Creative Catalyst Newsletter September 17, 2008
SAVE $15 on Gloria Page Gift Set and personalize the holidays
Bring pattern into your work with Gloria Page’s “Art Stamping Workshop.” Even if you’ve never carved a stamp in your life, Gloria makes it easy. She introduces a variety of carving surfaces, from the familiar soft blocks and wood to packing foam, erasers, and polymer clay. You learn the benefits of working with each surface.
Gloria demonstrates the best techniques for safe, accurate carving, and she makes sense of all the inks and embossing products at your disposal. She explains how different products and surfaces produce varied looks. She expands your options with bleaching techniques and several transfer methods.
Gloria is warm and welcoming as she demonstrates projects that are easy to make and look fantastic. Your stamped designs can stand on their own as works of art or be combined into collages, quilts or embellishments. The DVD workshop includes a printable list of recommended suppliers and instructions for folding the Masa box project.
We know it’s really early, but this fun, creative workshop is perfect for giving this holiday season a personal touch. Make your own greeting cards, gift tags, and wrapping paper. SAVE
$15 on Gloria Page’s book and DVD gift set (Item #GP-S1) while supplies last.
Valid on Online or Mail-In orders only … Retail price is $55.94 – Sale Price is $40.94 + S/H - Sale ends Tuesday, 9/23.
COMMANDING COLOR Has Arrived
Sue Archer’s stunning workshop, COMMANDING COLOR, has arrived in the warehouse; therefore, we can no longer extend the pre-order discount. All Pre-Orders will be shipped out no later than Wednesday, 9/17/08 … look for it in your mail box soon.
More about this DVD and a Preview
New Book Binding DVD now available
We’ve added an interesting new DVD to our “From Other Production Companies” category. It is a highly rated workshop on book binding. It’s a beautiful art form and a great way to make gifts. This DVD shows you how to pull resources together and every step to complete your projects.
Learn more about this DVD workshop
From Behind the Camera: Choosing the right pigments
Integral to becoming who you are as a painter is finding the paints that help you achieve the look you want. The search can take years. It might help to know why some of the CCP artists have chosen the pigments they use.
Carla O’Connor is a shape painter. As part of her process, she continually alters shapes and edges. She can do so because she uses gouache on a coated surface. To her, transparency and color is secondary. She is able to adjust colors by adding any brand of watercolor to the gouache base.
In contrast, Jan Kunz is a value painter. Transparency and delicate transitions of value and color are important to her portraits. Jan prefers Winsor & Newton professional grade watercolors. After years of painting she knows exactly what to expect using these materials. Even with W&N she avoids the more opaque colors, such as cerulean, and is very judicious with ultramarine blue and the cobalt colors. Click here to download Jan’s pigment list.
John Salminen likes the gritty look of coarsely ground sedimentary colors for his urban landscapes. He has recently discovered that Stephen Quiller watercolors provide him the look he wants.
Robbie Laird uses M. Graham paints. They are honey based and explode into solution quickly. The high pigment content is perfect for Robbie’s intense wet-into-wet florals. Art Graham has a selection of colors that are evenly distributed around the color wheel and make for logical mixing. It’s perfect for Robbie’s round palette.
Judy Morris has made a study of pigments and their reaction to a variety of salts for her salt texturing techniques. She uses a combination of heavily ground and transparent pigments. Additionally, she has developed several triad color schemes that require specific colors available through, among others, Daniel Smith.
Ratindra Das uses a lot of quinacridones which mix well with many colors yet maintain transparency. This quality is important to Das because he mixes most colors directly on paper. Chemical composition is less important, but he does say that he has eliminated all cadmium from his palette for environmental reasons.
The list goes on and on but I think you get the point. And even though I’ve only addressed watercolor, the same is true with other media. Decide what you like then make it a point to find the materials and techniques that suit your needs.
Cheers,
Lynn Powers
In This Issue
Lilliputian Among Giants!
We are very happy to announce we’ve been selected by the editors of Artist Magazine’s Watercolor Artist as one of the three Best Websites for Artists (video). The other two are Artist’s Magazine’s own ArtNetworkTV and You Tube. Yes, we feel like a lilliputian among giants.
Click here to see the complete website list. We are at the top of page two.
Quotes
“Being an artist means that you have the ability to imagine yourself into all kinds of othernesses. Doing that, you can rearrange perspectives on things, which can provide a revelation.”
-Eric Fischl
1948-
“The universe is real but you can’t see it. You have to imagine it. Once you imagine it, you can be realistic about reproducing it.”
-Alexander Calder
1898-1976
From “Artist to Artist”
Compiled by Clint Brown
Kitten News
The kittens and mother cat are doing fine. They will be ready to leave here in about two weeks after their first shots and worming. I will miss them very much, but I won’t miss their cat box! I think I have found homes for everyone.
