From the Sketchbook (July 2019 – ) features preliminary drawing and painting studies on paper. One thing I believe is there is always something new to learn and the sketch book is where everything begins – ideas for future paintings, new techniques, inner thoughts and ramblings. For me being a fine artist is a vocation in life, one where you are continuously learning – about life, yourself and how you visualize the world.
For the month of March, fellow artists Zoraida Anaya, Lisa Fox and I launched our exhibition titled My World, Our World at the Smith Zone Gallery of Lakeshore Arts. The exhibition was part of the Women’s Art Project artist collective, a multidisciplinary and diverse group of women artists. To close the exhibition we were invited to the gallery’s special edition of Open Studio as their guests. An open studio is an event that offers art creators and enthusiasts a fun and supporting environment to discuss and create art. Lakeshore Arts hosts such an event every Friday (unless otherwise noted), from 12-4pm. If you haven’t been to an open studio and are looking for a little inspiration, I highly recommend checking out Lakeshore Arts!
In the session I decided to do an exercise of mixing colours directly on the canvas and thought to share with you my process. In my last post I mentioned that I like to create my palette by mixing the primary base colours of red, yellow and blue. If you want to build your technique in mixing colours then I recommend doing this exercise. If not, then try it anyway just for fun! This exercise will help you:
I used inks because they’re fluid and easy to blend making them ideal for this exercise. However you can use any paint medium such as acrylics, watercolours, oils etc… In fact, I repeat this exercise using different mediums to build strength in working with them. Now with that said, let’s paint!
Note: If using heavy-bodied (thick) acrylic paints, you will need 5 small containers (one for each colour) to thin out your paint with a little water.
Since we are actually mixing the colours directly on the paper or canvas, we will not need to pre-mix the colours on a paint palette.
For this exercise I’m using Daler and Rowney Acrylic Artist’s Ink: Process Magenta, Process Yellow, Prussian Blue (Hue), Black and White.
Step 1
Starting with the colour, drip the blue ink/paint directly on the paper or canvas. Then drip white ink/paint over the blue.
A view on the side so you can see how thin the ink is.
Step 2
While the ink/paint is still wet, with the tip of the brush start to slowly “swirl” the white ink/paint into the blue in various directions. Afterwards add drips of red and start to “swirl” that into the blue. You can also drip a little more white. As you start to swirl red into blue, you may begin to notice various shades of purples. With the additional white you will get various tints of blues and pinks.
This exercise requires a light touch with the brush. Therefore, don’t over mix the colours. Work with the tip of the brush and loosely swirl one colour into the other. During this process you want to pay attention to how the primary colours mix to create other colours on the paper/canvas.
Red and blue mixed together will create purple, which is a secondary colour. Notice when white is added light blues, purples and pinks are created? These lighter shades are called tints.
Step 3
While the ink/paint is still wet start to drip in yellow and begin to swirl the colour into the red and blue. Depending on where you place the yellow, you should begin to see green or orange form. Yellow and blue will create green, while yellow and red will create orange.
At this point the ink/paint may begin to dry. You can keep adding drips of red then yellow, then blue in stages, slowly swirling them together to create as many colours as you can. Adding in drips of white will give you a lighter/tint of a colour. You can also add drips of black, to get a darker/shade of a colour. Black will also create contrast. You can also swirl black with white to create shades of grey. Pay attention to how the various colours are created. Also notice the how light and dark colours lay next to each other. Continue building up the layers until you’re satisfied with the result.
Notice how the primary colours; red, yellow and blue are mixed together to create the other colours.
Final result
At the end of this exercise, I usually ask myself:
There are no definitive answers to these questions. They are only guidelines to help me think about colour harmony, balance and composition.
I recommend doing this exercise numerous times until you are comfortable with blending and mixing colours. This exercise will not only build your technique as a painter but you’ll get a different result each time.
Enjoy!
Learning how to mix the primary colours will help you understand colour harmony, balance and composition. It will also help you use warm and cool colours effectively to achieve contrast.
Microcosm (May 2010 – February 2012) In this series, visual queues of story-telling are used to explore the idea of Nature as an active participant of a micro-universe. Using gestural lines that overlap, a fantastical world emerges. Images of strange creature inhabitants try to balance a delicate relationship with their “mother” – Nature. The work depicts a series of events, where the creatures find themselves in a world where the forces of “mother” are ever so present; they are physically “caught” in the process. Much like ourselves, the creatures are both loved and scorned by their well-being “mother”. They get jostled about just as we do, like goldfish in a tiny bowl of water. Sometimes they move gracefully, other times clumsily as they attempt to keep in harmony with Nature. Their world is a place with a veneer of realism, which allows for natural and supernatural elements to take place.
The REALM of Belief: Time, Beginning, Ending and Light (December 2006 – March 2007) are the manifestations of worlds colliding during a time of transition into the next phase of existence. While What once was, The REALM and The Temple Mount (March 2007) are continuations of The REALM of Belief depicting the ending, transition and the beginning of life.
Details of a New World (October 2006) are sections of a scroll drawing that spans a total of 378 inches (31.5ft) in length. Inspired by alternative science research on genetic manipulation and memory, the scroll is a visual depiction of a reality that is beyond what we create, worlds of higher and lower frequencies some of which are seen while others go unnoticed.
Horizon Disturbances (September- October 2006) is where I started to formulate my thoughts on the subject of coexistence between nature and industry as part of a manipulated environment. These images were based from sketches and photos taken throughout the city of Windsor, ON- the place of my youth. The ‘organic shadows’ that have spawned as a result of technology have now become a seamless part of life. In these works, Windsor ceases to exist as these ‘shadows’ symbolize a gradual take over and begins to transform the environment into a world not readily seen by its inhabitants. These things ‘hidden in plain sight’, references how we could be so engrossed with our immediate lives that often it is not recognized that the world we inhabit is in a state of perpetual movement and transition which resonates beyond our level of perception.
