Christopher Vidal Fine Art
  • Home
  • Paintings for Sale
    • Still Life
    • Landscapes
    • Plein Air Paintings
    • Cities
    • Portrait
    • Mastercopies
    • SOLD Paintings
  • The Artist
    • About my work
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Galleries
    • Media/Publications
    • Exhibitions
  • Commissions
  • Tuition
    • Online Art Coaching
    • In person Art Consultations
    • Student Works
    • Workshops
  • Products
    • Photography
    • Placemats and Coasters
    • Other Products >
      • Licenced Photo DVD
      • Bargue Drawing Level 1
      • Bargue Drawing Level 2
  • 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.

The challenge of painting a white object

5/10/2019

0 Comments

 
I was wondering what I was going to paint this morning and so I decided to do a small still life. As always the first difficulty is what I am going to choose as my models. So I had a look around me and I decided to create something from what I had in front of me. Its like a chef that creates a recipe from what is available at that time. I just wanted some neutral colours, something colourful and an object at either side of the value scale. So I took my mocha coffee pot, excellent as a neutral grey with very dark handle but can create some interesting reflection on its shiny surface. I had a small diary, green in colour and so I had to find a complementary cloth and finally I took a coffee mug, the other end of the value scale. I placed these objects in front of a window and started painting. The palette I used consisted of titanium white, cadmium yellow, pyrrole rubine, ultramarine blue and burnt umber. I started by blocking in the background first and then moving to the objects from dark to light.
Starting from the darks, I started from the coffee pot. I find reflective surfaces a very easy to paint as they are usually grey and its the value contrasts that create the reflective illusion.  Then I moved on to the green book that is a mid-value colour. Finally I had to the coffee mug and that was the challenge. Pretty much the whole mug was shiny and one can barely see variation in tone. Using natural light as a light source especially on an overcast day, will soften the shadows and hence everything looks like flat. However, the problem is that one cannot paint this mug as flat white so I started looking at it more in details and started mixing a number of very light greys using the colours that I used for the objects around it. There were very light tints of green, red and browns while the part in the light was a whitish grey since the sky was overcast. I also tried to keep the values somewhere in between mid-value and white.  It was the hardest part of the whole painting challenge as one does not have too much space to play with values when you are approaching the lightest tones.
​
0 Comments

    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

    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 2021 christopher vidal.com.au
ABN: 99673806422
  • Home
  • Paintings for Sale
    • Still Life
    • Landscapes
    • Plein Air Paintings
    • Cities
    • Portrait
    • Mastercopies
    • SOLD Paintings
  • The Artist
    • About my work
    • Curriculum Vitae
    • Galleries
    • Media/Publications
    • Exhibitions
  • Commissions
  • Tuition
    • Online Art Coaching
    • In person Art Consultations
    • Student Works
    • Workshops
  • Products
    • Photography
    • Placemats and Coasters
    • Other Products >
      • Licenced Photo DVD
      • Bargue Drawing Level 1
      • Bargue Drawing Level 2
  • Blog
  • Contact