Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Featured Guest Artist: Meorah C.

Hello everyone, Charles here. This past week I received a very kind note from a young woman, today’s featured guest artist, who I met while giving some live painting demonstrations at a conference in California, back at the end of July. Throughout this particular education conference, I had a booth where I could paint and give out info about my blog and YouTube channel, and I will let her fill you in on the rest...

“My name is Meorah C., and I'm 13 years old. I went to a homeschool convention with my family in Modesto, CA, where I met Mr. Wolf, an artist in the booth next to mine. I have always loved art, but never felt that I was good enough to do much with it. Mr. Wolf inspired me to learn and practice more. He also allowed me paint on one of his canvases. I really enjoyed it! Mr. Wolf is an amazing artist, and I want to be just as good someday. I'm so glad that he inspired me, and I hope he continues to use his talent to inspire others as well.”

Meorah is more talented than she thinks, and with only a few directions on my part (she did all the painting), she created a beautiful sunset painting based on one of the photos from my trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Here is her beautiful artwork, shown with permission. Please leave her a kind comment below if you think she should keep practicing her art!



Sunset Over the Outer Banks.
Acrylic on Canvas Board, 8x10in. Artist Meorah C. © 2016.

Thank you Meorah for sharing your art with us today. I think you should definitely keep practicing, and it was an amazing experience for me to work with you on this painting. Keep at it, and I can’t wait to see more of your work in the future!

Have a fantastic artistic week everyone,

—Charles

Be the Next Featured Guest Artist!

If you would like to be the next featured guest artist here on Impulsive Artistry click on the link below or on the tab at the top, “Get Featured!”

CLICK HERE for more info on being a Guest Artist!    

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Thursday, August 25, 2016

Day at the Zoo - Photo Set

























Water Lilly. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Recently, my wife and I took a trip to the amazing North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro, only about an hour and a half from our home in Raleigh. It was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky, bright blue, humid and warm (hot by the afternoon). The zoo is the largest natural habitat zoo in the world, with beautiful enclosures containing flora indigenous from the animals’ homes. In addition, the park is divided into two major geographical sections: North America and Africa.

We intended to enter on the North American side, saving the “traditional zoo animals” (Africa) for the second half of the day, which we did accomplish, but only after a 20 min hike from the African parking lot to the North American entrance. Later, we realized, laughing, that we had missed the turn to drive to the North American parking lot, but it meant a shorter walk when we were ready to leave!

I took a number of photos at the park, but due to the heat of the day, many of the animals were lounging in the shade, making it difficult to capture them well. However, as I mentioned, there were many beautiful flowers and plants to see that were much more photogenic. My favorite exhibit was a large tropical aviary, containing brightly colored birds and vegetation. It was very humid inside, but well worth the effort. I hope that you enjoy this photo set from our day at the zoo!

Day at the Zoo - Photo Set:



Blue Sky. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Scarlet Ibis. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Feeling Tropical. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved.


Huge Ferns! Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Anthurium. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Three Friends. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved.


Lilly Pads. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Question of the Day:

What is your favorite zoo animal?
Let me know in the comments below or at the: 

While you are at the I. A. Facebook Page, give it a like and see even more of my nature photos posted throughout the week! 

Instagram

Also check out Impulsive Artistry on Instagram for daily photo uploads:


Thank you so much for reading this article and viewing the photos from my wonderful day at the zoo. If you enjoy creative projects, love photography, painting, music and more, then be sure to sign up to the Impulsive Artistry Email List to get instant notifications of new blog posts about these topics!

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Have a fantastic artistic weekend,

—Charles

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

“Sunburst” - Textured Acrylic Painting

Whenever you find yourself in a creative rut, revisiting an older idea can sometimes inspire you once again, causing you to see new possibilities. It had been a while since I had worked with textured canvases, and I felt that it was time to resume that style. The last time I dabbled with the medium of PVA glue, about four months ago, and I created two abstracts that I felt were very successful: “Autumn Leaves and Spring Leaves.”

My last painting, “Cornfield Impression” used a panoramic style canvas, 6x18 inches; a unique 3:1 ratio that I have not seen often. I actually bought two canvases of this size and decided to use the second one for today’s abstracted sunset painting, titled “Sunburst.”

     
"Sunburst," Original Abstracted Landscape. 
Acrylic on Canvas, 6x18in. Artist Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved.   


Texturing a Canvas

While there are certainly several ways to texture your canvas in preparation for painting, I am currently using pure PVA glue, also called “Tacky” glue, that I purchased from my local art supply store. One bottle costs about $5-6 currently, which is more than enough for an average sized canvas.

Some artists use modeling clay or plasters, but to keep things simple, I will only be using the PVA glue, which is Acrylic based glue like the paint. Squeeze out a good amount, looking for somewhat even coverage, spread it out with an old 1-inch brush that you do not mind ruining (glue is hard to clean off!).

Here is the glue that I used: 



Take a hairdryer and dry off the canvas for about 5-8min, continuing to work the glue as it dries. The glue will form small mounds, but will give you a semi-flat surface to paint over. You should be able to touch the glue once it is sufficiently dried, which will be pliable but not sticky.

 I do not wait any longer to let the glue dry, but get right to painting. Because the surface of the canvas is uneven, the paint will collect in the shallower parts of the glue, which might shift as well, giving you a wonderful cracks throughout the canvas and allowing the white to show through. I really like the look of this effect, because it adds a textured dimensionality to the painting.

If you do not want this to occur, allow a day to let the glue fully dry and then use a brush to apply the paint; I will employ a large metal spatula and be generous with the paint. You can encourage the cracks further by standing the canvas up on its side for a minute, allowing the paint to be pulled by gravity.

The Painting Process




"Sunburst." Original Acrylic Abstract by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016.

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Apply the acrylic paint directly onto the canvas, spreading it out with even strokes using a metal spatula. Here are the colors that I used in this abstracted landscape painting:

Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Orange Hue
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue (optional)

Orienting the canvas vertically, like a portrait, and then dividing it into 3rds, place the Cadmium Orange Hue in the top section, Cadmium Yellow Medium in the middle and then Cobalt Blue at the bottom, blend only upwards, Yellow into the Orange, Blue into the Yellow. Blending the Yellow into the Orange will create a sunlight effect, and pushing the Blue up into the Yellow creates Green, which I formed into trees.  

Taking the edge of the spatula, cut-in some tree trunks through the paint, revealing the white underneath. Use the corner to pull up little holes in the Cobalt Blue to create a stone path, add some sharp vertical lines for flower stems, and then lightly add Yellow and Orange above these and in the tree, cleaning off the spatula with a paper towel after every application, to add some layers of interest.


Instructional Painting Videos!

Check out my YouTube painting video below to watch me create, “Sunburst.” This video contains audio and text instructions on how to paint this piece.

There is a small jump forward in the video, due to an issue I was having with my camera at the time; however, I do explain how I created everything above, and you can watch me create the previous two abstract paintings in the style below, which use the very same techniques:



"Sunburst," Instructional Painting Video. 
Acrylic on Canvas, 6x18in. Artist Charles Wolf. 

Impulsive Artistry Blog Productions © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


"Spring Leaves," Instructional Painting Video. 
Acrylic on Canvas, 6x18in. Artist Charles Wolf. 


Impulsive Artistry Blog Productions © 2016. All Rights Reserved.

"Autumn Leaves" Instructional Painting Video. 
Acrylic on Canvas, 6x18in. Artist Charles Wolf. 

Impulsive Artistry Blog Productions © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Feel free to paint along if you are trying to learn to paint, you can also share these videos with your friends on social media, just please do not use it for commercial endeavors, which violates copyright law. Thanks!

Painting Video Links:

If you would share my videos it would make my day! 
Just paste the following URLs in your post or tweet on your social media page to link to them!  

Sunburst URL: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs9mgBLNFZ8

Spring Leaves URL:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX_nuN_qcGU 

Autumn Leaves  URL: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziFzY4G5Ed8 

Questions of the day:

Have you ever painted before? What type of painting are you interested in creating? Does this seem simple enough to do, or would you like me to share something even simpler?

Let me know in the comment below or on the ImpulsiveArtistry Facebook Page!

You can find all of my YouTube painting videos on my art channel here; there are over 40 videos to choose from:

Thank you so much for stopping by Impulsive Artistry today! I hope that you found this article to be informative and engaging. If you try to create a painting similar to “Sunburst” or one my other paintings, I would love to see it! You can tag me on Facebook @ImpulsiveArtistry or Twitter @ArtImpulsive!

Have a fantastic creative week,

—Charles


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Thursday, August 18, 2016

Pet Photo Contest Winner!



Pet Photo Contest Winner: 
Crazy Cat by Mitzi L. Rice, SW, Louisiana.

You can see more of her beautiful photographic work on her Facebook Page here:


While you are there, be sure to check out her blog as well. A big thank you to everyone who participated in this photography contest!

If you would like to enter a future photo contest, then be sure to like or bookmark the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page. The next contest (nature themed) will be announced in about two weeks.


As always have a fantastic artistic day!

—Charles

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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Sunny Days – Photo Set!

Well, after last week’s "Rainy Days Photo Set" was posted; the weather has improved significantly. I found the adage that “if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes” to be quite accurate here in Raleigh, North Carolina, and we’ve been enjoying several bright sunny days this past week. Over the weekend, my wife and I took advantage of the nice weather and visited the North Carolina Zoo, the world’s largest natural habitat zoo, and I will have a photo set of that trip coming soon!


Creatively, I have had a few set-backs in my painting endeavors. My camera was not recording properly for some reason yesterday, and I had a few painting experiments that proved to not work out as well as I would have liked. One of the great things about painting is that you can always apply a layer of Acrylic Gesso (a primer) over a piece and start again. I have several canvases that I plan to treat this way today. To all you creative people like me, keep at it; you never know if your next project will be a success! As the saying goes: “better to try and fail then to not try at all.” In the end, the sun is sill shining brightly and each day is an opportunity to be persistent artistically!   

Here is a related article that may be encouraging to you:

Thoughts on Perseverance Article Link

Sunny Days – Photo Set: 


Perfect Day. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Backyard Sunrise. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


 Morning in the Field. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Sunlight Through the Trees. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Bright Sunrise. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Question of the Day:

What keeps you motivated each day, creatively or otherwise? 

Let me know in the comments below or at the
 Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page

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Thank you for visiting Impuslive Artistry today! I look forward to seeing you again soon. If you like what you find on this blog do write a short comment below; I always enjoying hearing from you all.  

Have a fantastic creative week! 

—Charles

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Thursday, August 11, 2016

Rainy Days — Photo Set


Rain on Reedy Creek Lake. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Rain. The one word answer to what is the biggest difference between living in California versus North Carolina. Now, it probably doesn’t help that most of my life, when I was growing up in California, we were having one drought or another, but on the other hand, it’s not called “Sunny California” for nothing. When my wife and I were dating, she grew up on the East Coast, I asked her what it was like moving to California? She replied that she was struck by “how blue the sky was,” because there are very few clouds on most days. Here in North Carolina, it is somewhat rare to have a perfectly cloudless day.

Now that we live in Raleigh, I get what she was talking about. This past month has been a seemingly endless stream of one thunderstorm or scattered showers after another. As an artist and blogger, this doesn’t really hamper my job in any way, but there are days that the dreariness can get to you. The benefit of all this water is the green brilliance I see around me every day, compared to the “golden hues,” as optimistic Californians characterize the drab “browns” prevalent throughout that state during the Summer, Fall and Winter. Don’t get me wrong, I am still a Californian at heart, but it my home state mostly falls under the “rugged beauty” category of nature.

Looking back over my photography from this year, I am struck by the number rain-centric photos that I found. Several of my shoots took place during or just after a rainstorm, and so I thought that I would compile these into a set for you to enjoy!

Here we go:

Rainy Days — Photo Set:


Raindrops. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Incoming Storm. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Taking Shelter. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Drips and Drops. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Mossy Bark. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved.  


Old Oak by the Trail. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 


Goose in the Rain. Photo by Charles Wolf. 
Impulsive Artistry © 2016. All Rights Reserved. 

Impulsive Artistry Instagram

You can see more of my photography on the Impulsive Artistry Instagram; new photos are uploaded every day so be sure to Follow! Check them all out here:


Question of the Day:

In what state or country do you live?  Is where you live a wet, dry or in-between climate? Let me know in the comments below of on the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page!

Your comments are always appreciated. I do take the time to read through them and reply as often as I can. Drop a little note if you enjoyed this post, I would love to hear from you!   

Thank you so much for stopping by today here on Impulsive Artistry. I hope that you will visit again soon and have a fantastic creative week!

—Charles

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