Watching Alvaro Castagnet paint Cadeques (spain)

Notes from Alvaro Castagne Painting in Spain:


Brushes:
Alvaro actually has his own brand of brushes. (Squirrel and Kolinsky)
He also uses this signature rigger. You can find his brushes here:
http://www.alvarocastagnet.net/products/brushes/

Paper:
He uses Arches and Saunders paper and is a fan of rough surface.

Staple Colors:
Ultramarine blue

CobaltCerulean(coolest)
Alz Crimson

Cad red light
Burn Sienna
Yellow Orche

Extra:
Turquoise( Special washes)

Important Notes and Tips:

1. He uses the layering approach of Tea, Milk, Honey. ( wait for the layers to dry)
2. Plans your complementary colors into your washes.
3. Simplify things, study the warm and cool relationship instead of matching chroma
4. Design your focus and stick with it
5. Unify your shadow shapes and connect them.
6. Painting is an illusion, exercise your imagination . Don't try to paint everything
7. Dramatize light to create mood
8. watercolor medium is about spontaneity ,simplicity and negative shapes
9. Don't get bug down with details. Skip them if you have to.

loading the Tea layer by planning for your complementary. Leave whites for high light

Tilting your board to stop the over flow of washes

Unify your shadows and paint your focus. Break up chunks of solid colors to create interest

Another example of the base layer (Tea layer)

An example of tea layer. Connecting shape shapes while keeping in mind warm and cool relationships

Thicken the honey layer to intensify the focus and contrast. Use dry brush strokes on figure to suggest movements

Completed piece by Alvaro

Understanding Herman Pekel's approach

A while back, I purchased a ton of DVDs for my students.
I decided to do the leg work and share with everyone the important tips shared by these Artists in their DVDs. This is not a replacement and I highly urge you to purchase the real disc to pick up everything shared in their videos.


Herman Pekel is a famous watercolorists from Australia.
Amazing talent with a great sense of humor.  I love this guy and particularly love the looseness found in his work.  Its an absolute joy to see someone so free, so successful and so happy. I aspire to be the same.

Brushes:
He used only one Sable Kolinsky most of the time.

Palette:
His palette is quite limited and he adjust accordingly
Some of his staple colors.

Ultramarine Blue
Indian yellow
Cad Yellow
Burn Sienna
Turquoise
Viridian
Gouache white

Important tip: He doesn't clean his palette and leave only 1 compartment totally clean. He takes opportunity in the neutral greys left behind by his contaminated plates. It is important to note he uses fresh paint for most of his techniques. This is important for thick coverage

utilizing the unclean palette for complex greys

Signature move by Herman. He likes to scratch on thick opaque paint for lights. Do not scratch on thin paint

A familiar trick. Warm under washes, charge with thicker paint to cover. Important to let the paint does its own thing in watercolor.

He uses water spray and even his own spit to break up the colors. This allow watercolor to do its own thing and form subtleties/ complexity. He took advantage of transparency

Familiar trick in Alla Prima. Plan the structure of warm and cool and cover as much as possible through its relationship. 

Exaggerate the light to intensify drama and take advantage of watercolor's transparency to cover for cool versus warm underneath

He broke things up more with a spray of gouache.  This makes the painting more interesting/ Complex

An important technique in his work. Dry Brush strokes to retain sparkles of white for lights.

Hermans' Tips & Tricks:

• Utilized underlying washes to create color complexities/complementary . This reduces the reliance on mixing too much and helps with color harmony as well as speed of coverage..
• Let watercolor do its thing.
• Complete with less layers. To compensate for that, you need fresh and thick paint on top.
• Use dry brush strokes to suggest broken lights. Broken lights are everywhere and is key to mood.
• Break things up with spray. ( He used saliva and spit at it for exquisite control)
• Scratch for high light only on thick opaque paint. Scratch on washes damages the paper
• All there is to watercolor painting is Mood and Drama. To do that, you must suggest lights and you need to dramatize its existence and effect to be successful. 
• Take advantage of planning your color structure. E.g Use a warm undertone and cover with thick cool colors , so it renders complexity.

Planning for a Cross-America Painting Trip - Part four (4) Proposal and Grant submission

I finally completed my proposal, ran through an editor and finally submitted them to a few places.

I submitted for the creation grant under NAC this round. Project date may be a tad late.

Here are the things I included in my proposal:

1. Project Description
2. Background
3. Planning Activities
4. Time Line 
5. Expected Results and Benefits
6. Budget

A screen shot of my proposal

I also written to a few companies and packed them a  'Perfect Sketchbooks'. Postage to America was costly.

Writing to corporations for sponsorship.  Giving what I have in hope of help

Though this strategy may never work, I just have to try.
So far I have written to

• Foundations (Grants)
• Airlines (Flight)
• Car Rentals (Road)
• Hotel Groups ( Accommodation)

Positive news:

• The good news !!! I know of two companies who are interested to lend me a bit of helping hand. Personally, I think its such a wonderful/cheap opportunity for companies to engage with passionate individuals who are going out there, doing something. Too often, people pay way too much for negativity or neutrality.
• I learn so much from writing this proposal. Just like a graduate thesis, its an opportunity to deal with fear, uncertainties and to triangulate about what you really want and can do..

Whats ahead :

• I will wait a little bit for the news from the Art Council, Foundations and companies
• If all else fails, I have decided to sink all my savings to build a customized Van from scratch just to fulfill this dream.
• I may crowd-source as this draw closer to the dates (August). In the mean time, I will begin writing the book, 'In-Transit'. I may distribute this electronically for free through the internet. 
• Concurrent to these, I have submitted applications for various residencies abroad for the year 2016. Yup. I spent so much time writing these days.

Major Obstacles :

• Currency- The US Dollar is climbing too rapidly against the Singapore Dollar.
• Insurance in America - Though I can get my friend to purchase a van for me. I may not be able to get the insurance coverage for the vehicle, since I'm a foreigner. I am looking into this now.

Commute Sketches of 2014

Selected sketches made on the SMRT Train in the year 2014.
Sketching allowed me to forget about everything and my surroundings.

Do people actually know ? Not really. I usually bring along a tiny sketchbook and isn't screaming for attention.

Mobile users - easy sketches

Typically people will resume back into their pose even if they move about.

Direct take

Buses are toughest but if you hold on. They hold on.

Standing sketch

Another standing sketch

Contrapposto 101

After work

Cell phone or sleeping.

Ipad or Iphone

In deep thought

Girl and her mobile

Buses again

Mum and her mobile

the distanced between them

waiting for my bus

in the bus

Beautiful lighting in the train today

beautiful back

Sleep

Overlapping actions

Same shit different day

men with tatoo

nap time

How to be a Sucessful Artist.

I recently been spending time, sitting down and thinking about how to become a successful Artist.
Too often, we are surrounded by Bozos who constantly stigmatize the Arts / Artists.

Anyhow,  I found this article on Fortune, titled " 3 Keys to making it as an Artist".
This led me to Paul Klein videos on 'how to succeed as an Artist".

Here are some key points to take note and I find them extremely useful




1) Diversification:  Trying out various methods before you narrow down what may work for you. Structure a multiple revenue model so you can figure out which model works.

2) Be weird. The whole point is to stand out from the crowd. You may invite unwanted attention but attention for a start is far better than NO attention. Think about how you would catch fishes ? Cast your net out and filter out the unwanted fishes.

3) Think positive . Telling someone that you haven't sold a painting is not going win you anything. People want to be associated with someone with a rising trajectory. Have a rising trajectory.

4) Be Distinctive. Someone must be able to tell your work right away. Best way to do that is to BE YOURSELF

5) Understand that Art is subjective and not objective like businesses. Out of 400 people, most won't like the same Artist. Unlike sports, the fastest painter won't get the gold medal because Art is subjective.

6) 50% of an Artist time has to be spend outside of the studio -Building relationship and community is the key to success. If you are brilliant and no one knows you, you are brilliant only to yourself.

7) Differentiate Strategy from Vision. You can always change your strategies. This includes what style of work, what size, whether you take commission or not.

8) There are so many different Art villages around. This can be teaching Art, illustration and etc. Pick the village you want to belong.

9) Look for a mentor. Chances are good that someone else have been through what you been through and he/she is willing to help.

10) Success: Different people look at this differently. Some want to attract attention, some wanted to make a lot of money. Some wanted to be in history books. Definite your success and structure your plan to inch closer to that. Your Artists statement becomes your diary to keep track of progress.

11) Advanced Idea: Some Artists are bad in selling and it may be a good idea to have a business partner.

12) Creativity : Its important for an Artists to apply his/her creativity in her career as much as he

13) Attitude: This is important. Someone once asked:" Whats the secret to sincerity?" If you can fake that, you got it made.

14) Get your ass in the game. Opportunity are not gonna come.

Link to consider further readings
http://whatsgoingon-dawoudbeysblog.blogspot.sg/2008/12/advice-to-young-or-emerging-artists.html

Urban sketches of Jurong GRC

A while ago, I completed 20 exclusive sketches in 20 leather bound "The Perfect Sketchbook'. All proceeds from the sale of these 20 leather bound limited edition PERFECT SKETCH BOOKS were donated to Taman Jurong CCC Community Development and Welfare Fund.

Here are a selected few.

Bukit Batok West Ave 8. I live near this last plot of empty land.

Japanese Garden. Quite a beautiful place to chill.

Overlooking the greens of Chinese Garden Subway Station

Chinese Garden is quite beautiful

Chinese Garden

Jurong J CUBE. A place to catch a movie and ice skate

Jurong Hospital . A mega hospital on its way

A Buddhist Temple at Bukit Batok West Ave 6

JTC Building