Work In Progress

“Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be.”

-C. S. Lewis

Once again, I was thinking that I would have little to write about. It has been a busy week and while I have accomplished quite a bit and have sent out some large orders this week, I didn’t really feel that I had a great amount of time to progress and do some of the things that I have been working on – including my new designs for patterns.

But once I threw my hands in the air and began taking pictures of the bits and pieces of things that I have going that are art-related, I realized that I actually do have quite a lot to write about. So I will skip my usual in-depth philosophizing and get right to the point. (While that may set some of you cheering, I beg you not to worry – I will include my thoughts on things as the post progresses. You aren’t going to get off that easily! 😉 )

I will begin by showing you what I have been working on for both personal satisfaction and growth. After all, those of you who know me well realize that many (most) of my waking, and non-working hours are spent not only doing my own personal creating, but also learning more about techniques, colors, and art in general. This week was not any different.

In last week’s post, I highlighted the first project that I created from Erika Joanne’s Woodland Whimsey subscription box. Since it was the end of the month, the Lancashire Moth should have been completed. I finished this piece just under the wire, as I joined the subscription box a bit late.

As we turned the calendar page to March, that meant that the next project included in the box was up on deck: The Bonny Briar Bunny. (Say that 10 times fast!)

This just happens to be my favorite of the first three projects and I couldn’t wait to get started on it.

Not only were we supplied with the paints, pencils, and TWO pieces of pre-printed watercolor paper to complete our project (Plus all of the embellishments, brushes, and supplies needed to complete it, as mentioned in the previous post) but also the very clever layered frame which will accommodate any 5″ x 7″ art piece. It really is a wonderful and complete set!

I always mention that I am a very slow painter. While there is a ‘live’ video that will be included for each of the 12 projects in this subscription, I prefer to watch the video first when it is live, ask questions, take everything in, and then do the project later on at my leisure. The video(s) will be there if I need them for future reference and I can watch them again and again.

This project had two, two-hour live video sessions that Erika hosted. I watched the first one on Friday and spent some of yesterday beginning my project. Here is how far I got:

So far I am happy with it. I learned a new technique for the background and the main base coating of the projects was done using both JoSonja paint as well as the Prismacolor colored pencils. Before following Erika’s classes, I had not used either of these mediums together or in this way before. These techniques have opened an entirely new world of creating for myself. It is hard to not be excited about it.

This all began when my dear friend Vera gifted me a nice set of JoSonja paint for Christmas. There were only a handful of tubes in the sampler, but there was enough for me to play with and I immediately fell in love with it.

JoSonja Matte Acrylic paints have been long used by many artists and designers whom I have a great deal of respect for. They are (as stated) acrylic paint that dries to a velvety matte finish and offers a longer open time than the brand I was using. They are highly pigmented and lightfast, and I love the fact that they share the pigment numbers, transparency, and lightfast information on each tube. It makes it easy to choose the color I want for the look I wish to achieve.

Several weeks ago I mentioned that the paint company that I have been using for designing my pattern packets had once again discontinued a great deal of colors from its current line of paint. This has been occurring more frequently over the past several years and I have noticed that they tend to pull colors only to re-introduce them under new names a few years down the road.

The havoc this causes for not only us designers, but our customers as well, is very troubling to me. Our patterns become dated and we spend hours responding to customers who email or call us to find substitutions when they have patterns that call for colors no longer available. It is especially difficult for those new to painting and I believe it leaves a bad taste for those who are just trying to begin in the hobby. It adds to the confusion and expense for new people and I do believe it causes many to abandon the hobby altogether eventually. It is very discouraging.

I have made my thoughts on this known in the past and I will not dwell on things. There is little that “I” can do about it, nor anyone else. They are going to do what they choose to do. My best response if I am not happy is to seek out alternatives. And that is just what I plan to do.

I keep my acrylic paint under my daybed in my studio room here. I purposely purchased a daybed with a trundle under it just for that reason:

But I am getting to the point where the entire drawer is filling up and nearly 1/3 of the paint that I keep under the bed are colors that are discontinued and obsolete.

These two boxes hold the bottles of colors from the brand I currently use. The ‘spaces’ are because I am currently using those colors for my current design. The ‘greyed out’ colors (three rows at the top) are colors that have been discontinued only in the past few years. As you can see, there are MANY.

So – instead of dwelling on what makes me unhappy, I decided (as I stated) to look at alternatives. A wise friend of mine taught me that “there are always options.” We just need to explore them.

Enter my gift of JoSonja paints!

Several things drew me to this brand of paint:

• They are high-quality
• They are named as ‘classic’ colors (i.e. Pthalo Blue, Viridian Green, etc.)
• They are reasonably priced
• They have longevity (There have only been FOUR colors discontinued since 1985!)
• They have a full line of mediums which I have been using already and love
• Their customer service has been excellent

So after putzing with my gift from Vera and working on the moth from the box, I decided to add a little bit to my ‘collection’ and I went on their website and purchased some mediums as well as a ‘Mixing Set‘ of basic colors to experiment with.

I will be honest in saying that so far, I couldn’t be more impressed.

The set consists of 14 basic colors, which is probably far more than you need, at an excellent price.

This set contains their smaller-sized tubes, but they go very far. There are several pre-mixed ‘base’ colors included that will certainly be ‘go-to’ colors in the future. I love that they included colors like Blue Violet, Red Violet, Pyrrole Orange, and Dioxazine Purple. These deep tones are sometimes difficult to mix when you are beginning and it is such an excellent springboard of colors that I am sure that with this set alone you can make any color of the rainbow very easily.

For those who have and plan on purchasing my patterns, I ask you not to worry. I am still going to use my “old” acrylic brand of paint, but I think I want to offer to use the JoSonja brand as an alternative for those of you who are tired of retiring and replacing colors. From what I hear privately from many of my customers, they are as discouraged as I am. I truly think that I want to head in this direction.

I have mentioned before that I follow my friend Kelly Hoernig and have taken and am enrolled in several of her classes. She is an excellent teacher and is now working mainly with watercolors. But most, if not all of the principles that she teaches can be applied to any medium. She has a large number of videos on mixing colors on her YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@kellyhoernig I invite you to follow her and peek in on them if you like. You will be amazed at how much you will learn and how easy it is to make thousands of colors.

What I plan to do very soon is to make a series of my own videos using only the colors from this mixing set and showing the wide range of possibilities of colors you can achieve with this set.

Wouldn’t it be amazing to have only a handful of paint that fits in a small box instead of hundreds of bottles – half of which will become or are already obsolete?

I think so.

I did a quick experiment just to show you what I mean.

I used my wet palette – which is a piece of palette paper over a wet sponge and helps acrylic paint stay fresh – to try mixing just two colors to give you all an idea of the possibilities.

(Pssst! You can make your own wet palette using a foam meat tray and damp, high-quality paper towels!) I like the Masterson palettes though because they have a cover. They keep paint fresh for days and even weeks!

I used the Pthalo Blue and Arylide Yellow and gradually mixed them together to get a beautiful range of greens. I also tinted and shaded the Pthalo Blue using the Titanium White and Carbon Black.

Just look at the amazing range of colors that I achieved!

Not to mention that each of these ‘mixes’ could further be toned and shaded for even more variety.

The blue gently transitioned into an amazing turquoise to a teal to a green to a yellow-green. If white or black were added to each of these colors on the left side, just think of the range you could achieve!

The right column shows the three white tints on the top, which came out a lovely powdery blue, a pretty opaque ‘true blue’, and a deeper, more transparent deeper color of blue.

The bottom three on the right were the result of the Pthalo Blue with Carbon Black added. The bottom color is a deep Payne’s Grey, the second from the bottom looked more like Prussian Blue, and the third color from the bottom was a deep, clear Navy.

What is best about this type of painting and mixing is that you don’t have to stress over what to use to shade or highlight your colors. Everything is incrementally there.

If you would like to see me do this on video, please let me know and I will begin a series on creating beautiful colors with “simple mixing”. (YES! It IS simple!) And it is a lot easier than stressing about getting the ‘exact’ color to match, shade, or highlight something in your artwork. It really is simple.

I plan on doing a series on several of the mediums as well.

I am still learning more about them and I want to have an excellent grasp on each of them before I try to ‘teach’ others about them. Many of the properties of them overlap each other, so you really don’t need them all. But each one has a technique that it excels in and I want to explore that and then share what I find with you all. I think it will be very exciting.

I would love to hear your thoughts on things here. I realize that everyone will not feel the same as me, but I just can’t get excited about ‘new’ colors and I am really tired of adding to my painting drawer. I realize that some want everything pre-mixed and that is fine. But for myself, and for those who have expressed the same feelings that I have, I want to try to offer an alternative. While mixing color has been around as long as colors themselves, I feel that over the past several years, it may have gotten buried (at least in the field of ‘decorative’ or ‘tole’ painting) at the expense of ‘convenience.’

With so many wanting to ‘downsize’ their painting supplies, I think this is a wonderful alternative. I hope you join me in exploring our options.

So that is about it for this week.

I hope to finish up my next three patterns in the upcoming week. Here is a little peek at them:

I worked a bit on them this past week and I am getting in the home stretch. They are a little different than my usual, but lots of fun. I hope to see them finished soon.

Have a great week ahead. Let me know your thoughts on all of this if you have the time. I always like to know what you think.

Until next time . . .