Art Supply of the Week - Constructing and Using a Mahl Stick

What is a mahl stick? It is a stick used to support the hand of the artist while painting or drawing. At one end of the dowel there is padding to protect the surface of the painting.

Why use a mahl stick? When painting or drawing for long hours a stick to rest your hand on can be an absolute lifesaver. I use my mahl stick whenever I'm painting anything that requires fine details such as faces, hands, hair and anything else that requires a steady hand. My mahl stick also prevents dirt and oils from my skin from being transferred to my painting's surface. The stick also prevents hand fatigue and pain as it places the wrist in a more comfortable working position. In addition to being more ergonomical it also keeps any wet paint from being accidentally smudged by my hands when painting fine details.

My Mahl stick with a piece of leftover ribbon from my wedding. :)

My Mahl stick with a piece of leftover ribbon from my wedding. :)

To make your mahl stick you will need a couple of items: A dowel stick from your local hardware store (find a thickness that will support the weight of your arm without bending substantially), a piece of silk, two jumbo or equivalent cotton balls, scissors and a piece of string, a rubber band or a ribbon.  I also used 400 grit sandpaper to remove any potential splinters and to smooth out the dowel stick before assembly.

a dowel stick, cotton balls, silk and a ribbon

Wrap the of the dowel with two cotton balls. The cotton provides important padding to protect your painting surface from becoming marred by the end of the dowel stick. 

a dowel stick, cotton ball, silk

Next cover the cotton with a 6.5" square piece of silk and secure it with a string, rubber band or ribbon. I use silk for my fabric because it is lightweight and does not produce lint that could become embedded in the surface of my painting.  Chamois leather is also often used. If you have trouble with the cotton and silk popping off the end try the following. With a pencil mark the area on the dowel where the ribbon is tied. Remove the cotton and silk and place a small amount of double-sided tape on the dowel where you have indicated. Next, Replace the cotton ball and silk and trim the excess silk and ribbon.

a dowel stick, cotton balls, silk and a ribbon

Using a Mahl Stick:

When using the mahl stick hold it in your non dominant hand and rest the covered end carefully on a dry section of your painting or on the edge of your canvas. Here is an example of the mahl stick in action... 

an artist painting a girl’s arm

With an exciting and enormous project on the horizon I will be changing the schedule of my blog posts to twice a month. Thank you for your support and happy painting to you all! 

Art Supply of the Week - Wooden Palettes

Seasoning a Wood Palette

A properly sealed wood palette is a thing of beauty to work on every day. I use feather light palettes by Cappelletto from Jerry's Artarama. They come in a variety of sizes, are very economical and lightweight. They have a lacquer finish on them but it is not quite sufficient for my uses. Before I start using a palette I place a small amount of linseed oil on it and distribute it evenly over the surface of the palette with a blue paper towel. You want a very very light coat of oil. I let that sit, usually anywhere between 2-5 days depending on the humidity, until it is bone dry and repeat about 7 times. This seals the palette and keeps the wood from absorbing the oil from my paint, preventing the paint from tacking up prematurely on my palette.

Before you place your first coat of oil on the palette you can also paint it any color. For my skin tones I like working on a slightly darker palette than the natural color of the wood and painted one of my palettes 7.5YR 5/4. Some people like to paint them a perfect neutral 6N or 7N. 

To seal my palette I have tried liquin, Windsor Newton Painting medium, and varnish. The linseed oil gives me a the most enjoyable working properties and best finish of the 4. 

Cleaning a Wood Palette

Using harsh solvents or soap on the palette would ruin the finish so here is the procedure I use to keep my palette in great working condition for a long time.

My palette after a long day's work.

My palette after a long day's work.

First, I scrape off all the paint except for the white. I then spread the white over the whole palette and then scrape off the white. This helps keep the palette from darkening too much over time. 

First, I scrape off all the paint except for the white. I then spread the white over the whole palette and then scrape off the white. This helps keep the palette from darkening too much over time. 

Next, I wipe the palette down with a paper towel to remove as much of the paint as possible.

Next, I wipe the palette down with a paper towel to remove as much of the paint as possible.

Next, I place a few drops of linseed oil on the palette and polish it with a clean part of the paper towel. 

Next, I place a few drops of linseed oil on the palette and polish it with a clean part of the paper towel. 

I leave a very thin coat of linseed oil on the palette to maintain the linseed oil film that protects my paint from the absorbent wood.

I leave a very thin coat of linseed oil on the palette to maintain the linseed oil film that protects my paint from the absorbent wood.

I store my palette flat in a cubbyhole to keep dust from settling on it and becoming incorporated into the layer of linseed oil.

I store my palette flat in a cubbyhole to keep dust from settling on it and becoming incorporated into the layer of linseed oil.

Palettes

There are many many types of palettes. Wood and plastic pallets, as they are lightweight and can be manufactured into ergonomic shapes, are a great choice if you like to hold your palette. If you like to work from a flat surface, melamine, ceramic enamel coated butcher's trays and glass palettes are also wonderful options. There are also a lot of disposable palettes for easy cleanup.

One thing to think about when considering a palette is your working methods. Do you like to tint or stain your ground before you begin to paint? I like to work on a ground that is lightly tinted or stained with a high value, low chroma yellow orange so that I can estimate my values easier at the beginning stages of the painting. The color is very similar to my palette and is also a great unifying base for skin tones and landscapes. Using a palette that is similar in color to the tinted ground gives you a similar frame of reference for your mixing surface area on your palette: making discerning values and mixing colors easier. With a wood palette you can paint it any color you choose before you seal the wood. Glass and acrylic palettes enable you to place colored paper, such as a neutral gray, a value scale or even paint the opposite side of the work surface to your preference. Glass and plastic also make cleanup very easy. New Wave offers a neutral gray  and traditional wood hand held palettes designed to reduce fatigue. The Parallel Palette designed by David Kassan is designed to reduce fatigue and back pain, and its position enables one to have the same lighting conditions on the palette as the painting surface. Furthermore, if you prefer to paint directly on the white of the canvas, plastic, melamine and butcher's trays will provide you with that same white frame of reference for mixing your paint. There are so many wonderful options when it comes to palettes.

Art Supply of the Week - Solvent Free Brush Cleaning

A three step system for cleaning oil painting brushes without the use of toxic solvents.

Step 1: Carefully remove as much oil paint as possible by squeezing the brush between folds of a lint free paper towel. My favorite paper towels are the blue shop paper towels from Home Depot.

Step 2: Swish the brush in the Silicoil jar containing 85% shampoo and 15% water. The pigments fall away from the brush hairs to the bottom of the jar. Periodically wipe and swirl the brush on a clean part of the paper towel. (I use Everyday Shea shampoo because it does not contain a lot of additives that are harsh on the brushes like SLS, or silicone that could coat the brush hairs and end up in my painting.) The shampoo works really well. After all, shampoo is designed to remove oil and dirt from hair.

Step 3: Under running water, swish the brush back and forth on the bar of da Vinci soap until no more pigments are visible on the brush and soap. Dry the brush on the paper towel and shape the tip. Lay flat to dry.

I've tried a lot of soaps over the years. Ivory, though touted as very gentle, damaged the finish on the handles of some of my favorite brushes. Escoda, Irish Spring and Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver in the tub didn't seem to clean all the oil out of the bristles. The daVinci brush soap is more expensive than a lot of other soaps but I find that it removes the oil completely while being very gentle on the brush. With the daVinci soap I don't end up with hardened brushes or wear them down prematurely. Finally, a perfect combination.

Munsell Part 2: Color Palette Design and Application

Designing a Color Palette

There are multiple ways to achieve a visually harmonious color palette. One could use a basis of monochromatic, dichromatic, analogous, split complementary and complimentary color schemes. There are many other color schemes such as tetradic and triadic and too many more to cover in the scope of this blog. Therefore, I will only be discussing some of my personal favorites; monochromatic, dichromatic and analogous.

Monochromatic color schemes would contain a single hue family, such as blue, to the exclusion of all other hues. The color can vary in terms of chroma and value.

An example of a monochromatic color scheme incorporating different values and chroma of 2.5 Blue.

An example of a monochromatic color scheme incorporating different values and chroma of 2.5 Blue.

Dichromatic - one example of a dichromatic color scheme would be a color scheme that incorporates blue and green but excludes other hues.

A dichromatic color scheme including 10 Blue and 10 Green at different values. Both the blue and the green are limited to a chroma of 6 and 10.

A dichromatic color scheme including 10 Blue and 10 Green at different values. Both the blue and the green are limited to a chroma of 6 and 10.

Analogous color schemes contain a group of colors that are adjacent to one another on the color wheel. One example would be a color scheme that includes red, yellow-red (orange) and yellow and another possibility would be the example below.

An example of an analogous color scheme with a space of 5 Munsell hue designations in between each chosen hue. The chroma included for each hue is a chroma of 6 and 10 with values between 7 and 3.

An example of an analogous color scheme with a space of 5 Munsell hue designations in between each chosen hue. The chroma included for each hue is a chroma of 6 and 10 with values between 7 and 3.

 

Designing A Palette

Generally, I do not have a specific color scheme classification in mind when I set out to design my paintings. Nevertheless, my accidental personal favorites seem to be imperfectly associated with monochromatic, dichromatic, and analogous color schemes as they give me a sense of quiet serenity that I seek in my work.

When designing a color palette for one of my paintings I like to start a neutral. Why use a basis of neutral for designing a color palette? Using a large proportion of a neutral vs the subject matter enables the viewer to quickly discern what parts of the composition are the most important. When an object of higher chroma is placed over a neutral our attention naturally turns to the higher chroma object. Neutrals recede and higher chroma objects have the illusion of being closer to the viewer.

For example, when I used to paint still life paintings, I would start with a neutral color like wood, slate or stained wood that were low in chroma. I would then add in more colorful elements such as colored glass, ribbons and sea shells that were higher in chroma. The focus of the painting would automatically be these more brightly colored objects and the background of wood or slate would recede.

Next, I pick a color family that complements my subject and add variety by including slight variations in hue and chroma until I am satisfied with the resulting color palette.  For instance with sea shells, I would add ribbons that were slightly higher or lower in chroma and value than the shells but were identical in some aspect of their hue. Finally, I often limit the chroma of my subject matter. Having a flower blossom who's chroma is a very vibrant 14 would take too much focus away from my figure who's skin tones often range from a chroma of 2 to 4 in my paintings.

In The New Munsell Student text it mentions that a color will harmonize with another if it shares two characteristics in either hue, value or chroma. In most of the the examples above I often varied the hue, while keeping the chroma with in the same two numerical classes. As we are painters and are rendering light as it acts on three dimensional forms, I also included a small subset of values. The rule of two shared characteristics is a great starting point for designing color palettes. However, like most rules in painting, this one can be bent and still yield beautiful results. A lot of beauty in color schemes comes from limiting your options in hue and especially chroma, either through a limited color palette of paint or through the use of Munsell.

An example of a color palette design for an upcoming painting. Left: my strand of neutral gray that I like to have nearby for comparison of chroma and value. The remaining color strands are for my lower chroma background, model's clothes and flower …

An example of a color palette design for an upcoming painting. Left: my strand of neutral gray that I like to have nearby for comparison of chroma and value. The remaining color strands are for my lower chroma background, model's clothes and flower blossoms.

Proportions of Constituent Colors are Key

When designing a color palette, proportions of the constituent colors are important. Take Magnetism below. Had I placed large amounts of high chroma yellow next to large amounts of high chroma red the composition would be anything but peaceful. However, small amounts of red and yellow with an equal quantity of yellow-red provided a visual transition between these two clashing colors. Placing the three over a large back drop of a neutral belonging to the same hue family created a harmonious palette of color as well as visual interest for my foreground subjects. The Munsell chips themselves will not visually provide you with a blueprint of your color scheme's proportions. For this, I highly recommend thumbnail sketches and studies. They are a valuable way to test out your paintings color scheme and value structure before you start your final painting. 

I would classify the painting Magnetism, depicted above, as an analogous color scheme painting. It includes Red, Yellow-Red and Yellow plus a low chroma yellow-red (more commonly referred to as brown) for the background.

I would classify the painting Magnetism, depicted above, as an analogous color scheme painting. It includes Red, Yellow-Red and Yellow plus a low chroma yellow-red (more commonly referred to as brown) for the background.

Application of my Munsell Color Palette

IMG_0641.jpg

In application, I do not mix every chip I choose in my color palette's design, just a small subset based on the subject I'm painting that day. On the above palette I mixed only a dark value Red, as well as some light and mid value reds using the chips for comparison. With the yellow I did not choose to use any Munsell chips and accomplished all premixing through the observation of my subject. These piles of paint serve only as starting points for the color decisions I will be making throughout the painting day. I extensively mix and modify, as you can see from the palette above, to ensure that I achieve the exact hue, value and chroma necessary to depict objects realistically. In the case of this painting day my subject was medium-high chroma flower petals containing both yellow and red hues with transitional oranges in between. I used a small amount of raw umber to neutralize the reds and yellows slightly when necessary.

Which brings us to the next topic on Munsell... controlling chroma.

The next post on Munsell will be sometime in November.