But hey, it's a nice painting and I learned something! :) Thank you

Thank you Julian. I love everything about your reply and appreciate your feedback. I also love the sport of talking about art and paintings…we can learn so much. There is a great learning opportunity in your comments. If we gave this photo reference to ten Painters, they would have ten different interpretations of it. That’s a good thing. “Viva La Differánce!!”. These differences are what make us individual, visual poets. Academic principle #3: “Decide what the painting is about before you begin”…”The what informs the how”…or how you will paint it. You have articulated well what you are interested in this picture and articulated how you would execute it. Bravo. This is the job of the visual poet. For me, I was more interested in the cottage and its relationship to the atmospheric perspective of the trees. For the trees to be appear soft and dimensionally behind the house, I juxtaposed their relative cool color, soft edges and lack of detail, volume and texture by creating hard edges, warm colors and relatively higher details on the cottage…POP! The cottage comes forward and the trees recede with a feeling of atmosphere. Viola!

Hey, thanks!

Love this fun fact! Thank you for sharing.

Thanks so much 😊

Thank you for your kind comments. Papers can be very absorbent and are not ideal for oil. It’s always best to use substrate that’s prepared and such a way that it will not be “thirsty“, or drink your oil/color. I prefer preparing my canvas or boards with oil primer. Give that a try and best of luck.

Hi Lulu, Thanks so much. I have a chart that I made of my entire pallet. That includes all of the colors I use, which ones are transparent and opaque, it also includes swatches of how they act transparently and opaquely with and without liquin. I shared this with my in-house students and require them to make one of their own. Send me an email and I will forward you a copy of the one I have. All the best on your artistic journey, sincerely, Todd.

@@toddbonitafineart1584 thank you for you super prompt response! You are so awesome I will definitely appreciate that. May I send it through InstaG? I will really appreciate that. I googled it of course, and I got an idea but I’d love to make my own chart like that as well 🙏🏼

Thank you so much for your kind words, Harry. I sure appreciate that. I would love to meet you in person. Thank you also for your interest in my original artwork. If you like, shoot me an email at [email protected]. And request to be on my email list where I announce the release of new paintings and new painting workshops. Thank you again, sincerely, Todd.

Thank you for taking the time to say that. You’re very kind. I’m glad you found something of value in them. Happy painting to you Allen.

Hi Jeff, Thank you for watching my videos and checking in with your comment. Yes! You are correct. I just started using one with my plein air paintings. It’s a very useful alternative. Happy painting to you. Todd.

@@toddbonitafineart1584 Painting this way reminds me a lot of how I have done charcoal tonal drawings on sepia colored paper. Using an eraser to pull out the lights and darken the darks with more charcoal. Cool method.

Thank you so much for your kind words.

Love this idea! Brilliant!!! Thank you

Good observation. Pro tip: Squeeze out your entire palette the same way for every painting, as apposed to just squeezing out the colors you think you need. It’s not uncommon, for example, for beginners to just squeeze out green for the tree, blue for the sky and water, red for that barn and maybe some white. It’s a better idea to squeeze out your entire complimentary palette. The sky, trees and barn, all likely have light and shadow, reflective light, atmospheric perspective and varied degrees of chromatic and neutral color. This requires a full complimentary palette to introduce the necessary variety of subtle colors that represent nature. Squeezing out your palate and putting the colors in the same spot every time, develops habit and muscle memory so you can focus on the task of painting. I use a version of the most popular palette historically, “ the split primary palette”. It includes a warm and cool version of each of the three primary’s, plus white. Essentially, two yellows, two reds and two blues. Although not necessary, I also include a few secondaries for comfort, those include, orange, purple, green, and usually a brown. Hope that helps. Happy painting

My bad, thank you for the feedback. I have since been corrected. I should have been more specific and referenced the Sindhi, who inhabit mostly the north west part of India (and New Dehli) read from right to left. Thanks for your comments.

Hi Jose, do you have about six hours or so of drying time before the paint begins to set and get tacky. This is the paintings way of telling you it’s time to quit for the day. You can work on any size painting with this. If you click this link it will take you to a page where I illustrate the entire process through photographs. The painting I’m working on in these photos is 48 x 60“. Good size. Best of luck.

www.toddbonita.com/how-i-make-a-picture.html

@@toddbonitafineart1584 Thanks a lot, thats very helpful

@@toddbonitafineart1584 And what surface is better so It takes longer to dry? Wood panel, canvas...

Lol! Excellent! I’m glad you found this one. Appreciate all your kind words. Happy painting to you my friend.

Hi Kelvin, Thanks so much for the kind words, I’m glad to hear you are finding something of value in these videos. I have another video called opaque color. You will find useful in answering your questions about mixing. Happy painting on your journey, my friend.