Underpainting.....Blocking in

This is a photo from one of the oil painting classes I taught earlier this year and I LOVE painting birds.  Before we hit the canvas with oil paint, I had students "block in" the darkest parts of the bird with acrylic gesso (or acrylic paint). The acrylic dries fast so we can finish the painting in one sitting and it locks in the main parts of the bird.  That way we could paint our background without losing our lines.  Remember you can go over an acrylic with an oil, but you CANNOT go over an oil with an acrylic.  I try to stress to my students to make your tools work for YOU!  We had great results with this little painting as you can see from the work in progress shot here.  

Here's our reference.  I have amazing students!!!!

Happy Painting!!

www.kimvanlandingham.com

Check out paintings for sale on ETSY or DAILY PAINTWORKS

Places that inspire....

I love visiting our national parks.  I love my Kentucky, and thinks it's an amazing state, but I'm so glad that years ago, someone had the forethought to preserve some of the most beautiful places on earth here in the United States.  

This is a study from one of the several times I've been to the Grand Canyon (South Rim).  If you can hike down to Phantom Ranch and stay there, do it!  The views from South Kaibob trail will inspire you. 

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What I do when I don't feel like painting....

Well...I paint...

I do what I call "block ins" and lots of them.  Here's a few from here in my RV.  

If it looks like they're done in chalk, that's because I do a lot of my block ins in black and white oil paint.  I love this process!  These are some small format paintings, but by putting things in black & white, I can see if I want to continue.  Because they are at such an early stage in the painting process...I don't stress about them.  It's very fun for me!

If you look in the middle of the above photo, you'll see the block in of this little ballerina I have up for auction on Daily Paintworks.

These small paintings are a nice & fun change for me.  Sometimes I feel like I'm always trying to come up with class paintings (for the painting classes I teach) and it feels good to just paint.  :-)

Happy Painting!!

Saving your brushes when using masking fluid or frisket

Masking fluid is a great tool for your watercolor paintings.  Most of the time when using it, I have a few old brushes that I save just for that purpose.  The photo shows one of them.  However, you can use your good brushes and still keep them in good shape by doing just one simple thing; putting your brush in some liquid soap.  Here’s what I do…

I just use whatever liquid hand soap I have at home.  BEFORE dipping my brush in the masking fluid, I dip the brush in the liquid soap and work it into the bristles all the way up to the metal,  then I just wipe it off with a clean dry paper towel.  No water. 

After that, I just dip the brush in the masking fluid and apply to my paper like normal.  When I’m finished, I clean the brush with soap and water and the masking fluid comes right out.  

I had been painting with watercolors for years before attending art school and had never heard of that before college.  Now I can use my old brushes like normal, but I can also use my good brushes for more refined detail work and don't have to worry about ruining them.  

I used masking fluid on the below painting to keep the lightest parts of the birds feathers.  

Happy Painting!!

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