2018 Pen Paintings (Gallery)

[pat1940]

I think these are beautiful, I would hang them on my wall with no hesitation, love them

[HwyStar]

Thanks so much, Pat! I did do that for my wife in her sewing room. It came out really nicely. I printed it out at 16 x 20 and mounted it behind glass; like a real pastel print and it looks great.

[pat1940]

I bet she is so proud of you, such a wonderful job

[DaveRage]

I love the colours in this, really pleasing to look at!

[HwyStar]

Thanks so much, Dave! That means a lot to me that you like it.

[DarkOwnt]

When do we get painting number 2?

[HwyStar]

Hey, DO!

I have been writing a new EDI/ASN interface for a new client that is moving into our warehouse. It is taking all of my time and I haven't had a chance to paint anything at all.

XML, Amazon, Neiman Marcus, Holt Renfrew, JC Penny, Blue Mercury, 846, 940, 944, 945 file formats... Mumbo Jumbo that just keeps going on for days! It is a three-month-long project that kicks off on August 3rd. Oh, yea... Lot processing too.

When do we get to see some of your new works? I would love to see something new from you!

[HwyStar]

I am considering a new approach to painting real acrylic paintings. At least it is new, for me... Here are my ideas:

1. Take a copyright free image from the internet (https://pmp-art.com) or a landscape image from my phone and use the image as a tracing in ArtRage.

2. Paint a stage one painting that is very "Loose" using the blending Square Canvas 2 brush. Add pleasing colors to it from a very blurred perspective so that the values and colors of the landscape are correct and very painterly. Add more painterly colors to the image since most camera images are to flat. Save the image as a PNG file.

3. Print the image onto 16 x 20 canvas using my Canon printer. Wait a day for the ink to cure. I might consider putting a coat of acrylic varnish on it at this time. Not sure about this step right now.

4. Paint on the printed canvas as a "paint by numbers painting" and allow some of the printed canvas to shine through.

5. I really struggle with mixing real-life colors and may just get a complete set of Liqutex Hard Body paints and just paint from the tube. This brand of paint has the best-covering capability. One of my favorite YT artists paints from the tube and does not mix. He can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCle...gySppuA/videos

6. Varnish the finished "real" painting!

Any thoughts DO? Has anyone else ever tried this approach before with success?

[D Akey]

I am considering a new approach to painting real acrylic paintings. At least it is new, for me... Here are my ideas:

1. Take a copyright free image from the internet (https://pmp-art.com) or a landscape image from my phone and use the image as a tracing in ArtRage.

2. Paint a stage one painting that is very "Loose" using the blending Square Canvas 2 brush. Add pleasing colors to it from a very blurred perspective so that the values and colors of the landscape are correct and very painterly. Add more painterly colors to the image since most camera images are to flat. Save the image as a PNG file.

3. Print the image onto 16 x 20 canvas using my Canon printer. Wait a day for the ink to cure. I might consider putting a coat of acrylic varnish on it at this time. Not sure about this step right now.

4. Paint on the printed canvas as a "paint by numbers painting" and allow some of the printed canvas to shine through.

5. I really struggle with mixing real-life colors and may just get a complete set of Liqutex Hard Body paints and just paint from the tube. This brand of paint has the best-covering capability. One of my favorite YT artists paints from the tube and does not mix. He can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCle...gySppuA/videos

6. Varnish the finished "real" painting!

Any thoughts DO? Has anyone else ever tried this approach before with success?

Rather than varnish I used matte or gloss medium. That you would have to test to see what you want. Gloss is clearer but makes everything shiny which doesn't match acrylic when it's dry, but if you spray everything at the end it may make it uniform. But you'll likely want the paint to look as close to the finish when you're putting it down because the colors and values might shift on you with the final coat of varnish. The matte medium gives a milky dullness which means you may have to paint the whole surface eventually. All depends on how thick you do. You might get away with dry mounting before painting in which case you'll bypass the wet mounting step I'm about to mention. But understand that the mounting has to be solid lest the paper bubble on you later.

You have to be careful with this wet mounting way to push the air bubbles out but you also have to be very careful to not scuff the now delicate paper surface while it's wet. You take matte medium which is what I used, a water bucket, a broad soft sable-like brush (bristle will possibly harm your paper surface and may pull up the pigment when wet), your printed image and some cold press illustration board.

You wet the illustration board (heavy weight board will not tend to buckle so much) so that when you put down your medium it will flow evenly. Not too wet, certainly not dry. So wet illustration board and spread matte medium all over the board. Then wet your print on paper and let some of the excess drain off. It will want to curl so move at a fair clip. Then lay it onto the board so as to minimize air bubbles and push the air out from the middle outward to the edges as you paint over the top with more matte medium.

The trick is to not put too much or too little on. A medium thick coat should be enough to hold it down. And keep the brushing to a minimum. And then let it dry. Make sure there aren't any boogers in the medium on the back as it will tent pole your paper and it may not make a good contact. If the boogers are on the front you can carefully get them off. If you do have the odd small air bubble, you can cut it with a very sharp x-acto knife or razor and press the air out through that hole and press it gently down back into the moist medium holding it to the board. Then gently give it a little more medium on the surface or smooth it out. Do all that when wet. Once dry the paper won't be so flexible and may retain the bubble shape.

As it dries it may want to bow the illustration board so you may want to have it taped to a regular wood board you would use to stretch watercolor paper. It works a bit like stretching watercolor paper in that when wet it will stretch out and will shrink up when drying.

I've done it where I let it air dry and have done it where I used a blow drier. If you use a drier, just watch it carefully.

You may blow it from time to time as you look for short cuts. I didn't paint over photos. I worked over plain old BW xerox paper with line drawings.

If you can afford it, I would use dry mount and bypass all that. But you won't know until you try and evolve your technique if you do it enough. If it's a one shot deal, then you want to go straight to the solution. I got to where I was doing it a lot and the matte medium worked because if you milk up a line drawing that is going to be painted over it's no big deal. It usually worked.

You want to work fairly quickly. And there will possibly be a natural tooth from brushing the medium depending on where the sweet spot is in how much medium to use. But once it's dry it's dry and you won't be able to further manipulate it. The print when doing this will be delicate and can scuff or tear if you're too aggressive. But once dry it should be fairly sturdy -- again, doing it is really the only way to know.

Hope this helps and makes sense as I hope I mentioned enough to run with. So remember that the medium will have a sheen and/or a milkiness to it, as will the paint and you may want to have them match as you paint so it's not distracting and you can match saturation and value levels. But it may not be an issue for you. Also you have to find out how the acrylic stuff sticks to the ink from your printer. It may bead up if the ink resists the plastic of the paint. Again, you really have nothing to lose except minimal cost and some time.

And if it works you're on your way with lots of possibilities presented by digital. One of the nice things about working with a print, you can reduce and enlarge and do all the manipulation stuff ahead of time.

I used to do this all the time as described above. I never had need for dry mounting, but DTP tools were not evolved enough to bother with it other than for quickly transferring a line drawing and playing with various color variations. It may or may not be worth it to you. I also know serious painters who would do digital, print it on a giclee and paint atop that -- no hassle. All you have to do is throw money at it, but if you're making money selling paintings, then the expense is covered.

Have fun.

[Chad Weatherford]

I am considering a new approach to painting real acrylic paintings. At least it is new, for me... Here are my ideas:

1. Take a copyright free image from the internet (https://pmp-art.com) or a landscape image from my phone and use the image as a tracing in ArtRage.

2. Paint a stage one painting that is very "Loose" using the blending Square Canvas 2 brush. Add pleasing colors to it from a very blurred perspective so that the values and colors of the landscape are correct and very painterly. Add more painterly colors to the image since most camera images are to flat. Save the image as a PNG file.

3. Print the image onto 16 x 20 canvas using my Canon printer. Wait a day for the ink to cure. I might consider putting a coat of acrylic varnish on it at this time. Not sure about this step right now.

4. Paint on the printed canvas as a "paint by numbers painting" and allow some of the printed canvas to shine through.

5. I really struggle with mixing real-life colors and may just get a complete set of Liqutex Hard Body paints and just paint from the tube. This brand of paint has the best-covering capability. One of my favorite YT artists paints from the tube and does not mix. He can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCle...gySppuA/videos

6. Varnish the finished "real" painting!

Any thoughts DO? Has anyone else ever tried this approach before with success?

I haven't tried this, but I definitely want to look at printing some of my ArtRage paintings and applying some of the same principles...adding a gel coat and maybe really acrylic paint touches on top. Have you given it a go yet?

Also, those paintings are beautiful!