easelspace.com

Direct link to newsletter at Caroline Jasper's website:
http://www.carolinejasper.com/index.htm

Excerpt:
COLOR CORNER - Color vs. Value:Color attracts your eye and prompts emotional response. It can also help to identify subject, interpret image, and impart overall mood or message. However, while color provides the entertainment, value does all the heavy work. Value is the essential impact factor. Value, more than color, imparts the illusion of spatial depth and form. Light and shadow differences (value contrast) define surface contours and imply volume. Our brains rely on dark/light data collected by our eyes in order to make sense of what is being seen. We see value first, color second. The absence of color in black and white photos does not confuse us, nor does the waning visibility of colors as sunlight daily fades to darkness. Value stays on the job when there is insufficient light to reflect color. In every painting's delicious recipe, value is cake itself. Color, is just the icing on top.

TIP for better skill in seeing values: Compare digital camera shots of both your reference and your painting. Accurate value representation is far more important than matching colors in the reference. If the painting is dark where needed and light where needed, it will carry the image visually. It matters less which colors are used.

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Caroline's books and DVDs contain many references, demos, and exercises pertaining to the importance of value in art.
www.carolinejasper.com

Did you know you can...

Grow your twitter following
Grow your facebook page likes
Grow your youtube viewings

all in one place.

Twiends provides introductions to people looking for friends and followers. We use seeds to create the incentive for people to check each other out. When you follow someone they give you seeds, and vica versa when they follow you. You can decide how many seeds you want to offer per follow, and when you run out you remain on the list so people can still follow you if they like. We focusing on making the introduction, and you focus on deciding who you want to be friends with in the long run. We are not a "get followers fast" site or a follower train. You get to choose who you friend and they get to do the same. In saying that though, you will find that a lot people will follow you because you are on the site. Our focus is community building

Twiends.com

Introducing 33 million monthly readers.

Issuu is the leading digital publishing platform delivering exceptional reading experiences of magazines, catalogs, and newspapers. Millions of people have uploaded their best publications to create beautiful digital editions.

Issuu is a publishing platform delivering exceptional reading experiences of magazines, catalogs, and newspapers. Millions of people have uploaded their best publications to create beautiful digital editions.

Wiht Issuu you can very quickly create gorgeous sexy little flip book publications of your work that you can embed on your site. Take a look at how Jacqui Simpson has used it to help launch her Coffee Table Books and Calendar range







For other great online tools and programmes, have a read through our artist's online toolbox

Introducing Mixbook photo calendars!  Just like their photo books and cards, you can use the Mixbook Editor to create beautiful, fully- customizable photo calendars with your favorite photos.   You can choose from many new themes, and make your calendar either an 11×8.5 landscape or a 12×12 square.


One of their coolest features is the ability to add photos to specific dates on the calendar grid.  Use a pretty picture of mum on her birthday or a photo of the blushing bride on the date of an impending wedding.  Why stop there!  Select “Manage Events” from the top right corner of the Mixbook Editor to pick and choose which holidays you want to include in your photo calendar, and put in your own events like a long-awaited family vacation or a wedding anniversary.

 

Mixbook is a free online service for creating and sharing the world’s most customizable photo books and cards. Mixbook’s intuitive online software allows users to quickly and easily create professional-looking photo masterpieces, and fully personalize them with thousands of free creative elements. Users can then share their creations for free on the web or as high-quality printed books and cards. Mixbook is rated 5.00 out of 5 on Google Products with over 60 reviews.

Free shipping on orders over $50 at Mixbook

Made some additions to the on line book shop today; Gustave Klimt, Aubrey Beardsley, Henry Fuseli, Elizabeth Siddall, John Everett Millais, Alphonse Mucha, Racine, Moliere, Voltaire, L'histoire de ma Vie (Giacomo Casanova) etc. 

Also did some work on the Teatro Olimpico painting ( Vicenza: Andrea Palladio) which should be complete and uploaded by the end of the week.  

 

Just finished 'stocking' the associate bookshop on my website. After going through art and design history, theatre history and plays, theatre craft, film and photographic history, film craft, architectural history, creative writing, Shakespeare ( plays, history, criticism and Shakespeare on film/television), humour and literary criticism, poetry and English/European/American literature- my mind feels like a library filing system that has just been hit by a bomb ( if that observation makes any sense at all!) 

I have this...annoying feeling that there are hundreds of titles that I have forgotten to include; and I've been racking my brain to dredge up the names of various authors and titles of long forgotten books for most of the day.  

But I suppose there are enough for now; so I'll upload the rest as and when they spring to mind.

Feel free to take a look at: 

http://astore.amazon.co.uk/pinacoteca-21

http://pinacoteca.webs.com


Didn't realise I knew so much about books- if only I could read them all as well.

One good thing though: I finally found a PALS (that is UK compatible) DVD of Richard Loncraine's Richard III ( with Ian McKellan in the titular role) as opposed to the more widely available NTSC ( American) version. So I think I might have to buy this from my own website before somebody else does!!

USA - England final?. Not the offical world cup though, but a cyber-version of the World Cup, with Italy now out.




Famecount, who’ve been keeping a careful eye on Facebook whilst the rest of us have been enjoying the football,show England surging up the social media charts despite a less than sensational start to the tournament on the pitch. With Italy out and the world cup fever to hit the USA in their next match.

Once again facebook shows its usefulness in brand promotion.

Every team playing in the World Cup has an official Facebook page, and Famecount has been monitoring how many people ‘like’ these pages over the past few weeks.


On the foodie side of things ..
Chefs Justin Wilson and Paul Prudhomme taught us about the trinity of Cajun cuisine. Very pleasantly, South Africa has its own trinity of cuisine as well and one point of that trinity is Bobotie. Naming the three, Bobotie, Sosaties, and Bredie are the Trinity of South African cuisine. Bobotie is a delicious casserole, sosaties are much like shish kebob, and bredie is a good meat ..check out their winning World  World Cup FIFA 2010 Good Eats - A Gold Mine of Recipes

"Splash and Dash" is the working title for my oil painting instruction book. It will be released in September. Splash and Dash covers fast and flexible approaches to representational oil painting. 

The back story behind the book is that I have spent a small fortune experimenting with grounds and mediums in order to learn Flemish, Venetian, and modern direct painting methods. What I learned is that there is no shortage of conflicting advice and  confusion about best practices. So I put my architect hat on and de-constructed the painting process.

After I broke the painting process down into a number of discrete tasks, each with a tangible outcome, four basic oil painting approaches to painting emerged. 

Sample chapters are available at www.chadwooters.com 

I am all about color -in my paintings, workshop instruction, and in writing. My book Powercolor-Master Color Concepts for All Media presents what every artist needs to know about color. Real vs. wheel color, theory evolution, color use through history, mixing management, psychology, physics, optics, paint properties and manufacturing. Ten artists' demos in various media/subject/style.

Direct link to more information, including a PayPal purchase option:
http://www.carolinejasper.com/pages0/Products/PowecolorCvr.htm

One of the key chapters is titled Color Wheel Confessions.
Excerpt:
" As youngsters we artists, like so many other children, believed in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and the notion that each secondary color comes from mixing equal parts of two primary colors. Artists often cling to color wheel myths long after facing the truth about Santa. The color wheel, a useful visual aide for color mixing and theory instruction, spins a nice little tale about basic color relationships. In practice, however, the wheel is a mere symbol of how paint colors actually behave.

While basic, the color wheel is bunk. The simplicity of its equally segmented circle is the source of much confusion. As with lessons in other subjects, we first learn about color in simple terms:  Basic hues – red, blue, yellow, and simple mixing formulas. These are among the misleading generalities perpetrated by color wheel instruction. Color theory implies that green, for example, is a mixture of equal parts blue and yellow. From experience we find that darker colors overpower lighter colors in mixtures. Much more yellow than blue is required to produce a green that appears to be an equal mix of the two. Mixing theory illustrated by color wheels overlooks important real color factors.

Untrue Blue and Other Primary Fabrications

Wheel colors are sometimes thought to represent the true basic colors. Early childhood colors come in familiar names coinciding with instruction about how colors mix. Pass student-grade paint displays at the local art supply store to select your first artist quality paints and confusion mounts. Discovering many different reds, blues, yellows, etc. and strange names unfamiliar to wheel charts might prompt questions like “Which ones are the real primary and secondary colors?” and “What good is a color wheel when available paints don’t match it?”

Commercially marketed color wheels don’t even match each other. The “primary blue” on one wheel appears greenish next to another that looks a little like violet. Each charts’ printed color represents the opinion of a different manufacturer’s color expert. Who is to say what each true wheel color looks like?

Wheel Color vs. Real Color

A color wheel is just theory. It can do no more than suggest how actual paint colors might interact. Real colors, unlike wheel colors, are far too complex to be represented in such simple terms. They are too dark or light, bright or dull, warm or cool to stand for ideal hues.

Pigments are natural or chemical products. Each creates paint color with unique characteristics, which determine how it will react when mixed or mingled with other colors. Value differences confuse mixing formulas. Opaque paint colors alter the appearance of transparent colors. Chemical colors such as Pthalo Green has staining power far greater than most other colors.

Pigment formulas and procedures used for manufacturing artists’ colors vary greatly between brands. The name printed on the paint tube gives only a hint of how its contents will look. One brand’s Viridian, for example, is darker while another looks more yellow or dull because they were created using different pigments or combinations of pigments. Consumers should expect to find pigment sources disclosed on media labels.

Manufacturer brochures, available at art supply stores, often provide extensive information about paint content and characteristics. Improved familiarity with pigments and the colors they generate can be helpful in selecting paint colors and predicting their performance."