For starters ....
I've been painting since my grandmother snuck me into my grandfather's studio when I was a little kid. She used to sit me in his stool, put a brand new canvas on his bench and let me have at his good paints and brushes. It used to drive him crazy! I loved it! Eventually he decided that he'd be better off teaching me what to do instead of finding the mess I left behind. So it all started off with them.
The people who honed my abilities and made me the anal retentive artist I am today are Jack and Judith deGraffenreid. They were NYC illustrators before they decided to teach in the rinky-dink college I attended. If you've ever seen a BK Whopper ad you've seen their work. They also did some Star Trek work too. You have them to blame for my opinionated ramblings. Trust me, you WANT these kind of mentors. They'll make you a better artist.
On the type of paint to use...
I just have two words for you.... WINDSOR NEWTON. They make the finest paints and brushes. If you're into watercolor the ONLY brushes to use are Series 7. They last forever and keep a fine point. The best color for monochromatic work is PAYNE'S GREY... it's a gorgeous blue-gray color. WN has two types of oil paints: Artist colors and Newton Oils. Artist colors are more expensive, made from original pigments, and usually last longer on the painting. The difference is really a question of how much money you can afford to spend on your paints.
On black and white....
White and black paint are not colors! Believe it or not, but it's true. All they do is help create a gray scale. In fact, I sparingly use them. Too much white mixed with your paints makes them look chalky. Too much black and the black masks over the color. I've found that I can get a deep dark color without using black at all (even when painting Eric Etebari's raven looks). When I need to do highlights I mix the color and then add white until I get what I'm looking for.
On shadows and highlights...
For some reason this is counterintuitive... at least it was for me when I was starting out. When we think of shadow we think of a coolness (since that's where we want to be on a hot day) and when we think of highlights we think of the light shining on that area. So the first impulse is to paint shadow in blacks/blues and highlights in warms. It turns out that visually we perceive cool colors as being closer and warmer ones as further away. Paint shadows warm colors and highlights cool. That way the eye sees the painting in the right 3D perception.
On mixing color...
Don't mix more than 3 colors together (remember black and white aren't colors). Any more than that and you get muddy brown. Trust me that's what happens and it's ugly. The 3 primary colors I use are cadmium red, cadmium yellow, and ultramarine blue. They work great for flesh tones whether you're using oils or watercolor (I've used them for both medium).. All the paintings you'll see in the painting section are predominantly those 3 colors. That's another key point, keep your paintings predomantly 3 colors with highly areas of other colors. (A good color for sky and water is cobalt blue. I'll let you figure our the rest.)
On those pesky Health Hazard labels...
Trust me the more you read them, the more you'll panic. It's better to ignore them and paint away. Who wants to live forever anyway, right?
On projectors...
Okay, here's a little secret that some artists will never tell you about....projectors. What's a projector? It looks kinda like your slide projector except it can project images that are on opaque paper. It's a tool.that saves time. Some people will project anything and never develop their own skills. You can tell because they're portfolio of work is a mixture of perfectly rendered images (projected ones) along with images that don't look like their subject (hand-rendered ones). In my opinion, there are 2 groups of people who should routinely use a projector routinely: students and professional illustrators. Students should use it so they can focus on other skills AFTER developing their rendering skill. Professional illustrators usually have such an influx of short deadline work they need it for the time sake.
Do I use my projector? Yes. After I create my original sketch (or sketches) for a painting I project the sketch onto the gesso board. I found out the hard way that gesso boards don't erase pencil well and projecting my sketch gives a clean image which will stay hidden under my painting.
On how I set up my paintings...
I first create my sketch (sketches) and project the image onto the gesso board. I sign the image on the gesso board and then spray fix the image with Krylon workable fixative and then brush on an Acryllic Matte Medium. This keeps the sketch on the gesso board permanently. I paint with oils (WN of course!). When I'm finished I sign it in paint on the front and then title and sign it on the back in permanent marker. Then I wait 6 months (yup that long) before I put a final sealer on the painting. I use an acryllic varnish. It's a long process and I only do it when I'm not on deadline.
On my illustrations...
You've probably noticed that my illustrations are of people. That's my specialty. I can't for the life of me do a landscape. Never could. That was my grandfather. He had a gift for that sort of thing. Now he paints the skies. I find it absolutely frustrating to paint that sort of thing. Occassionally I make an attempt... you should see all my unfinished landscapes. Anyway, I paint people.... portraits, full figures, whatever. In college they had me start with sketching eyes, noses, and mouths. It was kind of morbid creepy (ask me to show you those sketches). Why did they do it? Because we identify a person by their eyes, nose and mouth. So if you're trying to render a well known person you better get those 3 things right or no one will ever tell who they are. Additionally, if you're doing a commission piece of someone's family member you better also idealize the rest of the person too. Ask one of my college friends how she learned that one the hard way!
And finally ...
Well, if you're read this far I've either entertained you or you've got nothing better to do. In either case, thanx a bunch for reading. I'm sure there's a hundred and one more things I could add. But I won't. I don't have the bandwidth. Plus sometimes the best teacher is experience and you only get that by doing your artwork. Hopefully this was a bit of help to you. Should you have any questions feel free to email or sign my guestbook!