Fear of Flying - Airport Strategies for Traveling with Oil Paints

I have flown often with oil paints and because of my fear of confiscation have always put them in my checked baggage and had no problem.

I always pack them carefully (wrapped in absorbent paper towels, in a closed plastic container), along with a printout of the following page from Air Canada and MSDS forms, following these instructions (look under PAINT and see the heading "Exceptions" for how to pack artist's colors):

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/baggage/security.html

When I traveled to Paris I even printed out and attached a statement in French, stating that I was a painter and my materials were not flammable and officially permitted.

When I travel to the U.S.A. (I am Canadian), I also put a printout of the TSA site page stating they are allowed:

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm

However, I really wish I could just use a carry-on bag so I don't have to worry about my suitcase going AWOL. And, unfortunately, these days it costs extra to check a bag.

I had always interpreted the TSA instructions to apply to checked items and not carry-on, but on re-reading the information just now, it seems okay to carry on the paints as long as the tubes are small (make sure you exclude that giant tube of Titanium White, even if it is almost empty) and you can prove they are not flammable. I think I will try this next time, and bring a printout from TSA along with the MSDS which proves that the items are non-flammable.

Of course, you can't bring a huge array of colors and you have to limit your toiletries since everything has to fit into that teeny ziploc bag, AND if you need a largish painting support you are out of luck.

MSDS forms are available online from Gamblin. Look under Gamblin Oil Painting Materials, Artist Grade Oils, and then click on the individual pigment:

http://www.gamblincolors.com/artists.grade.oils/index.html

MSDS forms are also available from Winsor & Newton, which provides for individual colors as well as their paint in general:

http://www.winsornewton.com/products/oils-solvents-mediums-varnishes/oil-colour--oils-solvents-mediums-varnishes/health-safety-data-sheets-oil-colour-oils-solvents-mediums-varnishes/

Some of my less mainstream brands such as Michael Harding have not responded to requests for MSDS. I figure if I can prove that oil paints for artist's in general are not flammable, they will probaby accept that none of them are likely to be dangerous.

It is also a good idea, if you check the paints, to politely request in writing that they replace everything in the same manner it was found. I have heard horror stories of people opening their suitcase to find everything coated in cadmium red after an officer failed to put the cap back on a tube correctly. That's enough to ruin your day for sure!

Art and Fear - Overcoming Procrastination, Perfectionism and Paralysis to become more Productive

I have been thinking a lot about this subject because unless I have a deadline, nothing I do is ever finished.

Why? Because I always think I will be able to improve it some day. So the paintings that have not left my studio remain unsigned, unvarnished and unframed.

What leads us to delay completion? I am no psychologist (unless you accept my armchair degree in self-help reading) but I have come to the conclusion that I believe I can improve on my mostly completed paintings, but I am also afraid to completely mess them up - and believe me that has happened more than once!

So I procrastinate - I start a new painting, take another workshop, read a book, cook something, make a phone call, travel somewhere, go shopping or any other activity, rather than knuckling down and addressing whatever it is I think needs to be changed and tackling it with courage and skill.

I think that is why I like the start of a work - it is easy to be completely free and change things with abandon. Nothing is precious. Right eye 1/8 of an inch too high - paint it out and start over! Don't like the color of the background - change it!

I have a full library of books on the subject, so I know I am not alone in this kind of avoidance behavior. Julia Cameron has written a very funny cartoon book entitled, How to Avoid Making Art, and exposes some of the silly ideas we use as excuses for not working when we ought to be working.

Right now I have two portrait studies that need a few slight tweaks and have been patiently waiting for my attention for months. So here I am, writing a post and drinking coffee instead and dreaming of my next painting.

Today I am going to head down to my studio and finish something. Nike has it right - let's all just do it!

Dawn Whitelaw Workshop

I first met Dawn Whitelaw quite a few years ago, at a Portrait Society of America conference, when I showed her the one and only oil portrait I had ever done. Dawn was very encouraging and I immediately decided I would move heaven and earth to get the chance to study with her one day.

Dawn is a knowledgable and talented instructor, and a prize winning painter, who is down to earth and well organized. Upon arriving for a five day workshop with her, participants are not only graciously offered refreshments, but also presented with a binder containing favorite inspirational quotes, books and websites. The binder includes a supply list, easel positions for the week (to make sure you have a variety of lighting situations) and even suggestions about where to eat lunch! There are also tips on drawing, value, procedure, color mixing, varnishing, brushes, stretching canvas, and cleanup. You are also provided with a CD with images to view on your computer.

For painting people, Dawn uses grey acrylic in a thin, watery wash to stain her alkyd primed canvas. She uses a warmer stain for landscape outdoors, because of all the green.  Dawn tones her canvas the value of her hand, the general value of skin in light or sometimes a darker tone for a low key painting.

The palette Dawn uses consists simply of Winton Red #6, French Ultramarine Blue and Cadmium Yellow Light. That’s it.  She mixes the secondary colors herself and lays out the colors from left to right, on a large wooden palette, starting with 4 “worms” of white and then yellow, orange, red, purple, blue, green. The advantage of using just these three colors is that color harmony is easily achieved and at the end of the day you can mix what you have left and save it in the fridge on a paper plate to use the next day as a useful gray.

Dawn occasionally may add lemon yellow or cerulean to her palette to achieve aquamarine (perhaps in a tropical setting), but she would make sure to use that color throughout the painting to ensure color harmony.

Dawn does color charts, by taping out squares on 18x36 foam core which has been treated with acrylic matte medium to seal the surface. It is surprising how great a range of colors can be obtained with this palette. Dawn likes inexpensive Winton paint because it has less pigment and is more oily, so mediums are not necessary.

With regard to composition, for plein air, Dawn spends a lot of time walking around to decide on what to paint. When painting a model, she tries various lighting situations for maximum interest and flattery and talks to the sitter while she is doing this to obtain information. Thumb to middle finger is approximately the face length. You need to take your time when doing this and look carefully at the negative space.

Dawn writes notes immediately after a meeting with her subject in order to record her impressions and she tries to describe the subject succinctly so someone could pick them up at the airport after hearing her description. This helps her to find her way back to her original intention if things begin to go astray.

Some notes on Dawn's procedure:

To begin, you can draw in paint or charcoal. Gesture and measurement are both important, so work on your weakest area!

Start with the darks. While you have paint on your brush, look for other areas that are that color and value. Simplify – mass the shadow on the side of the face with the hair at the start. First, separate the light and dark. For dark colors, keep mixing in the same pile of paint, variations of color.

Hold your palette up to the model and compare the value of the shadow – can the palette stand in for the shadow or is it lighter? If the shadow is darker, you mix a color that is darker than your palette. Trust your palette. Reserve your darkest dark. Work in the middle range of values. Accents of the darkest dark and lightest light finish off a painting.

Mix light colors separately. Light areas have to be calibrated. Most skin is neutral. A close up of pixelated photo shows many colors in skin, but they are all muted. To identify color in light, start with white, add a speck of color and then neutralize it. You can either use the mosaic method of placing spots of color or you can mass in light areas and then vary with color temperature, which is sometimes easier to maintain the correct values. Don’t rely on value when modeling in the light – use temperature and color changes. Turn form with temperature.

Use thin paint and keep your options open. Lay in paint with sides of brush.
Bounce color from clothing into hair and skin when you see it. For a highlight on the lower lip, instead of white, use an intense, pure color in a light value. Hold the palette up and look for what is the exactly the same tone.

Painting is really just correcting mistakes. Fear of getting things in the wrong place is paralyzing, so just put something down and know you can fix it. Is the color neutral? Put something up and then adjust the value. Don’t hyperfocus.

The range of values in reality is greater than what we have in paint. We are limited by our materials – lightest light and darkest dark. Painting is all about relationships.

To finish, ask yourself: What do I need to simplify? It’s not just about detail. If the face is rather rough, the hair cannot be finely rendered. If you keep simplifying, the details will take care of themselves. Finish with a big brush, pull things together and take things out. And remember that no amount of detail will correct wrong shapes and proportions.

When working from photographs, set up a slide show on your computer instead of using just one photograph. For studies – staple alkyd primed linen to ½” gatorboard. Keep your studies – you can use them when painting someone with similar skintones.

Dawn is a fantastic teacher whose methods and materials are very accessible and yield beautiful work. It is somewhat of a revelation to see her achieve these results with just three colors.

(To view examples of some of the paintings I did at Dawn's workshop, go to www.laurelmcbrine.blogspot.com and scroll back to the portraits of "Bruce" and "Erin", both posted on April 29, 2007.)

EXCITING NEW BOOK FOR ARTISTS!

Many artists are clueless when it comes to marketing their work, but thankfully we now have a great resource from art-marketing consultant Alyson B. Stanfield, of ArtBizCoach.com.

Books about marketing usually present ideas for self-promotion that I just would not feel comfortable using. The strategies that Alyson presents feel sincere and natural, not pushy or forced or artificial.

Alyson talks about how to share your work directly with potential buyers through electronic and traditional communication outlets. She addresses all the excuses we use that lead to our lack of success. I particularly enjoyed the chapter about putting together the dreaded artist statement.

I truly believe this book will be invaluable to any artist who wants to be more successful in promoting their work. It is accessible and easily understood with ideas and suggestions that are realistic and easy to implement.

I’d Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist’s No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion

THANK YOU TO SCOTTSDALE ARTIST'S SCHOOL AND THE WINDGATE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION!

From a letter to a young artist in 1901 . . .

“You say you are studying to become a portrait painter and I think you’d be making a great mistake if you kept that only in view during the time you intend to work in life class, for the object of the student should be to acquire sufficient command over his materials and do whatever nature presents him. The conventionalities of portrait painting are only tolerable in one who is a good painter.  

If he is only a good portrait painter, he is a nobody. Try to become a painter first and then apply your knowledge to a special branch. But do not begin by learning what is required for a special branch or you will become a mannerist.”

John Singer Sargent

These words were shared with me by one of my teachers, Everett Raymond Kinstler, and I have taken them to heart. The idea that a painter should work to become well rounded and be able to paint anything, in any situation, led me to request an oil painting class of any type when I applied for a scholarship from the Scottsdale Artist’s School. I had the privilege of studying at this fabulous school the previous spring, when I took a portrait class from William Whitaker and I hoped to have the opportunity to continue my artistic growth. I wished to branch out and challenge myself with new ideas and practices. I believe it is particularly important to work from life and plein air landscape painting requires all the skills and perseverance a painter possesses. You are dealing with the elements – wind, rain, cold, bugs and sun, for instance. You are lugging heavy equipment into rugged terrain and ignoring your hunger and thirst at times. You need to decide on how to render the huge range of value before you. You need to work very quickly to capture the essence of the scene before the light changes too much. You need to convey depth and enough detail without ruining that effect. However, you are also enjoying the beauty of nature and the zen of flow while becoming absorbed in your work.

The class I was awarded, was with Gabor Svagrik, a young artist who specializes in outdoor scenes. I think representational painters naturally gravitate to what they are good at and landscape is a whole different cup of tea from portraiture. When painting the figure, most decisions are made when you set up the pose. What you paint is right in front of you. You certainly don’t change the position of the person’s features, but in landscape painting that is exactly what you do. You must edit and include only part of the panorama you are confronted with. You must simplify the complexity that nature presents and choose the best, most interesting and commanding features of the grand scene before you.

The week spent painting Tucson vistas was exciting and inspirational. I had to push myself out of my comfort zone. I will take what I learned and apply it to my outdoor portraits and continue to work outdoors as much as possible.

I want to sincerely thank Scottsdale Artist’s School and the Windgate Charitable Foundation for their generosity, which has enabled me to continue to expand my abilities. Becoming an artist is a lifelong process, which is why the never ending fascination with painting is such an obsession for many students of art and I am very grateful that they have made it possible for me to advance a little further on that path.

The Reilly Palette (Mattelson Version)

As you can see, this palette consists of four strings of color with 9 values plus black and white. The rows of paint daubs consist of:

1. Neutral greys, made with Raw Umber and black with white.

2. Yellows, made with Yellow Ochre and Raw Umber plus black and white.

3. Oranges, made with Terra Rosa, white and black;

4. Pinks, made with Indian Red, white and black.

Make sure when you mix any of these colors together you stay within the same value.

Mixing the palette is rather time consuming and tedious, but it allows for efficient painting and is good practice for anyone struggling with values, the foundation of all realist art.

These colors allow for natural and realistic skin tones. The grey is used to lower the chroma.

WIPE-OUT!

I often start an indoor sitting with a wipe-out. It is an easy method to quickly establish the masses of light and shadow and get the drawing done before complicating matters with color.

I was introduced to this method by portrait artist Marvin Mattelson, at a workshop where he covered a huge amount of information. After doing a drawing with the wash-in method, he utilizes a prepared palette similar to the one developed in the past by Frank Reilly, except Marvin eschews the use of cadmium pigments. Frank Reilly was an instructor at The Art Students League in New York who trained many artists to paint realistic skin tones in this way. A good book to try and find on the Reilly method is entitled, “The Fine Art of Portraiture: An Academic Approach” by Frank Covino. I believe it is out of print, but can be found in libraries and sometimes for sale.

To prepare for the wipe-out, when using standard acrylic primed canvas, you need to apply a couple of coats of extra acrylic gesso well ahead of time, letting the gesso dry and sanding lightly between coats. The gesso is applied across the canvas both horizontally and vertically to smooth out the brushstrokes. If you use an oil or alkyd primed support you can skip this step.

Before beginning the drawing, the canvas is covered with an extremely thin layer of cold pressed linseed oil. The amount of oil used has to be just right, as too much will result in the paint coming off too easily and not enough will make it difficult to remove the paint right down to the bare primed canvas. Sprinkle the oil over the tip of a palette knife, rub in with a rag and then wipe off most of the oil with another clean rag or paper towel. Test to see if it is ready by rubbing a clean finger over the surface. The finger should not be shiny! Check that the oil is distributed evenly by holding the canvas at an angle to the light and looking carefully over the surface to find any dry areas. Having a thin, even coat of oil is very important to ensure that you get an even layer of paint in the next step!

On a white ceramic tile, Winsor & Newton or Michael Harding Raw Umber oil paint (a 4" strip squeezed out of the tube) is then mixed with one drop each of cold pressed linseed oil and Distilled English Turpentine, plus half a drop of clove Oil (to prevent the paint from drying too fast) and applied evenly to the support with a large brush. Try to get the paint to approximately match the skin in shadow, usually Munsell value 3 or 4, depending on the complexion of your subject.

To remove the paint, gradually rub the paint off with a rag wrapped around your finger. For more detail, you can use stomps (usually intended for drawing) or just wrap the rag around a pencil. You can also use a clean brush to remove paint from the canvas.

For darker areas, apply the paint with a brush, rubbing the oil off the canvas first for the darkest darks.

Since raw umber is a fast drying pigment, your wipe-out will most likely be dry the next day and you will be ready to start applying color.

I don’t always use this method, as I sometimes go right in with color and paint in an alla prima fashion. When I decide to start with a drawing, however, this method is a really unique and fun way to begin. It is especially good for someone just learning to paint, as it breaks down the process and makes it much easier to obtain results in an organized fashion. It is a disciplined approach that simplifies things a lot.