[shinji69]

1. What kind of method do you guys use when you transfer the drawing to canvas/illu. board? Mostly I zerox the original in different size to fit to the board, then use the carbon paper to transfer it over the board. Hard, time-consuming process and sometimes I have to redraw some portions because appyling thin wash can wipe out the carbon copy, even with fixative.

I really didn't consider using grid system because the grids show thru the paintings.

2. How do you guys paint? I don't use references, a real bad habit for a novice painter, so I usually apply thin wash of dominant background color (usually some blue or Utramarine Blue darkened with Burnt Umber). I don't even use photographs for references (yeah, I am THAT lazy), I really agonize over the shades and tones. I usually mess up with b/w values even with value studies. I even agonize over painting the sky! The only way I can properly paint is to 'copy' other paintings' color scheme, but it only works when my subjects are similar with the ones I copy from. Few existing paintings really do have objects painted with grey or extremely nutralized desert-camo scheme, so I have a big trouble with painting that kind of objects. And painting obejects in space is also hard for obvious reason: NO REFLECTIVE LIGHTS & NO ATMOSPHERIC EFFECT.

3. How many people do use ala-prima method? It only works when you work directly from observation, I think.

4. Is painting with near zero reference a stupid thing? Sketching the shapes is not a hard thing and arranging shadows is not that hard. But controlling and 'guessing' the color scheme is almost impossible to me. I got this habit of working without color references because I grew up with Japanese manga, which is almost lack of colors.

5. I am thinking about cleaning oil brushes after each strokes with.....HOT SOAPY WATER. I really don't want to use terpentine for cleaning brushes. And the palettes for my oil paints and water-soluble oil paints are somewhat different. Can I just use hot soapy water to clean brushes after each stroke, not use?

6. Sometimes I am really tempted to use white to lighten the color and black to darken the color... Is there any professional who insists on using this painting method?

7. How many paintings, including simple studies do people paint during their school years? 100? 200? 250, including small landscape and figure studies?

[Steven Stahlberg]

I'll just answer the ones I know:

1. I scribble a wide leadpencil on the back of my sketch, smooth it out with my finger then put it on the board and trace. Cheap, reliable, effective. Yes you have to redraw. Time-consuming? Welcome to the world of illustration. (In airbrushing you may have to trace the same complex outlines 10 - 20 times...)

To do it quicker you need a lumograph, a very expensive and large special machine that projects an image of your sketch on the board, which you then can trace. But this only saves you one tracing.

3. No, except some sketching maybe.

4. Try it with reference, see which result you like best. It's all about the result.

5. Soap is actually better for the brushes in the long run than turps, but takes longer to get it clean.

6. Just mixing black will make some colors loose saturation as they darken, and just mixing white may also give you the wrong color, sometimes makes it cooler for instance. It depends on the specific oil color, and the light in the scene, etc. Try it, paint swatches, compare to an object of the same color, or a photo of one, in average lighting, say daylight or whatever. Try it out, observe carefully, and make up your own mind.

[Gort]

Hey!! I thought this was a Digital Art Discussion board!