Oh, Christmas Tree! Revisted

 

Which one do you resonate with? Honestly, I like them both, but it was an unsolved puzzle that made me want to revisit this painting.

The key to solving that puzzle was found in that black and white drawing on the upper right hand side of my sketch book, plus going back to the original source material.

 

 

This was the original inspiration, and even though my painting from 2020 is nice, it has bothered me since then that I didn't capture that same sense of winter magic, I wanted my lighted tree to glow at night too, dang it! 

(Note, I would give credit to the artist if I could find them, if you know, please tell me.)

 What helped me see the solution was dropping all the color out of the original so I could get my brain to register how truly dark that background sky and foreground snow really is. 

 

The irony is, this is my first sketch in 2020 and I had the right idea. It's a mystery to me that I ended up with such a different final painting. 

 

I do know that even as a beginning artist, I always struggled to get the dark values truly dark. My brain seems to default to seeing a lighter value unless I consciously remind myself to triple check.

 

 

Even with this year's painting, I wish I had taken a photo of how light in value that first sky background was at the start. It took at least four more layers of ultramarine blue and purple to get that value dark enough!

 I'm pleased to say that now I feel that wonderful sense of completion from finally solving a puzzle. After the success of this experiment, I'm always going to make a value sketch of every subject before I start painting!

 For example, here's an interesting exercise I created for myself. I made the value sketch first from an idea in my mind, no reference photos, gasp! Next I did my best to match those values in color, it's not an amazing painting but I think I matched the values well. I'm determined to train that brain of mine!

Happy Creating!

>^-^<

Tina

P.S. One of my favorite things for making those value sketches, besides plain black acrylic paint and water, is a water soluble graphite pencil. The brand is "The General's Sketch and Wash" No links to sponsors or anything, I just wanted to share.

Transformation

 

Transformation

I've had in mind for several years now to make a poinsettia painting to hang up for the holiday season, the last week of December I finally decided to give it a try. I have a favorite photo of mine from January 2013, the winter we spent in Dresden, Germany. Yes, that is my suitcase in the photo.

Brilliant color lingering on... January 26, 2013

 

I chose a 20x20 inch canvas and several days later I had a pretty good painting, but I wasn't happy with the shadow color behind the poinsettia. I had tried various color mixes, but the result kept feeling so drab and flat, it really bothered me.

"After Party"

I was so annoyed that I used some flat white gesso and just covered up all that grey. It looked better to me but I didn't want to leave bare gesso like that, plus I didn't like that I couldn't solve this problem!

 

"After Party in White"

 

Looking for ideas, I watched some acrylic painting videos on YouTube. I finally found inspiration from the artist Ali Kay, she always makes a vivid underpainting in a complementary color, so I decided to give her strategy a try...

"After Party on Fire"

 

 Wowza! Very fiery, but I was pleased that my overall design still looked good even in orange.

"After Party in Purple"

 

I really liked how the purple grey I painted the background was warmed by that intense orange underneath. Plus, I left the brush strokes more visible to add some lively energy to the scene.  I liked the warmth so much, I thought I would try some more!

"After Party - Awkward Moment!"

Yikes! This was a very unappealing step and I moved on as quickly as I could from this seriously awkward stage.

 

"After Party in Progress"

  

This time, I'm not certain the orange changed the blue table that much and I felt a bit discouraged that I had wasted my time! 

After a break, I reminded myself that while repainting the table I had reshaped the bottom leaves and by adding more of the bright green where the sun light was bouncing off the leaves it improved the illusion of depth.

The painting isn't quite done yet, but I wanted to share how learning from other artists and taking a creative risk can get you unstuck on a project.

Happy creating!

>^-^<

Tina

Ali Kay's wonderful "Holiday Lights" paint along video. This is the first painting video I watched of hers that inspired me to try a different solution to my painting problem. Thanks Ali Kay!

Oh, Christmas Tree!

"December Evening"

 

One positive aspect of dealing with a pandemic is that it pushes people to be creative in connecting with each other.

In November, one of my friends asked if I would try teaching a short mini-class on painting using the App, Marco Polo. Instead of sending texts, this app allows people to leave videos for each other. I've often wondered what it would be like to teach a painting class, so I decided to give it a try.

Tiny Sketch, 2 x 2.5 inches

I chose a lighted Christmas tree outside with a twilight sky as our subject. Simple, right? Just one triangle shape with a dark background and some lights, how hard could it be…and so began my innocent journey into the thick of the woods.

Tiny Sketch 1.5 x 2.25 inches

 I’ve never actually broken down my painting methods into steps so that someone else could follow me before, and I soon found that taking apart what I do was quite the challenge.

Figuring out the palette is often my first and favorite step, but this time I also had to think about palette colors that would be really common to find and versatile for beginning painters to use. 

 Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, Titanium White

I painted a couple of sketches using the basic colors of Cadmium Red, Cadmium Yellow, Ultramarine blue, and Titanium White. Then I went on-line and looked for paint sets that would include those colors, but many used Cobalt blue instead of Ultramarine blue and the red and yellow were listed as “primary” colors.  Goodness, what should to tell people to buy?

Painting Sketch, 5x7 inches, using Cobalt blue.

This led me to make more sketch paintings using Cobalt blue to see if it that color would work instead. Soon I found myself down a whole color theory rabbit-hole, testing out “color bias” combinations of warm red, yellow and blue compared to using a set of cool red, yellow and blue. This topic deserves a whole blog post of it’s own.

Warm biased palette.

 

Cool biased palette.

 

My biggest concern being that my initial palette choice was wrong and would make painting harder for other people because I used a “cool” blue with a “warm” red and yellow. Seriously, this kept me up at night and I wasn’t happy until I had tested all the options. It turned out that I still liked that initial palette best after all, even if it didn’t follow the “color bias” theory. Well, that is creativity, sometimes breaking the rules makes the best art.

Pine Tree Basics

Next, was breaking down the drawing. One friend said she could barely draw a circle, so I told her not to worry because we would be making triangles! I measured and marked every shape so that I could explain how to get the tree and it’s branches placed correctly.

Since we were only using red, yellow and blue, I made one video on color mixing. I was amazed that it took 40 minutes to explain and my poor iPhone got really hot doing all that recording!

Then, it was the painting steps. Goodness, I think I made three or four sketch paintings to make certain I could explain and show everything in order. Yes, I wrote the steps down, I needed those reminders for when I actually made the final video.

Figuring out the steps!

As a side note, I believe that some of the quick, tiny sketches I threw together are much better paintings than the larger sketches I spent a lot of time making. It is annoying to me that I have a hard time capturing that spontaneity in larger artwork.

Tiny Sketch, 1 x 1.5 inches

 

I did feel the pressure when making the final painting on camera, it was an odd feeling to be watched while doing something that has always been a solo project. Overall, I'm pleased with how the video and painting turned out, although the next day I could see the blue shadows should have been darker on the snow. So far, I have resisted the urge to repaint that section. 

I've certainly gained an appreciation for all the extra work those artists I grew up watching on t.v. must have done to make painting on camera look so easy. A respectful bow to Bob Ross, Bill Alexander and Helen Van Wyck!

Happy Creating!
>^-^<

Tina

Lost your joy?

 

"A Joyful Heart" 7"x 6" watercolor on paper ©2016

I don’t know about you, but I can get completely overwhelmed and burned out on all the horrible and ugly things going on in the world. 

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

― William Goldman, The Princess Bride

Sure we may laugh, but for years I have been secretly hoping it wasn’t true! I don’t think I am alone here. Many of us expect life to be much better than it is and then feel really upset and disappointed when our lives take unexpected turns or our fellow humans keep doing really awful things.

I admit, most of my life I have been a “cup half empty” type of person. I never realized until lately that I had this negative point of view because I was expecting life and people to be better! You would think as an amateur student of history I wouldn't be so clueless.

The irony is that finally accepting that life is often hard and painful and really difficult at some point for everyone has actually helped me feel happier. If the norm is pain and difficulty, then perhaps anything in my life that isn’t painful and difficult is beating the odds and deserves to be celebrated!

I am noticing more that even on my difficult days, I have a lot of reasons to celebrate!                                                                    

Don't get me wrong, I still believe that anything we can do to ease the pain and suffering in the world is worth doing and if I look at the big picture of history, mankind has actually made some progress.

I have also learned that being on full anxiety alert all the time isn't healthy for me or anyone else. It is necessary to regularly take a break from the hard realities and lift my own heart. 
 

"A Joyful Heart" 3"x 2.75" pen on paper sketch ©2014

One thing I like about cats is their sense of fun. They can find the most ordinary things fascinating and delightful, i.e. boxes, crumpled paper, a marble under the fridge, and the joy of joys, ornaments on a Christmas tree. They seem completely engrossed and happy in getting that shiny, swinging thing off of the tree! 

What is your shiny ornament on a Christmas tree? Have you ever thought about it?

My equivalent of batting around the Christmas tree ornaments is playing the guitar badly and singing along. Singing brings me so much joy, but the crazy thing is I often don’t do enough of it, unless I actually put in on my to do list! Ridiculous, right? 

This month I have been singing Christmas songs. I would like to leave you with this one in which I made some changes to the lyrics. 

1.     Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

        let your heart be light,

        even though our troubles are well in sight.

2.     Have yourself a merry little Christmas
        make the Yuletide gay,
        even though our troubles are here to stay.

Once again we will hold the day, each golden day is ours.
Faithful friends who are dear to us,
Will hear from us once more.

 3.   Maybe soon we all will be together,

        if the fates allow,
        until then we’ll bless the life we live somehow.
        so have yourself a merry little Christmas now!

>^-^<

Tina

My apologies to Hugh Martin who wrote the lyrics originally for the 1944 movie “Meet Me in St. Louis” starring Judy Garland. Mr. Martin claims that Ralph Blane didn't have anything to do with the lyrics...but that is another story.
 Check out the interesting history of this song on wikipedia here.

Last minute free gift...requesting your opinion please!

In the spirit of the season to share and give good surprises, i.e. you hope they are good surprises! ;p  I created a gift tag, recipe, and label to go on a large mouth mason jar that could be filled with a hot chocolate mix as a gift. 

5"x 3" gift tag

I plan to post the tag, label and recipe as a download on my Etsy page for $3.00, but my 'Fraidy cat would dearly love some input and reassurance from her supporters before I offer my design in the public market place.

Here is the three page, 
4 labels per page, printable PDF,

click for free download,
I only ask that you give me a review or comment here or on facebook:
                                                                           

5"x 3" hot chocolate mix tag

1. Did you like the color and size of the labels?  
2. Did it print properly?

3. Would you pay $3.00 to use these labels for a gift?  Why or why not?

Thank you!

May you find your quiet moment this month to snuggle down and enjoy some warmth and good cheer. >^-^<
 Tina

2 3/4" lid label

ps. Remember you can copy all you like for your personal use, just please don't sell my design as your own.  :)  
Creating original designs take a surprising amount of time!
      
     

Do You Expect that Home Run...Everytime!

"Partridge in a Fir Tree" 3.5"x2.5" watercolor ©2014

In considering what has been one of the most frustrating "creativity killers" for me, I am reminded of a little mind game I often play.   Jeff calls this game "expecting the home run".  Meaning, I expect to perform perfectly and "hit that home run" the first time I try anything. Period.  Ok, maybe I'll give myself the second or third time, but dang it, if it isn't great by then, I get frustrated and feel like a complete failure.   Just as well admit I struck out and go enjoy some cracker-jack to soothe the nerves.   (Yes, popcorn is one of my favorite comfort snacks.)

It is so difficult emotionally to have my first efforts fall below what I can imagine in my mind.  The critic voices just line up inside my head, ready to pronounce their judgements, let alone all the internet trolls I can imagine.  It is enough to crush anyone starting or sharing anything.

Since images are a great way to tell stories and concepts in a compressed form, I designed the "Partridge in a Fir Tree" to remind myself what happens when I expect to grab that partridge way up there with one leap.  I can see that tree is going down in one tangled mess of cat and broken ornaments.  Oh yes,  I can also imagine the internal scolding for that mess!

I'm not saying that I should stop reaching for high goals, that is part of the fun of life, but I could let myself enjoy ringing the bell and tasting the cookie, which is absolutely within my reach, before I quietly work my way up the tree to get that beautiful bird.

Have you ever "jumped too high" trying to create or do something for the first time?   How do you deal with the feeling of failure or discouragement?  Was there easier "low-hanging" fruit, steps you might have tried first and enjoyed towards attaining your goal?  Perhaps you prefer the big crash, and the messiness doesn't bother you?  I hope to attain that type of non-attachment to results someday, but I'm not there yet. 

If this was helpful and you can you relate to it, let me know or share it with someone you know who is also addicted to "hitting the home run...every time!".   Thanks so much for coming along on the journey.

(By the way, this is the painting in step two after the sketch, in a tiny 3.5"x2.5" ATC, artist's trading card form.  I can see now where I need to adjust the colors for the final 5"x 7" larger painting.)

Is Your Best Ever Good Enough?

"A Partridge in a Fir Tree" 3.5"x2.5" graphite

The sweet, sweet taste of low hanging fruit.   Do you ever allow yourself to enjoy it?  Are you wondering what I am referring to here?  What I am talking about is the concept of choosing a "course of action that can be undertaken quickly and easily as part of a wider range of choices or solutions to a problem." (thanks dictionary.com) 

It seems sensible enough, look at what you want to accomplish and take the easiest steps.   I didn't really think I had a problem with this until I started looking at what has been really holding me back in setting up an on-line business and also in sharing my paintings and music.  I want everything to be perfect and the best before I share it with anyone.

For example, this little drawing.  I have had this concept in mind all week to share on my blog, but hadn't actually put pencil to paper to create it, because I didn't think the idea was good enough and I thought I didn't have enough of the right photos to work from.   Once I got started, I didn't end up hardly using any photos.  Secondly, I didn't manage to get it painted first before my Monday blog deadline came around.   I wasn't going to share, and then I thought "this is the whole doggone point!"

You may have noticed my sign up for a newsletter on the side of the blog.  I have decided this year I want to confess and share my creativity hang-ups with the you, in the hopes that I can face them better myself, be accountable and perhaps inspire you to do the same.  Even better, it would be nice to get feedback so we can inspire each other.  I can't be alone in this fear.

If you are interested, please sign up.  I don't spam or share e-mails, and you can always unsubscribe any time.  'Fraidy Cats, unite!

Finding the Perfect Gift...

"The Perfect Gift" 5"x 7" oil on gessobord ©2014 Tina M Welter

How much we sometimes scramble around, trying to find the "perfect gift"!  I think part of the fun and pressure of the season is the anticipation of surprise and delight we hope to give those we love.  

When I think of the delight of perfect gifts, I think of the movie the "A Christmas Story".   Young Ralphie spends the whole movie thinking his requests for his perfect gift - the Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle with a compass in the stock and "this thing which tells time" - are not being heard or even worse, being dismissed.   Who hasn't experienced that intense combination of hope and uncertainty?

For me, it was a wish for an acoustic guitar when I was 17.   Being a teenager and shy, I don't recall being very direct about what I wanted, plus it was one of those things I had deemed "too expensive" to even ask for.   But like Ralphie, I was completely stunned when my Dad surprised me with the desired guitar on Christmas morning.  It was a second hand guitar, a bit worn, but I didn't care.  What filled my heart was knowing that Dad had heard what I wanted and did his best to make it happen.

Isn't that the key thing, the perfect gift is the feeling of having our wants and needs heard and noticed?  So my advice on finding the perfect gift is to really listen.  It may not be a "thing" at all, perhaps it is a wish for time spent together or an experience to share.   I hope I have given you something worth thinking about as well as a new painting image to enjoy.

Happy listening!  All my best wishes for a joyous season of giving and receiving.

Tina  

If you feel this little message is worthwhile, please feel free to use the links below to share, or tell me about your experience with receiving your perfect gift in the comments below, I would love to hear about your joy.

Click here if you would like to buy "The Perfect Gift" as a card or a print.

Second Christmas

"House Guest" 8"x 10" oil on "Gessobord" c. 2013 TMW

January was just plain rough.  What I thought was a sinus infection drained my energy all month.  I managed to keep going little by little and finally finished "House Guest" which was supposed to be my Christmas painting.  Jackie Gratton gets the photo credit for the adorable photo of their kitten Maiyu that inspired me.

February came and with weeks of unrelenting grey, I finally got a photo of the painting that was a reasonable exposure during a brief break in the clouds for 20 minutes of sunshine.  I am not kidding, that's all you get and then clouds lock back up for weeks.  I tried some photos when it was cloudy and they had too much of a blue-cast in them.  I just had to wait.

The sinus infection turned out to be a tooth that needed a root canal...ouch!

This painting was fun to do, just very time consuming getting the lighting right on all the little figures. A good thing to remember for future paintings.   I have Jeff to thank for mentioning to add the star, it really gave it a finishing touch.   I hope you will enjoy a little "Second Christmas" spirit in February.  I know I needed it!

Here I Go a-Caroling...

 

Merry Christmas!  I had a vision of sending a video Christmas card this year.  That was the easy part, next came the work of learning how to actually make a song in Garageband.  Several hours of reading "Garageband For Dummies" later...I put together my first attempt.  Oh, boy, I am so grateful I could re-record my voice and guitar until I was reasonably happy.  Meanwhile, I am learning how to run the video recorder and trying to get a night that isn't dumping snow to go to the Christmas Market downtown.  Jeff taught me the basics of iMovie,  hurrah for Jeff.   I am so happy to see it finally all come together and hope you enjoy it.  PS. I haven't abandoned painting, I do have a Christmas kitten painting in process to share soon.  

Is it Good or Bad?

photo by Jeff Welter © 2011

When we were hiking through Garmishpartenkirchen in November, Jeff spotted a pair of cats on a balcony of one of the houses. He took the picture for me since my camera was low on power. I was hopeful that I might get a good painting subject.

When he shared the photos with me, I thought the grey cat was particularly interesting and I wanted to do something as a Christmas card.

I didn't use any drawings or underpaintings, I just went straight to work. I had just read a great article by Eric Maisel in the latest "Professional Artist" magazine about developing your own voice. He encouraged artists to take risks and to wait to judge a painting as good or bad. My favorite thing he said was that "if you have never heard your voice, you may not recognize it."

"Bah Humbug" 7" x 5" oil on gessobord, © 2011

 When I finished the painting, I thought it was pretty ugly. Jeff on the other hand thought the cat had personality and was interesting like an illustration from a story. On his advice, I didn't try to change anything on the painting. The cat did remind me of an irritated old man, so I thought of calling the painting "Bah, Humbug."

Good or bad, Happy New Year everyone!