Painting with out BLACK

A few weeks ago I shared how to use the  language of color (if you missed it check it out here) I talked about all kinds of terms and how the color wheel is set up. Now I didn't get a chance to go to deep in to color theory and I don't really think I'm qualified to go much deeper. BUT I did think I should share how all of those terms can be used in an actual painting. 

So today I decided to do a little pet portrait of a precious pup and show you how the knowledge of color can help create a really unique painting. 

Quickly I'll just share with you how I started. You can see that the board I was using had a painting on it before. So I just used some gesso (basically primer) to cover it up and start a quick drawing. I am so not good at sketching so I usually just do a real generic sketch (this one was based off of a photo) and then fill in the details with the paint. 

I then started with my high lights. Based from the image I took the lightest parts of the fur, where the light was reflecting, and chose my light colors. I didn't want to do a super realistic painting so I decided to go with yellow and a bright orange. And I left them straight out of the tube, no mixing. 

This puppy is a dark black with khaki/cream spots on his face, ears and paws. But like I said earlier, to avoid a flat and realistic style painting I decided not use black or white at all. I decided to use nothing but color to create this painting. So by using the knowledge that contrasting colors often create a muddy brown/black when mixed I started at it.  You can tell that there are lots of blues purples yellows and pinks. What you probably can't pick out are the greens. Green and red are one of the best combinations for getting a dark color with out using black. So the dark spots are mostly a forest green mixed with a red. You can see how different areas are shaded with different colors I used that to create the volume of the body and show how the light can cause different temperatures of color just by how it hits the object. 

Painting with out black and white is hard. But often creates a much better painting. By using other colors to create your darks you are actually painting much more realistically than if you only use black as your darkening agent. Just look at an object and really study it. You can see that the shadows are different shades or tones of a color like red, green blue, ect. It takes a minute to notice but once you see it its like light goes off and you will never see white as just white or black as just black again! 

I enjoyed this fun little painting. I wish I had paid more attention to my photography so I could have actually shared the process with you instead of just talking. But I just got caught up in my TV show and painting. Too many things I love happening at once for me to stop and photograph the process :) Sorry 

So this wasn't nearly as informative as the earlier post about color (here) but I hope it helps you get creative with the next little craft or painting you decide to make. Seeing that you can get real lights and real darks with out using black and white will make any project more interesting and dynamic!! 

*I have started some advertising with Passion Fruit Ads and need some lovely blogs to grace my side bar :) Please check out my advertising page and let me know if you are interested!! HERE

The Language of Color

As an art student I took a few painting and foundation classes that focused on the basics of the visual arts. So everything like line, color, form, ect. It was a lot, we had 2 foundation level classes and each subject (painting, drawing, sculpture, ceramics, ect.) had another introductory level class.




I thought I would share some of my basic knowledge of color after seeing that my language is pretty different than the language that my clients use.
This is going to be a very informative post with some definitions and technical talk but it is something that can help with everything from color schemes for a new room design to a painting hanging on your wall!

**I am NOT an expert on this topic, yes I've had a few classes but I didn't focus in a subject that was too involved with color. So PLEASE just look at this post as an introductory to color theory and know that there is MUCH more to it than what I can hit here. 

First, this is what my "desk" looks like whenever i am about to paint. 

Yes I have a LOT of paint. Mostly craft grade paints but I have some nicer acrylics, oils, and watercolors too. So I pull them all out to make sure I can see all my options :)

 Now lets talk about what categories colors can fall under. I'm gonna keep it basic so many of you probably know this from kindergarten :)

First, there are PRIMARY, SECONDARY, AND TERTIARY colors on the color wheel.
Your PRIMARY colors are, Red, Yellow, and Blue.
SECONDARY colors are the colors made by mixing two PRIMARY colors together. Like orange, green, and violet.

TERTIARY colors are made by either mixing one secondary and one primary or two secondary colors together. So examples are red-violet, blue-green, yellow-orange.

Today I'm going to focus on just the primary colors for showing how TONE, SHADE, TINT, and HUE.

Now to start lets define a few things. Most of these words you have probably heard and used before. But not many people really know  what they mean when referencing a color.

Hue: refers to a "pure" color. So the colors on the color wheel. (Yellow, yellow orange, orange, red orange, red, red violet, violet, blue violet, blue green, green, and green yellow.) Hues are basically what we learn as children.

Tint: Tint is a mixture result of color. Tint refers to the lightening process of colors, so adding white to any color is tinting that color. So pink is a TINT of red.

Shade: Shade is the opposite of tint. Meaning instead of lightening a color you are darkening it by adding black. So taking an original HUE and adding black is referred to as a SHADE of that color. For example, garnet is a SHADE of red.

Tone: Tone is greying down the original color. By some definitions adding any neutral or greyscale to an original hue is considered tone. So you can change the tonal value by how much grey you add to your color.

Now that you have the definitions of some of the language commonly used in art or by anyone interested in paint we can talk about how you actually do those things!

*I know earlier I said I have a lot of paint. And I do, but some how I didn't have my artist grade acrylic red. So bare with me on some of these examples! 

In the picture above I've shown the differences between TINT, SHADE, HUE and TONE using red, blue and yellow. You can see how each tint and shade of the different colors seem to match in intensity or value. That is because of the level of white, black or grey that has been added to the original HUE. You can do this exercise for any color or color scheme. It helps a lot when trying to create a color scheme for a painting or room because you can see all the different tints, and shades of the colors you have chosen.  

Now lets talk about the color wheel. I already mentions the PRIMARY, SECONDARY and TERTIARY colors but didn't get to show you what those where. So when you lay out a color wheel it usually looks like the one above. You can see the rainbow effect that it has because of the blending of each primary and secondary color to create the tertiary colors. 

Color wheels are another awesome tool to use when looking to create a color scheme because you can see the options of your colors and how they relate to one another. 

Now a color wheel is split in two. It has warm colors and cool colors. (This can become much more complicated but I am going to keep it at the surface level of these terms). Typically the yellows, oranges, and reds are considered WARM colors. While the Violets, Blues, and greens are considered COOL colors.  

Like I said earlier, the color wheel is a big tool in selecting color schemes. And part of that is because the language used on a color wheel is already a color scheme.
What I mean by that is you can have a color scheme of ANALOGOUS colors. ANALOGOUS colors are simply colors that are side by side on the color wheel. Our basic color wheel has some of the themes I've shown above. Yellow, yellow orange, and orange or even violet, red violet, and red. Each set of those colors are ANALOGOUS to one another and therefore flow together smoothly.
You can take those schemes and add even more to them by changing the TINT, SHADE, and TONE of each giving you TOOONNNNNSS more options to choose from.

Another color scheme on a color wheel, and the one that is more widely known are the complimentary colors. These are colors that are directly across from one another on the color wheel. The colors listed above are examples of COMPLIMENTARY colors. Christmas colors are complimentary. Most sports teams colors are complimentary. This is because complimentary colors typically have a high contrast which draws the eye quicker. 

Now that is a lot to take in and its is just the very BASICS of color. But now when you are talking to a designer, or artist you can be able to tell them you want your room full of warm red tints and know that you are getting softer/lighter reds and no dark heavy reds. Or that you want a tone on tone color scheme meaning you would like a greyed out theme that remains more neutral with little contrast!
Isn't it cool how color has its own language :)

I really enjoyed writing this post and it helped a lot with making me feel more like an artist again! I think I may do some other posts that go a little further on mixing colors and a few other definitions that I didn't have a chance to talk about. Would any one be interested in that or was this just interesting to me as an artist??? :) 

Boondocks Living-room Reveal

And finally the reveal of the living room! It was actually finished before the kitchen, I was just trying to figure out this one little thing before I posted about it. But I still haven't done it and I figured at this point its gonna be a good while before I get to it so, what the heck heres the living room (mostly finished).  I know I've said this before but check out those windows! The light is unreal in this room I can't get over the windows in the house, my favorite feature for sure. The only down side in this room is the window unit, it does work but I can't help but be wayyyyyy to excited for a house with central heat and air. A girl can dream. 

The second thing I love is the sofa. Its the same amazing pull out we've had but I was really tired of how narrow it was. It was hard to get comfortable on, I think a sofa only deserves the title if it is big enough for you to sit on cross legged and cuddled in to the corner. So to fix the problem I took off the back two cushions and added a bunch of $2 pillows I found at one of the local stores. This adds so much more depth and LOTS of color :) 

And directly across is our awesome fireplace! Well not right across because this house is wonky. Nothing in this house is level, scare, even, or centered, nothing. The hardest part of setting up the room was figuring out how to place the furniture because the fireplace is centered on the wall but the opposite wall is the glorious windows. Some how the windows and fire place don't line up. So if you center the sofa on the fire place its to the left of the windows and if you center the sofa on the windows the fireplace is off centered. Its bizarre. But I'm so thankful to have a fireplace, I grew up with one and loved it. And it gives me a great place to put more decorations :) 

Annnnnnd now its that awesome door. This house is full of beautiful antique doors. It even has outdoor doors on the closets, quirky but adds lots of character :) And finally you can see the big ugly unfinished part of the living room... that chair. It is one of the biggest love hate relationships ever. It is the most comfortable chair but that fabric sticks out like a soar thumb from the rest of the room. I've done so much research on ways to cover it, but they all require money and I just don't have it right now. So I've resorted to an old quilt thrown over it. Eventually I want to make a slip cover from a drop cloth and maybe dye it some fun bright color. I was thinking Red but who knows, I'll probably change my mind when I actually get to that point. 

 

Annnd the TV corner, same as ever. We've got that raccoon and duck right where they belong.

annnnnnd Look at the beautiful floors, golden and sunny :) Pretty scratched but thats ok, I've got some stuff to put on it and see if it makes it glow a little more. But look at that rug! Reed spoiled me with this rug, we found it at the Marshalls/ Homegoods  in Greenville. It is a rag rug that has every color ever in it, and it pulls in everything through out the room and found an awesome connection point for my random collections. 

 

So I basically love our living room. It is so bright and looks like a little more "grown up" version of my bright style. And to please Reed I've included more of his stuff and have some how managed to fit 5 of his animals in this one room. I think thats pretty impressive. Now I just have to find homes for the 4 other animals that are currently sitting in boxes in my craft room... He needs a hunting trophy room asap!

And I just wanted to share these stunning photos of the ranch. Reed has helped with food plots on the land and one of them is this beautiful sunflower field. He took me up there the other night to show me how much they have grown with all the rain we have gotten. Sunflower fields are gorgeous, these are the moments that I wish I had a professional photographer follow me around and capture moments of our life. I'm thinking about taking some online photography classes, if y'all have any suggestions let me know. 

Boondocks Kitchen Reveal

In the new house the first room I tackled was the kitchen. It was functional, but not laid out the best. The room was SO large that it was pretty awkward trying to figure out how to fit everything in. Every appliance was lined up on the far wall which just isn't the best set up for function. I was really having a hard time figuring out how I could easily repurpose this kitchen without totally redoing the cabinets, floor, and appliances. It NEEDED to be more functional, we couldn't give up that amount of space for a giant hallway. 

The color I chose was Aquatic Mist by Valspar. I have always been a fan of this color family. Just ask any of my friends everything I own has some hint of turquoise/teal. This is a bit more green than I usually am drawn to but I wanted something that was a little different. It is BRIGHT and my mom makes fun of me because apparently it is the exact color that my great grandma used all the time. 

You might recognize the chair. Its the sister chair of my tape chair. I got two identical chairs and one was sacrificed in the name of art :) Soon this chair will be my new desk chair, I just need to find a desk. 

And yes this is a new pedestal table. It isn't the one that was used for art or the little blue table from our past house. We still have that one its just in the living room :) This is one my mom got me a few years ago from a consignment store in Columbia, but we never had a chance to use it. 

Annnnd to fix the strange set up I turned the fridge from facing the middle of the room to facing the cabinets and stove. Annnnd to cover up the nasty back of the fridge I moved the armoir to use as a our linen cabinet. By pushing these back to back it separated the room creating a kitchen and enough space for storage in the hall. 

I also got to make a message center! I just hot glued 4 pieces of cork to the fridge (it easily pops off whenever I decide to change it out), then painted a small square of chalk board paint above our mail/key rack. 

With the lack of cabinet space we needed something to hold our china and serving pieces. Soo of course I used the china cabinet that was used in 2 sculptures in the past :) It is my moms so I've got to find one of my own but absolutely LOVE this one. If I could get an identical one I totally would!

And adding the dear head was to make Reed happy. He has so many beautifully mounted animals that I don't have enough wall space. I actually really like the contrast between the warm hues of the deer and the blue-green of the walls. 

And finally the wall of everything! The cabinets are kinda cheap particle board with not so awesome handles. I have a few ideas on how to spruce them up but I wanted to get settled before I tackled refacing the cabinets :) Annnnd finally the light! 

This was one of the awesome finds from my new favorite thrift shop. I've got a post coming explaining how we did it. But basically all it is, is an old ladder hung from the ceiling wrapped in outdoor lights. Super easy and super cheap while adding so much character to the space :) 

Annnd thats the tour! I really like the kitchen, we have a few big projects that I need to tackle to get it how I really want it. Refacing the cabinets are one and the other is painting the floor. You can catch a glimpse of the floors in some of the pictures. They are stick on laminate tiles. Not super cute, pretty stained, and damaged. I'm thinking about fixing the ones peeling up and then painting the floor with a fun pattern to update it on a budget.

Now that the kitchen is livable and more functional I've been able to move on to other rooms! I' can hopefully share the other rooms with you soon!

Let me know what you think!!!

Tote Bag giveaway

Hey guys so I thought to get back on track I would do a giveaway! I haven't done one in ages but thought that maybe it would get you guys excited for my return to the blog world!! 

First, Tepe is ridiculous. It was beautiful outside today and all she wanted to do was be in side watching me paint. Most of the time she was sitting on my feet but I think she got hot and had to cool down for this picture :) 

Back to the task at hand :)

Here are some of the other things have recently added to the store so go check them out!! 

Link to the shop: https: Etsy Shop

I've added some illustrations to the shop, just little doodles that I enjoy and some of my favorite quotes :) These things are fun to bust out and so relaxing to make! 

And here are the tote bags that I'm trying out! In the giveaway you can win either one the winner gets to pick! These are tan canvas tote bags measuring 13.5 in x 13.5in x 3.5 in. They aren't the biggest but would be perfect to carry a few books with you or to take with you down to the beach or pool. And don't forget the end of the year is coming up so your gonna be needing teacher and grad gifts! If you like one of these or have an idea for a personalized one let me know, I'd be happy to work with you! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway will be open until Wednesday of next week (Wednesday the 22nd) and the package should be sent out by Friday the 24th. 

This post was written on my phone, and the images are off of my phone. So I'm sorry if the quality isn't too hot. 

But good luck and don't forget to share! 

"The earth without art is just 'eh' "

Well, I've finally slowed down a little bit and decided to do some crafts :) 

I took down the decorations for Christmas last week. 

And I got a few more decorations on sale at Target :)

I kept the wreath up,

both the white yarn wreath and the grapevine wreath that I stretched out across the top. 

The stars are a garland that I got from Target for $10. 

The bunting was made by a sweet friend for our engagement party. 

The bottom half of the board I decorated with a quote that I've always loved:) 

I used just some basic crafting goodies. 

Doilies, craft paper, markers, and paint. 

I wrote out the quote 

"The earth without art is just 'eh'"

For the words "earth" "art" and "eh" I used a bold script and painted it in fun colors. 

After they dried I cut them out 

For the remainder of the quote I wrote out in bold black lettering on doilies. 

I love how this looks!

What do you think of it? 

I don't know how long I'm gonna leave it but its making me ready for spring :)