cpartist is.

Thanks Delilah. Maybe I can email her

'cpartist is.'

I have to wonder what this means, please? Other people understood it!

An artist

RoseAbbey changed the title. It was a question originally.

cpartist is a very talented colored pencil artist who hangs out a lot on the Building A Home forum. :)

The question I have has do with acrylic painting so maybe she is not the right person to ask.

I've done plenty of acrylic painting in my day. I just choose not to anymore as I'm a lazy artist who hates having to clean up, or if I need to stop suddenly, hate to worry about brushes and paint drying out. :)

What is it you're trying to do? Do you have a particular artist who's look you are trying to emulate? Size?

BTW: Thank you okla78.

BTW: Feel free to message me if I don't respond right away. I don't frequent this forum like I do some of the others, although once my house is built, I probably will be living on this forum. :)

Cpartist, here is the art piece as per my message.

Rose, that's really cool. I'm not ordinarily a fan of abstract art, but I love the saturated colors so much.

This makes me think of Klimt. How *does* one achieve a color that appears to 'glow? (Zero art training or ability: Me.)

I just love this piece too. I think it is the under painting and then the layers on top that creates that effect.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but it appears to be much more involved. Yes the background might have started with black but my guess is it's not a true black and that it's shaded slightly depending on where it is. I say that because what is making it glow I believe is the use of complementary colors at least underneath the red areas.

While it looks relatively simple, it's really a complicated piece with nuanced layers of color.

How *does* one achieve a color that appears to 'glow? (Zero art training or ability: Me.)

A thorough knowledge of color and how color next to color works together, plus a thorough knowledge of values.

Oh that's too bad :(

This is the piece I was thinking of before I saw that beautiful one above. Doesnt look as complicated to me what what do you think. Is this something a beginner could paint?

Have you ever done a painting before? Taken any color classes? Painting a good painting is not just squeezing some paints onto a palette and dabbing paint on a canvas. Honestly, it takes years and years to make it look easy.

GIve it a go. Just don't expect it to come out the same. You might like it anyway.

Sorry for the terrible photo. I bought these off ebay (sans frames). The paintings (oil knife??) were very reasonably priced. Will look up artist info if you're interested. She does respond to email (e.g.,

cpartist, I havent painted before, I do realize that it is not just squeezing paint on the canvas. and dabbing it around, although to be honest there are some abstract paintings that do look like that! The more I think about it, I want to buy the first abstract, but will wait until my red ottoman is delivered so I can envision the colors better.

snookums, art supplies arent cheap. I priced out the three 24x48 canvas, paint, and supplies I think I would need and it comes out to approx $400 definitely cheaper than buying the piece but if I dont like what I painted, which after seeing that piece I probably wouldnt like my own, I would have wasted that money. I love the light affect in that piece which I probably couldnt achieve.

Beautiful art gracefullyaged!

Then I guess I don't understand why you are asking.

There's a site called WetCanvas.com which is for aspiring artists and also accomplished artists. I'm a trained artist and have done art since childhood. What looks simple is usually the most complicated and what looks hard is sometimes easy when it comes to art. I urge you to go to wetcanvas and join, (free) it's so exciting to see what novices can accomplish and also the the experienced people. The categories are listed and, once registered, you can ask questions, see examples, use the learning techniques etc. If you like art you will love this site, especially the tutorials. Also there is Utube where you can find tutorials on doing an abstract. Good luck, I'm SURE you can do it.

Thanks yayagal, I will look up that website. I have looked at a lot of U tube to pick up some tips Abstract definitely looks a lot easier than it is.

Wetcanvas is a very good site but there are many who also who think they know more than they do, so when taking advice first look at the artwork of the person you're taking advice from.

Another thought is to see if the artist has giclee prints which are normally much less expensive than the original. You might ask about that, although it won't have the lovely textural feel that is in the original.

Additionally, if you have high quality outdoor art shows in your area, I highly recommend scoping them out for more affordable art. I do one outdoor art show every year in Philadelphia. It's the only one I do.

Thanks cpartist.

We have an art show here in the summertime too, It is usually held in our city park,

Just looking again at your inspiration piece of art and thinking maybe you could make it with cut up pieces of paper and overlap with water colors in the areas you want color. It could be very interesting. I may try one myself. I'll do mine on heavy cardboard before I try anything pricey. This is a good after Xmas project.

Here's another idea, melted crayon paintings, they're gorgeoushttps://www.google.com/search?q=Melted+crayon+art&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8#q=Melted+crayon+art+abstract+

yayagal, I watched a video on the crayon one, it is quite messy, but looked pretty good.

I am going to go out and buy a small canvas and some acrylic paint and play around and see what happens.

Go for it!!!!!

cpartist, any tips you could give me regarding my inspiration piece on how to get that look would be much appreciated.

Rose, I'll message you later tonight with my email and then you can send me a larger jpg of it so I can see it more closely. Once I do, I can offer more suggestions. :)

May I suggest that when you buy supplies you check out online retailers. Many catalog sources also offer online catalogs and way cheaper prices than any brick and mortar stores.. I don't know if I am allowed to give names. I buy all of my artist supplies on line and have done so for years. I paint in oils and use water miscible oils which need no turpentine, just water to clean brushes.

Also, there are expensive colors and not so expensive colors and for a beginner, you can get excellent results from a $6 tube of paint. Don't need to spend 18.

There are tons of self help books from the library. And they do help. Even PBS art instruction shows are helpful.

thanks cpartist.

westsider, I was wondering about the quality of paint I should buy. I actually watched a video comparing "student paint" vs "professional paint" in red, how the cheaper paint sort of fades when mixing with water, where the professional paint stayed a rich red. that is what I love about that painting, is the richness of the colors.

Stick with Golden Acrylics for the painting. You don't need a dozen colors because you can mix colors. Based on the painting you need full bodied paints.

RoseAbbey, I can't message you. You have your message feature turned off.

how do I turn them on.

edited; I think I turned on the message feature cpartist. Please try again.

cpartist answered your question re professional or student grade. Golden Acrylics, a brand, is golden and professional grade. I haven't bought acrylics in a long time except for gesso, for foundation and a cheap white. Colors, generally, should be considered in concert with the other colors in the painting. Most paintings, other than abstract, non-representational, should have unity. Your paintings to copy don't require that, imo. And if the color doesn't seem right, you can easily paint over it. You can buy a cadmium red, expensive, for example, or buy a cad red hue. Both professional grade. There is more pigment in professional grade than in student grade. So, even within a line of paint, there are choices of colors. As a beginner, I would choose professional grade but not the most expensive choices. The good thing is that the workhorse colors, whites, ivory blacks, ochres, earth tones-browns are cheaper than cads. Of course, you can mix.

Another thought-each line of paint has a "true" primary color. Often the paint company will call that particular color by it's company name-such as the Grumbacher Paint Company will call that 'true' red as Grumbacher red. Down the road as you become more experienced, you may wish to replicate the color of a particular object and it is easier to mix a spot on color with 'true' primary colors and black and white. I had one college level painting class where one unit was on true color and we had to nail, copy precisely the color of 3 objects. I am only saying this because if you are now buying paint, and the true primaries are reasonably priced, in relation to other colors in the line, it may be of some future benefit to choose a true primary. Not a big deal. Just file this info in the maybe, someday file. Most often, clerks in an art sup store are knowledgable and can tell you which colors are true. Perhaps they ask a colleague. It may be in the literature of the manufacturer. Enjoy. It will be beautiful and fun.

thank you westsider. I have a folder now in which to keep all this information. I will copy your post in to my folder. I look at videos all the time and jot down things that I think might help me with my painting.

Is there any tips that you can give me regarding the inspiration piece. I need all the help I can get :>)

I would consider looking into not only Golden paints, but also their mediums for the acrylic paints. Looking at the painting, a gel medium might have been added to make a thicker paint. Also may have added a slow drying medium for the background blending.

roobear, I remember you from a few years back! You were gracious to help some of us learn how to photoshop.

Adding those tips to my folder. I read about mediums, in helping so the paint doesnt dry too fast. I will definately need that. thank you so much.