Seascape Artist

Archive for July, 2007

Jul 29 2007

Planning for a Specific Frame Size and Mat Size

I am giving a painting away next month in August for an event - advertising - I will have business cards there too - I ordered new ones to arrive in time for this event. One should never run out of business cards and then wait to get more - you will suddenly find yourself in need of having some in a time crunch if you allow yourself to run out without re-ordering right away. Approximately 100 or so local area business people are expected to attend this event, so to me, it is critical that I have plenty of business cards for them to pick up if they are interested in my art from seeing this painting - it will be displayed before being given away.

I need a painting to fit into a 16″ x 20″ mat / frame - the opening for the mat will be 10 1/2″ x 13 1/2″ (known in most stores as an 11″ x 14″ opening) - I measured it so I know it does not have an 11″ x 14″ opening - where did the other 1/2″ for both directions go? The inner mat bevel is 1/4″ so it loses 1/2″ in width and length inside the mat.

I feel this event is important to my career as an artist so I am planning the framing (and the painting itself) very carefully - which usually is not something I do with watercolors - I decided I wanted to do a completely new painting specifically for this event instead of just pull one already completed out of the portfolio where they are packed away ready for the move this fall or to just be protected right now from being damaged. I want something colorful so I chose the purple-lavender-blue color combination … I have not decided yet if it will be sand or grass or some of both and I am planning a palm tree also - the palm tree will be in tube watercolors so it will show up well. It will probably have a few flying seagulls being a seascape but those will be the very last thing painted.

The “fit the frame and mat” step was the first thing I physically needed to accomplish - no matter what great color combination or painting I might do - if it doesn’t fit into the planned frame and mat when completed - it will be a failure so I would have to start all over again. The very first step was thinking and deciding what size I wanted it to be and what type of subject - that part was easy for me - a seascape since I love to paint seascapes.

I started with an 18′ x 24″ sheet of 140 lb watercolor paper - that is the largest size watercolor paper I have in my studio - the larger a painting is - the more difficult to mat and frame it - I decided I wanted a standard size since I do not have months in advance to order specific mats cut for this painting and I do not cut my own mats yet - that is something I plan to learn after I move but I still have a few months before that is going to happen.

I placed the mat on the paper, drew around the outside of it. I am painting all the way to the marked edge even though I know I will be cutting off the extra outside the edge markings as well as approximately 1/2″ inside the border I drew too. The mat is approximately 2 1/2″ wide - so I also need to know where to place my sand or grassy hill area … so … on the outer border edge at the bottom, I made marks to remind me where I want the bottom to be inside the mat so it will be above and below this area to show when framed inside the mat.

For this painting, I am using a combination of watercolor pencils and tube water color paints. The sky and water area were blocked in using watercolor pencils so far - the bottom area is next and it too will be blocked in first with watercolor pencils - depending on how it looks, I may need to put tube paint on it also to make it show up better since part of it may cover the blue sea area and watercolor pencils do not cover laid down color as well as I want and need for this painting but it is really good to let me play with the shapes while blocking them in to finish painting them.

Planning for important projects is key to being successful. Always take the time to think about what you want the end result to be, then plan how to get from the beginning to that end result, BEFORE starting the project. You may not always follow the plan during the project and that is okay too … but if you have no plan … you may not get the results you want or need from the project.

tags: frame sizing, framing, mat sizing, planning

2 responses so far

Jul 19 2007

Unique Ideas Inspired by Nature

Published by barbaraburns under Inspirations

For many artists who paint seascapes or lake-scapes, they get bored with them because they feel as if they are painting the very same painting over & over a gazillion times. Nature has a way of giving an artist new direction and viewpoint of water painting … if you are open to what is around you and let the first impression guide you towards a new painting. We have been having a lot of rain this last … well it seems like forever … but actually maybe a month or so I guess … maybe more or maybe less time … the important part is that there has been a lot of rain and it has been raining nearly every day - it may have skipped a day or so but not many at all recently. The Houston area being low-lying, it doesn’t run off all that quickly even though there are lots of bayous all over the place - we have ditches full of water and there are mini-lakes in empty fields where there wasn’t during the dry / drier season.

Westheimer Parkway in particular floods or nearly floods if there is a heavy rain - it hasn’t been completely over the road any time I’ve been down it but it has been quite close on both sides - one nite I had to turn around and go back - I think there was water on the road but I never got close enough to it in the traffic to really find out - part of the area on both sides of it is VERY low ground. I hadn’t driven down there for a couple weeks or more - I was nearly afraid to do so for fear it was completely under water with all the rain we’ve been having.

I drove down it this week - it is like driving through the middle of a lake - the water is about two feet away from the road on both sides though nearly level with the road - when I was a kid, I was amazed at the Red Sea parting in The Ten Commandments movie. I got the same feeling driving on the road in what appeared to be a lake! When it is a heavy rain that doesn’t last all that long and it brings up the water level - it usually goes down rather quickly - this is not going down - it does not appear to be draining at all or if it is, then the rain every day is keeping it fairly stable level of water - I am thinking this week-end on Sunday would be a good day to drive down it to see and maybe try to get some pictures if it is still like a lake with a road running through it.

Does this draw a picture in your mind that you could translate to canvas? Had you ever considered what it would look like, let alone feel like to walk or drive through a lake? I’m trying to figure out how I can put the water up on both sides of the road like walls without banks - a parting of the Red Sea effect - I think it would be fascinating to paint water from that perspective - in it without being in it … surrounded but not immersed - religious painting enthusiasts in particular … have you ever painted the Parting of the Red Sea?

Perhaps from a snail’s perspective or as a rock on the bottom of the Sea … or maybe a bird’s eye view from above of the tiny little people surrounded by the huge walls of water being held back from crushing the tiny little speck people trudging through the Red Sea fearing it will come crashing down onto them any second …. or giants who are still dwarfed by the water walls of the parted Sea.

Would you have enough faith to walk through the Red Sea with it parted? I’m not sure I would - it sounds quite scary and just thinking of those enormous walls of water towering miles above and over me with many miles to walk through it ahead of me and the water being held back by faith alone … maybe that is why caves give me claustrophobia … maybe I am afraid the walls are held back by faith alone and that my faith would not be enough to keep the rocks from tumbling down upon me.

Let nature inspire you with odd random occurances - all you have to do is be open to seeing them and noticing them - when I drove down the road - I was wanting to take a shortcut that would get me to my daughter’s house faster - I was hoping it was not closed and that I would not have to turn around and backtrack which would take me more time - what I got was an inspirational reminder of an event that I’ve never even considered painting until now. Nature will give you ideas of what to do with weather, sky, rocks, water, land and so much more - let it brighten your world and broaden your horizons by letting Nature be why you stop along the road to smell the flowers and watch the sun rise or sun set.

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