News for the New Year

Beginning in January I will be offering a once a month "workshop" class.  How is this different than the weekly classes I teach, you ask?  It will include a two to three hour teaching/demo in the morning and then after lunch, students will paint with input from me.  I realized after many years of three hour classes that students needed to see me in action and hear my thoughts about why I do what I do in order to make  greater gains in their own work.

I'm excited about this unique opportunity for my students old and new. The first class will be Friday, January 3, 2014 and will go from 9:00 till 4:00.  If interested contact me by e-mail for more information at dbelmquist-artist@cfl.rr.com

Grays and Whites

What's the big deal about grays and whites you ask?  Everything.  Atmosphere between you and and an object you are observing makes the chroma of that object somewhat gray or in other words, less intense.  For representational painters understanding how to gray a color is essential.

White objects are effected by the temperature of the light on them.  Warm light of pure sunshine is warm where light reflected from the blue of the sky filtered through clouds are cool.  Reflected light off a surface also effects the temperature of white.  Short explanation but there is a lot more to it.

Now Gamblin Colors has created grays and whites that help with the issue of changing intensity and temperature of your colors.  For a more complete explanation of their colors click here. 

A big thank you to Scott Gellathly for a well written article and for including me as one of the many who use Gamblin colors.