8 essential things I’ve learned about the wet on wet technique no one tells you about.

I paint seven to eight hours a day, seven days a week and have been doing this for several months now. I am totally hooked on painting and like I was as musician, now I eat sleep and shit art.  Art can be even more expensive, as it already is, especially if you listen to other people’s advice who really haven‘t tried it themselves. It’s always easy to give advice but another to live by it.

As I muddle through this learning process in the art world, I’m finding out that many of the so called artists have no clue as to what they are talking about especially when it comes to the wet on wet technique or non toxic brush cleaning..  I’m retired and don’t have money to burn on expensive supplies suggested by someone who is just yapping at the mouth to sound important. Prices on painting supplies are inflated so that the sellers can play games with so called sales. Take a good look at some of these web sites selling art supplies and compare them with a few others. Have you noticed that the msrp (manufacturer suggested retail price) for the exact same thing varies from one site to the next? If those are actual suggested prices by the same manufacturer, then why are they all so different from each other? Those are all inflated prices making you think that the price they are offering is a good deal. Don’t believe it. It’s probably not even close to being what the item(s) are really worth or the actual msrp.

As for me, I’m going to find the least expensive route to enjoy painting. I’m not looking to make this thing my future nor am I going to go to school to major in art. I probably don’t have many years left of life so I’m going to enjoy the time what I have left thru art.

So, what have I learned after 125+ wet on wet paintings within ten months?

1. Don’t let anyone tell you what to paint or how to paint. Art is art no matter if it’s done with a sprayer, finger, knife, little brush or a big brush. Whether you paint cartoons, real life, portraits, animals, plants etc. makes no difference. You are the artist and as one have the license to paint whatever you want and whatever way you see fit on that piece of canvas.

I remember as a little boy in first grade, the teacher told us that we couldn’t listen to jazz. It wasn’t real music. I turned out to be a professional jazz musician for five decades.

2. Art is very personal and you are going to always have critics no matter how well or what style you paint. I’ve known other artists criticizing others in their style or the subject matter. Just like above with jazz, many will tell you that the wet on wet technique isn’t real art. The hell with them. It’s quite obvious to me that they do this to compensate for their own inadequacies in art. It’s an ego thing.

3. One does not need Bill Alexander or Bob Ross brushes to do the paintings.
There are 2 that I can’t do without and that is the no.6 Bob Ross fan brush. I haven’t been able to find anything comparable to it yet. Same goes for the script liner brush. All of the other brushes; round, filbert, 1”,2” and 21/2”, I’ve been able to find elsewhere and have no problems with them. The 1”,2” and 21/2” are bought from the local home improvement store’s paint department. They are simply stain and varnish sash/trim brushes and a hell of a lot less costly.

It has also been said that one can’t use synthetic brushes for this type of painting. Bull crap, I use polyester brushes along with my China bristle blend brushes successfully using non toxic cleaners.

4. When purchasing pre stretched canvases, why do I need double or triple primed ones or the intermediate level ones which cost two to three times more? If I’m just practicing the art form for the sake of learning and improving my strokes etc, it doesn’t make sense to spend all of that money on something that may be thrown out or burned later. Canvas panels work just fine even for the wet on wet technique. I make my own hard board paint panels for a little over a buck off a 24"x48" panel which costs about $3.79. And no let me repeat that...NO liquid white or liquid clear will not soak up into the cardboard. I've done a few tests and found both to be wet even after 72 hrs.

5. One does not need to paint the stretched canvas or hard-boards black using black gesso. If you are practicing the wet on wet technique why spend a lot of money on gesso when black acrylic paint will do the job. One 8 oz/236ml bottle of Apple Barrel black matte acrylic paint cost me $2.50 and the same size bottle of black gesso cost me about $12.50. In the earlier days of Bob Ross he used acrylic paint. You can also use acrylic white and gray paints for the background. I’ve never had a problem with liquid white or liquid clear drying up during a session.

I started using colored acrylic paints for some of my backgrounds, sky, hills, trees etc and use the oils for the fore ground and special effects minimizing some of the hazards. It works fine, just allow the acrylic paint to dry fully.Here a link to better understand about acrylics under oils: http://www.winsornewton.com/na/discover/tips-and-techniques/acrylic-colour/acrylics-as-underpainting-layers-us. I use a hair drier to speed up the process. Sometimes I’ll use liquid clear and sometimes nothing but transparent paint over the acrylics followed by liquid white to bring out the color. Remember that wet on wet is simply layering paints.

I first learned of the wet on wet concept using acrylic paints. In painting with acrylics it is much the same except you allow the paint to dry first. It’s okay. You can still get similar results. They won’t be identical because it’s a different medium but you can still use large brushes as with oils. Sometimes I mixed Slo-Dri blending medium into my acrylic paints to keep it wet and then placing another layer on top. It’s all about the brushes, knives and layers.

6. They will tell you that once you do wet on wet painting that you can’t improve yourself as an artist. FALSE! The wet on wet got me interested in painting and today I paint animals, birds and do portraits in addition to the wet on wet technique. I’ll even add animals and birds to my wet on wet paintings. I’ve never had a lesson.

7, Toxic brush cleaners such as odorless paint thinners, odorless mineral spirits, Turpenoid etc, has the potential of killing you or at the least creating some serious health issues. If it says to use in a well ventilated area, it’s toxic!

After about four months of painting and washing my brushes in odorless Turpenoid, daily, I began having some serious health problems not only respiratory but neurological ones. Currently I’m going through a detox program and my lungs are clearing up. I’m still having some neurological issues and I hope that will resolve itself in time.

They say that the paints aren’t toxic but some contain hazardous materials such as cadmium, cobalt,zinc oxide etc.which if touched by bare skin can go directly into your blood stream as in my case. I now wear vinyl gloves while painting. As the paints dry, they emit a strong odor which for me also helped create these serious health issues. I now place my wet completed art piece into a separate room for a few days to harden.

Many an artist, won’t have any issues using toxic brush cleaners/mediums and paints but there are many of us that will. Do what’s necessary so you won’t have similar issues I’m going through. They have been rough times which also have had an impact on my mental health. I’m thinking about changing my oils to the water mixable ones or walnut based instead of linseed oil but I first need to compare the overall costs. The other possibility is to use more acrylic paints and use oils for special effects and only for the fore front. We’ll see what transpires once I’m fully detoxed. In the mean time I’m back to using acrylics for now getting the paintings ready for oils since I already have plenty of heavy body acrylic paints.

8. Don't believe half of the advice given on the internet. Most of it is unfounded lacking credibility. There is plenty of advice out there for cleaning brushes using non toxic methods. I’ve tried several. Apparently those who gives this advice have never tried them or perhaps use them on small brushes. It’s easy just to throw out some b.s advice without testing it first. A buddy of mine, not an artist suggested I use canola oil.

The viscous oils I’ve tried do not work well with large brushes used for the wet on wet technique. I found myself spending a lot more time cleaning brushes than painting. There was one which used; one part vegetable oil, one part dish washing detergent and two parts of water/ shake well. Worked fine for small brushes, not for large especially where one uses a lot of paint and fills the brush fully as in wet on wet. This method also ruined my expensive Bob Ross brushes rendering them useless. I had some one and two inch BR brushes which I received in a kit for last Christmas.

Walnut oil worked very well, is oil paint friendly and can be used as a medium, but a small 16oz bottle can be pretty costly even from the supermarket. It‘s a bit too viscous. I find that the paint is mostly suspended up at the top of my cleaning bucket and is good for only a few paintings. It is reusable after the muck settles to the bottom after several days of non use. In the meantime, a new clean batch is needed. I will have to try to tweak this idea a bit more in the future.

I tried mineral oil, the stuff baby oil is made from. I picked up a 16oz bottle for only $1.88 at Walmart in the drug department. It’s used as a laxative. Once again it works fine for small brushes but not for large. Making sure that all of the oil is removed from the brushes is critical since mineral oil does not dry leaving your canvas tacky.

Next, I tried olive oil, which did a real nice job cleaning the brushes. I purchased a 16oz bottle at Aldi’s for a little over $3 but olive oil won’t dry either and you need to remove any trace of it off the brushes with soap and water.

Someone had mentioned Murphy’s Oil soap. It was inexpensive enough, non toxic and about $3 for 16oz. It’s fairly viscous and needs to be cut with water so I used two to one ratio, meaning two parts of water to one part of oil soap. Worked great for small brushes. It worked okay for larger brushes but not quite there yet. I had an idea to try the olive oil first followed by a bath in Murphy’s Oil soap and a final wash in clear warm water to remove any residue from both. I even dried my brushes on a paper towel after beating it dry on my brush beater. It worked just as well as the Turpenoid without the toxicity or the cost, but with just a few extra washes. For just a brush cleaner, I like it. Yeah I know, you’re thinking, why doesn’t he try Turpenoid Natural, right? The cost of the stuff is outrages, overpriced and inflated, no way in hell. Besides you still have to wash your brushes in water and it won’t go that far hence you are making Weber rich.

Safflower oil needs to be mixed half and half with linseed oil for it to work well. But the non boiled linseed oil is way too expensive. The boiled linseed oil will yellow your painting after a while if there is any residue.

Sunflower oil is also a possibility which I haven’t tried yet. The cost is up there with walnut oil. I may give it a try in the near future and will post my findings after I do.

For more art stuff visit me here:Markku-artist

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.