Monday, March 9, 2009

Show and Tell

For this post, I'm going to do a show and tell sort of thing.
I think that my painting class is opening all kinds of doors for me and I really like the direction that it's taking me.
It's taking me down a good path in paint. Which I'm glad because painting is very important and a good challenge to pursue.
But all that aside, what I really want to show is the palette that we are using in our oil painting class.
My instructor is Julie Kirk and the one who told us how to make the palette. She said that throughout her career as an artist, and through trial and error, she has found that this palette is the best.
And just a few weeks with the palette, I find that it is extremely convenient and I definitely fell for it.
So I want to share the glass palette on my blog so other artists can experiment if they happen to stumble upon this post.
This palette requires:
One 14" x 18" glass panel (can be found at Ace Hardware and they cut it for you! 14 x 18 is the recommended size, but depends on how much paint you want on it.)
One large piece of foam core with a 0.5" thickness. (about 20" x 30". depends on how big you want it to be. using foam core with a 0.25" thickness will be too flimsy to support the glass.)
Lots of Masking Tape
One utility knife
One ruler
One pencil or something else to draw on your foam core with

I guess the process of making the palette is pretty easy from here. The one thing to remember is to map out your handle and finish cutting your foam core before taping everything together. The glass breaks easily.
Also, the handle is not required but I highly recommend it because it makes it portable. And the palette is big which is a slight downfall but not really :)
Put masking tape on the edges of the foam core so the edges don't get beat up. It helps a lot.
When taping the glass onto the foam core, use 2 layers of masking tape so that you have extra support.
After applying your paint, you can use plastic wrap to cover it up to prevent it from drying.

*What's so great about having the glass palette is that when you're done with all your oil paint and it's dried up, you can just remove everything with a paint scraper. It comes off so well and it's very clean.
I saw some of my classmates using a citrus degreaser to try to remove some of the paint, but it's not necessary. Just a paint scraper will do :)



In the pictures above, my palette is holding 6 main colors. For the second project, we are painting a still life with a limited palette and observing color temperature. I started painting today, and it's a more challenging project. But I'm enjoying it and I hope it turns out well.

Continuing from a post long long ago...
I've been looking at Julie Kirk's website (which is under construction) and exploring her paintings.
I think they're paintings... it's witchcraft I tell you, they're so great.
I picked out a painting that omitted body parts and that I think is so beautiful.
The face is gone and even half the body is gone. The painting has become very mysterious but at the same time, holds a sense of elegance.
The name of the painting is Icarus.


Also, my spring is next week. Which is perfect because Wednesday March 18, Gallery Nucleus will be holding a figure drawing session at night. I don't really have a chance to take any figure drawing classes right now so I'm looking forward to March 18.
The link shows that the workshop is March 11, but my email says it's being held every Wednesday March 4, 11 and 18. Hopefully it's not sold out and March 18 tickets will be online soon, but we'll see.
http://gallerynucleus.com/event/191

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