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traditional vs craft watercolorists

8/10/2018

Entering the online craft and art journalling world some years back has been an eye-opener.

Here are my impressions of watching both traditional and craft artists at work. This is not stating a preference for either because both types have something to teach:

TRADITIONAL ARTISTS (PURIST WISDOM)

big brushes, broad washes, big marks

deliberate painting, leave stroke be

"mud" colours not allowed

black not allowed

white not allowed, only the white of the paper

mix browns (even though they're sold in shops)

only paint light to dark

"cauliflower" is unacceptable

nothing on edge of work to lead the eye out

soft watery colours (eg the UK light)

CRAFT ARTISTS (BREAKING THE RULES)

small brushes, short strokes, dabby marks

cautious painting, go back into stroke

"mud" colours make beautiful greys

black allowed, creates lovely contrast and greys

white allowed, creates opaque colour

buy browns for individuality

dark to light possible because white is used

"cauliflower" is yummy to look at = nice clouds!

use the edge for interest (cf Degas, Picasso, Matisse)

bright strong colours (eg Australia) as well as soft

I have a few bugbears though and will gladly note them here.

* I hate (yes, strong word but applicable here) the way artists WASTE PAINT! Ok, I'm not being precious here about using paint. However, I've seen artists frantically washing out their brushes when only ONE COLOUR is on the palette. Then they use the same colour again! Why wash out the brush if only one colour is used? Adding a little water to add flow and transparency is fine, but wash out all the colour only to use the same colour again? Ok enough now :D

* How people hold their brushes, pens. So uptight, restricting their view and their flow, although that is never mentioned in a video about freedom and self-expression!

A "traditional" watercolour by me:

An art journalling piece by me:

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why oh why...

14/8/2018

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...do people hold their pen/pencil wrong? It is painful to watch and their writing is a sorry excuse. Here are three different youtubers:

To the person above on youtube, I commented: "When I'm watching a stream I cannot see what the person is drawing because their hand is in the way. Why stream at all if viewers can't see what you're doing? Also, the "right" way is the relaxed way. RSI is a problem with incorrect handling, and you won't know that until you're a lot older."

Check out the below image. It was live-streamed. I can't see what she's colouring in nor can her hundreds of chat viewers. Can she? Obviously not. (And yet she has over one million subscribers on youtube, 62 thousand followers on the live-streaming site Twitch, companies sponsor her, young tens and teens look up to her and the channels are her livelihood.)

The saddest thing is that young children are watching these videos because they're "wholesome" art channels (except when there's a scandal). Millions of copycats. Commenting things like "I loved watching how you color in real time. It inspired me to use my markers more" and "seriously no one can tell you how to hold a pencil , you just hold it however you want" and "You can hold your pencil however you like so long as you're happy with the end result! " and "No body really taught me how to hold a pencil "correctly" so i hold it between my middle finger and ring finger" (can you imagine?!?).

I'm so glad I was taught how to hold a pencil correctly in school. It just comes naturally. I love writing, I write beautifully and artistically, even in simple letters to a sister. Yes, I take pride in what I love to do. I take pride in the type of art tools I buy, love holding them, love using them. There is no beauty in holding a pencil like above, no beauty at all. Just plain ugly.

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interesting reading re complementaries

20/10/2014

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Complementary colors: the problem

"Along with the idea of “three primary colors” and the fear of mixing “mud” we have another similar old wives’ tale to deal with. This is the idea that there is one type of complementary color which we can use to mix grays and use to place side by side to make the colors pop out thanks to simultaneous contrast. In fact, these are two different sets of complements. If we want to mix a gray we can mix blue and orange, and, if we want to make blue stand out we should not paint an orange passage next to it but a yellow passage."

Read on, click link above.

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I Weep With You

21/4/2014

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My scan, digitally monochromed.

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Silenced

20/4/2014

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My scan, digitally monochromed.

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My thoughts about art myths

5/8/2012

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.... which just proves rules are meant to be broken:

1. Horizons should be level
Horizons aren't all straight. There are such things as hills (especially a gradual sloping hill that might give the impression the photographer didn't straighten the horizon in-camera) - unless of course you're looking at the ocean, but even then there can be big swells in the distance.

2. Shadows
Painting tutorials say because there are no clouds there should be stark shadows. Well there might be clouds just out of the picture covering the sun. Or if it's a cloudy day, why is there a stream of light when there is no sun in the painting - well the sun might be just out of the picture, covered by moving clouds!

3. Sea colour has to match the sky (and this was in a critique of a painting of mine).
Well, I've seen green seas and blue skies. Take a look at that very painting + a comparison photo:

4. Lighting.
As someone once said when critiquing a digital painting - "there is a confusion about the direction of light source.....all highlights and shadows sort of indicates it's coming from the front left but the moon is in the center rear". Well, not every light has to be shown to have shadows fall a certain way. Let's leave at least something to the imagination.

5. Clouds have flat bottoms.
I stand on my verandah and I can see many clouds right now that do not have flat bottoms. There is lots of wispy stuff hanging from below in many different shapes and sizes.

6. Silver lining. The silver lining should be around the top contours of clouds.
I've seen clouds with the grey tones in the middle and the silver lining all the way round. It depends on where the sun is.

7. Clouds and their colour. The tones of clouds should recede as they go into the distance.
I've seen black clouds (with the full sun on them) in front of grey clouds, and grey clouds in front of white clouds as they go into the distance.

8. Clouds get smaller as they go into the distance.
This speaks for itself. No way!

Let me know in the comments if there are any painting myths you think should be challenged.

5 Comments

traditional vs craft watercolorists

why oh why...

interesting reading re complementaries

I Weep With You

Silenced

My thoughts about art myths

I write stuff.

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