I spent two mornings on this gallery painting. From the OPA show, I brought back some medium samples from Gamblin. I did an experiment on this painting. Instead of linseed oil, I used “Galkyd Lite” to coat my canvas before I paint. It felt OK, but the painting turned to a very “matted” look on the second day. I don’t quite like it, and I had really a hard time to photograph the painting. If you use Gamblin medium, would you please let me know how and why you use them. Thanks.
In my previous post, I asked questions about Facebook. I got many feedbacks. Most People who answered me considered Facebook is waist of time, and blogs are much better tools for artists. Thanks for your feedbacks. I will not spend much time to explore Facebook any more.
In my previous post, I asked questions about Facebook. I got many feedbacks. Most People who answered me considered Facebook is waist of time, and blogs are much better tools for artists. Thanks for your feedbacks. I will not spend much time to explore Facebook any more.
11 comments:
Lovely painting; the colors and "arrangement" really sing!
Hello!
I must have missed the question about Facebook, but now that I've seen it I feel I must reply.
Facebook is absolutely not a waste of time and I am surprised that you were told so! If you have a Facebook page, you also have the advantage of creating a business page, a "Painting A Day Page" that anyone can join, and that anyone can see, immediately, what you are doing, without reading through a blog or signing up for an email, and in fact, this can happen on a massive scale. You don't have to add a lot of content like you do your blog or email, just a very short update what you are doing/working on type of post. With this one page alone you have more possibility of spreading/sharing your work virally than that of either your emails, OR your blog, just this one page alone, even if you NEVER log on to socialize on a personal level. Why? Facebook has an endless supply of pages just like your's, you join some, people discover you and they join yours, than people that follow the first person, begin to follow you.., etc, etc. opening up tremendous opportunities for the artist. Anyone who has told you that this has no value has literally no idea how to use Facebook to their advantage. It isn't about keywords or SEO anymore, it's about content and how you link that content up.
Just my thoughts,
Love your work, I've watched you grow so much as an artist since I first signed up with you, that it takes my breath away!!
Best wishes,
Leah
Regardless of the performance of the medium, I really Like how this turned out. Love the composition.
I am loving this very much! The oranges are perfect!
It's a beautiful painting!
Beautiful piece. Like the highlight on the rim of the copper bowl.
Thanks Qiang for bring the subject of Facebook up. I have wondered the very same things, it seemed a waste of time to explore how to use it. Leah, thanks so much for your input, you have inspired me to look into it further, sounds like something easy and very valuable!
Qiang, the painting is awesome as is all of your work. I'm self taught about oil painting and the idea of covering your canvas with linseed oil before you paint is new to me. The painting must take a longer time to dry!? But I imagine that the paint just glides on with luscious strokes. I'll try it. Thanks for all your thoughts and tips.
Love your work! never post much but had to comment on the Gamblin Mediums. The one you will like is the Neo Megilp Medium. I agree about the galkyds coming out too matte. The Neo is very silky and luminous, leaving a glossy shine when dry.
Hi Qiang, I use Galkyd light as my medium (I previously used the Mayer forumula of 1 part stand oil, 1 part Damar, 5 parts Turpentine, but I was getting inconsistent behavior over time and with Mineral spirits which is my solvent of choice, so I decided to switch to something pre-manufactured).
Galkyd dries very fast (tacky within 15-20 minutes) so you can slow the drying down by adding some Stand or poppy seed oil (this will result in drying times of 24-48 hours). I also feel that the medium is to thick, so I thin it down with Mineral Spirits. Galkyd is very glossy so once it started drying, your paint was laying on top of the medium and drying matte, resulting in really weird effects (some parts glossy some matte). I generally only use the medium when I want transparent, saturated paint for say a background or loose side objects, if I use the medium in general painting, I find that I have to do a wash or "oiling out" with the medium throughout the painting to get everything to the same level of gloss. Hope this helps.
Qiang. Facebook is the single fastest growing method of marketing for artists. I would suggest looking at how Tony Pro and Jeremy Lipking are using the medium. It all ties back into your blog and website. I typically post a blog then link it to my Facebook. I usually begin to get comments on FB within a few minutes and I get an immediate increase in the number of hits to my website.
Rusty and Leah are correct about FB. SEO is driven by content (at least well done SEO) and SEO is what helps drive people to your website. FB is just another tool used to help create content and drive traffic but it does have to be linked back to your url in order to achieve those results. Very much like your blog. It is only as affective as its ability to drive people to your website.
I use to work for one of the largest online advertising agencies in the US and have friends that are some of the top online marketing professionals. They would tell you that the jury is still out on FB (or for that matter any social media) in terms of providing direct results as an ecommerce channel (ability to drive sales of a product). However, a little time investment for FB is probably worth the effort but don't expect people to line up to buy paintings. I consider it a more indirect tool for increasing SEO for my website, and thus increasing “my brand” which is my name. I will tell you though that one of my galleries which is one of the top galleries in Florida, found me on Twitter. Go figure!
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