A Rep You Must Have

After talking with a few friends it has been decided that I need to start looking for an agent/representative to start selling my art for real. Hmmmm...... are there even any art reps in my little town?

Big Projects Lower Productivity

This Pecock Poppy Pomegranate thing is killing me. It's large format is proving to be quite daunting and time consuming. So far we are looking at about 14 hours over the course of 6 weeks, you know, work and chores getting in the way. But if I am going to be terribly productive I'm going to need some smaller projects to work on during the down time.

Themes I've been contemplating: cacao pods, coffee, other fruits besides pomegranates. Or learning to paint glass.

Better Art Through Chemistry

 I found this blue while cruising through the Blick catalog. It is a fairly close match to Indanthrene blue which I like for getting deep rich colors. I need a really full ranged blue for mixing colors. And I think that this will be it.

Doing a little research to see if my assumption that it is related to the quinacridones that I love, I found some interesting facts about this quirky little blue.

For one thing, the science behind all the chemistry that makes these colors is complicated! And a bit frustrating. There is a lot of information to wade through that is so far over my head that now I have a head ache. But the trivial stuff is kinda interesting

• this pigment is oxidized anthracene
• it is a building block of Alizarin Crimson
• this blue chemical is the agent used to BLEACH paper
• naturally occurring in aloe and rhubarb, some fungi and lichens as well as some insects
• used to make hydrogen peroxide

Who knew!

 

 

As with all new pigments added to your personal palette, it's always best to make swatch pages so that you can see how your new color reacts with the colors that you are already familiar with. You will quickly discover which combinations make mud and which ones make a vibrant new shade. With your own custom color swatch book you have a true to you resource. Your own light, your own hand gives you a much truer idea of how your project will come out than relying in an online resource which is subject to the quirks of the computer screen of the originating computer and yours own screen.

 

This is a sample of Anthraquinone Blue mixed with the first of many new colors for me

 



Progress

And another couple of layers go down. With the new additions to my stash of tubes, I added some Opera to the poppies near the top. Some of my poppies were a pale pink but not very vibrant. So when the Opera came... woo hoo!

And with a little Perylene Maroon, which is my goto for a deep red, the pomegranates really start to pop. I am especially pleased with the pome crown in the back. It actually looks like a real pomegranate and it feels to me like I've done something that the Masters would encourage.

One day I will do a tutorial on the texture I used. I used to do a pointalist approach but that is so tedious. This technique is much easier. But you have to have patience with yourself and let the layers dry well in between applications.

I haven't done anything with the poppy in the foreground yet. I really like the subtleties there and don't want to overwork it. But it does need to come out a little bit more.