CHRISTOPHER VIDAL
  • Home
  • The Artist
    • About my work
    • Media/Publications
  • PAINTINGS
    • Paintings for Sale >
      • Landscapes
      • Plein Air
      • Still Life
    • Commissions
    • SOLD Paintings
  • Tuition
    • Online Mentorship
    • Workshops & Demos
    • Plein Air Painting
    • Oil Painting Course
    • Student Works
  • Products
  • Blog
  • Contact

Artist Christopher Vidal  - Blog

Welcome to my blog. The aim of this blog is to share with you some of my experiences related to my artworks, what inspires me and also how it is done. As an artist I am also constantly learning as this is an ongoing process. I also learn from my students when I am teaching in the class. Sharing what I know with others is also very satisfying. This is how we grow and improve. 
I've been teaching art for a while now, and I must say that from this I learned a lot. This helps me to identify what each individual needs in order to become a better painter. Painting is not an easy task especially landscape painting. One needs to have the inspiration to paint a tree or a mountain and it is not a question of just wanting to paint something. I choose to paint something because there was an element that motivated me to do so ...that inspired me. It could be the game of light and shadows or simply the warm colors of a late afternoon. It is sometimes very difficult to translate the colors that nature shows us using paint on a canvas. This challenge could be also a way to motivate you to paint a scenery. 
Most important is that you do not expect that every painting that you paint is going to be a masterpiece. You shouldn't be afraid that your final product is not what you expected in the first place. An unsuccessful painting should be the teaching ground for a better one that follows. This is how we learn. We learn from our own mistakes and from things that didn't work out as we wanted them but with an effort we try to make them better the next time. 
So if you want to become a better painter then you have to practice and paint regularly. This is the only way how you can improve your techniques, discover ones of your own, learn your colors etc. It is all about brush mileage. The tutor is there to help you find your way, shows you the basics and how to use your tools in order for you to be able to develop yourself. 
Looking forward to share with you my knowledge.

Light & Color

6/7/2017

1 Comment

 
For today's short talk I chose the subject of light and color. Why are these two so important for artists and non artists alike? Color is all around us. As humans we associate different colors with moods and we also have our own favorite colors. We are also lucky that we can see a range of colors with our eyes or better to say with our brains. I am saying this because our eyes are only able to detect red, green and blue in the visible spectrum. The rest of the colors are only interpreted by our brain and hence we do not see them with our eyes.

What is color? To start with color in itself does not exist. Isaac Newton in 1700's described how white light coming from the sun contains all colors of the spectrum as seen in a rainbow. We also know that white light contains other components that our eyes are not able to detect but other animals and insects might also be able to see, such as ultraviolet (UV) or infrared. We see a colored object as red because the surface of that object is reflecting red light into our eyes after being struck by white light. That same object absorbs all the other colors. The colors that our eyes capture are red, green and blue (RGB) same as used in colored TVs and monitors. So we see yellow because our minds create yellow by combining red and green together and yellow happens to be in between these two colors even in the rainbow. The same is cyan, it is a combination of blue and green. The strangest color is actually magenta, because it does not even exist in the rainbow, but it comes out when combining blue and red light. 

We are able to see colored objects only thanks to the presence of white light from the sun or any other light source. We cannot see objects in full color if we do not have light, like at night. In this case we can only see shades of grey, unless the object is really close to you and you have some degree of light

So how does this concerns us as artists? Understanding color and light is always a challenge for artists when they come to paint an illusion of light using paints. Throughout the time artists, and now a days paint manufacturers, always struggled to discover new pigments that can be used to create various light effects in a painting. It is a challenge because we want to reproduce an illusion of light using a material (paint) that actually does not give off light in itself but on the contrary it absorbs white light and reflects only a portion of it. 
 
Here we come to the famous color theory. In the old school we were always taught that the three primary colors are yellow, red and blue. However with the advance in science and a better understanding of light, we now know that this is not completely correct. We now know that we can have different primary colors for paints and for light itself. If we had to take the three primaries of light, red green and blue and try to use them to mix up paint we will end up with different colors to those obtained when mixing light together. If we had to mix green with red paint we will end up getting something close to black instead of yellow, as we get when mixing light. So it will be wise if we take the products of mixing light i.e. yellow, cyan and magenta and use these as primaries when mixing paint. This is known as subtractive color mixing and is now used by modern computer printers to generate every possible color using a system known as CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black). Because one cannot mix magenta and cyan out of paint, these two colors are also very difficult to produce as pigments and hence not all manufacturers are able to produce them as a pure color.

In my classes I try to emphasize the importance to understand the basic concepts of color in order to be able to mix colors efficiently. My aim is always to try to teach students how to see color in everything and the only way to get your brain trained to see color is by observation from real objects. To paint realistically one needs to train him/her self to see color and not perceive it.​
1 Comment

    Author

    As an artist I want to share with you my experiences and what is behind my artwork. Every artwork is an expression of the inner self. It is driven by experience. 

    Archives

    February 2025
    January 2025
    September 2024
    August 2024
    June 2024
    February 2024
    August 2023
    May 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    June 2022
    May 2022
    November 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright 2025 christopher vidal.com.au
ABN: 99673806422
  • Home
  • The Artist
    • About my work
    • Media/Publications
  • PAINTINGS
    • Paintings for Sale >
      • Landscapes
      • Plein Air
      • Still Life
    • Commissions
    • SOLD Paintings
  • Tuition
    • Online Mentorship
    • Workshops & Demos
    • Plein Air Painting
    • Oil Painting Course
    • Student Works
  • Products
  • Blog
  • Contact