Paintings by Frank Vincent Dumond
Friday, February 23, 2024
Dumond's "Smear" Demo
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Building an Art Career Online
How do you build an art career online? Today's Substack post is a deep dive on managing social media and narrowcasting to dedicated fan networks.
Monday, February 19, 2024
Balancing Art With Family
Balancing art with family can be a challenge. We artists owe a lot to those around us for their long-suffering patience.
Jeanette Reading, oil, 8 x 12"
I understand how some artists need a separate studio, but I've always had my studio in the house, and I feel lucky that I could have my family around when I was working. Before we had kids, Jeanette would often read to me while I was painting.
Full discussion on Substack (no paywall)Saturday, February 17, 2024
Premixing Color Gamuts in Oil Paint
Here’s what it looks like when I’m premixing oil colors on a palette made from a roll of freezer paper.
🎨 The goal is to premix a “string” of four or five values of each of the subjective primaries that appear at the corners of the gamut.
🎨 The “gamut” is a sector of the full range of possible colors. If you paint just from that string of premixed colors, you can paint any color from inside that gamut but you can’t paint any “extra-gamut notes.”
🎨 The reason to narrow your gamut is to create a subjective envelope of colors and explore the possibilities they offer.
🎨 In sequential art, each sequence can have its own gamut, which is especially helpful in color scripting for animation or concept art, or for illustrated books or graphic novels.
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Repin's Conflicted Feelings About Impressionism
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
Readings from Harold Speed
When I was just starting out on my journey to learn about painting, I recorded some readings from books that inspired me. I'm just starting to post these readings in my Substack archive.
Painting by Harold Speed
The readings are from Harold Speed’s 1924 book Oil Painting Techniques and Materials, originally titled
You can hear the readings at this Substack post.
Saturday, February 10, 2024
A Method for Painting Botanical Subjects on Location
Link to YouTube Here's a practical method for isolating a living plant so that you can paint an accurate portrait of it on location.
Roadside Weeds, casein, 14 x 18"
Most landscape compositions are designed to lead the viewer deep into the scene. If there’s a foreground, it serves as a framing device or a departure point. By contrast, botanical studies typically focus up close on a flower or a plant that’s taken out of context and put against a white backdrop.
But what if we could merge these two ways of seeing? My goal in this painting is to bring attention to the foreground without losing the story of the wider scene. To achieve that goal I’ll need to develop a way to render a living plant with loving detail while observing it in its natural setting.
Wednesday, February 7, 2024
Eliot Hodgkin's Switch to Tempera
"With oil paint I could not get the detail without getting also a disagreeable surface: moreover I should have to wait while the paint dried before continuing."
Tuesday, February 6, 2024
Reflection of Dark Objects on Water
The appearance of dark objects reflected in water depends on three factors:
1. The amount of silt or sediment in the water
2. The amount of light shining into the water
3. The shallowness of the water.
In this plein sketch, the trees might have reflected more darkly had it not been for the sunlight passing through the clear water and bouncing off the shallow, sandy bottom.
There's more information on today's Substack post. You can visit with no commitment via the link in my bio, or subscribe for free to regular emails.
Sunday, February 4, 2024
BoingBoing Mentions Substack
Wow, what a nice surprise from the wonderful blog BoingBoing.
Thanks to Bob Knetzger for mentioning my new Substack page.
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