Mallory Robin // Oil Painter

We've been big fans of the talented work of oil painter Mallory Robin for some time now, but we recently became the proud recipients of one of her beautiful art pieces and our adoration doubled. The art piece was hung the day it was received and is now admired daily. I particularly love her use of vibrant color and texture as well as the variety of her paintings' subject matter.

Receiving a piece of her work reminded me to visit her website once again. I read the about page this time around. Read the about page! I love how she describes herself and her process. She is honest and true to herself. Something you would hope to find in a good artist.

Do yourself a favor and visit Mallory's website or follow her daily sharing of art via her instagram account @malloryrobinart.

[images via mallory robin website]

Gestural Drawing with Lady Hue

When people ask me what I did last weekend I like to say, "I hung out with naked people".  Well, let me back up a little bit, I only got to hang out with one naked person and it was in an art class.  For those of you who have not taken life drawing before, you should know one thing: art naked (or I should say, the nude figure) isn't nearly as exciting as you think it might be.  Artists like to explain that we are like doctors as we approach the figure.  It's a learning experience.

I have always had an interest in duplicating the figure.  I remember when I was a teenager I would hang on to teen swimsuit magazines so I could try to draw the figure accurately.  I still have a handful of those drawings that weren't too shabby, but we're too great either.  The reason they weren't great is because I never learned how to begin with a loose gestural drawing and progress from general to specific.  I'd like to touch on that idea today and give some pointers on moving from the general to specific in painting, drawing, or any medium, and I'll use these sketches to explain myself.

Let me try to explain gestural drawing:  It is something loose, unfinished, and semi raw.  It is something that relies more on an artists intuition and expression than technique.  It is the first architectural floor plan that leads to the finished structure of the art piece.  When I went to this art class last Saturday we began with 3 gestural drawings to warm up our hands and minds and then began an hour long pose.  The hour long piece also began with a gestural drawing that was built upon.

Practicing a gestural stroke is so important in beginning an art piece.  The most common mistake in approaching the figure is getting to specific too early.  For example: drawing the nose and the eyes before you've established general relationships of sizes and placement.

I had one teacher in my undergrad who suggested we practice sketching to a metronome.  He would turn it on and with every "click click click" of the metronome you were supposed to keep your hand fluidly moving.  This was both irritating and helpful for me.  It removed me from my normal routine and forced me to move on when I wanted to linger on one area.

When sketching with gestural motions the end result should be very satisfying.  When I did this sketch last saturday I began with the gestural drawing and kept readjusting relationships of shapes and lines on the paper.  I would hold up my pencil and feel for different horizontal and vertical angles and points of intersections.  Once I was comfortable with the relationships I had created I began carving in silhouettes and negative spaces to create the figure.  As I began to apply general shading and contours the piece came together with ease.  For only an hour sketch, I am very happy with how it turned out!

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>>>[Welcome to a newish series here on the twig blog, how-to tips from artists who are authentic, real, and inventive. Each month a few of our favorites will spill their secrets and skills to help you in your creative path. We're excited to learn a few things ourselves. Come soak it up and share the love.]

applying a ground with lady hue

I'm excited to talk about some painting tips again!  As you may remember, we last talked about how to gesso a surface last time.  This time we are going to talk about the next important step: applying a ground to the prepared surface.

The "ground" of the painting is the first color you choose to apply to a canvas.  There is no wrong answer for color choice (although some options may be better than others) and the color you choose for your ground will effect the entire mood of the painting.  I painted some intensely colorful paintings for my senior project way back when (I thought they were awesome at the time and now I look at them as firewood at best...).  I chose a very bright ground, either a bright alizarin pink or bright cadmium orange.  Then I built colors on top of them always working in complimentary colors (opposites on the color wheel - red and green, purple and yellow, orange and blue... etc) so the colors of the paintings turned out very intense and vibrant as they resonated against the bright ground.

Forgive me for the naked baby photos, but you can see a little of the alizarin ground of this painting popping through the tiles, walls, and other spots.  It is especially noticeable in the shadow of the little angry girl.  Ah, such lovely firewood.

Most artists choose a mid-range value for their ground color.  On a scale of 1-10 of value, 1 being white and 10 being absolute black, a mid-range value may be somewhere in the 3-6 range.  As you begin to build values on the ground it is very helpful to ease into your light and dark values from your mid range rather than working from a 1 to a 10 or visa versa.  I used a burnt sienna black-blue mix for this ground.

In the past I painted directly onto the muslin and kept that ground for the whole painting, but lately I've been trying something new.  After the ground dries I pull of the muslin to find an interesting  ground effect...

Then I apply a secondary ground, this time I used a yellow ochre/black-blue mix.

While the ground is still wet it is easy to dab away at areas for your lighter values and apply more liberally for darker areas.  Just in this initial stage you can begin to establish a broader range of values to get you started.

You can apply the ground as an opaque, thick in consistency, solid color with minimal medium (medium: water or gel acrylic for acrylics, paint thinner or linseed for oils) or you can keep it thin like I did.  I like to keep things very light and I use a lot of medium, but that may not be the method that feels the best for you.  I'm working with acrylics right now so I'm just watering it down and applying it generously.  I start to use more gel mediums later in the process.

Even though I'm painting in more mild tones than I used to, I am always very aware of my compliments when I paint.  You can think about it in general terms, cool vs. warm - if you're painting is going to be primarily blues, greens, etc., then start with a warm ground to really make things pop.  You can get very specific and match your seafoam blue-green hue with a burnt sienna orange-red.  You can buy color wheels at your local art store and pin that near your painting space to refer to color ideas as you go.

Good luck on applying the ground to your painting, let me know if you have any questions!  You can email me (hueandhum@gmail) or tweet me (@ladyhue).  Happy creating!

>>>[Welcome to a new series here on the twig blog, how-to tips from artists who are authentic, real, and inventive. Each month a few of our favorites will spill their secrets and skills to help you in your creative path. We're excited to learn a few things ourselves. Come soak it up and share the love.]

Gesso Tips with Lady Hue

I remember when my art Professor gave me the first assignment in my painting class to go home and gesso my canvas.  FYI, you pronounce Gesso like Jesse, but with an "o" at the end... jess-o.  Well, I didn't know that yet, so I walked into the art supply store and said, "I think I need some... Guess-o?". They laughed at me and then helped me find the right thing.  I walked away with a big tub of white blubbery stuff that I still didn't know how to use.  

Gesso is the acrylic primer most artists use to prep their canvas.  A canvas can be a panel board, stretched linen, or almost anything else.  Gesso begins as a sour cream (sour cream light... to be exact) consistency and you can apply it with a paint roller, brush, spatula, or your fingers if you are that awesome.  The way that you apply your gesso depends on what kind of a base you want to start with in your paintings.  I'll explain the process that I use and why I do.

When you are applying gesso you are essentially building a resistant surface for your paints.  If you didn't gesso your canvas, the wood or fabric would just soak up most of your paints.  Having the right surface will save you paint and money, help the paints look more brilliant, and the painting will last longer - or be more archival.    

Because it is acrylic it is water based, opposed to oil based paints.  I scoop some of my gesso into a separate container and mix it with some water to make it a lighter consistency (a thick ranch dressing?) and to stretch the life of my gesso.  I guess you could say I am a little bit of a gesso snob. It is perfectly acceptable to scoop it out of the bucket and brush it onto a panel board and call it good. However, I like to work with thinner gesso and really work it in through multiple layers.   

I have developed a special technique over the years that I came up with that I love.  Go ahead, try it, and let me know if you like it!  I start with panel board, gesso the surface and the back (which also helps the board from warping because it becomes waterproof) and when the surface is still wet I begin to gesso muslin fabric onto it.  I could use many different fabrics, but I like the small weave of the muslin and I also like that it is affordable.  I use a un-bleached muslin so it has less of a chance of effecting the archival quality of the paints.  

When I have finished brushing the gesso onto the fabric (maybe two layers?) it is thin enough I can still see the grain of the muslin and there is a little discoloration here and there from the unbleached fabric and the white gesso.  I keep the gesso fairly light so when I apply my first layer of the ground color it is really working with the canvas rather than just sitting on top of a rubbery surface.  

Now go get painting!  Tweet me (@ladyhue) and let me know if you tried it or if you have any questions!  I'll talk about creating a ground on your canvas next time.

Keep in touch!

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>>>[Welcome to a new series here on the twig blog, how-to tips from artists who are authentic, real, and inventive. Each month a few of our favorites will spill their secrets and skills to help you in your creative path. We're excited to learn a few things ourselves. Come soak it up and share the love.]