Impulsive Artistry : February 2017

Monday, February 27, 2017

Feeling Inspired? #17: Linkup + Exploring Pastels!

Are You Feeling Inspired? Need a creative boost to start the week?

I know I do – join me each Monday for a linkup party where you can share your creative side (posts): Painting, Drawing, Photography, Quilting, Music, DIYs, Crafts…

If it is creative, then share it below — I would love to see what you are working on!

Exploring Chalk Pastels:

Cape Hatteras Sunrise. Chalk Pastel on Canvas Paper.

Some friends, who know I enjoy trying out various art forms, asked if I had ever painted/drawn with chalk pastels? While I have worked with oil pastels before, I had never tried the chalk counterpart, due to cost of purchasing yet another medium (I already work with four), but that I would be delighted to give it a try in the future. They very nicely surprised me with a box of artist quality chalk pastels the following week, for which I am very grateful, and I had the opportunity to work with them on this piece.

I used a traditional approach to the medium, scraping off flecks of chalk off the stick with a knife, and then taking my Flat Wash brush, I gently brushed the chalk out with water—forming a watercolor-like consistency.

Sunrise Photo Contest:

This photo contest can be found on the
Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page.

ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT IN THE CONTEST!

—The winning photo will be featured in a special bonus blog post here on Impulsive Artistry!

To Enter:

—Attach your best original photograph of a sunrise in the comments section of the Contest Facebook Post (link below)!

—Caption your photo when you attach it on the Facebook Page:
your name, photo name, and photo location.

—Only one photo entry per person please.

—Share this blog post!

—Entries accepted until 3/1/17!

(All photos must be family friendly!)

ENTER CONTEST HERE

Featured Blog Post:

Stained Glass # 1 - Acrylic Abstract Painting.

In this blog post, I walk through how I came up with this painting, the steps to create it yourself and you can watch me paint it either in real time or as a time-lapse in the two painting videos I have included! Check it out:

Stained Glass #1 Link

The Link Up:
Guidelines for Linking a Post (2 per blog/site):

—All linked posts must be creative and artsy, family friendly and please no giveaways.

—Please leave a comment below!

—A link back to this post on social media would be much appreciated!

—Please visit other linked posts!

	Heart Problems for Women-linky		image-in-ing: weekly photo linky
	RMB - Late Winter w/linky		Classence Library Cats
	Linda Blatchford		Adventures in Weseland
	Impulsive Artistry: Stained Glass #1 Painting

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Thank you for joining this week's "Feeling Inspired Linkup." Don't forget to enter the Sunrise Photo Contest on the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page - can't wait to see your photos!

Have a fantastic week,

—Charles

Are you feeling inspired? Then share this post on Social Media so others can too:

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Stained Glass #1: How to Paint an Acrylic Abstract!

Hello everyone, I hope that you having a fantastic creative week!
Today, I will be coving how to create an original abstract that would look amazing as a piece of decor in your home or office space.

Painting an abstract is a lot of fun, because you can be a lot freer with the paint. Since you are not trying to recreate a landscape or urban scene, the focus of the painting is on the shapes and colors that you are using. This means that a beginning artist (even kids) can create a great looking work of art!

Stained Glass #1. Acrylic on Canvas Board, 14x18in.

Materials:
Easel or Flat Surface
Drop Cloth
Water Cup
Palette (Cardboard)
Paper Towel
Bright Brush
Flat Wash Brush
Filbert Brush
Canvas Board, 14x18in.

Acrylic Paint:
Matte Liquid Medium
Naples Yellow
Naphthol Crimson
Cobalt Blue
Mars Black
Titanium White

How to Paint this Piece:

To create Stained Glass #1, we will begin with the Mars Black mixed with some water (helps the paint flow better off the brush), drawing triangles across the canvas.

Pro Tip: if you want the edges to be perfectly straight (something that I didn't worry too much about), use a ruler and a pencil to lightly mark the lines first before you start to paint them with the Mars Black.

Make sure that none of the sides of your triangles are parallel to the borders of the canvas. We will place pure strips of color on one side of the shape, and then use Liquid Matte Medium to soften the color to the center. Titanium White applied gently in the middle of each triangle will aid in this effect. Stained Glass #1 is not entirely comprised of triangles, and I think a few rectangles slipped in - but that is part of the fun! You can even have two different colors meet in the center of a larger shape, which will add dynamic interest to the work.

When you create your own version of the piece, feel free to use any shape that you want, circles, squares, octagons, whatever... : )

Time-Lapse Painting Video:

Stained Glass #1. Time-Lapse Video with Instructions.

Full-Length Painting Lesson:

Stained Glass #1. Full-Length Painting Lesson.

Buy this Painting:

$120. Stained Glass #1. Acrylic on Canvas Board, 14x18in.

Do you like this painting? You can purchase this original piece of art at my Etsy Shop right now! This work is painted on canvas board, which can be hung in a normal picture frame!

Stained Glass #1 Etsy Link

Sunrise Photo Contest:

This photo contest can be found on the

Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page.

—The winning photo will be featured in a special bonus blog post here on Impulsive Artistry!

To Enter:

—Attach your best original photograph of a sunrise in the comments section of the Contest Facebook Post (link below)!

—Caption your photo when you attach it on the Facebook Page:

your name, photo name, and photo location.

—Only one photo entry per person please.

—Share this blog post!

—Entries accepted until 3/1/17!

(All photos must be family friendly!)

ENTER CONTEST HERE

Final Thoughts:

Phew, that was a long blog post! Let me know in the comment section below, on Twitter, or at the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page what you think of my latest abstract painting - I would love to hear from you!

As always, have a fantastic creative week,

—Charles

Did you enjoy this post? Share it on Social Media:

Monday, February 20, 2017

Feeling Inspired? #16 - Sunrise Photo Contest!

Are You Feeling Inspired? Need a creative boost to start the week?

I know I do – join me each Monday for a linkup party where you can share your creative side (posts): Painting, Drawing, Photography, Quilting, Music, DIYs, Crafts…

If it is creative, then share it below — I would love to see what you are working on!

This photo contest can be found on the

Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page.

—The winning photo will be featured in a special bonus blog post here on Impulsive Artistry!

To Enter:

—Attach your best original photograph of a sunrise in the comments section of the Contest Facebook Post (link below)!

—Caption your photo when you attach it on the Facebook Page:

your name, photo name, and photo location.

—Only one photo entry per person please.

—Share this blog post!

—Entries accepted until 3/1/17!

(All photos must be family friendly!)

ENTER CONTEST HERE

Etsy Shop Update: New Paintings for Sale!

The Link Up:

Guidelines for Linking a Post (2 per blog/site):

—All linked posts must be creative and artsy, family friendly and please no giveaways.

—Please leave a comment below!

—A link back to this post on social media would be much appreciated!

—Please visit other linked posts!

	image-in-ing - weekly photo linky		zongrik
	bethere2day LINKFEST		Cats in Istanbul
	Curious as a Cathy LINKY		Oh My Heartsie Girl (Linky)
	The Walking Dead, w/Linky!		Adventures in Weseland
	CREATE WITH JOY - Cat Photography Tips & WW Linky		Impulsive Artistry: Hill Country Painting
	zongrik

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Thank you for joining this week's "Feeling Inspired Linkup." Don't forget to enter the Sunrise Photo Contest on the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page!

I will be back here on Wednesday with another abstract + painting video to share with you all! Have a fantastic week,

—Charles

Are you feeling inspired? Then share this post on Social Media so others can too:

Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Hill Country Scene - Acrylic Landscape Painting + Video!

Hello all, hope you having a great creative week so far! Last week I shared a post about "How to Block-in a Canvas" using only primary colors. A technique I picked up from a fellow YouTube Artist, Liam Rainsford. It's a simple enough idea, you mark out the general shapes of your composition first, filling in the whole canvas, sketching the sky, clouds, the horizon line, the foreground using lights (red and yellow) and darks (blue). Once you have a general sense of the scope of your painting, go back and start to layer the actual colors you want to use over the underpainting; this will add a great deal of richness and depth to your work. Here is where we left this piece off last week:

Hill Country Scene, Underpainting. Artist Charles Wolf.

So today I want to talk more about this artwork and how it progressed. As you can see, the underpainting has sort of a ocean look to it. In fact, one commenter on YouTube remarked that it looked like a finished abstracted seascape. : ) But I had other plans and could visualize the final piece as a field with a road, as seen at the top.

This work was inspired by a little country lane that I used to live on in San Marcos, Texas (lived there for two years) and captures some of the rugged beauty of that part of the state. While Texas certainly had its ups and downs - I love living here in NC now - the rolling hills dotted with oaks captured my creative imagination from my time spent living there.

This particular painting took me five sessions to finish (about 5 hours of work). I was seeking to add greater detail to this composition, and coupled with the new underpainting approach, the whole process just took more time than normal as it was a bit different than the paintings I usually create. Usually, I like to share instructional painting tutorials on my paintings, but due to the amount of footage and editing that would take (at least 4 separate videos for a real time version), I settled for a 20 minute time lapse with text overlays of the color mixing!

Materials:

Paper Towel

Easel or Flat Surface

Bright Brush

Filbert Brush

Liner Brush

Flat Wash Brush

3 Inch Brush

Palette Knife

Palette (Cardboard)

Water Cup

Canvas Board, 14x18in.

Drop Cloth

Acrylic Paint:

Cobalt Blue

Naples Yellow

Naphthol Crimson

Mars Black

Titanium White

Etsy Shop:

I will be updating my Etsy Shop today. Be sure to check it out. I have lots of paintings for sale, and I really try to keep my pricing reasonable—some are only $40 for an original piece of art!

ETSY SHOP LINK

If you have any questions about today's featured artwork, Hill Country Scene, or about painting in general, feel free to ask in the comments below! I would love to talk with you more about it. You can also share your thoughts/ask questions on the Impulsive Artistry Facebook Page.

What sort of paintings would you like me paint and share in the future?

Have a fantastic weekend, and I will see you all on Monday!

—Charles

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Monday, February 13, 2017

Feeling Inspired? #15: Purple Sunset

Are You Feeling Inspired?

Need a creative boost to start your week?

I know I do – join me each Monday for a linkup party where you can share your creative side (posts): Painting, Drawing, Photography, Quilting, Music, DIYs, Crafts…

If it is creative, then share it here — I would love to see what you are working on!

"Purple Sunset":

Purple Sunset. Acrylic on Canvas, 9x12in. Artist Charles Wolf.

So nearly a year ago, I created the acrylic painting above, which I titled "Purple Sunset." This work is an abstracted landscape of a brilliant sunset over a harbor with the protruding spires of an implied cityscape. I was delighted this week when Lorrie H. sent me a message on Facebook of her version of this very painting! She really did a nice job—I like the lighter blues especially.

Purple Sunset. A version by Artist Lorrie H.

A big thank you to Lorrie for allowing me to share her version of this painting with you all today. My goal with this blog and my YouTube channel is to inspire others to be creative, and it really made my day to see some fruition of those efforts.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

How to Block-in a Painting with Primary Colors

Hill Country Scene (Underpainting). Artist Charles Wolf.

Hello all! As many of you know, I am a visual artist and one of my goals with this blog is to provide free tutorials about the fundamentals of painting. I seek to inspire those around me to be creative in their daily life—to try something that they might have never tried before. I love the creative process and the thrill of finding a new technique or approach to this art form, and I am excited to share such a process with you all today!

What does it mean to block-in a painting? When you block-in a painting, the artist creates an "underpainting" layer, placing the warms (yellows and reds) and cools (blues) first, establishing the overall of composition. Warm colors tend to move forward towards the viewer, while cool colors tend to pull backward away from the viewer - I'll get back to this idea in a moment. For example, in a landscape, I would mark out my horizon line (where the sky meets the ground), place the general shapes of my clouds, background trees, and fields. It's a good idea to place the cool colors (blue) at the most distant point in your painting and then to have the warmer colors (reds and yellows) closer to the front. This can be mirrored in the clouds overhead.

Do note that this technique works best when working with acrylic paint, this is similar to the traditional approach of oil painting (a wet-on-wet technique—although you usually use more than just the primary colors when working with oils), and would not work effectively in watercolors.

Once you have the entire canvas filled with paint, take a hair-dryer and completely blow dry the acrylic paint. You can then hang it as is, sort of a modern abstracted landscape, or move on to the next step of starting a new layer using a wider palette of colors: greens, greys, browns, etc... Because you started with the pure colors underneath, this method will add a richness to the finished result that is often lacking in acrylic paintings.

Check out this painting video where I demonstrate this block-in technique:

"How To Block-in a Painting with Primary Colors."

A Painting Tutorial by Artist Charles Wolf.

Materials:

Bright Brush

Filbert Brush

3 Inch Brush

Liner Brush

Palette (Cardboard)

Easel or Flat Surface

Canvas Board, 14x18 Inches

Watercup

Drop Cloth

Paper Towel

Acrylic Paint:

Cobalt Blue

Naples Yellow

Naphthol Crimson

Mars Black

Titanium White

If you would like to see more of my painting videos you can on my YouTube painting channel here:

Impulsive Artistry YouTube Link!

Thank you for viewing my work today. Please feel free to ask me any questions about my art, this approach, how to get started in painting or something else... I would love to talk to you about it in the comment section below!

Have a fantastic creative week,

—Charles

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Monday, February 6, 2017

Feeling Inspired? #14: Link Up

Are You Feeling Inspired?

Need a creative boost to start your week?

I know I do – join me each Monday for a linkup party where you can share your creative side (posts): Painting, Drawing, Photography, Quilting, Music, DIYs, Crafts…

If it is creative, then share it here — I would love to see what you are working on!

Photo of the Day:

Impulsive Artistry on Twitter!

You can see what I am up too during the week...

Twitter: @ArtImpulsive

The Link Up:

Guidelines for Linking a Post (2 per blog/site):

—All linked posts must be creative and artsy, family friendly and please no giveaways.

—Please leave a comment below!

—A link back to this post on social media would be much appreciated!

—Please visit other linked posts!

	Shades of Winter Snow Beautiful		Pink Clouds of A Sunset Comfort Spring		Curious as a Cathy
	CREATE WITH JOY - LINK UP		bethere2day LINKFEST

(Cannot add links: Registration/trial expired)

Thanks for stopping by today here at Impulsive Artistry. Sharing a new painting + tutorial video on Wednesday!

Have a fantastic week,

—Charles

Share this linkup party on social media:

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Morning Light - Photo Set

The air is cool and crisp, and the light breaks through the pines—a warm glow silhouetting the trees in inky relief to the pale orange behind. The stillness of the winter frost on the decaying leaves that crunch underfoot, snapping and crackling as I kneel to find the perfect angle to capture the sunrise. Wren's warble overhead, and I look up to catch a dash of movement against the tangle of branches that cover in a canopy. Moments later, a brown squirrel scampers down, head-first, holding a nut in it's mouth and clinging to the ivy that curls around the thick trunk of a mighty oak that stands a few yards off to my right. I rub my hands together, trying to steady my hands that are already growing cold as I position the camera to the perfect angle. A freshness, clear and clean pervades the morning with a hint pine intermingled like a lemon garnish on a cocktail. I snap a few pictures in rapid succession and smile at the result—a beautiful moment now encoded digitally for future. The squirrel eyes me quizzically, clinging to a branch not far from where I kneel, I raise my camera to capture him, but he impishly scampers off before I can focus the lens. Shrugging, I turn back up the path that leads to the backdoor of my home, ready for my morning coffee...

Question of the Day:

What time of the day do you find most inspiring?

Let me know in the comments below or on the Impulsive Artistry Facebook page!

Thank you for stopping by here at Impulsive Artistry today, I hope that you all have a wonderful creative week!

—Charles

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Monday, February 13, 2017

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Monday, February 6, 2017

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