In praise of cerulean blue
Cerulean blues is an extremely important color. Besides being a core blue (it should be on every palette), it forms complementary tones with most orange-brown colors, such as burnt sienna (another…
Complementary neutral tones
The eye loves complementary neutrals. The eye will accept the ‘truth’ of a well placed neutral faster than it will a piece of carefully crafted modeling. Nature abounds with complementary…
In the studio 3/23/2014
Here is my usual weekly post about what’s cookin’. The top painting is ‘Deb.’ The lower painting isn’t very far advanced but I think you can get a sense of…
No black paint one my palette
Someone asked if I inadvertently omitted straight-from-the-tube black from my palette. The omission wasn’t inadvertent. I don’t use ivory black (or any other black) ‘as is.’ Ivory black is too…
Palettes
Here is my general. all-purpose palette. It has a good assortment of every color group and the core neutrals I always mix. You can do just fine with fewer colors–three…
Prevent oil paint from drying with oil of cloves
Artists usually doctor their oil paint to make them dry faster. By decreasing drying times, paintings can be reworked sooner and completed faster. Siccative agents, such as lead, also enhance…
In the studio 3/9/2014
Here is some recent work. Saturday was a light work day because of family functions. The top painting is titled “Explain,” and I think it’s far enough along now that…
New ratings for Oil Paint Brands post
I updated the Oil Paint Brand post with new information and a rating for Michael Harding paints.