A message about my painting demo on Zoom

 

I made a quick video to talk about some issues I have been going through in preparing for the painting demo on Zoom this coming Saturday. Please watch it on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ1n37JIW5I. We all work hard to make the new life working. I have learned a lot just this a couple of days. Yesterday, I have sent more than one hundred emails one - by- one, because I did not know how to send a group email for all who have registered for my demo. I felt clumsy at the beginning, but eventually I will figure out, and things will get more smooth. Thanks to all of you for your support to my art and teaching. I will try my best to teach more often and more effectively.

I will do a free zoom demo for you

 

I would like to do a free Zoom painting demo for you. The time will be on October 3 at noon CST. The demo will last about one hour. You will see me live, and I will show you my general painting approach. No painting experience is required for watching my demo. I am learning new ways to continue my art teaching. This demo will be an experiment for all of us to test out if Zoom will be a viable method for me to teaching virtually. If you are interested in attending this zoom demo, please register at: http://www.qh-art.com/zoom-demo.html (or go to my website then click "Zoom Demo" tab). Since I have only 100 seats available, please sign up as early as you can. See you Saturday.

Once Upon a Time

 

I finished another painting. About a year ago, I attended the "En Plein Air Texas" competition in San Angelo Texas. I did a plein air sketch of this old truck. to show the feeling of the old time, I thought I would use a monochromatic approach. But the result was not ideal. I came back, and the painting went directly to the storage, started its own hibernation into the forgotten past, just like the old truck... Recently, I pull it out. Since I am in the mode of working on colors, I decided to paint on the top of the monochrome, I turned it into a true color painting. 

In order to adapt the new way of living in the isolation of the pandemic, I started to pay more attention to the Internet. I have been ignoring using Youtube for a long time, but now I want to develop my channel. After I posted my instructional video on using my "Painter's Guide" app, I am happy of seeing my subscribers increased from 55 to 118 in about a day.  Thank you all so much for your support. I felt deeply the connection between us. Now I am learning to make time lapse videos. I have documented when painting this old truck. Please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAGW64xhYbA to watch my painting process (for Instagram users, please search: "Qiang Huang" on Youtube). I appreciate you subscribe my channel.

New Youtube: how to use my app

 

I uploaded a new instructional video on Youtube to demonstrate how to use my "Painter's Guide" app. Please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYWzG4JLpSU to watch it (for Instagram users, please search "Qiang Huang app" on Youtube). I hope all of you can benefit from this free tool to improve your painting quality. Having been teaching for so many year, I feel I have a mission to accomplish: I want to boost up the general capability of representation art creation. I will try all the ways to achieve this goal. Creating apps is one of them. Youtube will soon be another one. At this moment, I have very few videos on Youtube and only 55 people have subscribed my channel. From now on I will use this tool proactively to provide my painting tips and other educational information. I sincerely hope you can support my effort. Please please subscribe my channel. I am serious about art and teaching, and know well that there is too much junk in the world now. I will and am obligated to keep my channel clean. Let's work together, to survive, to grow, to excel, and eventually to make this world more beautiful. Thank you so much. 

A Podcast about my work

 

I chatted the art publisher  Eric Rhoads for about an hour last Tuesday. Now this conversation is on Plein Air Podcast. Please check it out: https://www.outdoorpainter.com/pleinair-podcast-189-qiang-huang-on-art-as-a-science-and-more/. This podcast covers my recent research on color, how I started plein air painting, what I have learned from the master painter Richard Schmid, my teaching experiences, and some tips about painting. I hope my experience as an artist and teacher can be informative for you. I am going through a transition during this special time. We will go through all the difficulties, learn some new skill in life, and be ready for the next phase of our journey on this planet we call the Earth.

"Gondolas in Venice" finished

 

I have finished this 36" x 36" large painting. On and off, it took me about two weeks. I have learned a lot, especially on color management on large paintings. Painting grays in the background was difficult. I don't want the paint look muddy there. It took me a few iterations to figure out. After this experience I have gained more confidence to paint large, without worrying the painting showing overworking or color getting dirty. I have gone through the transition from an alla prima painter to a true studio painter. I will summarize what I have learned and hope in the future I can share with you on how to paint large.

My demo for "Live with Eric Rhoads" is on Youtube

Last Sunday, I did a live stream interview and demo with Eric Rhoads, the Art publisher. Now the video is on Youtube, the link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E11TMVdIp5U&t=139s (or you can search "Live with Eric Rhoads 172" on Youtube. I know some of you may not register with Facebook so you could not watch live. Now it is ready for you. At the meantime, it is a learning experience for me to know how to do live stream from my studio. I plan to teach zoom classes soon. So this event helped me to iron out some of technique issues. It looks that I need to improve the sound quality a little and install a zoom lens with the webcam, or maybe multiple webcams. When I am ready to teach zoom classes, I will let you know. Now just download my videos from my website.

Since Eric doing a favor to give me more publicity, I will help him too. So please sign up "Realism Live" if you think it will benefit you. The link is: https://realismlive.com/register-now?affiliate_id=2533996. You will learn from the most advanced artists in this event. Thanks.

Livestream from my studio on Sept 13

I am very happy to be invited by Eric Rhoads to talk about my recent art activities. Our meeting will be live streamed online at 11:00 AM central time on September 13 (Sunday). This will be the first time I will live stream from my studio. If you are interested to see my studio and know what I have been doing lately, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/eric.rhoads on Sunday. It will be a fun event. See you then.

"Gondolas in Venice" Phase 3

Please be patient with me. This large painting will take a while to finish. For these a few days, I have been working on the figures. I don't want them to be detailed, but the drawing needs to be accurate, and the color needs to be interesting. This is what I got so far. I know some paintings take years to finish. I hope this one will not be that way. Well, I take it back. I started this one in 2017. Now it is 2020. At least I have not got stuck yet. Please wish me luck to have a smooth ride.

I hope you have checked the information of "Realism Live". I wish I could be a part of it, but I have a time conflict. If you have not checked the program, Here is the link: https://realismlive.com/register-now?affiliate_id=2533996. There so many superb artists will demo for this event. It is a great opportunity to learn from them.

"Gondolas in Venice" Phase 2

If you want to paint a good landscape, 20% is from what you know, but 80% is from what you see. However, if you want to paint a figure better, 20% is from what you see, 80% is from what you know. That maybe the reason some good landscape painters never paint figures or portraits. If you want to be a good figurative painter, Serious study and training in art schools is crucial. Unfortunately only a few art schools nowadays offer this kind of study and training. I visited Florence Academy of Art before, and really wish I can get that kind of training. I did not graduate from any art school and I am not young anymore. I must think some way to expedite my figure skills. I have some new "app" ideas, and I will develop some tools to help mediocre figure painters to excel. I know some people use projectors, It can not solve the problem completely. Without a good "knowing", a normal 3 years old child still can judge if your figure is good or bad.

"Gondolas in Venice" Phase 1

I am refurbishing a painting I did in 2017. I was stuck at the time, did not know how to finish. The painting was painterly and had some good parts, but there were something wrong with the color and the gesture of the main figure needed quite amount of work. It was a large one, 36" x 36". The correctness of the color relationship is crucial. I was not able to manage at the time. Now I am using my "Painter's Guide" app. I can mix color much more subtly and accurately. So color issue of large paintings will not be a problem any more.

Although my painting style is quite impressionistic, but I am always representational and realistic. If you are also a realistic painter, I recommend you attend an virtual event called "Realism Live" on October 21 - 24, 2020. The link is here (for Instagram users, please copy-n-paste: https://realismlive.com/register-now?affiliate_id=2533996). There are quite many excellent artists will share their tips. You will enjoy this great event.

"Painter's Guide" App Announcement

I am so happy to announce that our newly developed app: "Painter's Guide" is ready for you. "Painter's Guide" app is a comprehensive tool for artists, especially oil and acrylic painters. If you paint from photos, you will find this app will improve your painting significantly. It can change your photo to black-n-white so you see value easily. It has the "oilify" filter to simplify the color shapes and hide details. You can vary the photo size to small thumb nails or enlarge to get details. Just like the previous "Color Picker" app, "Painter's Guide" can single out colors from any spot of the photo and provide you quantitative color information, so you can see and match color accurately. It is quite straightforward to use this app, but soon I will make a Youtube video to demonstrate how to use it.

You may access the "Painter's Guide" app on my website for free, simply go to www.qh-art.com and click "Apps" tab, then press the "Painter's Guide" button. If you are curious what the numbers mean on the app, I highly recommend you take my online color course (on my website then click "Online Teaching"). We are working hard to find ways to improve your painting skills practically. We appreciate greatly your kind donation in helping us to further develop apps for artists. We will work together to heal our beautiful world. Thank you so much.

We are still working on Apple and Android versions of this app. We need to cross additional learning curves. Please be patient with us. Thanks.