Hello Art students!  Congratulations to all the Zoom students who have survived art classes online.  It was a learning curve but I think we are getting quite proficient!!  We've all managed to carve out little niches in our homes, arranged the lighting, the camera and our microphones.  Thank-you for making this such a rewarding experience!
So - regardless if you are a Zoom student or a student returning after Covid (hopefully down the road to Spring/Summer) - we will all be photographing our own painting progress each week and then, finally, photographing the finished painting.  
Well, we need a little help here.  I've titled this Blog Not This because these following photos are what I don't want to see anymore.  Please don't take this personally!!!!!  It is not aimed at any one of you!  This has happened so many times since I've been having you take pictures of your own work - it needs to be addressed.  It is just another level of awareness in our art progress.

For our weekly photos, which you send to me for corrections after each class, you can keep the painting on the easel.  BUT it needs to be square and not all manner of cock-eyed perspective.  It is really difficult for me to try and help with the paintings if they are out of whack.  And, one more thing, the photo you send me should be large enough for me to see it.

So.....until our next class - may the art force be with you.  AND - stay well!

Hello wonderful Zoom artists!!!
Here are some notes to consider when you are setting up a painting area at home:

• MAKE SURE YOU READ THE DIRECTIONS THAT COME WITH YOUR EASEL!!!!
• You should be able to sit up straight without hunching over.  All the easels you have have adjustable heights for standing or sitting.  Also make sure the angle of your easel is more upright than slanted.  My teacher used to tip here easel (a heavy one like mine in the cellar) forward so she would have less glare from the light.
• You do not need 400 watts of light so you can be seen from space!!!!!  40 or 60 watt bulbs are enough.  One light to light your painting and your paint area is enough.
• Lefties - light should come from directly overhead behind you or from the right - so that your painting hand doesn't cast a shadow on your painting.
• Righties - light should come from directly overhead behind you or from the left - so that your painting hand doesn't cast a shadow on your painting
• Cameras - Laptop cameras are "pretty much junk."  So says "Zoom for Dummies."  I bought a little video camera for about $40.  It attaches to a USB port on my laptop and clips to the top of my laptop or monitor.
• Camera should be mid chest up.  In other words - no butt shots.  So find something high to rest your laptop or mobile device on.  Do not sit too close to the camera.  In order for me to see your paintings clearly (besides investing in a cheap video camera), the camera should be directly facing the painting.  I can't tell you how hard it is for me to see the distorted angles.  I do not need to see your painting while you are painting it.  I only need to see it when you need help or I stop by.  Also, some of your cameras are really far from your paintings.  Maybe play with your set up a little bit.
• Check out my set up.  I have a moveable, adjustable cart for my easel and palette, a moveable cart with my supplies, a little bitty camera on top of my monitor facing my painting, skylight is on my left as I paint during the day.  At night I have a spotlight on a high, photographic tripod that I can move to my left.

The desk and cart I have were inexpensive but very versatile for what I need right now.

• Make sure you UPDATE YOUR ZOOM APP!  Just don't do it right before a meeting.  Also a good idea to test your microphone and speaker before you enter Zoom.  Look in your settings button.  Get used to your devices.  Yes, it is a royal paint but I promise you we all need to be doing this these days.
• See you in class!

Thank-you to Jodi for asking for some easel info in my blog.

2 kinds:
  Wooden
I have a giant wooden easel that I was using in my cellar until Covid-19 forced me upstairs in my little 2nd floor loft!  I bought this easel when I took classes from Helen Van Wyk back in 1993!!  Still love it but there is no way I would ever get it up 2 flights of stairs.  If you are going to go wooden - the bigger ones work better, easier to get the canvas supports to go up and down.  Wood does expand and contract in various types of weather so sometimes the moving parts get stuck.  Also my big easel was in the $200 - $300 range way back when.  It has been a wonderful workhorse (easel means "donkey" in Dutch!).  I have things hanging from it, things screwed into it, an old cabinet I use as my tabouret plopped on the front supports for my palette and medium.  Tools hanging from everywhere!  Really - it's a love.
Lots of my students have bought lovely, sturdy wooden table easels which they now use in our Zoom classes.  Those I have seen look like they are of quality craftsmanship.  In other words - don't go cheap.
​
  Metal
These are great easels for setting up quick, moving about the house or carrying out on a hike if you want to paint pleine aire (outside).  My advice - don't get one with lots of knobs and latches on it unless you have an advanced degree in Physics!!!!  You can get a lovely, sturdy, fairly simple, adjustable easel at Jerry's Artarama.  It's called Creative Mark Napoli easel.  The easel runs from $43 to $60.  I think the difference in price is what dependent on what color you choose!  The legs are adjustable and it can hold a fair sized canvas.  My Zoom easel currently has a 24 x 30 canvas on it with no problem.  I have a low bookcase that I use for my tabouret to hold my palette and Gamsol (odorless medium).  On this I rest the 2 front legs at their shortest length.  The back leg is extended all the way to the floor in the corner of my long, narrow loft.  Good support and easy to move around.  I've had this since I lived in Framingham 26 years ago.  It was a gift from my Beginning Art class at Keefe Tech. The price is certainly better than the $200 - $300 range.  Hope this helps!
​Happy Painting!

Math completely and totally hurts my head.  I have made a chart of measurements to make the photo ratio  (the photo I am currently working from) equal to the canvas size.  These are random measurements - you can fill in the blanks.

The formula is:
   divide the canvas size until you get a measurement that equals or is close to your
​   photograph size.  If it is not equal to the canvas ratio - you must crop/adjust your 
   photo.

I have provided a few measurements from the standard size canvases I use.  If your photo does not meet these measurements, continue dividing until you are close.  Adjust the photo.  If the decimal is larger than .5 then round to the nearest #.  In other words 5.6" rounded off would be 6".

In the course of a week of art classes (now being done on Zoom) there is one rule that comes up over and over.  When I ask the question, "What are you using?" and the answer is Black or White, straight out of the tube, singly or together - I must repeat the mantra below:
Tubed White is not a color!!!  Tubed Black is not a color!!!!  Therefore, Tubed Black and Tubed White used together are NOT colors.  Zero plus Zero does not equal One.
Now, before someone decides to get offended by this - the white and black that companies manufacture, across the board, are flat and dead unless color is added to them.  Any of the darker colors added together make gorgeous, living blacks.  And yes, black can be added then to darken if necessary.  Likewise, just a tinge of color added to White makes a rainbow of lights and grays.
I can see this from across the room!  The black and/or white stand out as flat, empty and dead!  In nature, black is filled with color!!!  White is filled with color.  
Until I studied with Helen Van Wyk, I was taught never, ever use Tubed Black because the Black would overpower any color it was mixed with.  This is true of Mars Black and Lamp Black - they are opaque and muffle any color mixed with them - hence they are not on my legal list of colors.  Ivory Black, on the other hand, is transparent and makes a million galaxies of gray.  Beautiful gray, another dimension to our palette of colors.
I use Zinc white - mostly because Helen Van Wyk used it but I find it warmer than Titanium White.  And, because our whole earth is warmed by the sun, I go with the warmer white.  

​My last and most beloved teacher was Helen Van Wyk.  After years of taking classes in drawing and painting, Helen provided all the basic answers that would have been such a help when I started.  So - here is Helen's color list, my Bible when it comes to color:

Basic Palette
Zinc White 

Warm Colors
Yellows
Cadmium Yellow Light
Yellow Ochre
Burnt Umber

Oranges
Cadmium Orange
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna

Reds
Cadmium Red Light
Grumbacher Red
Venetian (also Lite or Terra Rosa) Red
Indian Red

Cool Colors
Alizarin Crimson
Thalo Green
Thalo Blue

Ivory Black

Extra Colors
Sap Green
Manganese Violet
Dioxazine Purple
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Yellow Dark
Thalo Red Rose
Thalo Yellow Green

Oh my!!!!  After quite a few years, Weebly has added a Blog page - and I have been thinking about writing a blog again!  Perfect.
Hmmm...what will go here?  That is the question.  Well, first and foremost art questions and comments from my students.  And then....there might be some Astrological thoughts, some philosophy thoughts, possible some vague thoughts about our present government atmosphere and maybe some thoughts about my favorite movies, a book or two, what I am currently working on (painting, house, yard...).
You will probably need a sense of humor to read my stuff.  And, a nice person - because I will joyfully eradicate any comments that are mean, cruel and downright nasty.  If you can't handle that - get over it and learn to treat people kindly.
​Well, anyway, it's a place for me to put down some thoughts.  There's usually too many of them running around in my head at the same time so this will be a new and exciting adventure.
​- Kathy