FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Turbo]

Actually, I generally paint white over the white gesso background even though it seems to make no difference. I like the black backgrounds a lot, especially for transparent minerals. I'm starting like white backgrounds for minerals with less transparency.

[crocoite]

The problem with painting white generally is that each white can be quite different. Might be because its an image and not the real thing but it looks identical. Its much harder leaving the background, in effect painting negative images. Still looks good though.

Regards
Steve

[Turbo]

I did brighten the photo a little before uploading to get the rest of the colors more true to what it is in person. I can imagine how negative painting would be challenging! I just ordered clayboard for one of my next paintings and now that I think of it, I should have ordered black clayboard and tried the negative technique!

[Turbo]

My latest creation is a 4x5 painting of my Vanadinite specimen.

[crocoite]

Fantastic. Again!

I love your idea of "almost complete"!

Regards
Steve

[crocoite]

Hi Ed

I noticed that you have 9 tubes on the desk. Is that the extent of your colour palette? If so, how do you go about determining what colours to mix?

I tend to have a larger range, and I have a couple of books that I can use as a guide. These show likely combination colours when you mix pigment a with pigment b in varying amounts. Only a guide though. But with painting minerals, you need something more than just trial and error.

Regards
Steve

[Turbo]

Hi steve,

For this painting, I only selected these 9 colors that I anticipated needing. My complete palette is only 14 different colors. I used to use photographs as guides for mixing. I would mix and then match it up to the photograph by trial and error. In time I learned how these 14 colors combine and I stopped using the photograph method and now I just look at the computer screen and use intuition I guess. When I mix, I mix tiny portions, often adding some water to make it flow better. Since there are so many subtleties in color from one area to the next, I'm usually continually making new small mixes as I go rather than one big mix since I know I won't use it all. I also use a layering technique where I'll put down a layer of color that is generally correct for a particular part of the painting and then make semi transparent refinements over it with watered down paint. That sometimes creates dimension because rather than being one color, it's one color showing through the veil of another. When I was painting the amethyst, I could definitely see how I could benefit from from additional tubes since I did not have a purple pigment, so it was hard to mix one with enough intensity from reds and blues. One artist actually ask me why I didn't just buy magenta, cyan, and yellow! While you can in theory mix everything from those three colors, it would be both time consuming and wasteful!

Best,
Ed

[crocoite]

...and frustrating!

I have been given a set of water-mixable oils for xmas so I am looking forward to trying those out soon.

Looking forward to doing more paintings and seeing more of yours in the New Year.

Keep up the good work!

Regards
Steve

[Turbo]

Thanks! You too!

Ed

[Pierre Joubert]

Ed, your paintings are beautiful! What a wonderful way to join the art of painting with your love for mineral specimens. Thanks for sharing them with us.

[Turbo]

Thanks, Pierre. It really makes painting that much more enjoyable.

To anyone interested: I am running out of specimens of my own for painting. I want to have at least two more painted by March. If anyone has a photograph of a specimen I could paint, I'd be sure to give credit if the art was ever displayed or published.

[Turbo]

Here is me and my display at the Delaware Gem, Mineral, and Fossil show hosted by the Delaware Mineralogical Society. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish the Vesuvianite painting in time, but I decided to display it anyway.

[Schwertner]

Nice to see you, Ed. I wish I could be there to see your artwork. I wish you a lot of interested visitors and new contacts. Someday we'll see the Vesuvian finished. So long..
Regards
Brunhild

[Turbo]

Thanks, Brunhild! Someday we will see it finished. I was looking at you recent paintings, and your last one (the high contrast quartz) is just brilliant. The texture and the sharpness of that one in particular is excellent. If I was collecting mineral art, I'd want to snatch that one up!

[Turbo]

This is my latest painting in the works. It is an atacamite seen under a microscope. Credit goes to Christian Rewitzer for the photography.