Jolie Guillebeau

Home (and a grand plan).

After 7 hours of driving, I topped a hill in Southern Washington and saw Mt. Hood welcoming me in the distance. I still had more than 100 miles to go, but I felt like I was home.

6×6 Oil on Masonite block. $65.

Returning, part three.

This was another stop along highway 97 on my way home from Canada. But this one was a bit unplanned. Near Wenatchee, Washington (It’s the Apple Capital of the World), I encountered fires and a quick detour. And of course that led to a short traffic tie-up. So I pulled over and decided to make the best of it.

I stretched, took some photos and sketched for about 10 minutes from the safe side of the river. It was a small adventure, since I’d never seen a fire of that magnitude. I expected big sweeping flames, but it was really just a small red line creeping across the hills.

5×7 Oil on Masonite block. $65.

Returning, part two.

I love my state. Oregon has to be the prettiest place I’ve ever lived. Really. This is based on a photo I took as I was driving along I-84. I balanced the camera on the top of the steering wheel. I couldn’t help it– it was so pretty.

I loved the photo, but I hadn’t really planned to paint it, because I don’t like to paint from photos in general. I’m happiest with paintings I’ve completed directly from life. If that’s not possible (say because I’m driving along a freeway), then I like to take a photo, do a quick sketch and write a few notes about what I’m seeing. But in this case, that wasn’t even possible.

So I was a little sad, because I loved the shapes of this landscape. But then a discussion on another painting blog yesterday inspired me. If you’re interested, you can read it here, but the summary is that there are advantages and disadvantages to both and used wisely photography is a useful tool for painters. So while I’ll still continue to paint from life, there are exceptions to every rule.

5×7 Oil on Masonite block. $65

Returning.

Driving back from Canada, I was eager to get home, so I resolved to do it all in one day.

So I made my way down Highway 97 with very few stops. I planned this one (and a couple others you’ll see later in the week), because I remembered the view from the drive up. This is in Goldendale, Washington about 40 miles north of the Oregon border. I pulled over, did a few yoga stretches, took some photos, and sat on the trunk of the car and sketched. The light was perfect, Mt. Adams was lovely, and it was well worth the stop.

5×7 Oil on Masonite block. $85.

Last week’s tutorial was tips for making a composition better, so this week let’s talk about what to avoid.

I’ve taken a few photos to illustrate my points here, but this applies to paintings as well as photography. Trust me, I’ve learned this the hard way, and I’d gladly use my own paintings as examples of what NOT to do, but I’ve thrown all of those paintings away!

Rule one is by far the easiest rule to remember and correct. It’s simply this: NO KISSING on the painting. By kissing, I mean no edges touching– you want space between those edges or you want overlap. Edges that kiss one another flatten a painting, and irritate the eye. See?

By the way, these matryoshka dolls are actually measuring cups. I love them. But not so much that I want them kissing.

The second thing to consider is Negative Space, which means the space around what you’re painting. We talked about this a bit last time with the Rule of Thirds, but it’s worth mentioning again. Consider making the negative space interesting, and you’re half-way to a good composition. In the picture above, the negative space is even, the subject is smack in the center, and it’s frightfully boring.

And here the image feels crowded, because there is almost no negative space. Also, the kissing. NO KISSING. Another thing to consider– notice how the face of the doll on the right is looking out of the frame? Not good. The viewer can’t see what she’s looking at, and that draws attention away from the image. If your subject is a face, consider adding a little extra negative space where your subject’s eyes are looking. It helps to keep the viewer in the painting.

Adding overlap and a little space makes a big difference. Another basic trick (not necessarily a rule) is to aim for an odd number of objects in your composition. Somehow, an odd number is more visually appealing. There are many excellent exceptions to this “rule”, but if you’re stuck, it’s a good place to begin.

This image isn’t too crowded, the negative space is interesting, and there’s overlap (instead of kissing) to create depth. The odd number helps, and they’re balanced with the two smaller dolls offsetting the larger one nicely. You can also apply the rule of thirds and discover that the largest doll is entirely in the left third of the image, and the eye of the doll in front lines up with an intersecting point on the tic-tac-toe grid. I know that because my camera has a feature that overlaps the grid on the viewfinder– which makes all of this very easy.

We’re five tutorials in– are you learning anything? Is there something I’m forgetting? What do you think? Leave a comment and let me know.

When setting up to paint outside, you want to make things as easy as possible. Once you have the right materials, and you can see the values, then the next most important part of that is choosing what to paint. Specifically, it’s choosing how you want your painting arranged on your canvas. Which is called composition.

A strong composition draws the eye in to the painting and holds the viewers attention. A weak composition makes the painting look flat, boring, or confusing.

There are a few tricks to composition, and once you know them they become intuitive. It’s just a matter of knowing what to look for. And that’s what I’m going to tell you now.

First, you need a frame. Something like this works really well, but you can just cut a square out from an index card– it doesn’t have to be fancy. The thing is, most painters tend to over estimate what will actually fit on the canvas, and frame helps me to know what will fit and what won’t.

Once you have the frame, mentally divide it in to a tic-tac-toe board. Like this.

Now, simply place the interesting stuff  in your painting along one or two of the lines. Even better, place something at one or two of the dots. This is called the rule of thirds, and you can find tons of detailed useful articles about this all over the internets. The best one is here.

If you follow the rule of thirds, you’re well on your way to a fabulous painting. But maybe you’re not sure what the interesting stuff is. You’re in doubt about what should go along the lines. Here’s what to look for:

Overlap. Look for elements that overlap to create depth. For example–

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh

See any overlap there? Yes, the big tree creates a strong sense of depth, just by overlapping the rest of the painting. (Just for fun, apply the rule of thirds here– notice anything?)

A path, or a Z-axis. This is a no-fail recipe for a decent painting. A path, or a road, or a fence or a stream starts in the foreground and moves back. As long as the perspective is right, this is a great  and easy way to draw the viewer’s eye in to the painting and create depth. And it works.

Albert Bierstadt, Mt. Rainier

Bierstadt isn’t my favorite, because he wasn’t terribly concerned with accuracy, but this painting is a great example of composition. The rule of thirds, overlap, a z-axis, and balance are all clearly evident.

Use the z-axis sparingly, because it can become a crutch and it can be a little trite. You don’t want every painting to have a river or a road.

Balance. Scroll up and look at the Mt. Rainier painting again. See how the trees and the mountain balance each other so nicely? And in Starry Night, how the moon balances the big tree? It’s not required in every painting, but balance is something to consider. Is there a way you can incorporate it for a stronger composition?

Next week, we’ll look at what to avoid in composing a painting.  See you then!

A couple of days ago on Facebook, a friend was talking about her search for a  photographer and she said:

“just saw some photography that I LOVED and others I felt were lack-lustre. I’m realizing more and more that i love the high contrasts, basically adding glamour to an everyday shot. beautiful!”

I knew exactly what she was talking about. I might use different words, but a successful painting is all about values.

For example, here are two paintings of mine from a couple of years ago. These were from my views from childhood series. I painted what I remembered seeing from my bedroom window in houses I lived in as a child. Because they were from memory, some were better than others.

Which painting do you like better? If I’m guessing, I bet your eye is drawn to the one on the right more. Why? Because it has more contrast, yes? Another way to say that would be that it has stronger values. I’m not making a moral judgement here, I’m simply saying that the darks are darker and the lights are lighter. There’s a good range of lights and darks. That’s what you want in a painting, right?

Another example. Let’s say you were going to paint this pink ball.

How many different shades of pink do you see? Light pink and dark pink? Any more?The problem is that your brain says, “That’s a pink ball,” even if your eye sees many different values there. So we have to find a way to overrule the brain and get rid of the idea of color for the time being.

But if we were to reduce it to a black and white image, how many shades of gray would you see? More than two or three, right?

I know what you’re thinking. “But, Jolie, I can’t take the digital camera and Photoshop everything in to black and white for every painting, especially if I want to learn to paint outside.” And that’s true. But– you can use this:

What is it? It’s a piece of red cellophane film fitted in to a slide frame. You can see that mine is covered in paint, because I’ve used it so much. I keep this near my easel and whenever I need to simplify an image, I pull it out. It’s the manual equivalent of using Photoshop to make a black and white picture. See?

I just held this over the camera lens in the same way that I’d place it in front of my eyes. Now, I don’t have the color to confuse me and I can look only at the values. Do you see more values this way?

So if we apply this same idea to a landscape painting, we might start with this.

So your brain thinks, “Blue sky, brown building, green trees.” And you start to get out the blue, brown and green tubes of paint. But there’s a problem. If you listen to your brain here, you’ll get a very different image on your painting than the one you see. Look through the cellophane and see what I mean.

Okay, so there's a bit of paint on the cellophane-- that's why it's blurry.

When you look at the same image through the red cellophane, you notice that regardless of color the building is one of the lightest objects in the image. So if you listen to your brain and pull out the brown tube of paint, the building would be one of the darkest objects in the painting. That’s why the cellophane helps.

Paintings with a wider range of values are more fun to look at. And more fun to paint.  Try it.  You’ll see.

June 12, 2010

A lot of you have asked about my process for painting, and I love telling stories, so with this project I’m going to update the blog on Saturdays with bonuses. That way, I can tell more stories and include more details than I would in a normal post.

I won’t send these out as a newsletter, but you can find them here every Saturday.

I thought I’d start with an explanation of my plein air process and materials.

First the list.

I keep this card with my painting supplies. And I check it obsessively when I’m preparing to paint outside. There are few things more frustrating than schlepping all your supplies on the bus to the perfect location, finding the perfect angle with the perfect light and then discovering that you’ve left your brushes at home. (It’s happened. And I wept.)

So this list is divided in to necessary and convenient. Anything that is necessary has a red dot next to it. We’ll start there.

Paint. Obviously. I tend to bring my full palette, because I’m happier with the results when I have every option available, but I’ve limited myself to four colors and created marvelous paintings too.

Palette colors deserve a post all to themselves. Perhaps several posts, but for now these four colors mixed will give you almost any color you’d need for painting in the Northwest. Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Yellow Light,  and White. Really. That’s all you need.

For example, this painting was one of the first I painted with only these 4 colors.

Panels. Working en plein air, you have a limited amount of time before the light changes, so I work small, to make sure I have time to finish a painting. I use masonite blocks, because they travel well and they’re durable. 8×10 or smaller. I generally buy several at once so I can sand and gesso them all in one afternoon. (Painting prep… that deserves a post of its own, too.)

Brushes. Since I’m working small, I really only need three brushes. A larger filbert, a smaller filbert, and a round brush with a good point for edges or details. Honestly, I’d probably add a bright, especially if I’m painting any kind of building, but really that’s it.

Mineral spirits + jar. I have to keep those brushes clean if I’ve only got four. So I must bring mineral spirits. For a long time, I used a baby food jar, but recently I got a fancy brush washer, and I love it. My brushes are cleaner and I don’t have to worry about leaks.

Baby Wipes.

It’s inevitable. I’m going to get paint on my hands, or face, or jeans, or behind my ear. I once walked around downtown Seattle for three hours with a large streak of Cadmium Red across my forehead. It’s paint. It travels. And it tends to travel most when I’m farthest from a sink and soap. Baby wipes are almost as important as brushes. Many oil paints are toxic, so this isn’t just vanity.

Next Saturday, we’ll talk about the other stuff on the list. The stuff that makes painting easier, or at least more comfortable. I need all the help I can get.

Shutter Sisters Dream Assignment: Picture Hope from LittlePurpleCow Productions on Vimeo.

Jen Lemen has a new hope-full scheme up her sleeve. It’s awesome. Go vote for it and help her fulfill her dream.

Vote here. Hurry!

Hello out there…

I’ve decided to stop whining and actually ask for help. This goes back to intentions. And also, pride. My pride doesn’t really like me to ask for help. And donuts. Wait– not donuts, I was just thinking about donuts, because of the vegan experiment. Vegan donuts are not very good, by the way.

Ok, away from donuts and back to asking for help.

Dear Universe:

Here’s what I’m asking for. A job. A job that’s fulfilling and fun with cool people. A job that allows me to have a little structure to my days and get out of the house occasionally, but doesn’t take too much time from painting. A job that provides a reasonable income and maybe even health insurance, but doesn’t require me to wear pantyhose. A job that provides all of that for less than 25 hours per week. A job that challenges me, but doesn’t leave me too exhausted to paint or wander. And offers flexibility for the occasional travel with the husband. Ideally, this job would provide me with artist connections here in my new city, too.

Here’s what I’m offering: me. I’ll give this job all my very best effort when I’m there and I’ll even think about creative ways to make my job more fun, my co-workers lives better and I’ll show up with a good attitude at least 95% of the time. I’ll be my usual friendly, smart, creative self. I’ll enjoy this job. I’ll do a good job. I’ll be willing to learn new things and even like it.

If you’ve got an offer, you know where to find me.

Thanks in advance,
Jolie

P.S. And if it’s not too much trouble, can you make sure that there’s a Bavarian Cream donut for me this Sunday? It’s the 3rd week in a row that I’ve been really excited about having one on my non-vegan day, only to find that someone has bought all of them before I get there. Of course, they’re there Monday-Saturday when I can’t have one… can you do something about this for me? Please?