Who's the Boss?

"Parked Tree" (pastel, 12x9 inches)

Well, a week ago I said I'd take the Daily Painting thing one day at a time, and I made it a week. I had an epiphany yesterday while working on my newest batch of underpaintings, and I realized that when the pressure of the Daily Painting Machine was creating Stress in my life, then it was time to stop taking it so seriously! I mean, who's the Boss here, huh? Ok, I know I have workaholic tendencies, and I'm very serious about living up to the goals I set for myself - and most especially the Goals I post online for all to see! (...which is sometimes the only way I ever get anything done, lol.) And I've done 30-in-30's before with no problems (or at least no problems that prevented me from getting it done) so on the one hand I couldn't understand why this first month of my new open-ended Daily Painting Goal should be so difficult.

Really! But several things coalesced yesterday in my mind and foremost of those thoughts was the simple and pure Enjoyment I was getting out of working on the new batch of underpaintings. So much that when my stressed out workaholic pointed out to me that if I didn't pause this batch process and get at least one of these pastelled to the finish for yesterday's post, I wouldn't have a post for the day.

yesterday's batch of underpaintings... first layer finished

UGH!! That thought was SO annoying that I only gave it about 5 seconds of consideration before replying, "Shut. Up! I'm HERE. In my STUDIO. WORKING, and ENJOYING it. And how DARE you interrupt me and tell me what to do!!"

So, I continued to finish the first underpainting layer on all 19 new little paintings-in-progress, then I went back to the house and made dinner.

After dinner, my competitive left-brained workaholic needed to justify my flippant decision to skip a post, so I looked up a few of my favorite Daily Painters and collected some data...

I was happy to find out that Julian Merrow-Smith had posted 267 paintings in his first year, and an average of 203 paintings per year across the 15 years that he's been posting his famous Postcards From Provence. Carol Marine, my personal introduction to Daily Painting, posted 319 in her first year as a Daily painter, and 225 per year average across 13 years. And so just out of curiosity I checked on Duane Keiser, the "original" Daily Painter, and found that he had a whopping 388(!) posts in his first year, but an average of only 111 posts per year for the following 14 years.

It seems my impression that "Daily Painters" actually post daily on a continuous basis has been a myth all along. (Although starting off strong seems to be key!)

I'm so relieved!!

To top if off, this morning on the way to the grocery store, someone talking on NPR who had written some book was saying that these days it's important not to stress yourself about work. Just do what you can and make sure you allow yourself time to just "be." I only heard a snippet of the interview but that part really hit home.

So, my new revised Daily Painting Life Goal will be to paint and post as often as I can enjoy doing it, and just try to beat my 13 posts/month average as much as I can.

And, oh yeah, NO STRESS!!

Have you had any recent arguments with your self over how to use your time or what you think you need to do vs. what your soul cries out for? (Sometimes what you really need to do IS what your soul cries out for!) I'd love to hear from you!

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Careful What You Wish For

"Mooove Back!" (pastel, 16x8 inches)

Our times have changed so dramatically in such a short time. Just two months ago I was sketching portraits for my 25th year at the San Antonio Rodeo, surrounded by hoards of people (well, on Saturdays at least!) Then I woke up one day in March and it seemed as if my entire calendar for the foreseeable future was wiped clean.

For the first couple days of cancellations, I was frankly shocked and a little depressed, wondering where my income would come from. But at heart I've always been one to take life as it comes and follow the opportunities that life presents to me. An idea from another artist prompted me to have a Studio Sale, which has been quite successful thanks to my wonderfully supportive clients! (You know who you are, and Thank You!)

In week 2 and 3 of these strange isolated days, the new reality has begun to settle in, and I've been seeing this as a golden opportunity to handle those critical actions that have constantly been pushed to the bottom of the to-do list since 2016... namely CLEAN UP THE COMPUTER, and the surrounding office! 😂 (and next.... the Master Closet!?)

But humming just beneath the surface of all this domestic activity is the strong, pervasive desire that has been plucking at my mind for months, digging it's way through the frustrations of juggling several businesses and scheduling conflicts. That little voice is telling me "I just want to be a Daily Painter!" In the tradition of Julian Merrow-Smith, Dwayne Kaiser and Carol Marine.......... Drop the events, the craft shows, the festivals... I just want to paint, and post, and see where that leads.

(I've been half-heartedly attempting to paint daily since 2011, but my average has dropped off. Sure, the unwritten "rules" of Daily Painting are not as firmly followed as in the early years of the movement. Even the big names don't paint/post EVERY day any more. But most of them did - for years!)

So the little voice is saying "..What are you waiting for? We've cleared your schedule... "

I'm filled with sadness and regret that it has taken a global pandemic to finally bring this little voice to the forefront. But that just firms my resolve to make this opportunity worth the effort. I'll be taking this adventure one day at a time, and we'll see how far it goes.

I sincerely hope you have not had any friends or loved ones severely affected by this virus. How have the forced stay-at-home rules and the changed situations affected your daily life and your future goals?

Today is Day 1 of April. I invite you to follow along with my journey and I'd love to hear from you!

Follow my Daily Paintings

Background Binds (What to Do?)

"Mondo" with photo reference

I recently had an inquiry from a friend about what do do with backgrounds.

Hi Rita, 
I just discovered your art recently and I love the colors and the expressions of your animals, just beautiful. I am struggling to learn to paint in pastels myself, and deciding when to use which color is especially difficult for me. I was wondering how you determine which colors to use in your backgrounds for your animal portraits, do you have any tips?


Color is a complicated question, and one that I've learned is answered best by "value and temperature." I recently wrote an article on my Art Journal Blog about this, see here: http://ritakirkmanjournal.blogspot.com/2014/11/value-and-temperature-or-how-do-i.html

Backgrounds can sometimes present the greatest challenge in a painting. Especially when the painting is of a recognizable subject that holds its own as a center of interest and is easy enough to paint using a reference. But what about when your subject is surrounded by other objects that you don't want to include?

Sometimes, in my reference photo, I find that the background is perfectly lovely and I want to paint it exactly how I see it (..This doesn't happen very often!!) Usually, I have to use artistic license:

"Azul" with photo reference

I usually ask myself when I'm building up my under painting, "Do I want this subject to stand out boldly from the background, or do I want it to harmonize subtly with the background and the painting as a whole?"

If I want to be bold I use contrasting values. (dark behind the light parts and light behind the dark parts.)

"Bianca" and "Inky"

If I want to be subtle and harmonious (a more recent goal of mine,) I try for analogous colors and very close values from subject to background:

"Paella" and "Mr. Frost"

And usually, my subjects are outdoors, so in what I call my simple "default" background, I habitually use the standard laws of atmospheric perspective, and use cooler (and sometimes lighter and/or more neutral) colors in the far background, and warmer landscape colors in the closer background:


I've also gotten into the habit of keeping the backgrounds "fuzzy", meaning no crisp edges anywhere in the background. This helps with the feeling of  a soft focus that sets off the subject by contrast, and remains "farther away."

As a last point,always try to use some of the same colors in your background as in your subject. This will help assure color harmony, no matter which other value contrasts you're aiming for.

After a while, you'll learn how to completely ignore what's in your image background, and create a background that will best support your star subject!

(Personally, larger compositions have tended to give me the most background troubles. If you'd like to read more about my struggles with backgrounds, here's a perfect example from a while back. I wrote about "Leader of the Pack", in two posts:
http://ritakirkman.blogspot.com/2010/08/newest-cow-painting-progression-photos.html
and
http://ritakirkman.blogspot.com/2010/10/leader-of-pack-finally-really-finished.html)

"Leader of the Pack" (2010, pastel, 32x32 inches) first finish and final finish

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear from you if you found this helpful!

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Scan Pastel Paintings for Better Prints

A recent question from an artist friend asked about how I get good image files for making prints:

"I wanted to tell you that I think your art is beautiful and inspiring. I work with pastels also. May I ask you a question: If you do giclees, what is the best way? Is there such a thing as scanning the art, do you take a photo?"

Here's my answer (with a few revisions to make a better blog post!)

Yes! Scan it!

I do scan all my artwork, whether I make prints or not, so that I have an accurate, high-resolution image file for my records. I highly recommend scanning artwork (and pastel is perfectly fine being placed down on the glass.) My current scanner is an Epson V700; it's been the best one I've had so far, and has lasted the longest.
Scanning small works are easy, as they fit well in the scan bed:

I've also learned not to be TOO picky with getting an exact color match on the print (I had a cheap little hp scanner years ago that really captured exact color - except couldn't separate the very darkest values [has to do with D-Max rating]) Every scanner will be a little different and you just get used to learning how to get the best out of it. This Epson came with Silverfast SE software which I really like.

Scan vs. Photo 

Sometimes I will just photograph a painting if I'm away from home and need a quick post. The best way, in my opinion, to photograph artwork (if, like me, you don't have all the expensive photography lights and meters to balance everything perfectly) is to set the painting on a shady porch in daylight and, standing right over it, aim straight down with your camera and zoom in to just around the painting, making sure the edges are squared with your viewfinder. (If the painting is too large to stand over, lean it against the house instead.)

Cameras with better lenses will capture better quality images of your art, but there can be variations in temperature that are hard to manage without professional lighting and know-how. And, in my own experience, the clarity and crispness of the tiny details always seems to fall short through a camera (at least with pastel anyway.) Usually, a good camera photo will be sufficient for an image posted online, what with all the variances in other people's monitors anyway, but I really prefer a scan when I want to make a print.

To show you an example of a painting that I photographed and also scanned, here's "BFF" (16x16 in.) in both images. The slightly warmer image on the left was from the photo. The other is much more accurate tone and clarity (scanned.)

This is even more noticeable at full resolution, which you can see in the cropped images below (click and zoom in for a better comparison.)

Large Pastels on Small Scanner?

And yes, the scanner is just a normal desktop size, but with larger work I scan in sections and splice it together in Photoshop. I actually lay the scanner on the floor, move the painting carefully between scans without dragging, and wipe off the glass every few scans. (A heavy book comes in handy when weighting edges and corners to keep the large painting on the scanner bed.) It is labor intensive but still MUCH cheaper than going somewhere that has one of those huge flatbed scan things. (It's also much easier when working on a stable surface like gatorboard or some other board. A large work on paper would really need to be mounted on a firm surface to keep it flat over the scanner.)

Here is what one of my large paintings look like right after I scan it, and before it's put together. Each of the separate parts is one scanned area. In Photoshop this would be 16 separate layers.

The extra section with the nibbling ear is the first section I scanned. I always start with an area that has the highest contrast so that the scanner can get the greatest range of lights and darks accurately metered. I also overlap each section to give myself leeway when assembling the whole. (And also because when the painting is face down on a scan bed, it's hard to see where its scanning! So I move it in short increments to be doubly sure I'm not missing any parts.)

Then, after it's all put together (that might be info for another post...) ...Voila! A 300dpi full-sized image ready to print.