadic painting atelier in Los Angeles.
Oil on Canvas, 18″ × 24″
Getting Started with Plein Air Painting
Happy Plein Air-pril! Have you always wanted to try busting out of your art studio and painting en plein air? Or has it just been a while since you’ve been out painting? Either way, you’re in luck! Thanks to Royal Talens, artist Justin Vining walks you through the basics of getting started with plein air painting. Let’s get started!
Supplies
Less is More – Design a simple/lean setup. This will enable you to go to farther, cooler places and make it easier to just get out and go on a whim!
Start out with a Limited/Split Primary Palette – A warm & cool red, yellow, blue, titanium white, and perhaps a burnt umber or burnt sienna. You don’t need to carry a black- true black is rarely found in nature.
Brushes – I prefer hog bristle long filberts & long flats. Start out your painting with a big brush and save your small brushes for the very end.
Painting Surface – I like using panels outside as they are more compact, and durable with no risk of puncture. Carrying a canvas through tricky outdoor terrain can become risky.
Painting Process
Start Thin (Grisaille Layer) – Your first layer is almost like not painting at all- scrub in a “dirty” dry value that begins to describe the composition and form.
Think in the Most Basic Shapes – Squint really hard at almost any scene and you can quickly break it down into 2 or 3 big shapes of value. Use these shapes to start your painting.
Mixing Colors – I will generally premix 3-5 of my major colors and then start mixing the variations off those main ones. Put some color on the end of your palette knife and hold it up to what you are trying to match it to. Squint real hard to check value and color accuracy.
General Preparedness
Water/small snack
Headlamp (hiking out in dark)
Summer – bug spray, suntan lotion
Spring/Fall – waterproof boots/poncho
Nocturne – 2 piano lights in case natural street lamp light is not an option
Winter – ultra warm gloves & boots are the key here, its easy to keep the core warm, its a lot harder to keep your feet and hands dry and warm
Below are the colors that make up Justin’s Rembrandt Oils palette. We also recommend using Van Gogh Oil Colors by Royal Talens, an oil paint that offers Royal Talens quality at an economical price. The same high quality pigments that are used in Rembrandt Oils are used here, only in lower concentration.
411 Burnt Sienna
409 Burnt Umber
406 Ultramarine Deep
534 Cerulean
342 Brown Madder Deep
377 Perm Red Medium
227 Yellow Ochre
208 Cad Yellow Light
118 Titanium White
We hope this helps you get started with plein air painting and that you try painting the urban landscapes around Raw Materials. Now, go paint!
Justin Vining is an Indianapolis-based artist, specializing and landscapes and cityscapes. Justin studied Art Education at Purdue University and taught elementary art for three years. Following his tenure as a teacher, Justin attended Valparaiso Law school, where he rekindled his love for creating between classes and clerking. Shortly after graduating and passing the bar in 2010, Justin decided to pursue art full time and hasn’t looked back since. See his work here.
2019 Los Angeles Plein Air Festival
John Kilduff, “5th & Broadway”, 18″ x 36″, Oil
We regret to announce that there will not be a Los Angeles Plein Air Festival in 2019. After a thoughtful evaluation of the festival and the goals we have for it, we realized that we would not have the resources to make the festival what it needs to be this year. We hope to return again in the future, and we will find other ways to celebrate plein air painting this April.
Jim and Celia Winstead
Raw Materials Art Supplies
What is a good basic watercolor set for beginners and for artists who want to start painting with watercolors?
Some questions we are often asked:
“What colors do you suggest for a beginner to get started?”
“What colors should I get if I want to paint with watercolors?”
Choosing a palette of colors is very personal, and at its most basic, the choice needs to include a yellow, red and blue for a primary mixing set.
“Which yellow, red and blue to get started with?”
We recommend the DANIEL SMITH Sketcher Half Pan Watercolor Set!
This handy, thoughtfully selected group of 6 DANIEL SMITH colors was developed over several years by Sketcher Artist Liz Steel (with helpful feedback from other artists) to be an excellent starter palette of watercolors, perfect for the beginner, the artist who wants to upgrade to DANIEL SMITH Watercolors and the on-the-go artist who needs a good basic set to take with them.
Because the set is made up of half pans, it is an excellent value to get started with six DANIEL SMITH Watercolors at a lower price than six 15ml tubes would be, and well priced for gift giving too! Currently, Daniel Smith Extra Fine Watercolors are on sale for 30% off! Woo hoo!
The colors in the set were carefully chosen for their ability to mix beautifully making gorgeous and useful secondary colors as well as huge spectrum of other colors. An important part of choosing the colors was including 2 primary triads [yellow, red & blue] in what Liz Steel calls a “Bright Primary Triad” and an “Earth Primary Triad“. Having two different primary mixing triads within the set makes color mixing fast, easy and successful for painting.
“Bright Primary Triad”, for quickly mixing bright colors:
- Hansa Yellow Medium (yellow)
- Quinacridone Rose (red)
- Ultramarine Blue (blue)
“Earth Primary Triad“, for quickly mixing earthly colors:
- Monte Amiata Natural Sienna (yellow)
- Transparent Red Oxide (red)
- Cerulean Blue, Chromium (blue)
organized by Liz Steel’s 2 primary triads: “bright primary triad” and “earth primary triad”
With these two primary triads you can confidently mix a huge range of useful and beautiful colors, both within each of the triads and mixing combinations of the two triad colors together.
The Sketcher Half Pan Watercolor Set was designed to be a solid foundation palette of colors to get started painting with watercolors for beginners, and are a great introduction to DANIEL SMITH Watercolors for more experienced artists. The Set was also designed to work wonderfully with add on colors as each artist later chooses additional colors to personalize their palette for their particular subjects. The Set even includes 9 empty half pans ready to fill with additional colors from DANIEL SMITH tube watercolors! Now that you know these are on sale for 30% off, what are you waiting for?!