The Painter's Primer part 1

A survival kit.

BY  IRWIN GREENBERG

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NOVEMBER 21, 2013    LINEA

Irwin Greenberg circulated this primer to his students at the High School of Art & Design and the Art Students League of New York. He died, age 87, in 2009

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1. Paint every day.

2. Paint until you feel physical strain. Take a break and then paint some more.

3. Suggest.

4. When at an impasse, look at the work of masters.

5. Buy the best materials you can afford.

6. Let your enthusiasm show.

7. Find a way to support yourself.
8. Be your own toughest critic.

9. Develop a sense of humor about yourself.

10. Develop the habit of work. Start early every day. When you take a break, don’t eat. Instead, drink a glass of water.

11. Don’t settle for yourself at a mediocre level.

12. Don’t allow yourself to be crushed by failure. Rembrandt had failures. Success grows from failure.

13. Be a brother (or sister) to all struggling artists.

14. Keep it simple.

15. Know your art equipment and take care of it.

16. Have a set of materials ready wherever you go.

17. Always be on time for work, class, and appointments.

18. Meet deadlines. Be better than your word.

19. Find a mate who is really a mate.

20. Don’t be envious of anyone who is more talented than you. Be the best you can be.

21. Prizes are nice, but the real competition is with yesterday’s performance.

22. Give yourself room to fail and fight like hell to achieve.

23. Go to sleep thinking about what you’re going to do first thing tomorrow.

24. Analyze the work of great painters. Study how they emphasize and subordinate.

25. Find out the fewest material things you need to live.

26. Remember: Michelangelo was once a helpless baby. Great works are the result of heroic struggle.

27. There are no worthwhile tricks in art; find the answer.

28. Throw yourself into each painting heart and soul.

29. Commit yourself to a life in art.

30. No struggle, no progress.

31. Do rather than don’t.

32. Don’t say “I haven’t the time.” You have as much time everyday as the great masters.

33. Read. Be conversant with the great ideas.

34. No matter what you do for a living, nurture your art.

35. Ask. Be hungry to learn.

36. You are always the student in a one-person art school. You are also the teacher of that class.

37. Find the artists who are on your wavelength and constantly increase that list.

38. Take pride in your work.

39. Take pride in yourself.

40. No one is a better authority on your feelings than you are.

41. When painting, always keep in mind what your picture is about.

42. Be organized.

43. When you’re in trouble, study the lives of those who’ve done great things.

44. “Poor me” is no help at all.

45. Look for what you can learn from the great painters, not what’s wrong with them.

46. Look. Really look.

47. Overcome errors in observing by exaggerating the opposite.

48. Critics are painters who flunked out.

49. Stay away from put-down artists.

50. If you’re at a loss for what to do next, do a self-portrait.

10 Stenciling Tips- Part 2

Stenciling is a key technique in a mixed-media arsenal because they’re so incredibly versatile. Artists never have to settle for a cookie cutter look, thanks to the huge array of gorgeous designs and mediums that can be used with them, including acrylic paint, watercolor, pencils, resists, bleach, and inks. These 10 tips for stenciling are geared to up your stencil game and ensure maximum fun and creativity. Here is part 2, tips 6-10.

6. Found out. The bounty of stencil designs isn’t limited to pre-made plastic or metal stencils. In Stencil Craft, Margaret Peot creates artwork using found items, such as leaves, keys, coins, mesh bags, and hardware. Experiment with various items along with different color mediums and tools to see what effects you can achieve. She suggests trying brushing and sponging on paint, and spraying on color. For even more depth, layer lace over found items, then use a spray color to create more complex patterns
Stenciling with with found objects, such as leaves and netting, produces unique results. (Photo by Christine Polomsky)

7. Customize it. Creating your own stencils with basic tools is easy. Draw a design onto cardstock and cut it out with a craft knife, or, for more sturdiness, use a sheet of mylar and a stencil-cutting tool. In the March/April 2016 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine, Cas Holmes created a stencil by drawing a poppy with a waterproof pen on a piece of plastic sheeting, then carefully cutting out the image with a craft knife on a cutting mat before painting the image. Using this technique you can stencil on fabric, paper, wood, or canvas for a custom look. To further embellish the design on paper or fabric, stitch around the design by hand or machine.

A handmade stencil becomes a custom element in collage. (Art and photo by Cas Holmes)

8. Rise above. Stencils are handy for creating more than 2-D artwork; make dimensional embellishments that add texture and interest to mixed-media art. Darlene Olivia McElroy and Sandra Duran Wilson show how in their book Alternative Art Surfaces. The process is super easy: Start by stenciling fiber paste (available at art supply stores) onto a sheet of polypropylene plastic, and allow it to dry. Next, peel the fiber paste elements from the plastic and glue them onto your substrate. The fiber paste can be painted when dry, or colored with paint before stenciling, or painted when dry.

Textured stencil designs on this piece were created with stencils and fiber paste.

9. Book it. Make distinctive handmade book covers using stencils, paint, and sturdy paper. Andrew Borloz showed how stencils and color combine to create unique patterns in “Creating a Stenciled Pattern Book” in the January/February 2015 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. His tip for success in making books with stenciled covers and book cloth spines: Create a color chart to help you choose the best color combinations. If stenciling on colored paper, cut small pieces of paper and stencil on them with paint to see how the colors look before committing to them. To create crisp patterns on paper, Andrew recommends pouring acrylic paint onto a palette, and lightly dabbing a cosmetic wedge into the paint—the sponge should be moist, not wet. Then, carefully and lightly dab the paint onto the stencil, being careful not to push down too hard, which may cause the paint to bleed under the stencil design. Use several colors to create a distinctive ombre effect.

Stenciling with different colors of paint creates an ombre effect. (Art by Andrew Borloz, photo by Sharon White Photography

10. Focus on the focal. A stencil doesn’t just have to create a design—it can be the design. Take, for example, the tunnel book created by Sarinda Jones in the article “Art on the Cellular Level” in the Winter 2014 issue of Pages magazine. In it, she uses hand-cut designs sandwiched between pieces of cardstock to form the pages of the book. She first cut 10 5″ x 5″ pieces of black cardstock, then drew and cut out circles in the middle of each one. She then drew an abstract pattern stencil design with pencil onto circle-shaped colored cardstock, and cut it out. The cut circles were sandwiched in between two black cardstock pages and glued, and the pages were bound into a spiral book. The result: a dramatic dimensional effect created by the stencil cutouts.

Stencils become the pages and the focus of this art book. (Art by Sarinda Jones, photo by Sharon White Photography)

Nothing is Original...

Is this statement true?

What a good artist understands is that nothing comes from nowhere. All creative work builds on what came before. Austin Kleon
Nothing is completely original.

Jonathan Lethem said that when people call something "original", nine out of ten times they just don't know the references or the original sources involved.

"There is nothing new under the sun" Ecc. 1:9

So we are influenced by who and what we let into our life. Our surroundings, what we choose to believe and think about. What we choose to spend our time and money on and who we choose to spend our quality time with.

Jim Jarmusch,  "Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films,  new films,  music,  books,  paintings,  photographs,  poems,  dreams, random conversations,  architecture, bridges, street signs,  trees,  clouds,  bodies of water,  light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. "

Marcel Duchamp said,  "I don't believe in art. I believe in artists."

Kleon says this is a really good method for studying. If you try to devour the history of your discipline all at once, you will choke.
He says instead to mull over one thinker, writer, artists, activist, role model you really love.  Study everything there is to know about that thinker.  Then find three people that thinker loved, and find out all about them. Repeat this process as many times as you can.

By doing this, you build your own creative lineage.