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Welcome to Tips &
Tricks
This page is for
sharing our trade secrets!
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When using gold leaf
as in an echruseos
painting or on a frame, never, never, never touch the gold leaf with your
fingers; use two 3" x 5" cards to maneuver the gold leaf.
- Deanie Chastain |
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Mixing Acrylics with Latex - Nancy
Cagle
Did you know you can
mix your regular acrylics with latex house paint for changing or improving
colors? That's how I do murals.
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Pricing Art Work
- by Ellen Foster
How to price art work
can be baffling, especially for the beginner. Experienced artists will agree it
varies, depending on how the artist or the client feels about the work. Here
are some possibilities.
1. I wouldn't part with this for less than $1,000.
2. Anxious to sell something: I would take $50.00 for it.
3. Not well known, I would take less than $50.00 for it.
4. My best work so far: Not for sale at this time.
5. Make me an offer. They hardly ever do, but try it.
6. What do you have to trade? Don't overlook this one!
Some artists use this rule: Would I rather have 50 bucks, or would I rather
keep this? Keep going until you reach a price you would part with it for.
Some artists figure time by the hour. Unless it takes months to finish, the
amount of time spent on it may be a factor. Add the cost of materials, which
varies depending on size, cost of framing and other expenses. May and Sept. seem
to be the best months to sell paintings. EBay works for some artists.
Showing at festivals and art shows can tell the artist if the work will sell at
any price. I don't give any of mine away, even to my family. Sometimes I
reduce the price, if I have had it a long time and I need the space for other
work.
Gallery owners expect perfection, so use the best quality frames you can find
and start your work at about $500.00. Plan to spend $80 to $100 and up per frame
and find a gallery to work with. Ask before you frame it what the gallery
requires or prefers.
Best wishes for unlimited success! |
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Ellen Foster, 254-756-0347
© 2004
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Cleaning Acrylic
Paint from Fabric
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You can get acrylic out of fabric (and probably off the
canvas or paper also) with 2 parts Wisk, 1 part ammonia. Rub it in well and then
wash. Nancy Cagle
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Need a FRAME, but
have no money?
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Mount your painting on
a wooden base, and paint the edges of the wood to coordinate with the colors in
the painting! Easy, and cheap! The edges of the base need to be flush with
the edges of the artwork. The base can be composed of a solid piece of wood
[approximately 1" thick - or as thick as you need] , or it can be 4 pieces of
wood fastened together, kind of like stretcher strips. If the later option is
used, there will be an opening left by the 'frame'. In either case, the '
frame' will not be visible when viewing the artwork directly from the front.
However, when mounted this way, the artwork is held away from the wall by the
thickness of the mounting, and the coordination of the colors on the sides can
create a pleasant presentation. Keep painting!! Lillian Lemke-Jacoway
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Easy Acrylics
You
are able to paint on almost any surface with acrylics - any heavy ground:
paper, canvas, watercolor paper, linen, wood. [ I prefer canvas, or
watercolor paper.] Occasionally, you may want to prepare the surface with
Gesso, or white acrylic paint, especially wood, or paper that is not for
specifically designed for painting. Plus, you can paint over an old
painting [not oil, though]. You can easily paint acrylic over an old
watercolor painting. I have turned many 'failed' acrylic and w/c paintings
upside down, and painted a new creation, without any further preparation.
Use some of the areas of color from the old painting, in the new! And, yes,
some of these have even been considered successes. -
Lillian Lemke-Jacoway
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Cleaning Brushes
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Forgot to clean your brushes and
now they're hard as a rock? Wait! Don't throw them out! They will be good as
new with this formula. Take 2 parts Wisk detergent (no other
brand does it); add 1 part ammonia (unscented). Cover all the bristles up to
the ferrule. Let stand for 1-2 days (depending on the size of the brushes);
wash out. If paint remains, repeat. This will remove paint from clothes too. I
have never had it fail. House paint can be removed the same way, no matter how
long the brush has been dried out - Ellen Foster.
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Remove acrylic paint from your
Canvas
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Buy A little can of "Goof Off" and
keep it handy. This stuff will actually dissolve DRIED acrylic paint OFF the
canvas, OUT of the brushes, your clothes, etc.! I knew it was good for "goo"
but this turned out to be a vastly better use for it than most!
Can't remember where I got mine, but I know the craft stores carry it and
probably places like HEB and Wal-Mart do also. It's worth whatever you
pay for it! - Pat Blackwell.
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Having trouble with Composition /
Use of Space, in your painting?
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Having to 'redraw' in paint, again
and again? Do a quick & easy Thumbnail Sketch first! The sketch
should be in graphite / pencil, very small [ 3" x 4" ?], and the same
proportion as your painting. Keep it very simple - just a few lines,
plus the darks. This thumbnail, when accurate, will serve as the
composition pattern for your painting. Works great, if you are willing
to take the time to do one or two. :-)
More information about this on
request. - Lillian Lemke-Jacoway
(ldlart@yahoo.com
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Pastels
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Pastel artists will find a foam
brush ideal for blending and softening edges. Get a set of 3 for about a buck!
- Ellen Foster
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Water Color Skies
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Watercolor idea! When doing a
mountain scene, do the sky last. Blend
your paint to match the blues in the rest of the picture. - Ellen Foster
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Oil and Acrylic Pallets
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Oil and acrylic artists - use a
small canvas for a palette and lay out
the colors in the order of the possible next painting. When finished
with the painting on the easel, smooth out the paint on your canvas palette
and you have the under painting for your next piece. No wasted paint. Scramble it around and you have an abstract! - Ellen Foster
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Vacation Painting
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On your next cruise (you are going,
aren't you?), use a foam tray as a
palette. Covered with plastic wrap, it doesn't dry out and will last
for the length of the cruise, then discard it. - Ellen Foster
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Gessoed Masonite
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Trick I learned years
ago. Gessoed masonite will always do for a canvas. Allows some
really big ones if you want to do a monster painting. Either oils or
acrylics. I've done both on it. - Nancy Cagle
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Cleaning up
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Tip--if you're cleaning
up from acrylics, go dump the water around a plant or out in the lawn, NOT
down the sink! This stuff can accumulate in there, and always run REALLY
hot water down the sink once a week at least just on general principles, after
some good use of soap to emulsify the grease and crud first. - Nancy Cagle.
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Need a Paint Tube
Cap? |
If you have broken the top
to a paint tube while twisting it
off, try a toothpaste tube cap. I have found that the
"flip-top" Colgate tubes fit my Liquitex acrylics perfectly. I know
they won't work on small watercolor and oil tubes, but try them on
your big ones. Worth a try. - Nancy Cagle
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Do Your Buildings Look
Lopsided? |
Use a T-square to keep your lines parallel to
the canvas edges. - David Zdrazil, MCC Art Dept.
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Under-painting Tip
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Use an orange color when under painting deer.
The color glows through the top coat giving it a more realistic look.
Consider this for some other animals too. - Ellen Foster
Don't you have a tip or trick to share?
Submit yours to
Bill Franklin and get it on
our website!
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