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Late September 2019 Update

600 x 736This week I wanted to share some different items in terms of my painting process. It varies for every painting, but there are some keys ideas I wanted to share.   I research topics for my paintings and I also use programs/services like Pinterest to gather materials, textures, colours, for prelim sketches. I also collect a list of colours that I think a painting will require and any specialty painting effects and additives I may need.   For many of my paintings, I use my iPad Pro 12.9″ with the Apple Pencil. I will sketch out concepts in the program Procreate. I use version 4, and it has a new release coming out in Nov 2019. Procreate allows you to create and purchase custom digital brushes and sketch pencil sketches to actual paintings with Oil and Acrylic brush libraries.   I also take a lot of my photos (especially gardens and forests) and will mockup painting ideas using Adobe Photoshop CC. It’s rare that I sit down and paint a piece of Art without some homework and research.   When I tackle a project (like I did recently on Koi fish and mountain streams, I will amass about 100-130 images and also some articles on specialized effects for painting water or water reflections, I might sketch different effects on the iPad Pro and save online. Sometimes I draw on my iPhone as well.   ** A lot of folks ask I manage to keep track of everything. Especially with painting projects. Well, I use several programs that include:
  • Evernote (used on all my devices)
  • I use Pocket to store websites and setup different folders.
  • I use DropBox to set up shared folders with clients and friends. I can email images and recordings to these folders.
  • I use some email folders as well.
Sizing my paintings – I have been buying canvases and usually purchase 5-10 of one size at a time. They are usually 16 x 24″ or 18 x 24″. But I also by 1-2 larger 24 x 30 or 32″. It just depends on the project and where people wish to display work. Knowing the market for different sizes is good.   In buying canvases, I tend to by every 4-6 weeks and look for sales of 30-45% off. And if I buy 4-5, I try to get a deal on shipping. I also buy on occasions soon, odd size canvases from Picture it if I can find some.   The NEW IOSiPad 13.1 just came out, and I am running it on all my IOS devices. It is very cool and makes working with an iPad Pro more exciting. It has a bunch of extra support for the Apple Pencil and some new gestures that are worth investigating.   New techniques – This past 2-3 months, I started painting in some new styles. They include oil painting techniques and blending ( by using Acrylic Paints) and more aggressive, fluent brush strokes. On my recent Koi painting, I did about 15-18 different washes over the art in very watered down colours. The cool effect is the layering you get. How often do you paint? I get asked that a lot. I try to paint about 50 hrs a month if I can. That gets me about 1-2 paintings each month. Or about 18-24 a year. Most are originals and sold online or in some cases, donated to specific causes or events. I usually paint in the evenings from 7-10 or on weekends on Saturday and Sunday mornings.   One thing I mention a lot is that as I develop as an artist, I am finding more and more I mix colours for almost all my paintings. I have many different blues and greens and yellows that I can combine. I have used a lot of Alizarin Crimson lately mixed to get some incredibly vibrant colours. Another tip when painting is I will draw and research painting, and before I start to apply paint to the canvas, I will go to bed at night and think about what I am painting and how I plan to tackle painting and what ORDER the steps will be. I realized how important this was when I started the painting for the Japanese Koi fish. I had to picture clearly in my mind how to paint reflections, bubbles and the depth of the water above the stone stream bed.   Its late September and I hope to paint some more paintings before Christmas for people looking for some custom work. I can paint a great deal and can work with different budgets and themes.

About Gordon

Gordon Currie has been painting watercolours, acrylics for over 15 years. Gordon has painted Digitally on an iPad for 4 years/ His work has been displayed all over Canada, the US in private collections.

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