Painting with Carol

You gotta laugh

Hello all! I am sorry I haven’t updated for a while but I have been very busy painting camels and I haven’t had much time for anything else.

I thought I should let you know that I will be away teaching in Victoria for 12 days. I leave on Wednesday June 4 and return Monday June 16 2008. Originally, I was travelling to Victoria for the Avoca Camel Cup because that is where my camel exhibition was to be held. However, I received a phone call on Saturday saying that the Camel Cup had been cancelled. I was very disappointed at first, of course - disappointed for myself but very disappointed for the people that were involved in the organisation of it all as I know how much work has been put in to it. But I have always been a believer in one door closing and another one opening and by the looks of things that is what has happened.

I won’t say much more about it at until things are definite but, as they say: “watch this space”. In the meantime, I will be displaying a few of the camel paintings here so you can see some of my hard work. They are for sale if anybody is interested.

And here are the dates and locations of my workshops:

• Saturday: 7/6/2008 “THE SHEEP STATION HOMESTEAD” ROUGHING I will also be teaching, “NOVEMBER LILLIES” with watercolours in the same workshop
  Where? Wardlin Craft and Garden, 344 Kayleys Lane Brewster
  Phone 0353440641
• Tuesday 10/6/2008 “CHOOKS ON THE RUN” watercolours
  Where: Leony Hoekstra Phone: 0352419866 22 Waurnvale Drive Belmont Geelong
• Saturday 14/6/2008 “CHOOKS ON THE RUN” watercolours
  Where:Gone Barney, Rosewood, on the way to Tumbarumba.
  Phone 0269488380

There has been a great deal of interest on how to use the ruling pen. Maybe I should try and explain a little better how I use it. Many years ago, I was an apprentice draughtswoman. In those days you were allowed to say draughtswoman, these days it is called draughtsperson. I know it has nothing to do with how to use a ruling pen but I thought a little background may help you to understand. The Engineer would pass his sketches on to the draughtsperson and the plans were then drawn to scale in pencil. Once they had been passed by the Engineer the plans were then drawn up in ink - and this is where the ruling pen comes in.

You can buy different quality pens - I use a good quality pen such as “WILD” Heerbrugg made in Switzerland, but another very good brand is “STAEDTLER”. There are ruling pens that are not as expensive to buy. I have found that cheaper ruling pens take a lot longer to run in; you will find that it is inclined to scratch the surface of whatever you are working on, be it wood, canvas or paper. You can use a very fine sand paper such as 000 and gently sand the tip of the pen to help overcome this problem. I have also found that everyone is quite different with the amount of pressure they use, so treat your pen like a feather, gently does it. Providing the pen is filled properly it should work for you.

To fill the pen, I mix the paint on my pallet to the consistency of ink. You can use an eye-dropper to fill the pen or you can just pick up the paint with your brush - whatever you are comfortable with. I find it’s best to hold the pen upright in order to use it properly. My daughter has told me that she could make a little movie of me using a ruling pen, if that would help. Please let me know.

Source: WikipediaI just thought I had better explain to you why all the “camel paintings”. I have been asked to paint camels for an exhibition that is to be held on the 8th of June 2008 at the Avoca Shire Turf Club, which is at the base of the Pyrenees ranges in Victoria. It is to be held in conjunction with “The Country Wool and Wine Festival”. Some of my work will be for sale, so come along and enjoy. I know you would have a lot of fun with not only the camel races but with the country hospitality.

For more information, check out the official website.

A camel.

More pics of camels. The reason for my seeming obsession with camels at the moment is that I’m exhibiting at the Avoca Camel Cup Country Wool & Wine Festival on Sunday, 8th June.

A group of camels.

Here’s my latest watercolour of camels. I am working on another at the moment.

Camels in oils.

A new painting I have been working on. It isn’t finished yet - it’s still a work in progress.

There is an incredible range of watercolours out there, which can be quite daunting to a beginner. When I first started I wasn’t sure what colours I should buy first or what brand of paint to buy. It is very easy and very expensive to buy 25-35 colours but I personally think it is simpler to work with a limited palette of about 12-15 colours.

You must be able to mix your own colours to become a good painter. You will find it fun - this way you will also discover hundreds of hues. I think one of the most important things to remember is:

only buy artist quality paint.

I am going to give you some of the colours that I mostly use in my paintings and that you will also need if we are going to paint together. You will find that once you get started you will want to learn more and more about colour; I still go to other artists’ workshops to learn new techniques. You will find every artist has different colours that they love and use. I encourage everyone to do the same.

The colours I use most are: 

• BLUES: French Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue
• GREENS: Sap Green Permanent, Olive Green Permanent, Australian Leaf Green Dark
• YELLOWS: Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Aureolin, Yellow Ochre
• REDS: Pilbara Red, Spectrum Crimson, Rose Madder, Cadmium Red
• EARTH TONES: Warm Sepia, Burnt Sienna, Payne’s Grey.

As far as the BRAND of paint to buy: I use Art Spectrum. Of course, there are many other wonderful brands of paint but as I live in Australia I like to think I am doing my bit towards our economy, be it ever so small. I also like the the vibrancy of the Art Spectrum colours which suits my style of painting.

I think we are almost ready to start a painting together.

I am not sure that you would even want me to tackle the scientific side of colour as it would take up many, many pages and I am not even sure that I can explain it but I do recommend that you put a little homework in to understanding as much as you can. There are many wonderful books around just on the subject of colour. My husband, Linden, once bought me a book that is called COLOUR for my birthday and, because he bought it, I felt obliged to read it. I found that it was fascinating, much to my surprise and I couldn’t put it down!

Can you imagine a world without colour - especially to an artist? I feel I have to explain just a little about it as I feel that, as an artist, one shouldn’t take colour for granted. Colour is a sensation produced by white light rays received by the retina of the eye and interpreted by the brain. These white light rays, travelling from the sun in varying wavelengths contain all the colours that we see and we see them as colours. Light is fantastically complex - it is is electromagnetic energy, it creates colour and form, and of course without light we could see nothing at all. It makes me wish that I had studied science when I was at school. I am not sure if you want me to explain more about the colour wheel etc, at this stage or if you would like me to talk about it a little at a time as we paint together. Let me know.

When I was a young thing, before such things as computers, I worked on a drawing board as a draughtswoman. The only pen we used for drawing plans was called a “ruling pen”; it used ink and we filled the pens from a bottle with a dropper attached to the lid. So it was only natural for me to use a ruling pen as one of my tools for painting.

A ruling pen has a small wheel on the side that you can either tighten for fine lines or loosen for much thicker lines. I mostly use it with masking fluid to give me fine lines that you simply can’t get with a brush. For instance, I use it for the veins in leaves or if I were to paint the long flowing hair of a fairy or even a child and I needed to bring some light on a few strands of hair.

To use the masking fluid, I just pour some of the masking fluid into a film container as I find it easier to handle. Then I dip the tip of the pen in, making sure that I don’t go as far as the mechanism - otherwise the rubber latex can wrap around it and I have found it almost impossible to remove. Paint can also be used in the pen as long as it’s the consistency of ink. When it comes to cleaning, try not to immerse the pen in water as it will rust.

I know that you can still buy ruling pens as separate items from The Art Scene as that is where I buy most of my supplies. Check at home before you buy one, as you may find that you already have one in an old drawing set from an old technical drawing class at school (there was nearly always a ruling pen amongst them).

If there is anything else you would like to know about them don’t hesitate to ask me questions in the comments.

This is a big subject to tackle. I could write pages and pages about it. But if you are anything like me, you can only take in a little information at a time. If I am faced with pages of information I don’t read it properly. I wonder if this means I only use the artistic side of my brain?

Anyway I have decided that I will write a little at a time as required for the projects we do together. There is a basic vocabulary used when talking about colour and when I first started to paint, I found it difficult to know one from the other. Every colour has three characteristics:

• Hue
• Value
• Intensity

If you attend a class or a workshop you will hear your teacher speak of “hue” - this simply means it is the name of the colour. It allows us to distinguish one colour from another.

“Value” is the most important of the three. It simply means the lightness or darkness of a colour - however, if the value of the colour is wrong then the colour is wrong.

“Intensity” just means the brightness of the colour as it comes freshly from the tube; mix any other colour with it and you change it’s intensity. Brilliant Red has a high intensity value, for example, but if you were to add a touch of green to the red it would make it less intense. You can lighten the hue of watercolours by just adding water. I have tried to simplify it as much as I can but if at any stage you are unable to understand what I write, please don’t hesitate in asking me. If you’re wondering about something, it’s a safe bet others are too - and it will also be a help to me.

Colour may seem to be a difficult subject but I have found the more you paint and mix your own colours the more fun it can be. You will find the best thing about painting is playing and learning about it. I have reached the stage now after so many years of painting where I can look across a field and I feel confident enough to know I can mix any colour to suit the colours in the grasses, trees, or anything else needed for a painting. Of course, that only comes with experience and practice. I will go more in to colour as it is required.