Planning a Painting?

Okay, you've found it--the perfect scene, the one you think will make the perfect painting. What's next? Different schools of thought broach the subject. Some artist go straight to the paper (or canvas, as it were) with brush in hand. The spontaneity of the project is most important. Others will do a detailed sketch, perhaps a small study of the scene. I'm a mixture of both. Once seized by an idea, I will do a sketch, but only the roughest of sketches. The shapes are crudely drawn, just to give me an idea of their placement. From there, I proceed to transferring my idea to my support. I've learned through the years that if masking is involved, it's best just to draw the outline and fill in the details later. Masking may remove my pencil lines. Besides, there's a risk of smudging the lines.
A friend of mine who also paints reminds of of another lesson that I've learned. He will want to stick slavishly to a photo or scene. If what he sees isn't right, he looks until he finds it. Other artists have taught me the value of rearranging things, moving objects to frame, point to, lead the eye around in a painting. Try to do that. Notice how your eye moves through a scene, what you notice first or don't notice. A truly excellent book I found on the subject is Barbara Nuss's book, "14 Forumulas for Painting Fabulous Landscapes". The book has more info on oil than watercolor, but the information is outstanding. Truly a book to help you see.
Another thing you want to keep in mind about your work in progress is your own feelings to the subject. That is the goal, isn't it? Developing your own style and your way of viewing the world around you. Don't lose sight of what attracted you to the scene at first. Was the palette pleasing to you? Did it trigger certain memories for you? Remember that. If it was the color, you'll want to keep that in mind, especially if it is a break from your usual scheme. I've found more than once that I was disappointed with a painting only to recall that it wasn't the composition as much as the color that attracted me, that I wanted to capture.
Whatever element is the attraction don't let it stop once the painting is complete. A fitting title will reinforce this feeling.
Chris Dinesen Rogers has worked with local artists, but is primarily a self-taught and self-representing artist. Her work weaves a tapestry of the realistic, natural, imaginative and historic, reflecting her deep love and commitment to the preservation of the natural resources of the Upper Midwest. Her paintings are found in collections over all the United States and Canada. Her work has also placed in juried competitions. She is represented by Art in the Village Frame Shoppe & Gallery, New London, MN and the Earth Works Art Gallery & Studio in Penn Yan, New York.
She is a long time supporter and volunteer of conservation efforts throughout the Midwest. In 2000, Chris and her husband, Norm, were commissioned Colonels by the state of Kentucky for their volunteer efforts at Mammoth Cave National Park. Chris and Norm are also co-authors of "101 Things To Do on the Wisconsin Great River Road." The book details the unique and wonderful of the Wisconsin Great River Road.
What Are Giclee Paintings?
Giclee (zhee-klay) - The French word "giclée" is a feminine noun that means a spray or a spurt of liquid. The word may have been derived from the French verb "gicler" meaning "to squirt".
The term "giclee print" denotes an elevation in printmaking technology. Images are generated from high resolution digital scans and printed with archival quality inks onto various substrates including canvas, fine art, and photo-base paper. The giclee printing process provides better color accuracy than other means of reproduction.
Giclee prints are created typically using professional 8-Color to 12-Color ink-jet printers. Among the manufacturers of these printers are vanguards such as Epson, MacDermid Colorspan, & Hewlett-Packard. These modern technology printers are capable of producing incredibly detailed prints for both the fine art and photographic markets. Giclee prints are sometimes mistakenly referred to as Iris prints, which are 4-Color ink-jet prints from a printer pioneered in the late 1970s by Iris Graphics. The power of modern computers is harnessed to drive and control each combination, of colour, shade, hue, value and density of the ink via four or eight nozzles.
This can produce a combination of up to 1024 basic chromatic changes, which makes possible of over four million color combinations of highly saturated, non-toxic, water based ink. Since no half-tone screens are used in Giclee printing, the prints have a higher resolution than lithographs. The intense saturation of the Giclee printing system renders a dynamic color range is greater than serigraphy.
The apparent resolution of the digital print is 1800 dots per square inch, which is higher than a traditional lithographic print and has a wider color gamut than serigraphy. Giclee prints render deep, saturated colors and have a beautiful painterly quality that retains minute detail, subtle tints and blends.
Giclee prints are advantageous to artists who do not find it feasible to mass produce their work, but want to reproduce their art as needed, or on-demand. Once an image is digitally archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost. The prohibitive up-front cost of mass production for an edition is eliminated. Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film inherently does. Another tremendous advantage of giclee printing is that digital images can be reproduced to almost any size and onto various media, giving the artist the ability to customize prints for a specific client.
The quality of the giclee print rivals traditional silver-halide and gelatin printing processes and is commonly found in museums, art galleries, and photographic galleries.
Ten years ago Giclees had a hard time being accepted by the general art buying public as "legitimate" art. Today, Giclee Prints have gained wide acceptance and "legitimacy", and are now shown in museums and galleries throughout the world.
Numerous examples of giclee prints can be found in New York City at the Metropolitan Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Chelsea Galleries. Recent auctions of giclee prints have fetched $10,800 for Annie Leibovitz, $9,600 for Chuck Close, and $22,800 for Wolfgang Tillmans (April 23/24 2004, Photographs, New York, Phillips de Pury & Company.)
The Giclée printing process is environmentally safe since the inks are water-based and the paper is archival and acid-free. Thus, a Giclée must be treated as fine art and placed away from direct sunlight, even though we use extra long-life Archival UV-Safe Pigmented Inks.
Come join the art adventure at Art Ideas for You and learn how you can have a business with limited edition quality canvas giclee paintings.
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