First oil painting ever

[MindCandyMan]

I was doing the color mixing charts that Jason (and Richard Schmid) recommend and when I got to burnt umber I loved the way it looked on my palette so I had to do something with it hehe. So this is what came out...my first oil painting. I've got a long way to go heheh...understatement.

Sorry for the bad pic



http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/Trapped%20Umber%20SP.jpg

[Tedsuo]

Allow me to be the first to say Good Job! My first oil painting was a nasty ass bowl of fruit.

Cool to hear you're doing color charts. I made myself a color wheel, and it was crazy. I started seeing colors in terms of what you would mix them from. Richard Schmid's color charts are much more hardcore that a wheel though; if you can get through those, you'll be flying! :D

[MindCandyMan]

Yeah I actually really enjoy doing them...I am learning how to use the palette knife (I use that for all the mixing and applying...another schmid suggestion to kill two birds with one stone...learn to use the palette knife and mix colors at the same time. Thanks for the encouragement...

I am totally bored here at work bleh....I wish I was home painting that's for sure.

[I.was.ink]

Good stuff there M. Makes me want to paint. but first I want to do those color charts. :)

[Oblio]

fuck!
you're ahead of me dammit!
Super job bro'
you kick
:bow:

Oblibow

[MindCandyMan]

No way dude! I'm not ahead of you. I really feel like you have a better grasp on light than I do at this point. At any rate thanks though I appreciate the encouragement man...you rock! :bow:

[BC1967]

MCM> Nice job. I think you've got a good grip on lighting forms. Now think of the litgh on the forms as blocked in areas, then smooth them out by shading one edge into the other.
You've really grown since your first posts!
:chug:

[davi]

i think we should stop mindcandy soon...

[MindCandyMan]

hehe...thanks Davi... you are one to talk...that bear concept painting you did (Diablo 2) is amazing. The perspective and angle looks fantastic...I can't wait to see that one done.

BC- Hey thanks a lot man. That's really good what you wrote in your post. I am storing that in my brain to use for later. It's little tips like that which add up to a fuller knowledge. Thanks for replying man.

[foster]

hey mcm, just wanted to say good start. glad you are jumping right in.

i hope you do not mind but i wanted to do a paint over of your piece. i hoped it might illustrate how you can play with and use more value to describe form. my version does not have to be what i think it should be just my take. oh, i cheated and added a little color for punch.

jon

[stikler999]

um really really great work MCM. i'm thinking about taking a painting class just cause i need to to study colors and light and values etc. now i have a question, where can i find these color charts you refer to??? is there something online i can check out? again fantastic work. reminds me of how the scarecrow from batman should look or some kinda creepy horror movie madman!! keep going and post more!! good stuff

[DragonGX]

I really like to oil paint.. too bad i SUCK at it! I need to take soem classes, I wish I could find somewhere around here that offers painting lessons..

[TARGETE]

Hey Mindcandy,

I like the fact you went head first no pun intended. This is raw and kinda cool. I suggest you do more of these and post your results also do a few oils from life, they can be quick and rough.

Anyway good start and continue doing them.

J.P.

[John P.]

I think it's a very good start MCM. -You did a lot with few strokes(or what appears to be few strokes at least).
And the colours fit the style well.

:thumbsup:

[Jason Manley]

foster has gone and done almost exactly what i was going to suggest


i want you to add these two colors to your burnt umber palette...cadmium orange medium and ivory black

the ivory black is to be used with white to make grays...grays can be added to the burnt umber to cool down either the lights or the shadows...gray you see is actuallyl a blue...a very unsaturated blue...it can lean toward the green or toward the violet but gray can absolutely be used as a blue.

the orange can be mixed with the burnt umber in tiny amounts or if you are daring..in larger amounts...to warm up the darkness of the shadows and increase luminosity...or to warm up the lights if you have cool shadows.

the orange also increases saturation...while the gray backs it down. read the big post i made about flesh tones in davis roundtable thread. i talk about separating cool lights and warm shadows or warm lights and cool shadows or neutral balances.

I also talk about having either the light or shadow be dominant in saturation.


foster is discussing value with you...but as you are on color and are working with color we need to get you to seperate you temperatures and your saturation levels a bit.

if your values are dead on...perfect...than you can get alway with almost any color...value makes it read visually...so do as foster says and get your values right?

there are six properties of light...mass light (the big field of light..the big shape of light) highlight (obviously the lightest light)...fill light or reflect light (light bouncing into the shadows from another source...tis the lightest value of the shadow system you are using)...halftone light or transition light ( the darkest value of the light...often similar in value to that of the reflect light on a form of given value).......mass shadow (the big shadow shape)...core shadow (the darkest part of the shadow...it happens where the form turns away from the light and then it transitions around the other side before becoming reflect light)


I hope this helps


jason

PS LOOK FOR THE PROPERTIES OF LIGHT THAT I MENTIONED IN FOSTERS PAINTOVER.....do you see them? foster knows...do you?

[Smeagol71]

Great efforts brother, we will get together and do some of this soon! I'd like to see what I'm capable of!

[MindCandyMan]

First off I want to say that I LOVE this forum. I have encountered nothing but help and encouragement from the people on here (whether it be critique or praise). Thank you all very much.

Smeagol - You are capable of a heck of a lot...you just need the outlet.

Jason - Thanks for the advice this is fantastic. I think I will take a trip to the art store and get cadmium orange tomorrow. I have a tube of ivory black that I haven't used yet so I will add that to my palette as well. Any other color suggestions or should I just stick with those three for now? I downloaded that flesh tone thread to my hard drive I am gonna take a look in depth at it tomorrow. A lot of this type of stuff to be honest is hard for me to figure out. Even the bare concept of "saturation" is a little hazy with me. I have a lot to learn but jumping in with both feet is how I do things so thanks for helping me along the way. I am going to print out what you wrote and keep it by me for my next painting.

JohnP - You rock man...thanks so much!

Targete - Wow thanks for the encouragement man it means a lot coming from you. I respect your work very very much...yeah I like to jump in with both feet...that's the way I work...I figure if I make mistakes I can only learn from them...no big deal right. Wow a still life...I can't imagine dealing with more than one color at a time...I wouldn't know what to mix with what...but I guess that's why I should do it to learn hehe. Thanks again.

DragonGX - Paint all day man...if you can't take classes just paint a still life or goes outside and paint a landscape...learn that way!

foster - hahahahah. I love your paintover bro...it's AWESOME. I don't mind at all I feel honored man. And I see exactly what you are saying. It all comes back to controling value...it really does. I need to do more studies from life...finish up my cast drawings and stuff...I really do. You made some interesting choices in the paintover...I think I will analyze it a bit more.

[MindCandyMan]

Hey guys...I wanted to ask for your help...I tried to keep this palette in mind when I was working on my thunderdome entry. Every painting I do I keep running into the same problems. Everything becomes totally muddy or flat and the more I work on it the more it looses all sense of lighting. Is it just that I need to do still life paintings for a couple years before I really "get it" or is it some deeper issue in my brain that is causing this. Here is the painting I started digitally and quit because it was turning out so awful (It's qbert...done for thunderdome...I didn't paint the other leg in hehe):

http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/qbert step 1.jpg

Should I not be working in color at this point? Should I be just working on value or is it best to learn everything as I go along? I am really frustrated with my ineptitude...I guess that's what keeps you from becoming stagnant. Oh well...thanks.

[Paulo]

Amazing thread.

I like your first oil painting, MCM. It's far better than anything I painted myself (not very flattering, I know).

Foster's paintover is amazing as always - and also Jason's insights on value and light.

MCM,

The perspective of your Thunderdome entry seems a little bit twisted, difficult for me to read. I would try a tighter pallete at this point as well.

As for me, one of my main problems in "paintings with a background" like this one you're trying to paint is finding [and building] a focal point, a center opf interest. You should keep in mind that it's a good thing to have a [single] center of interest where contrast of color and value are more accentuated than any other place in your composition. There are other ways to do it, but they're riskier for mortals like me.

Though foster's paintover doesn't have a background (see his pig pile painting for more), he achieved a very definite focal point by throwing in some red in its painting (color contrast).

Keep painting!

Peace,

Paulo

[MindCandyMan]

Good advice Paulo...yeah I didn't work on the background at all...I didn't get to that point yet in the painting before I stopped. Which was part of my problem that my brother called me on...I went straight to the details on qbert before considering the painting as a whole and identifying the light source and palette...etc... I think you are right that I need to work with a tighter palette. Thanks for the advice man. Yeah foster's paintover rocks. I might just ditch this painting because I need to work on the fundamentals anyways...I don't know why I am trying this stuff so early on...almost seems like too much to tackle at this point but I guess I had to try to know that.

I am going to try a still life tonight with burnt umber, Titanium White, Ivory Black, and Cadmium Orange. I am curious to see what comes of it. I will do the charts before I start to get an idea of how stuff mixes together. We'll see what happens.

[MindCandyMan]

Ok I tried to incorporate some of the things you guys said...I screwed up even worse tonight I think...oh well...do it again tomorrow right hehe. Plus I got this "palette paper" stuff from the art store and I didn't think you had to gesso it...you definitely do that's for sure...it's lame without gesso...soaks the paint right up and makes it really difficult to do anything. At any rate here is the latest one. I stuck with the same idea (subject matter) because I wanted to make it better...sheesh...yeah right.

Here is the value set that I am starting. The one on the left is Black + White...making very interesting shades of grey...it really is a desaturated blue...fascinating. And two over is burnt umber.


http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/Value Set 2.jpg

http://www.mindcandyfilms.com/jons_uploads/Trapped Umber SP 2.jpg

[MindCandyMan]

I had a quick question for you guys...I have been using the palette knife to mix the colors on my palette but what I have found is that a lot of the paint (when I mix it) gets stuck on the palette knife in globs causing the mixed color to get streaks of the base colors in it. For instance if I want to mix black and white this is what I would do. I grab some black with the palette knife and place it...wipe off the palette knife...then grab some of the white and start mixing it up with the palette knife. A couple annoying things happen...Half the paint I am mixing with stays on the palette knife and when I mix the new colors on my palette they end up taking too much room. Tonight or tomorrow night I will show you my palette and maybe you could give me some suggestions. Did that make sense?...I'm a little incoherent here at work sometimes hehe.