over a hundred paintings in nine months

A little over nine months and almost 1,800 hours later I still find this painting thing obsessive. I suppose that it’s no different from any of the other ventures I’ve taken on in the past. Everything I do and have done, I do it with passion. It’s a good thing I’m fully retired now and have plenty of time to devote to art. It’s also a good thing my wife is not against me spending so much time painting. She painted when young and perhaps sees some talent in me and does not mind.  Artists are a dime a dozen but like in music good musicians are far and in between. I’m not talking about bands per se but individuals. Most just aren’t dedicated enough and willing to sacrifice their time to become great.

Beginner artists like wanna be musicians get tired of lack of recognition and creativity and oftentimes end up quitting because they haven’t really learned anything new to add to their repertoire. Bob Ross videos can only take you so far if that’s all you want to do, don’t really pay attention to his ramblings and won‘t take it to the next level. I learn something new with each painting and use it in the next. I just finished my 106th painting. The last ten have been portraits. In doing portraits I find toddlers and the elderly the most challenging. I just finished a painting of an elderly woman which took me over three weeks and four re do’s before getting her to look like herself. A toddler, I did as my first, took me almost three weeks, but the second one only a week while the third, a day. I’m thinking that it’s the learning curve and expect the next elderly portrait to go a lot smoother. Portraits in between the two ,have all gone fairly smooth and finished them within a few days, a week at the most.

I started watching the old Bob Ross videos on You Tube again, not that I want to copy his stuff but, to learn something new. If you actually pay close attention, somewhere in between his ramblings, he teaches something. Each time I watch his videos, I pick up something new and apply it to what ever I might be doing. I’ve watched about forty something of his videos thus far. Other artists say that you can’t use his technique in other styles. No, you may not be able to use a two inch brush to create a portrait on a standard size canvas, but you sure as hell can use the liquid clear, liquid white or liquid black in there the same way. I even use black acrylic gesso and then paint the skin area of the portrait a khaki or lite mocha color followed by liquid clear after the pour on type matte finish, acrylic paint is totally dry. It’s a little more prep involved but the results are outstanding. I love the black canvas effect. Using the fan brush to create the look of hair goes a long way in making it look realistic.

Sure I could go out and take some lessons, but I think that would only stifle my creativity. There are way too many rules to remember and guidelines to follow. Nope not me, can’t learn that way. Like in music, fishing and other ventures, I just get out and do it although I was formally trained as a musician ,which, I had to just forget to become creative.

oil painting with aurora borealis

another oil painting with aurora borealis

yet another oil painting with aurora borealis

oil painting of a toddler

another oil painting of a toddler

yet another oil painting of a toddler

an oil painting of a 70 yr old friend on black canvas taking it off a photo. It was an experiment with facial color tones

an oil painting of a nephew on black canvas

an oil painting of an elderly neighbor woman on black canvas. I was experimenting with shadows

All of the above were painted on black canvas. I used a black acrylic gesso to make a white canvas black. Sometimes I had to use a white gesso followed by black acrylic paint. The problem with just mixing black paint with the white gesso is that often times as I use a pour on acrylic black paint, the mix becomes clumpy before I can get it on the canvas as the area I paint in is very dry and acrylic paints dry extra fast. Yes, I've only been painting for 37 weeks.

The problem with art teachers even on You Tube

So, the other day I happened to catch this video on You Tube. It was a painting demonstration by a well known artist and teacher at an art institute. He was very good doing his thing but as soon as he began talking, I was turned off by his approach. The first thing that came out of his mouth was telling people how not to paint and how to paint. That seems to be the scenario for most art teachers I’ve come across. Rather than they encouraging one at what they do, the teacher would rather belittle others and end up discouraging many artists. I’ve talked with several who have quit painting because they have lost all interest in it.

Art is art regardless of how one paints. Like in music, if it moves someone, then you’ve done your job. If you are just painting for yourself and you happen to like it, that’s all that matters. The hell with everyone else. On the other hand, if you don’t happen to like it, change it until you do. The problem with taking art lessons, for me anyway, other than I’m too old to sit in a class and don’t do well in that kind of environment, is that one is not allowed to freely express themselves artistically. You have to follow rules and guidelines created by the teacher.

I remember a similar situation when I went to music college. Before going in, I was pretty creative and was pretty good at improvisation. When I graduated, all that was lost as they sucked it all out of me. It was mostly learning how to interpret someone else’s work without having the freedom to interpret my way. There were plenty of rules and regiments we had to follow and it just seemed to me that we became machines instead of musicians. The professors told us what to play, when to play and how to play. You were dirt if you didn’t follow orders.  It took me years to unlearn all of that garbage they taught me before I became creative again.

The great thing about art for me these days is that, I paint when I want, what I want and how I want. I have no one telling me what to do or how I should do it. Because of this, I am more artistic and enjoy what I’m doing. I don’t have to think about rules or other garbage teachers try to shove down my throat because they have been taught that way themselves. I don’t have to sit there learning about early artists or their history. It’s not going to make me paint any better. If I want to find out something about an artist, I’ll either look it up on the internet or go to my local library. All I have to do is paint, not think, just paint whatever comes out of the right side of my brain.

I would like to see more art teachers on the internet teach the art of painting instead of the art of ego. Stop telling me what style I should paint in, just show me how to do human cheek bones or the fur of a grey squirrel, the why's and the wherefores etc.

What’s really wrong with wet on wet technique?

There is a lot of controversy among the traditional artists regarding wet on wet technique. Most are negative towards it and perhaps only a small minority of them actually like using it. It's human nature to criticize ideas different from what they're used to, so it doesn't surprise me. The idea of it according to Bill (William) Alexander who was known to use it in his teachings on pbs, was to develop a technique where artists could finish a painting in one sitting. It turns out that it ended up being a great way for newbies also to learn how to paint, especially those who's never painted before, like myself. People like Bob Ross took off with it after learning the technique from Bill Alexander and taught it on public television for years making it what it is today.  Wet on wet technique goes way back and isn’t a new concept, only some aspects of it are.

I remember as a musician of 6 decades, a formally trained ,educated one at that and with a degree, a time when most of us knocked those that had no training and yet they some how managed to create some great music. I suppose that psychologically we were threatened and all those years of lessons, hard work and many hours of practice to hone our skills would be wasted. Maybe it was jealousy or perhaps we just didn’t want someone without the same hard work and skill come along and perhaps take away our gigs. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened as guitar players became a dime a dozen and everyone was in a band playing free for exposure and hoping that they might get discovered. So with wet on wet technique more artists would perhaps flood the scene taking away the hard earned exposure of the traditionalists. Painters are already dime a dozen, so do we really need more? The art world seems to be an exclusive club.

When I first started painting, I was painting abstract using acrylics. It wasn’t long that I became bored and was just about ready to quit. I needed something a bit more satisfying and more challenging so I decided to go on the internet and do a little Googling. I came across Bill (William) Alexander who was on You Tube and began watching a few of his videos. Bill was a television personality and had been teaching the technique on public TV for years. I was intrigued and decided that it was something I might be interested in doing rather than just quitting. I pulled out my 16”x20” canvass board and my acrylic paints and began painting like Bill Alexander. Well, at least I tried. It took me a few tries before I was somewhat impressed with what I had painted. The difficult part was that Bill was using oil paints and I was using acrylics. Acrylic paints dry very quickly and the wet on wet technique used by Bill Alexander was meant for oils.

I was painting daily and in about a week I began noticing a huge improvement in my paintings. I had to make the technique Bill was teaching to work with my acrylics and became somewhat successful with it. The biggest problem I had was that the acrylic paints did not show any brush strokes as it dried flat. I kept searching the internet for solutions and yet found nothing. There was another artist and television personality teaching the same technique as Bill Alexander, whose name was Bob Ross. I began watching his videos and copying some of his paintings and ended up with the same results as before. By my 60th painting, my work was very impressive even tho I was using acrylics. I decided to give oils a go and see what happens. I bought a Bob Ross painting set and some odorless paint thinner as recommended and began painting.

I took to the technique like ducks on water and just loved the outcome. My family and friends were now even more impressed than before when I used the acrylics. After a while, there were some aspects of the technique that I just didn’t care for and made a few modifications for my own taste similar to another wet on wet artist named Kevin Hill. I just finished my 84th painting earlier today and began another. I hardly ever watch Bob Ross anymore as I got as much from him that I could. I am now on my own using a modified version of the wet on wet technique which I created for myself and for what I want to paint. I also began using the traditional technique for certain paintings which is okay but a lot of time is wasted on the painting waiting for it to dry before continuing. Both have their uses. Most of my paintings have been landscapes and moved on to wildlife. Painting animal portraits; cats, dogs, horses, deer, moose, and birds also became a challenge completed. Two self portraits which I’ve never tried before were also on order as they too were completed.

So the question was, what’s really wrong with wet on wet technique? It depends on how you want to use it and how well you can adapt it to your style. If you are just wanting to start painting, it’s the way to go and I’d say nothing’s wrong with it. It’s a great way to start. After a while everything just looks similar and synthetic rather than natural. At some point in time you will want to break away and do your own thing. In the short months that I watched Bill and Bob, I learned more than I would have after years of study. My success with the technique depended on my adapting to what I wanted to paint and how I wanted them to come out. I wasn’t looking for a short cut to painting but something that would get me interested. My musician days are numbered as arthritis has set in and it has become more difficult to play any kind of an instrument. I needed a creative outlet and decided that art was it. If it wasn’t for the wet on wet technique, I probably would not have pursued the joy of painting. Art itself is an expensive hobby and you, like many others have already, will spend a lot of money just on supplies and paints. This stuff is way over priced regardless of where you get them from, so if you want to continue painting, expect to spend some money.

The paintings below are all oil over acrylic and still wet when I took these snap shots. Oh did I tell you that I've only been painting since July 2015?

an eagle landing

cat waiting to pounce

sad kitten

my old dog Oscar who passed several years ago

a puppy

a self portrait

a white stallion