How I painted "Missed You" with just 4 Colors

I received a question by email about how I made the painting I discussed earlier called "Missed you". Another question was about the palette used.

Here's the painting again:

In spite of all the variations of color that you see in the painting, the palette is very limited.

I only used titanium white, burnt sienna, burnt umber and a cool ivory black, of white I always have large amounts of these colors (and 3 more) available for painting, because I paint a lot of portraits and human figures..and since mixing creates many more colors with these four for topics other than human flesh.

                        


For this painting, I chose ivory black because it's a cool black, which would give me a bluish gray when I mixed it with white. And blue is the complementary to orange, of which the color of some hair colors is a derivative.

The variations in color and value are achieved by mixing. Every inch of the painting has all four colors mixed together., with predominance of one of them in different areas. For example, then, on the hair, burnt sienna and burnt umber predominate ..but there is black and white in it as well... just less.And there is burnt sienna and burnt umber in the gray background and in the "apparently white light and highlights", just less.

A painting is a sculpture of light...but remember, that light is like water, it seeps through and moistens everything it touches to a larger or lesser extent. Thus, the light of the environment, the reflected light from the objects in space, all acquire the color of each other.There are no absolutes. Creating this
concept with colors gives a more real and dimensional appearance to your painting, regardless of your style.

I only use 2-3 sizes of brushes, and the size of choice, depends on the size of the painting surface (e.g. canvas) and the level of detail I want to achieve.

You may have seen videos of people using fan brushes to paint trees. While this is a crafty shortcut, it does not always produce the most realistic look. Call me an unbeliever! I only use round, flat and rigger types of brushes..basically because I'm familiar with them, they're easy to use and they can do everything that other brushes can do.

I hope this answers your questions! Contact me if you have any more questions I'ld be glad to answer!

Thanks for supporting me by visiting my blog today and by purchasing my art!

Fire in Her Hair: A Rebirth of Venus

I've been away "surviving" hurricane Maria. I was fortunate that it didn't do damage to my home, but it did cause months-long power outages in my area. I've had power since January (the hurricane happened in September 2017) but we still get occasional outages, about once every 2-3 weeks, for several hours or a couple of days at a time. Each time they are going to rebuilt part of the electric grid, they have to shut down parts of the island of Puerto Rico, where I've been living since 2012.

In any case, I survived and I've been painting but I wanted to start showing some of the paintings I've (finally!) posted online for sale as originals or prints.

Today I'll talk introduce "Fire in Her Hair"...one of my favorite experiments in art. I've always been inspired by the Birth of Venus, by Botticelli, so I decided to make - not a copy - but a "modernized version"..of her face....a version that would travel from the time of Botticelli to ours, yet retain her air. I therefore saturated the complementary colors present in the original painting and emphasized the line. The original is made with acrylic paint on gessoed paper and measures 11 inches x 15 inches.

It's one of my favorite paintings, for its vibrant colors and calm mood. It moves yet it stares at us as it moves.
If you enjoy it as much as I have, you can get a canvas print of it, posters, or other printed home decor and stationery items at Fine Art America, where I have one of my little shops. 

I deeply appreciate your purchasing my art! Thank you and thanks for visiting my blog! :) 

Here she is:

           

Feel inspired?

Fast and Simple Art Studio 1: The Easel

Setting up an art studio: the Easel

One of the most important parts of an art studio is the easel!
I started drawing on the floor as a child, later at a restaurant table or my desk as a teen...and eventually I got serious and bought an easel. Some artists prefer a drawing table, others use easels. And yet others who produce large pieces of art, use a mounting on the wall. Some like to stand while they paint, some sit. Therefore, knowing your style is the first thing you have to do...After you become aware of that and of your budget, choosing an easel becomes an easy decision.
I do use an upright easel because I stand while I paint and because the media I use (primarily acrylics and oils) are suitable for an easel. For artists that use watercolor or ink, which are runny, a horizontal surface like a table easel or horizontal easel are probably the best options.
Easels will display your art at an angle that aligns with your head axis so that you see the painting the way it's going to look on the wall. Most easels also adjust for various sizes of surfaces (canvas or other) so that you can choose to have an easel that holds the sizes of paintings you usually make. And, if you are like me, you can always choose to hang it on the wall and step back now and then to double-check....from the beginning of the creative process.
If you work outdoors like the impressionists, consider a field easel. These easels are lightweight and usually include a handle or shouder strap as well as a storage box for your brushes, paint, jars of turpentine or water, rags and more. I've found that, in choosing plein-air easels (as field easels are also known), you have to accept a compromise between portability and stability. While a lightweight easel of this kind might be good for carrying it to the place where you want to paint, if it's too light it may not be stable enough to withstand the slightest breeze. Keep that in mind when choosing one.
Here are some easels to consider:
Great for indoors:

Table easel:

This one is great for all of you impressionist plein air (outdoor) painters!

H-frame Easel

If your budget is the budget I dream to have... here's a wall-mounted option to consider:

These are but a few of a variety for easels...your style of painting, the size of your studio and whether you're indoors or not..and hey...your budget too. You may choose these I love or you may want to shop around for the one that fits you the best! :)
Happy painting!

ArtesVives : Animal Paintings

All available at my shop: ArtesVives Fine Art America shop
 Some available as originals (while they last), some only as prints.

Esteva do Algarve

Ok, here's the latest. Inspired again by Portuguese topics. This time, it's a ceramic jar with blue flowers and an "esteva". All my paintings are always a work in progress. Sometimes, I think I'm done and I come back and change something, or add something...perhaps making a shadow more drastic, or light brighter...rounding out what should be round, etc. I am satisfied enough with this one to show it, but I do not know that it is complete...I will sign it when complete :)

This is a quiet scene, or a freshly cut esteva left by the jar on a old wooden shelf.

Again, using Rembrandt soft pastels, Gioconda pastel pencils, charcoal and a workable fixative.

I didn't know about the estevas, after a dear friend from the Algarve region told me about them. Estevas are flowers native to the Mediterranean basin, growing anywhere from Portugal to France. They are used as ornament and sought after for their aroma. Their resin, called "ladano", used in perfume fixatives, is collected from the saliva of goats after letting them graze on the estevas. Curious, huh? :)

Artes Vives

Thank you for your visit to Artes Vives. I hope you enjoy your visit and keep coming back as I post art that I am continuously creating.
My love affair with art began in childhood, both music and painting. Most recently, a growing passion for history and culture, particularly those of the Iberian Peninsula, has enriched my ideas. In painting, it evolved from pencil drawing into ever more complex compositions. Today I enjoy pastels, acrylic and oil painting equally. I have never exhibited my art in galleries, but many of my paintings (mostly pastels) have sold through the internet and to people I know and to friends-of-friends.
I have never had formal training and I claim influence by no artist, famous or not, though I admire the impressionists. The only time I tried to learn formally, I was dismissed after the first class because the lady wanted me to start drawing cubes, apples and ceramic pots and I asked her to refine my aims at painting portraits and human figures...for which she said I had to go somewhere else where they specialized in teaching that. Oh well, such is life...Incredibly, I turned to the sciences as a career and later as a job, and I could never crystalize my dream of formal training in the arts.
I do, however, sneak out of my conventional roles into my little hiding place where all my painting supplies sleep during the regular hours. There, in that little room in the back of my house, I travel the world (real and not) and meet characters, places and ideas out of my natural reach, within my imagination. It is, as if all that had been floating in my mind during the day, would gather together in that room...and each day I go back to that room, I visit friends and places yet to be depicted. Little by little, sometimes working on 10-12 paintings at a time, I revisit their appearance to make sure I am portraying them as they are or as the evolve...or perhaps until I get to know each one well...until I get it right, often taking months to finish each one. During those hours, I paint my mind...whether based on real characters, objects and places of history or created completely in my head, each paper or canvas contains idea, a story or perhaps just a feeling. It is that time - when I am painting - when I consider myself truly free.