Video: How to Prepare your Wooden Palette to a Gray Middle Tone

I prepare this short video thinking exclusive on those who enjoy painting. It shows a practical way for the artist to prepare his/her wooden palette to a gray middle tone. Having a palette with a middle tone, and using a tone canvas (with a middle tone imprimatura) makes the judgement of tone/value relations much easier and accurate while painting.

Thank you for watching!

Please, subscribe to my YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4r64ugRW-BefG912dte4Rg/videos

---

Preparé este breve video pensando exclusivamente en aquellos que disfrutan pintar. Muestra una manera práctica de preparar una paleta de madera con una tonalidad intermedia. Usar una paleta de tono intermedio y un lienzo con imprimadura, ayuda enormemente a juzgar los tonos (también llamados valores) y a determinar las relaciones tonales de los colores mientras se está pintando.

¡Gracias por mirarlo!

Por favor, suscríbase a mi canal de YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4r64ugRW-BefG912dte4Rg/videos

Grazing Cows, landscape -- Vacas Pastando, paisaje

Grazing Cows, oil on board, 1999  --  Vacas pastando, oleo sobre cartón, 1999 © Sergio A. Ramos, All rights reserved.

Here is one of my "rural" paintings from 1999. What a pitty, it has been 16 years since the last time I painted cows... By the way, although it is hard to notice, there is a small bird on top of one of the cows. Not a rare occurrence, if I remember correctly. I wonder what are they doing. 

If I were to paint this nowadays, It is highly probable that will use a muted color for the grass and will soften the pinkish clouds on the horizon.

 ___ 


Acá tienen uno de mis pinturas "rurales" pintada en 1999. Qué lástima, ya han pasado 16 años desde la última vez que pinté vacas... Por cierto hay un pajarito encima de una de las vacas. Es algo común, si bien recuerdo. Me pregunto qué hacen, qué comen o extraen del lomo de las vacas. 
Es muy probable que si fuese a pintar este vista hoy en día, usaría un colorido bastante más tenue para los pastos y suavizaría los rebordes de las nubes rosadas en el horizonte.

On the Color of Edges in Landscape

Some of my blog posts are expressions of my own struggles, explorations, and discoveries in the plastic arts. This note, if not profitable to anybody else (although I hope it is for some fellow artists), at least pretends to be a record of my own artistic journey. 

I found that Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst, on his 1897 book "The Painter in Oil," has a chapter on landscape. In it, he covers various principles of landscape painting; includes comments on the Impressionist's approach to landscape painting, and what was more interesting than anything else for me, he speaks of EDGES. Parkhurst elaborates on the importance of color variety, saying:

"Color of contour. An important thing for you to look for and to study is the color of contours. You will not find it easy; not easy even to know what it is that you are looking for. But consider it as a combination of contiguous values and color vibrations, and things will reveal themselves to you.

No form is composed of unvarying color. No combination of color surrounding it lacks of variety. All along the edge of forms and objects, of whatever kind, the value and color relation constantly change. The outline is not constant. Here and there it becomes lost from identity of value and color with what surrounds it, and again defines itself. The edge is not sharp. The color rays vibrate across each other. The inevitable variety of tint and value, of definitiveness and vagueness, gives a never-ending play of contrasts and blending. These qualities which go to the harmonizing of color, to the expression of light, and particularly to the feeling of atmosphere. This constant variety of contrasting edges is the constant movement and play of the visual rays, and the study of it gives life and vibration to the picture, and all the objects represented in it.

Outdoors, particularly when the play of diffused light and the movement of all the objects is continually felt, either  through their own elasticity or because of the heat and light waves, this study is most necessary, if you would get the feeling of freedom, space, and air."

These considerations on edges as they applied to landscape painting make the reading of the chapter insightful, to say the least. I have been aware of edges on other painting genres, but for some reason, not that much on my landscapes! It seem that you can get away with a couple things in landscape, or so I thought before. Keeping lost most edges as a general principle, helps create the "atmosphere" in the two dimensional fictions that painters create. Giving edges/contours intentional variety (lost, found, color), is my new insight. How to apply this principle to the canvas on my coming landscapes, now this... this is the question! Perhaps a good starting point is to observe how master painters -from past and present- have managed their edges, and their color in the contour of their landscape painting.

By the way... if over time I am able to find good pictures of paintings that exemplify what Parkhurst proposes regarding edges, I will upload them here. Likewise, if any of you recognizes this principles in some pictures and kindly makes me aware of them, I will appreciate it very much. I know that photos cannot compare, nor should substitute, to the advantages of direct observation of masterpieces in museums or private collections. Lucky are those that have significant art collections around the corner of their house, or at least, in their town or State :)

Still Life -- Naturaleza muerta

I continue to enjoy arranging compositions for still life paintings. Below you can find one from last year, mainly with fruits, and my first still life finished this 2015. This last one I title: "Something to cry about." I suppose it is not hard to understand the humorous title. If you cook frequently, you know what I mean!

By the way, I apologize for the poor quality of my pictures, today is cloudy (another poor excuse, I suppose :=) Both paintings are available at the moment of this publication. If you are interested, please, feel free to contact me.

----

Continúo disfrutando arreglar composiciones de naturaleza muerta para pintar. Acá debajo encuentran una que pinté el año pasado y mi primera naturaleza muerta del 2015. A esta última la titulé, de manera jocosa, "Para hacerte llorar." Si usted cocina con cierta frecuencia sabrá de inmediato a qué me refiero.

Por cierto, pido disculpas por la calidad pobre de las fotos, hoy está nublado (una excusa poco válida supongo :=) Ambas pinturas están disponibles al momento de publicar este. Si usted está interesado(a) en adquirirlas, no dude en contactarme.

Still life, "Fruits," 16 x 20inch, oil on canvas  // Naturaleza Muerta, "Frutas," 40.6cm x 50.8cm, oleo sobre lienzo

Still life, "Something to cry about," 14 x 18inch, Oil on masonite // Naturaleza muerta, "Para hacerte llorar," 35.5 cm x  45.7cm, oleo

Now in Facebook -- Ahora en el Facebook

Dear friends and patrons,

I recently opened a Facebook Page for my art. Please, visit and "like:"  www.facebook.com/RamosFineArtStudio

Thank you very much for your interest, comments, and support.

---

Estimado amigos y patrocinadores:

Recientemente abrí una pagina sobre mi actividad artística en el Facebook. Por favor, siéntanse en libertad de visitarla y darle "Me gusta."
www.facebook.com/RamosFineArtStudio

Muchísimas gracias por su interés, comentarios y apoyo.

Repainting

I know that one of my previous posts was "A New Look Into Old Stuff," in which I asserted that there is some advantages in NOT retouching old painting. But, I have done it again. Below is a painting from 2001. I kept this oil painting without any modification for some 13 years. It was unvarnished, of course. 

--

Sé que uno de mis articulos anteriores fue "Un vistazo nuevo a las cosas viejas," en el cual aseguraba que No retocar las pinturas tenía ciertas ventajas. Pero, lo he hecho una vez más. Debajo podrá ver una de mis pinturas del 2001. Mantuve este óleo inalterado durante unos 13 años. Estaba sin banizar, claro. 

Some weeks ago I felt like it was time for me to do something about it (no kidding, right?). I must finish it. So I did. How? Repainting it completely. The results might not be anything more impressive than it was before, but I felt like finishing an extra painting before finishing 2014 :) Below is the modified painting. It is no longer the artistic description of the exact particular place  as viewed form where I was standing back then, when I painted it. But it is quite close. Anyway, just to be sure, that my retouching compulsion will not hit this particular one again, I took a precaution: I varnished the painting. 

--

Hace algunas semanas atrás sentí que ya era tiempo de acabar este cuadro. Debo terminarlo, me dije. Así que lo acabé. ¿Cómo? Repintándolo por completo. El resultado no será mucho mas impresionante de lo que era antes, pero, siento como si que hubiera acabado un cuadro más este año 2014 :) Debajo coloqué un foto de la pintura acabada. Ya no es una representación artística exacta del lugar geográfico, visto desde el punto de vista original. Pero es bastante cercano. De todas maneras, para asegurarme que mi compulsion de repintar no golpee este una vez más, tomé una precaución: lo barnicé. 

Although I miss the water in the first place from the first version, the repainted version emphasizes the drama of the sky. It is also more painterly, intense in colors, and adds the human element. Yes, in case you didn't notice, that is a dog and a woman riding her bicycle. Not a rare occurrence in the Uruguayan countryside. 

--

Pese a que extraño el agua y sus reflejos, presentes en el primer plano de la primera versión, la versión repintada, enfatiza mucho mejor la vista dramática del cielo. Emplea algo de empaste, colores más intensos, y agrega el factor humano. Sí, aunque usted no lo haya notado, tiene un perro corriendo y una mujer en su bicicleta. No es una ocurrencia inusual en las afueras de la campiña uruguaya.