Ron Gribbles Artist Tips

Ron Gribble's Artist Tips.

Ron Gribble is an established Oil, Acrylic and Water Colourist, with many national awards. Click here for more information about Ron Gribble.
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	Start Thin Finish Fat By Ron Gribble
There are very good reasons why artists do this. First lets define ‘thin’ and ‘fat’ Thin – meaning that the paint is put on the canvas thinly. This may mean that you have mixed a quantity of medium with it to thin it or it may be that you have simply ‘scrubbed’ it onto the surface so that is applied very thinly. Fat – meaning paint that is ‘Impasto’ i.e., straight out of the tube and applied in bolder thicker chunks. Why thin first? I have two very good reasons that I can think of instantly, and other lesser reasons. If you lay down a ‘fat’ paint area you are limited to what you can do over the top of it. Try painting fat on fat and you will get mud when painting wet on to wet paint. By putting down a ‘thin’ area you are preparing the area for an opportunity to contrast with fat painted details on top. The more sedate thin paint adds weight to the “Shout at you “ fat paint. Generally you should place early details on thinly and progressively get fatter and fatter as you progress, finishing off with bold highlights that look like they were thrown on, but are not. In my next tip I will talk about ‘Application – Looks like it is thrown on’. Happy Painting Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	PUT THE DARKS ON FIRST By Ron Gribble
This theory is a very sound one for painting in Oils. But that is on its own will not be enough. As well as putting on darks first, start with thin paint and no detail, and work towards ‘Fatter’ and fatter paint and more and more detail. I will explain over my next three months. DARKS ON FIRST: Remember, you are painting the deepest darks first, were very little light is penetrating. Especially if you are painting a scene outside, much of this deep shadow could be some distance from you. Conclusion: Nobody, unless their father is an eagle can see detail in deep shade at a distance. So don’t put any detail in at this stage. Try to lather paint on with as little brush strokes visible as possible, just like painting the house – ‘Lay off’ the paint by gentle horizontal and vertical brush strokes, with a beard flat brush. This prepares the way to contrast some detail against the “quiet” area, when you lay on high lights. This works particularly well with distant details in landscapes. It will also, if your colours are wisely mixed, add to the depth, as it confirms the viewer’s subconscious expectations, that detail recedes with distance. Next month, Start thin, Finish Fat, the opposite of weight watches. If there are subjects you would like covered, please e-mail me. Regards Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Clean colours in your work By Ron Gribble
Speaking of cleanliness, on previous occasions, the end result of all this is clean colours. There is much to be said about colour mixing, that I could never cover on the Internet. Try keeping each colour you mix to a minimum of colours from your pallet. The more variety of colours from your pallet that you mix, the closer you get to ‘Mud’. That is dirty in colour. Ask the question of yourself very clearly - "Do I want a hot colour or a cold colour"? If it is neither one nor the other it not only loses a great opportunity to contrast against it but it also is in danger of being boring at best, and muddy at worst. If you decide on a cold colour go easy on the mixing of hot colours. If you want a hot colour mix, then don’t put large quantities of blues into the mix. Of course there are always exceptions to every rule, but I have found the ‘Hot & Cold’ decision to be pivotal Happy Mixing Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Preparing to Paint On Location By Ron Gribble
We have been concentrating on basic house keeping tips lately, cleanliness and organization. This becomes doubly important when you go ‘Plein Aire’, that is painting on location. The wind will find any disorganisation and create havoc. You will need Bull Dog Clips to keep your rag from flapping paint all over the general landscape. If you clean your brushes firstly on a piece of paper to remove the excess paint. I use a portion of telephone directory, as this is very absorbent and remain bound down the spine even if after I have removed ten or twenty pages for my days painting. Then secondly wash it in your brush cleaner and use the rag to remove the turpentine. Don’t put paint on the rag! The pages of the book can be folded over and clipped down with a bulldog clip to secure it from the effects of the wind. If the rag does flap about, it’s only turpentine on it anyway. I am off to paint my way around the South Island of New Zealand soon, so I will be fighting the same problems first hand. Happy painting Ron Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Care of brushes By Ron Gribble
Last month we discussed brush-cleaning devise that I use, This month I want to stay with brushes. Generally speaking, good oil painting brushes are not expensive, but it takes only a minute to prolong their useful life. I try to remember after each painting session (not so easy when I am on location) to clean my brushes with clean soapy warm water, as follows. Wipe the brush across a wet piece of soap until a good quantity of the soap is worked into the bristles. Grip the ends of the bristles with one hand and with the other hand move the brush so that the bristles are splayed out and the soap can work right up to the ferrule. Now Place the brush into a sink, and squeeze the soap back out by pressing the ferrule end of the bristle against the hard surface until you squeeze out the dirty soapy water. Rinse with warm water Repeat this until the soapy water that you squeeze out is no longer dirty. Lastly repeat step one only, then gently mould the bristles nice and straight leaving a good amount of soap in the bristles. The flat can have a chisel edge moulded by squeezing gently between thumb and first finger. Leave to dry, with the soap "training" and protecting the bristles. You will be able to transport these now without them bending over if they press against anything. The soap, when dry, can be broken out again, when you want to use the brush. In Conclusion, think of your brushes as the instruments of your trade. Would a surgeon use a dirty scalpel? You must be confident of the brush mark that will get from a particular brush. If it has dry paint up the ferrule, You will not get what you expect, ant the result is loss of control, on the canvas. I hope this helps Regards Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Brush Cleaning Tip By Ron Gribble
There are a lot of commercial brush cleaners available, but I will tell you about a cleaner you can make at home, out of two empty tins. Before I give the details, I need to explain why a specific cleaner is needed. Why not just a jar of turpentine? You need to be aware that turpentine only suspends the paint, which then settles down into the bottom on your container. All you are doing after the first clean or two, is stirring up sediment and forcing it up into the brush ferules. So take a standard food preserving tin; make sure that the lid has been removed without sharp edges. Now take a smaller size tin, Like a baby food tin and place it bottom up onto a desk. Now, take screwdriver, with a medium width end, and with a hammer, gently force slots into the base of the tin. Don’t hit too hard, we only want slots and not holes. Not too close together or you will lose structural strength, but enough to cover as much of the bottom of the tin as you can. The shape edges should be inside the tin, and the smooth slots on the out side. Now place the small tin bottom up inside the bigger tin the smaller tin should fill about a half of the height of the larger tin. Fill the larger tin with turpentine, until the smaller is only just covered. You will now be able to clean your brushes on the bottom of the small tin, and paint will drop through the slots and gather in the bottom of the larger tin. If you let it settle, you can pour off the turps and clean out the big tin every now and again. Next month we will look at caring for you brushes. I trust this is a help to you Ron Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Get Set up Properly By Ron Gribble
If you cannot keep your work place clean and tidy, you will never paint a clean and correct painting. In the next four months, I want to give you tips on how I keep from painting " Mud" coloured paintings. The secret is in getting organised and disciplined. So often in my workshop, I see people who get paint literally everywhere. So we will cover: Pallets Brush Cleaners Care of Brushes Colour Mixing – More colours, means mud. Pallets In the studio I use a piece of glass. It cleans very easily, as the paint does not soak into it. If I am tinting my board a darker colour, I can slide a sheet of paper, tinted the same colour under the glass. This allows me to mix against the colour on my canvas. The piles of raw colours around the edges (use the edges further away from you) will dry much slower on the glass. Use a large piece mine is about 1500mm x 400mm. Make sure there are no sharp edges, and use a painting trowel, with a bent neck, to mix your colours. Never mix with a brush this forces the raw colour up into the ferrule of the brush and you lose control of the colour very quickly. Stop and clean up regularly, brushes and pallet. Next month: We will learn about brush cleaners. Happy Painting Ron Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Tint An Alternative Colour. By Ron Gribble
Last month I suggested that you try tinting your boards. A warm mid tone colour. This eliminates the need to cover the stark white when painting in oils. I use a mixture of titanium white and burnt sienna. This month I want to suggest an alternative colour. Try a darker blue/purple. If you have a close look at the picture of Lake Wanaka, you can see that the background was painted in a pink colour and the other with a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt sienna and crimson. Lots of this colour appears all over the painting very deliberately. Not only does this technique eliminate the problem of covering the white board, but it also helps to bind the whole paint together into a common "Atmosphere". If you try to mix the back ground colour in acrylic and let it thoroughly dry, then re-mix it in oil colour. Use this colour as your atmospheric colour. Tint every colour that you mix for that painting. The whole painting will have a distinct tint towards that original colour. Now try a different colour! A hot colour or a cold colour! I have had the best results when I have chosen my subjects well. (i.e.: A hot colour for a sunset, a cold colour for a cold scene). Also keep colour on the dark side. A strong colour is fun. If you look closely at the Wanaka painting, you will see what I mean. Good Painting Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	Try tinting your canvas before you start to paint. By Ron Gribble
Use an artist quality acrylic. You can try several options. The most versatile option is to choose a warm mid tone colour. EG: Try White: 80% Burnt Sienna (Umber) 20% We will try other options later. Let it dry thoroughly before you paint your oil colour over the top. Why tint your boards? Because the stark white will need to be covered in the finished painting. It is stark, lifeless and demands attention if left showing. Why a warm mid tone? Every subject that we paint is affected by light. Light is warm. The mid-tone does not leap off the canvas as white does. So if you allow some of the original underpainting to show through thin layers of paint or just simply leave area’s unpainted, it doesn’t matter. It looks like warm light. In creating the illusion of the painting I want to eliminate as many problems as I can as early as I can. This allows me to render the subject in the loose "painterly" style that I desire. Try it for yourself. Regards, Ron Gribble Click Here to return to the top of the page.
	About Ron Gribble
RON GRIBBLE NEW DVD/CD available on www.artsupplies.co.nz (born in TeKuiti, 1949) turned professional artist in 1980. He is now an established Oil, Acrylic and Water Colourist, with many national awards. Since 1991, Ron has stopped entering art competitions to concentrate more on teaching. He authored an instructional demonstration video, 'Painting in Oils' which now sells in Australia, N.Z., Britain and Ireland. He is a sought after tutor, demonstrator & judge. Ron's work has been commercially reproduced in the form of limited edition prints, calendars, coasters, placemats and postcards. Ron lives in Mt Roskill, with his wife Sharon and two daughters. His commercial art background has given him skills in sign writing, cartooning and drawing. As a result of many successful exhibitions, Ron's work now hangs in Australia, U.K., U.S.A., Japan and Canada. AWARDS: N.Z. Easter Show Art Awards; 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982. Tauranga National Art Award 1983; Waikato Trustbank Art Award 1989, 1990, 1991.