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Why Replace Cadmium with Cadmium Hues? Introducing our New DANIEL SMITH Cadmium Hues for Watercolor!

Deborah Burns — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:10:52 +0000

Introducing Four New DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Cadmium Hues

Why replace Cadmiums with Cadmium Hues?

We wanted to make better, safer alternative colors for Artists. We have made our New DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Cadmium Hues better than the Cadmiums, with increased opacity and greater vibrancy, with out the potential toxicity concerns associated with Cadmiums.

Cadmium paint colors, were developed in the early 19th & 20th centuries to replace earlier, impermanent (fugitive) yellows, oranges and reds, and improving Artists’ palette of colors. Now after development, beginning in 2000, we have produced some more great alternatives and improvements to Cadmium watercolor paints – our Cadmium Hues. We wanted to make sure they met our high standards, and we had them perfect for our Artists!

Here at DANIEL SMITH, we are all about making the Best Watercolors for Artists so we are constantly developing new colors and improving others (if needed) for our Artists.

We now have 4 new Cadmium Hues:

Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue - Blog post with Video
Cadmium Orange Hue - Blog post with Video
Cadmium Red Scarlet Hue - Blog post with Video
Cadmium Red Medium Hue - Blog post with Video

We earlier introduced our Cadmium Yellow Light Hue (Reference Catalog 2007-08) and Cadmium Yellow Med Hue (Reference Catalog 2006-07). These are called Cadmium “Hues” because they are not made with Cadmium metal compounds. Instead they are new, alternative pigments substituting for the Cadmium pigments.

These 4 new Cadmium Hues are special because they are more opaque, dense and even more important, more vibrant than the original Cadmiums. They are more vibrant because they have brighter chroma than Cadmiums, and you can see that by their location further out on the peripheral on our DANIEL SMITH Colormap. Three of our new Cadmium Hues are essentially identical to their Cadmium counterparts, and the 4th, Cadmium Red Medium Hue, is just slightly different since it is naturally a little brownish, and we did not want to replicate that muddiness.

Slide show of our 4 new Hues:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Because of the way these pigments are manufactured, a process called co-precipitation, they are essentially single pigments, even though on the label they are listed with what looks like more than one pigment. In this case, it is not true that 1+1+1= 3, but rather 1+1+1= 1, essentially a “single” pigment due to the co-precipitation manufacturing process. This is one reason why the New Cadmium Hues have brighter chroma and increased opacity, than the regular Cadmiums paints have.

You can see on our Colormap, that the colors further out on the peripheral of the Colormap sphere are more vibrant (higher chroma) than those closer towards the center. You can see for yourself where some of the Cadmiums are and, where our New Cadmium Hues are on the Colormap. Put your mouse on the number (the number in ( ) when you are at the Colormap) to see the name of the color and notice its’ location on the Colormap. I have listed the number of each Cadmium and Cadmium Hue color below in ( ) so you can more easily find them.

Cadmium Yellow Light (no location on Colormap)
Cadmium Yellow Light Hue, #16 (ref-cat 2007-08)
Cadmium Yellow Med (discontinued)
Cadmium Yellow Med Hue, #30 (Ref-Cat 2006-07)
Cadmium Yellow Deep, #37
Cadmium Yellow Deep Hue, #180 (NEW)

Cadmium Orange, #44 (discontinued)
Cadmium Orange Hue , #177 (NEW)

Cadmium Red Scarlet, #52
Cadmium Red Scarlet Hue, #179 (NEW)
Cadmium Red Med, #53 (discontinued)
Cadmium Red Med Hue, #178 (NEW)
Cadmium Red Deep, #93 (discontinued)

We have worked hard to manufacture better Cadmium Colors for our Artists by developing our New Cadmium Hues. We know that once you have tried them for yourself, you will see that these are an improvement on the Cadmium watercolors!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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We “Heart” DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolors – Recent FREE Demo with Melinda Hannah

Deborah Burns — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 04:50:33 +0000

Melinda Hannah "Portraits Painted with DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolors" Demo

Recently for a Special FREE Friday Demo at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store, Melinda Hannah was demonstrating Portraits using DANIEL SMITH PrimaTek Watercolors.

This 3 hour demo we had scheduled in a “Hands On” period to work with the PrimaTek Watercolors in exercises that Melinda Hannah had suggested painting out….”Hearts“.

When she first suggested it I was thinking that hearts seemed a silly subject for an exercise, but I was game to support Melinda with it. Well, was I surprised by the creative results - Great Idea Melinda!

"Hands On" painting PrimaTek Hearts with Melinda Hannah

Usually when people do paint outs to test color combinations they use a square or rectangle (maybe a circle or free-form) shape to apply their paint. There is something inherently ridged about painting in some of those shapes, that dampens the creative process, you know….”keep inside the lines!” Well, hearts are inherently an expressive shape and are fun to work with too.

Everyone began with tracing out the heart shape in pencil accross their paper and was the last of any formality….

Watching the hearts being painted out and seeing the colors blend in with one another, merging and producing beautiful painterly effects was almost magical. There was no worry about keeping inside the lines of the penciled heart, in fact the painted outlines became expressive lines as people used them only as reference for fluid brush strokes.

Some of the combinations that were tried while I watched were Rhodonite Genuine (Rhodonite video), Serpentine Genuine, Zoisite Genuine, and

Bloodstone Genuine. Melinda made suggestions of some color combinations to try, encouraged experimentation and sometimes called “STOP”, so that the hearts weren’t overworked loosing the cool effects.

Here are 9 plus 9 more Hearts I played around with over the weekend in this slide show. I used the 4 PrimaTeks listed above plus: Amethyst Genuine, Hematite Genuine, and Jadeite Genuine. FYI, in the slide show I mislabeled the last two hearts of the first 9, they are actually Rhodonite and Hematite, and Jadeite and Hematite.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I think this is a fun way (exercise) to get “unstuck” with creatively by playing with different color combinations in repeating heart shapes, sort of like a jazz musician doing jazz riffs to loosen up.,

Thanks Melinda for the demo and the fun “Hands On” exercise!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Kristina Hagman’s “36 Views of Mt Rainier” Entire Suite of 36 Woodblock Prints on Display at Kinsey Gallery

Deborah Burns — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 22:44:23 +0000

Kristina Hagman with her "36 Views of Mt Rainier" at Kinsey Gallery

Walking into the Kinsey Gallery with Kristina Hagman and seeing a wall of 30 different views of Mt Rainier was as awesome as suddenly seeing Mt Rainier as you drive, boat, walk, hike or move around Seattle and the Puget Sound….*SMAK*…and there they are!

It was an impressive sight to finally see the entire body of work completed and on display in a single space.

Kristina Hagman whose woodblock print “Night” is on the DANIEL SMITH 2009-2010 Reference Catalog has her entire suite of “36 Views of Mt Rainier” on display at the Kinsey Gallery at Seattle University. Unfortunately I missed her Artist Reception, but Kristina was kind enough to meet at the Gallery and talk with me again about her work.

We met 6 months ago at her home/studio to talk about her “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Rainier” woodblock prints inspired by Hokusai and his series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji while she was still working on them. You can read that interview here: “An hour with Kristina Hagman, DANIEL SMITH Catalog Cover Artist, to chat about her Woodblock Print Series ‘Thirty-Six Views of Mount Rainier“.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The entry print is my favorite, “View from Georgetown“, then you come around the corner and there they are…you see 30 prints arranged “en masse” with 5 more prints opposite as you walk in. Those 5 prints are of Mt Rainier alone…. almost as an abstraction…without the context of a foreground to provide a narrative. Kristina described them as Mt Rainier as “Superstar” and to her, as if Mt Rainier was featured on the cover of “Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine”. These are also named differently with titles like Big Rainier Opal” and “Dark Big Rainier“.

The narratives of the the other 31 one is as changeable as the mountain is, as unique as the Seattle neighborhood (or outlying location) from which that particular view of Mt Rainier is seen. Sometimes it’s from a single persons point of view like “Diane’s View” or Axel’s View“. In several you see strong forced perspective as a pink flowering Cherry Tree lined “Rainier Avenue South“ points to Mt Rainier or “View from Beacon Hill” with the Power Lines marching along towards Mt Rainier. This print was one that Kristina was carving when I visited her studio, you can see a photo of her carving it here.

"Night" surrounded by 14 Woodblock Prints by Kristina Hagman

While there is an identifiable point of view location to most of the prints, Kristina has edited and manipulated the images to suit her personal point of view of Mt Rainier, which is sometimes very surreal and dramatic as seen in “View from Date Night“, very urban views of Mt Rainier like “Amazon” and “View from Tacoma” which contrast to the more naturalized urban views in prints like “Blue Heron” and “View from Seward Park“ and the views of Mt Rainier in a landscape like”Reflection” and “Winter“.

Living in Puget Sound means living in the presence of Mt Rainier and experiencing it from so many places, it’s something you always see, like the sky. You are always seeing in framed by the foreground of where-you-are-right-now. Sometimes Mt Rainier looms large, sometimes barely seen, sometimes rose colored with alpine glow from the rising or setting sun, sometimes obscured by clouds soon to be revealed and always there. Kristina Hagman’s “36 Views of Mt Rainier” woodblock series captures 36 interpretive views that everyone in living in the shadow of the Mountain can recognize. Wonderful body of work!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Molly Hashimoto’s Watercolor Travel Journal Demonstration at Seattle DANIEL SMITH

Deborah Burns — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:48:27 +0000

Molly Hashimoto's Watercolor Travel Journal Demo

Molly Hashimoto was at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH recently for one of our FREE “How To” weekend demos. She was demonstrating her very popular Watercolor Travel Journal tips and techniques to a packed room, and a VERY interested audience.

Molly began keeping Travel Journals in 1998, and told us that: “The time spent drawing in your Journal while looking at your subject is more meaningful than just taking photos – you slow down time this way”. At the second demo Molly told us that making the Journals helps her to enjoy and extend the experience of her trip because of taking the time to sketch on site and working on finishing later in the studio “…stops time just a little bit…the experience is not over.” I would like to add that Molly’s blog is also a fascinating Internet “Travel Sketchbook and Journal” of what she is working on, thoughts on painting, her classes and workshops and more, really worth taking some time to read, look at and enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Arches Watercolor Book in the 10 x 14 size is Molly’s favorite for her Travel Journals because she can sit with it open on her lap. She really enjoys seeing her watercolor journals lined up in a row, about 20 now, giving her a nice sense of accomplishment. Keeping a “Travel” Journal is not just about painting them when traveling to major travel or vacation destinations, they are wonderful to have for a hike, a visit to a park or garden, or whatever subject that you would like to keep in a Journal. Molly has written a couple of articles for past DANIEL SMITH catalogs: “Garden Journal Watercolor with Masking Fluid and Italic Calligraphy” and “The Art of Watercolor Journals” that you may want to read for inspiration.

Molly’s traveling paint kits:

The simplest is just a ziplock bag with her basic essentials:

Water soluble pen.
Waterbrush like the Niji Waterbrushes.
2 small bottles of water (one for clean and one for dirty) but if you carry several filled waterbrushes then you don’t need these
Small watercolor brush such as a small travel watercolor brush.
Winsor & Newton Watercolor Pocket Plus Travel set, although Molly finds it does not work for her with larger sketches, since she can’t do washes not enough surface area from the mini palette in the travel set.

Molly also has two other travel paint kits she uses. One is similar to the W&N in size but you can fill with your own preferred paint choices. Fill with your watercolors; Empty Half Pans or Empty Full Pans and super glue them into an Altoids tin, again very little area for mixing colors on the “palette”, just the lid of the Altoids tin.

For more paint choices Molly filled her DS Empty Watercolor Boxes with her watercolor paints. The watercolor boxes have a folding out area, plus the sectioned lid for more areas to mix paint in too and for washes.

Molly also sometimes likes to use Derwent Inktense Pencils, though you do need to have a fixative to keep it from rubbing off on the opposite page. These water-soluble pencils are very nice for detailed sketches of small things like flowers, but Molly doesn’t like to use them for landscapes too hard to cover larger areas with the color.

Walnut ink is also a favorite medium of Molly’s’ for doing travel sketches, and is particularly great if you like Old Masters drawings. Walnut ink is water-soluble so you can dissolve your line with a brush. You can use a Speedball pen & nibs to draw with, and make dilutions of Walnut ink. Tip, don’t use Crow Quill nib since it catches on the paper and spatters. Molly showed us a sketchbook from a trip to New York City in February and her sketches of Central Park (almost empty so it seemed like being in a wilderness) done with Walnut ink. Using Walnut ink also be used with a waterbrush, you can fill them with different watered down strengths of the ink. I think the Pigma Sepia Pen Set would be especially nice when working with Walnut ink, you could sketch out the subject, then go back in with some diluted Walnut ink in a waterbrush.

Molly usually starts her journals on location and takes photos to use as reference to complete what she has started. Not all traveling/hiking companions want to wait around very long while Molly sketches, depends on the group. Sometimes Molly will work on her journal later that evening in her hotel room and look at the camera screen of the photo she took. Sometimes Molly will work on a journal months later in the studio, a great way to re-experience the trip.

Some miscellaneous things Molly mentioned in her two demos:

“Niji waterbrush really helps to loosen up your work. To clean squeeze it and wipe with a paper towel.”
“I like to carry several waterbrushes.”
“Best way to start is to come up with a way to do these [sketches] very quickly.”
Sometimes uses Drafting tape to control her edges, it just depends on the effect Molly wants.
Molly really likes preserving the white spaces (around the sketch) and negative spaces.
“Not a studio painting [the sketches] it does not have to be representational.”
“So many different ways to paint – no right or wrong.”
Molly does rip out sketches that she does not like
Molly likes to let things dry when she paints outdoors, and then goes back in and works some more.
“Tip – use a really fine point pen so that the notes in the journal don’t over power the sketch.”
Molly likes really beautiful letter forms in her journals, although doesn’t do it so much any more because it is time consuming.
Watercolor by itself does not work with calligraphy [for the letter forms] - not enough “body”, so Molly mixes the WC with white gouache, the “paints” the mix onto her calligraphy nib.

For the demos, Molly worked on adding some sketches to her journal she had started from her Taos visit. She worked from photos of some adobe buildings.

For the demo, Molly used:

3/4 inch bight brush – Molly also has a “good selection of flat brushes, makes it easier to paint windows, doors etc.” and DANIEL SMITH Watercolors:

Yellow Ochre

Quinacridone Burnt Orange

Phthalo Blue (RS)

Carbazole Violet

Cobalt Teal Blue

Cobalt Turquoise

Molly began painting the adobe building and painted in the shadow areas on red adobe with a favorite mix; Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Phthalo Blue (RS) and Carbazole Violet. Molly noted while she painted that the “nice thing about working wet into wet is the loose, soft quality.” She then went back in, and removed the excess shadow paint. After the sketch of building had dried, Molly then wet in the sky area with a brush to drop in the blue Phthalo Blue (RS) for the sky working around the clouds. Molly then painted in the gray (Quin Burnt Orange, Carbozle Violet, Phhtalo Blue (RS) for the undersides of the cloud. She then tilted the sketchbook, then went back in and blotted with a paper towel to soften the clouds edges – Also nice for transitioning some areas. For the sky, Molly used Cobalt Teal Blue and Cobalt Turquoise.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Molly also said that while she has sketchbooks of her trip to Taos, Europe, Yellowstone, and Central Park in New York City etc. that you don’t have to go to faraway places to make wonderful travel sketchbooks. Most of Molly’s’ sketchbooks are of local destinations, and painting at your local park, botanical gardens etc are excellent ways to learn and practice so that someday when you do have the opportunity to take a sketchbook on a dream trip, you will have had lots of practice, and know well which art supplies to pack for sketching!

After the demos everyone crowded around to look at Molly’s sketchbooks (a few had been passed around during the course of the demo) to look through the pages, they were really fun and inspiring to look through! Thank you Molly!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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Easy Printmaking! Making Cards with Safety-Kut Printmaking Blocks, DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink, DANIEL SMITH Watercolors and Strathmore Watercolor Cards.

Deborah Burns — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:31:12 +0000

Easy Block Print Cardmaking Project - Painting in the Poinsettia leaves with DANIEL SMITH Sap Green Watercolor

Want a high impact and easy Printmaking Project, that you can make great cards with? Well, here you are….

Easy Printmaking! Making Cards with Safety Kut blocks, DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink, DANIEL SMITH Watercolors and Strathmore Cards! This project was inspired by Molly Hashimotos Block Printing demo during our Printmaking Event Weekend in October.

***

This is what you will need:

Safety Kut blocks 4×6 – 369 020 001
DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble ink: lamp black – 284 220 00
Speedball Linoleum Cutter Set 1 – 530 060 002
Speedball 4″ soft Brayer – 530 060 018
Strathmore Watercolor Cards (10 qty with envelopes) 5×6-7/8 - 220 230 011

DANIEL SMITH Watercolors – for this we used “Holly Berries” Triad ( Perylene Red , Sap Green , Iridescent Gold ) plus Hansa Yellow Medium
Watercolor brushes
Plate or palette to roll out ink
Soft leaded pencil – or Saral Graphite Transfer Paper
Sharpie fine point pen
Sturdy spoon

Watch the slide show video to see the basic “How To” and follow the instructions below to create our own design.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I sketched out a simple poinsettia design, and some other ideas would be a wreath, ornament, star, evergreen tree, Christmas Tree, Christmas Stockings, Wrapped box gift, or ??? This project is not limited to Christmas, think of how beautiful hearts would be for Valentine’s Day, Easter Eggs, Tulips or Bunnies and of course fun spooky Halloween pumpkins and more would be.

Design & Transfer:

Draw out your design – keep it to simple shapes.
Outline design with Sharpie Pen – this helps refine your simple shapes and gives you a thicker line to gauge around for the ink to stick to on the outline your design in the ink.
Rub back side of paper with your design with a soft leaded pencil (or you can use Saral Graphite Transfer Paper to place on top of Safety Kut block and beneath the paper with your design).
Place design pencil side down (or transfer paper down between block & design) on top of Safety Kut block.
Take the capped Sharpie pen and press hard on your design tracing the design you made with your Sharpie pen to transfer the graphite from pencil (or Saral Paper) ( or Saral Paper) onto Safety Kut block as you trace out your design.
Lift a corner and make sure your design is transferring onto the Safety Kut.
Finish rubbing spoon over the Sharpie design to complete the transfer of your design.

Gauging and cutting your design:

Insert the smallest tip of the Speedball Lino Cutter into the handle, and begin “pushing” the tip onto your Safety Kut block to gauge out your design.
You will want to outline the basic shapes by gauging OUTSIDE or INSIDE the thick outlines – remember where you don’t gauge away the block the ink will stick and print. You want to preserve that thick line.
Tip for choosing the direction to gauge, follow the general outline, or as I did with the petals and leaves of the poinsettia, gauge in the direction of the PATTERN of the leaf, or if (for instance) water, you would gauge the motion of the water flowing downstream and around rocks. Remember to keep turning your Safety Kut block around so that you are gauging AWAY from you so you don’t gauge yourself!
For larger areas to gauge, switch your tip on the Speedball lino cutter to a larger tip. Again, when gauging, think of how you want the lines of the gauge to show, for the poinsettia background, I gauged AWAY from my design all the way around the poinsettia shape. Keep turning the Safety Kut block so that you are also gauging AWAY from yourself.
Keep gauging away until you see the design appear.
TIP – Don’t gauge away too much, you want to see the lines from your gauge marks. You can always gauge away more if after you do a test print you decide too, but you CAN’T undo too much gauging.

Printing:

Squeeze out some of the DANIEL SMITH Water Soluble Ink onto a glass palette or use white stoneware plate.
Using your 4″ Soft Speedball Brayer, roll over the ink to coat your brayer.
Roll inked brayer over your gauged design on the Safety Kut block and ink well.
Make a Test Print onto any plain white paper: Lay paper down, carefully place inked block ink side down onto paper and press down hard. Then keeping them together, CAREFULLY pick up them both up and turn over so that the paper is now on top, don’t let them slip or your image will be blurry. Take your sturdy spoon, and rounded side down on to paper, press down and rub the paper to burnish the ink onto the paper to get a good print. You may want to carefully lift one corner to check and see how well the ink is printing onto the paper.
When you are satisfied that you have burnished in the ink, carefully pull the paper away from the inked block and reveal your Test Print!
You may want to do several test prints until you feel comfortable with inking the block, and printing the paper.
Now do the same with your Strathmore Watercolor Card. You may find that you will need to ink your block more (tip rolling fast takes up ink, rolling slow lays down more ink) since Watercolor paper has different absorbency and have to press harder and longer with your spoon since the Watercolor Paper is thicker too.
Keep printing til you are done!
The prints will need to dry at least 24 hours (depending on the humidity) before hand painting with Watercolor.
You can do some small touch ups with your Sharpie pen to fill in small areas that the ink missed.

Hand Painting with Watercolor:

Decide on which DANIEL SMITH Watercolors you will be using and squeeze them out on your palette, just a little bit of paint.
Begin painting in the areas you want with the colors you have chosen. It’s kind of like coloring when you were a kid, keep within the lines! : )
Use the watercolor full strength, or dilute to the color strength you desire and paint.
You can individualize the cards by subtly changing the color strength, in the technique in the way you paint the watercolor, or by choosing different colors for the cards.
Allow to dry and you are finished!

Have fun with this Blockprint Cardmaking Project and to find for more ideas for Handmade for the Holidays Art Projects please click on the link.

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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This Weekends FREE Art Demos: Watercolor & Mask Making at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store with Jo Gersham, Roger Wheeler and Molly Le Master

Deborah Burns — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 03:13:24 +0000

DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store: The Store For Artists

Want to find out about How to Paint in Watercolor? Well, one of our FREE 1 hour “How To” Art Demos this coming Saturday at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store is an introduction to Watercolor. Jo Gersham will be demonstrating the basics of Watercolor Painting” at 11am and 1:45pm with her WATERCOLOR: From the Very Beginning” demo. So if you have ever wondered how to get started with watercolor painting, then come to this FREE demo and find out! Jo is also having an expanded “WATERCOLOR: From the Very Beginning” Workshop on Sunday Aug 30th from 11 to 5.

Saturday, August 1st at 11 am & 1:45 pm
WATERCOLOR: From the Very Beginning
Jo Gershman
jogershman.com
Don’t miss Jo’s WATERCOLOR: From the Very Beginning” Workshop August 30th Seattle Store!

Also on Saturday, we have Roger Wheeler and his “MASK MAKING: 3D Renewable Materials” FREE “Hands On” demo from 12 to 2pm. This is a special “Hands On” event which means that you not only get to watch and learn, you get to DO as well! If you have ever been to the Fremont Solstice Parade, then you have seen some of Rogers’ students work in the parade since he teaches workshops in maskmaking for the Fremont Solstice Parade.

Saturday, August 1st from 12 to 2 pm Hands On!
MASK MAKING: 3D Renewable Materials
Roger Wheeler
maskmadness.com

On Sunday, Molly LeMaster will be showing texture making techniques in Watercolor in her WATERCOLOR: Textured Methods FREE demos at 12 & 2pm. Come and learn some new techniques in watercolor painting!

Sunday, August 2nd at 12 & 2 pm
WATERCOLOR: Textured Methods
Molly LeMaster
lemasterstudios.com

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

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WATERCOLOR, Exceptional Color with Jan Hart: Last Sunday’s “How to Watercolor Paint” FREE Demo at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store

Deborah Burns — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:25:15 +0000

Jan Hart at DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store for a FREE watercolor demo. Watercolor: Exceptional Color

Last Sunday’s FREE Art demo at the Seattle DANIEL SMiTH Store with Jan Hart was a wonderful opportunity to listen, watch and learn from a master colorist in watercolor. Jan Hart is the author of the Watercolor Book: The Watercolor Artist’s Guide to Exceptional Color and also has a selected three watercolor collections: Jan Hart “Artists Series: Amazing Mixes I, II, III of DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolors.

It was a full house of people looking forward to hearing what Jan had to share, especially since she is not often in the Seattle area. Jan had been in New Mexico until her move to Costa Rica earlier this year, where she is establishing Workshops in Costa Rica. Jan will be having a 4 day workshop here at the Seattle Store this coming weekend, Watercolor: Mastering Color and Pigments based on her book.

Back to the FREE demo! Jan began with outlining how she usually works. She usually works from a photo or uses several as reference, works out the composition and a value study in a sketchbook using a Prismacolor pencil in black , Jan showed us one of her many sketchbooks in which she keeps the record of all her completed paintings.

After working out what she wants to do, Jan begins her painting on Fabriano Artistico CP 140lbs because she likes “the softness”. Jan then tints her paper with an under coating of DANIEL SMITH Aureolin watercolor because “it’s the color of sunshine”, she does not usually leave white, and lets it dry. For paintings at night, Jan uses DANIEL SMITH Cobalt. Jan shared a tip for mixing a “great green”; DANIEL SMITH Ultramarine Turquoise mixed with DS Quinacridone Sienna.

Jan then begins her painting, she told us:

“Lightest, brightest, or scariest first” is how Jan like to start her painting.

“work fast at first – then slooooow way down” as you near completion.”

“I believe if I think I see a color, it’s THERE – it is. Artistic License.”

“I like to hold my brush high [away from the ferrule ] so I don’t have so much control”. A favorite brush Jan likes and it’s inexpensive is the DANIEL SMITH Series 32 Synthetic Ox Hair Watercolor Brush, Flat 3/4, because it “keeps me out of control.”

“Best thing that can happen in a painting is to lose control.”

“I like accidents and making mistakes.”

“We play it safe….it’s not ’til we make a mistake and that part of the brain clicks on to solve the problem – that’s when we create.”

“Gestures are really important to paint.”

“I begin to think of the colors as having their own personalities.”

“I do a lot of mixing [ color ] on the paper.”

“I [ only ] paint wet on to wet when the paint is wet – not just wet paper.”

“Process is a really important thing in watercolor.”

“Watercolor is not easy, but it’s always flexible.”

Jan completed her painting, at least to the point where she likes to set it aside to think about, then later come back and perhaps do some glazing or whatever the painting needs. It was an exciting watercolor demonstration….Thank you Jan!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

Deborah Burns

*********

For more on Jan Hart’s tips on how to create “Amazing Watercolor Mixes” see Jan’s DANIEL SMITH Inksmith article.

How to WATERCOLOR Paint Using a Palette Knife with Greg Prince, Yesterday’s FREE Demo at the Seattle DANIEL SMITH Store

Deborah Burns — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:23:43 +0000

Greg Prince demo: "Watercolor - a Palette Knife Approach" a FREE DANIEL SMITH demo at the Seattle Store

Yesterday’s FREE demo at the DANIEL SMITH Seattle Store was with Greg Prince demonstrating how he does his unusual Watercolor Painting technique, “WATERCOLOR: A Palette Knife Approach“. Surprised to hear someone using a palette knife to paint in Watercolor? Well I was too, so I had to make sure I came to this FREE demo to see for myself, and find out how to Watercolor Paint using a Palette Knife!

One of the first questions that someone from the audience asked was about painting in Acrylic vs Watercolor with a palette knife? Greg answered that: “It’s the luminescent ‘pop’ with watercolor that you just can’t get with Acrylics.” He added that he does paint with Acrylics, you can see good examples of his work on his website, GregPrinceStudio.com.

Greg told us that he used to Watercolor paint with brushes, and would use the end of the handle to scrape the Watercolor painting and make marks. One day, he decided to try an old palette knife and really liked the results…and the rest is history! Greg at first modified his palette knife by grinding it down to make it thinner and more flexible, also bending it to improve the angle to suit him. Now Greg says he does not need to grind down new palette knives since he is able to find ones that are already very thin and flexible. Because he uses his palette knife, he uses freshly squeezed Watercolor paint on to his palette (mixes colors too) and paints the juicy Watercolor directly on to his Cold Press Watercolor Paper.

During his introduction (he is a professional Fire Fighter) Greg told us: “I love painting in front of people – I get jazzed up!” We could see evidence of that while watching Greg move around while painting, he paints in a very physical way, no wonder he likes to use a palette knife…it’s very direct and immediate. Greg shared his philosophy of Making Art ( Very Intuitive ) through Watercolor Painting through out the demo, here is some of what he told us while painting:

“Painting fast – it expresses my feelings.”

“I want everyone to see every mark I made on the paper; the pencil marks, the mistakes, the drips….”

“I like seeing where the artist struggled in the painting.”

“Intuitive – when you let yourself go and [are] not afraid to express what you feel.”

“Feeling of taking an idea and run with it and we’ll see what happens.”

“I like bouncing cool/warm, dark/light”…colors on to the painting.

“I render figures into shapes, not interested in their details.”

“I am trying to tell a story.”

“Painting is not about the line work, it’s about the color and the people.”

“This place [the left bank in Paris at an outdoor cafe was the paintings subject] is all about the energy.”

“It’s exciting to paint this way, you never know, you are dancing a fine line with destruction.”

“…going by the seat of my pants.”

“Do we really need to say a lot? I say ‘no’.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank you Greg!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns

DANIEL SMITH Juried Alumni Show Reception and Awards Presentation at the Bellevue Store

Deborah Burns — Sun, 24 May 2009 06:00:54 +0000

Rita Mair Nicoll, Ross Nicoll, Holly White-Gehrt (Store Manager) and June Olson (Asst. Store Mgr) chatting near the refreshment table at the DANIEL SMITH Juried Alumni Show Reception

Last night was the Reception and Awards Presentation at the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store for the Juried Alumni Show.

The Alumni Show was by invitation for students who took classes from DANIEL SMITH Watercolor Workshop Instructors: Kathy Collins, Joan Archer, Kay Barnes, Elizabeth Kay, and Anne Olwin. The Art Show opened May 1st and runs through June 30th so you have plenty of time to come by the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store and check it out!

Last night was the Reception for the Artists, and Awards Presentation with DANIEL SMITH Prizes (whoo hoo!) in four categories:

“Peoples Choice” (Monaco Deluxe Travel Case with DANIEL SMITH Travel Brush and 6 piece Watercolor Sticks)
“Best of Show” (DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolor PrimaTek ‘Nature’s Best’ Set )
“Best Use of Medium” ( DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolor 11-color Quinacridone Set )
“Best Use of Color/Composition” ( DANIEL SMITH Extra Fine Watercolor Primatek ‘Best of Show’ Set )

There was also a yummy refreshment table set up for everyone to enjoy, and hang out and chat in between looking at all the wonderful Art on the Gallery walls.

And the Awards (drum roll please…..) went to:

“Peoples Choice”

W.H. Dodge

“Lake Wenatchee”

“Best of Show”

Barbara Fenkner

“Halle”

“Best Use of Medium”

Ross Nicoll

“The Corner House”

“Best Use of Color/Composition”

Jeff Bates

“Manzanita”

Roster of all the invited Artists: Lois McIntosh, Rita Mair Nicoll, Eve McClure, Magall Lenarczak, Kathleen Ramsey, Jeff Bates, Ross Nicoll, Barbara Fenkner, and W.H. Dodge.

Please consider this Your Invitation to stop by the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Store to see the Juried Alumni Show which runs through June 30th. If you are not able too, then please enjoy seeing the Artist’s work in the slide show!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Thank you Jury members, the Bellevue DANIEL SMITH Team, and especially all the Artists!

Every Day, Express Yourself with ART….

~Deborah Burns