from Portland, Oregon. I currently make an original piece of art every single day and I share my journey online and today I also have the Gamblin team with us of Pete, do you want to introduce yourself.
Sure. Hi, I'm Pete Cole and the president a gambling and I'll be here to moderate and I don't think I'll actually be needed at all. Eric is fantastic and Mary for our product specialist from Gamblin is also here and she'll be answering your questions.
That you may be typing in and
We're really happy to be here. Thank you.
Oh, well thanks feet. So like I said, if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask. There's no bad question or all we have the experts here.
So let's get started. I just want to say, you know, thank you for gap to Gamblin for having me here. I have been using Gamblin forever.
About 10 years ago is when I first started oil painting and they invited me out to their facility. And I have to say it was a really cool warehouse and
I was first of all shocked that they invited me but flattered and I was surprised at how much love that they put in every single paint tube and
What's cool is is when they are you know producing the paint, they actually use a vintage toothpaste machine. How cool is that really so like I said, this is all made in Portland, Oregon, and so it's made locally. So let's get into it.
Let's go over the supplies. So, this the supply
We're going to be using today and I wanted to show you what it looks like at the store because I know that the most common question is like oh my gosh what paint, am I using
Or what paint. Should I use and what I love about this, like I said, is they put so much love into each to to make sure that you're getting the highest quality of material. So this is what it looks like.
And it comes with pretty much everything that you need to get started in painting. What I love about this, especially
What makes this so special is that you just have to buy this. You don't have to buy
You know, all these tubes of paint. This comes right here, but I mean you can, but this is really what you need to get started in like color mixing and
just getting started. So let's go over this.
So first of all, it comes in. This would panel and I'm just going to take these out because I want to show you this outbreak kisses. So this would panel is also made an Oregon. It's made on Pete, you were saying it's made it for my company in Salem right
That's correct.
Yeah. And so like I said everything you need to get started. It comes with this panel and it's actually really great quality. If you look at the seams. It's perfection. So let's go through what's inside.
Okay, so the next. The first thing is, is you get the solvent free gel and it's your medium.
And I have a little surprise for you guys next week I'm going to be here with Gamblin and Michaels, and we're going to be going over
All your questions about mediums. So I don't want you to get worried that there's something I'm going to miss because we're going to cover everything so that you feel 100% comfortable with everything.
Okay, so we have the solvent free gel and this tube and then you have an MRI black, which is great, but I'm also going to show you how to mix your own black, but this is also great in case you need it need it.
And then ultra marine blue. It's actually the blue I currently use in my palette. And it's fantastic. It's a great blue, you cannot go wrong.
That will green is a great green
And I have a confession about fellow green it terrified me for so long, but now it's my favorite green because I was like oh my gosh, I'm so afraid to mix with it. But I realized that valid green is probably one of the most mixable greens, where you can get all your beautiful shades
Next we have two yellows, we have like an earthy yellow, yellow ochre and a cat yellow light which is fantastic. So this earthy yellow is great, but the CAD you'll light gives you that electric yellow that you're looking for.
And then we have hybrid light and I also use this in my current palette and fantastic if you want to have that like electric pink color when you mix it with white. This is it.
And then I'll scrums perfect like this is great when you want to use something like to tend to with red. It's great for like creating skin tones.
Then we have to take any white
Basic amazing. I promise you, by the big one by the big tube. Can't go wrong.
Okay, so we have everything there in regards to paint. The next thing that you need. We have GAM saw here. This is our mineral spirits, what I personally love about GAM saw his first of all
It's fantastic, because you can travel with it and you can use it and we're going to put it in our jar.
And I have a jar with a lid, and this is kind of what you want and you can use like a jar with a lid that you have in your home, but you just want to make sure that it's airtight
And forward in there. And what's so great about what Gamblin does is they do these like little mini jars. But if you want to just try it out or you can get a big one.
So, but in our like that. And then I just want to give you a few little tips about this when you're done with it. You just close it up.
And you save it. It's perfectly good you never throw it out, what will happen today is we're going to use it and all of the gunk is going to go on like drift to the bottom. And that's it.
It's fantastic. Okay, let me open this up.
So okay, so we have our panel. We are paints, let's set up our palate. So I just want to say with oil painting. I am a self taught oil painter.
And I'm super non traditional so if you want to do something that feels comfortable for you definitely do it because I think a lot of time oil painting is such an old discipline and
A lot of people have practices and things that they do in their own practice, but that might not work for you. So have fun. Let's get to painting.
Yeah, so don't worry about it. So if you do have questions, let us know. Okay, let's set up our palate. So we're going to be using
Some
I think I'm going to be using all the colors but
And you can set it up, however you like.
Some people set it up from warmed cool or do a rainbow but, and the reason why some. There are some artists that set their palate up a particular way.
Is because they want to know where each color is without looking at their palate. I don't necessarily do that. But some people like that. And I just wanted to share that technique. Okay, so we have green
Okay. Oh, and I want to tell you to so let you know that there is a PDF for the avocado photo reference I have it for you for free to download so
If you don't have it. It's there for you whenever you'd like and if you want to share with me afterward on Instagram, what you made. I would love to see, and I'm sure all the gambling, people would love to see it too.
Okay. Gosh, you know what, nothing beats opening up a fresh tuba paint think it's kind of like one of those favorite things.
Okay, I'm not going to be putting black on my palate.
just yet because I don't think I'm going to be needing it and I'm also not going to be using the medium. This week because I feel like mediums. We're going to go over next week and you don't need a lot of medium in order to make a successful painting. Okay. So as far as brushes.
I got some artists love brushes. I'm going to be using just picked up a couple of packs and I get a lot of questions about what kind of brushes. I should be using
And I just want to stress, like the number one thing is get a brush that feels good in your hands, and that the bristles. Don't fall out. I mean, it sounds kind of basic but it's true. And so
But I totally use economical brushes, because then you don't have to necessarily care for your brushes, you can just, like, have fun and paint. Okay, so I'm going to be using this number six artists long
Oh, and I want to show you about the campus. I don't want to forget. So I also got the artists love canvas. It's a gallery wrapped heavy duty campus and these are fantastic.
Totally professional if you paint anything on this and hang it up. It's going to look great. Okay.
So I have it here. And then I have my avocado piece that I did. So let's get started. So as far as mixing. I'm going to just dip my brush and I'm going to actually put this over here so it doesn't reach and I have a paper towel here because I'm using that to clean up my brush.
Okay.
Like that, like so.
Just getting it wet just kind of moistening the bristles.
And I have to say avocado, we consider it a vegetable in our house, even though it's a fruit because my son is so anti vegetables right now. So there's been a lot of avocado eating in our house.
Okay, so I put a little bit of mineral spirits on my palate and I'm going to do a little red
Here and a little green and those are like my complementary colors and it kind of makes this Moroni
That a little bit. Let's add a little bit more. And I want you to encourage you to kind of experiment with color because that's the whole fun about oil painting in my opinion.
Okay.
And then I'm just going to do like a loose sketch
And I just want to let you know that I'm like, not the most technical person when it comes to painting because I get too excited that I want to just start
And get to the painting.
But just gonna feel, you know, like your painting just has to be believable. It doesn't have to be 100% accurate. That's what I always tell myself.
All right.
And what's better than when you open up a fresh avocado and it's like perfectly right.
Okay.
So I got my sketch down
Looking good. Okay, so let's mix up the green. So if I want to change if you can look at my brush. And you can see, oh, the colors there. But let's get it clean, and this is how you clean it. You give it a swirl.
And then you just have it right and that same to go when you want to clean your brushes. You just to have it.
And then you clean it and get everything out of it and then you just use soap and water to clean your brushes and I think the big thing is
With oil painting is that it's everything doesn't have to be perfectly clean and perfectly like clean water and stuff because everything is going to get dirty. So okay, so I just made some black with green and red.
And then
Click clean on my brush and they're still green in there, but that's okay because I'm working with green so green, yellow and see, look how pretty that is. And that's really bright but let's just do the edge like that because I like it.
And just like go around and if I wanted a little bit what they call gray is that when you add the red to it, but did I forget my white
Right.
You guys should have told me
All right, white
Okay, so. But, see, see how that pretty. It's like this army kind of green and then just do some white
They're pretty
So I'm just outlining this
Kind of get a shape. And then so off this green that I made. What's out a little bit more to get that
And then if I want to
Do you see how I'm kind of like spreading the pain and then you can just go back and the biggest thing is with oil painting is that less is more.
So, I mean, I love to get right in there. But the one thing I have to say is that a really common question is, is why is oil painting so expensive.
And I always say it's not because the reason why is the paint. You don't have to use that much of it, it goes a lot like you will use it to paint for months and
The other tip is like let's say I do this project today. And then I decide, oh, you know what, I'm just going to wait and I don't really want to paint them busy with work, school, whatever.
And then, you know, through in as long as you tighten your tubes three or four months later, your paint tubes are still fresh. Like, you can still use that exact same paint.
You know what hardens the paint is when like the oxygen gets into the tube. But if you tighten it real tight, you know, you can just pick up where you left off. That's not a problem. Okay, so I want to get it more yellow
And I like that. And so I have a shadow over here.
Okay.
And one more yellow and let's see what this looks like that a little bit of that.
A little ochre. And then what I'm doing is I'm just mixing it on here but I really also like to mix right on the campus. And you can do that too. And then I'm just going to clean my brush because it's a little green for me and I want it more yellow
Like that.
See, and then I got it right there. That's the color I want. And like I think the big thing, too, is when you're mixing color you don't always have to get it exactly how the photo is you can kind of use your imagination, kind of get it where you want to get it right.
And I have to say I just want to say that this brush that I'm using from artists. LAUGH Is pretty fantastic. I like it a lot.
Okay, so I really like that color mean so I'm just gonna make a bigger batch of it because usually I make like a little batch and then I kind of work off that deep. I like it.
Your lines. If you want to
Alright.
And then I'm just doing a quick little dab like the reason why I add a little bit of been all spirits of this is what it does is it spreads the pigment out so it makes it more
Fluid about watery when you get more into mediums. That's when it kind of fattens up the pigments for the paint to lay on top.
Okay.
Oh, I have that shadow right there that I covered
Okay, so I'm just going to do a quick line here and then I'll just go back in with my shadow
Just so that I have a little map to what I'm doing.
There we go.
Don't worry, we'll darken it up. Okay, let's get this other side and I wanted a little bit more green. And so I just when I'm adding color. You just want to take a little dab just like
Deb, because it's easier to add a little and then see where it goes, versus like dumping in it there. So, which is really hard for me because I just like to get it all in there. I like
I like to always go more but less is more. You can do it. Okay, so let's finish coloring avocado. So Pete. Do you like avocados.
Do you know
Not
Not as much as my kids do.
Never met a person that doesn't like avocados.
I like him when you paint them.
Yeah, my husband doesn't like avocados much either, but he likes it on toast like or in things like if it's like a sandwich, like a BLT a kind of thing, but not like solo
Okay, let's get that color.
And I'm gonna do a little shadow work, just so I know when I'm when I'm putting my shadow. So for my shadow. I'm seeing some purple Lee kind of shadow
So, okay, I'm going to show you this. It's a little embarrassing. Okay, maybe a lot embarrassing and I showed the team gambling today and I'm like,
This is my color wheel that I've had for over 12 years so it's been beat up a lot. But I guess it's from Oregon, it was made an Oregon to and I got it at Michael's I want to say like
I mean, you can see how old it is. But what I like about it is it just gives me a quick color reference. So for like I'm doing yellow
And so my complimentary color is like this violet purple. And so then I kind of know what is going to grayed out and kind of cancel that color and what could make a terrific shadow color. So let's do it. Okay, so I have my yellow down. And so for purple. How do we make purple, blue, red,
Okay. And it kind of makes this violet. So let's see what it does when I added to here, say, look how pretty you guys perfect shadow
I'm giving away all my painting secrets to you guys today.
And then if I want to smooth it out a little bit more like make it thinner. So it's not so
Dark right
Here we go.
Okay, and then kind of wherever you see that shadow on there and then let's put it here and then I kind of, if I'm looking at my reference photo. It's pretty a pretty deep shadow, but you don't have to go too deep. If you want to don't want to
And I kind of want to add a little bit more yellow because it's kind of looking brown to me.
And the funny thing about color is that you can mix it up here on your palate, but then when you put it all with the colors. It could maybe tell a different, a little bit of a different color story because I'm kind of a visual person when it comes to color that
You know, you think a color is good, but then you actually really see it.
When you're putting it on the canvas for on your surface.
Okay.
So I have that this is for my seed side.
And I kind of want to make it a little bit more bluey so it looks more like a shadow versus to read because I noticed that it kind of looks more
And you can just play with the color. This is where you can kind of have fun in the shadows.
Right. Okay. And then I'm also going to put a little here and then I wanted to look a little deeper. So let's make it a little bit blue
So I'm gonna get that edge a little bit better.
Okay, so I have this part and then I can go back to. And so now if you look at your palate. You can see all the different pools of color that you made, and you can just go and see where you need to win.
Right.
Just like that.
I wish I could see everybody's paintings because I love watching in process.
How does everyone's painting, look, Pete. Does anyone want to show like show their work on the zoom call. Can they do that.
Oh, we've got some great ones out there. I feel like I see Deborah.
I see Denise Sandra.
Jake,
Adrian, but there's a lot of great avocados out there. Erica, they're going to give you a run for your money.
No.
No.
I see more
Okay, that's the seed right here.
And I just input on this part that is my shadow. I just added read and I just wanted to jump that in so
Valerie that we see you
Oh my gosh.
Oh, cool.
Fabulous.
Oh my gosh, you guys are gonna have to. Show me, show me on Instagram. I love to see it.
Okay, so I'm just filling in my seed and like for this part, I just want to stress, like we're just going to fill it in. And then just add
Some highlights and stuff on top. I don't want you to get too stressed about it. It's going to look awesome. And you can see that I missed like color around the edges but will clean up those edges. That's no problem.
Okay.
Alright, so I'm just making my seat here and I'm just going the big trick with doing like circles and shapes is you want your brush to kind of go around.
So it's more about how your eye is looking at the painting and it kind of dances around the seed. I think that's the best way to describe it.
So like I'm making the seed and you can see with my brush that I'm going like this. Boom, boom, boom, because my eyes going around like this. So if I went like this down like that. You're not going to get that like kind of shape that you want to get
And I encourage you to like totally experiment with this.
And then if I look at my reference photo, I can see that.
My reference photo.
OK, so my reference photo is I can see right here that this is the reflection of the avocado. So just grab some and you know what your paint brushes all dirty, but that's that's okay. Don't even worry about it. This is why you get all those custom made kind of fun colors.
Okay, see if I can get more
And this is my shadow side. And so I'm going to do a quick clean on my brush.
And then let's get the highlights.
Right there.
For the top
So,
Next little trick little tidbit. I'll give you guys. Okay, so how to make this seed look like
It's sitting on top. Right. So you want to get really close.
With your color.
And if you press really firmly into your surface, right, it pushes that brown in a little bit, but you don't want to get too close, because then your paintbrush gets dirty.
So it's like that.
Yay, okay let me fill in that part of the avocado.
Okay, this is a little too electric for me. So let's remember what I told you how do we get out. We add some read. Okay.
There we go. You see that, see what it did. Okay.
And I want to do a little bit
Because it's a little thing you'll get to know it. You just have to practice. But that's like where the fun is in practice.
Okay.
So here is that without a little bit more and you have your base color. And so that's why I say less is more. Because then
You can tweak it as you go.
Because if you add too much paint that's like so much commitment, you know, you don't really have to commit
Okay, so let's get that top a little bit more like it lays on top.
For folks out there. I have to say, I've never seen so many people painting together.
And I've seen a lot of things in my life. But this is up there. And so I would just say if you're having any trouble keeping up. Don't worry. I would have a hard time keeping up with Erica to
Getting a whole painting in an hour is something that you know is asking a lot so if you
Feel free to come back to it and don't feel like it's this is someone that you have to do in an hour. Because if I go Plein Air painting outside, it takes me an hour just have to get set off. So if you feel a little rushed just breathe and, you know, come back to this.
Year for you.
That's such good advice.
And like the thing is is like. I also think it's like, just have fun. Don't worry about the details, I think, like I said before, I think the biggest
Thing that people worry about with oil paints is like having to do things a certain way. And I think the biggest thing. If I can give anyone advice on how to get started with oil painting is to just paint just paint. Trust me, you'll learn all the things if it applies to your practice.
I paint every day. And I always call myself a lazy painter, because I feel like I take so many shortcuts, where
You know, like I use a disposable palette that I can throw away. Oh, sorry. Oh, so I use a disposable palette that I can throw away and I use
You know, anything that makes my life easier for oil painting. So anything that you can do to save a step, don't worry about it like I promised you like if you want a professional looking painting just a get good paint.
We're going to talk about mediums next week and in a couple weeks. We're going to be talking about varnish, which is really
The real secret on how to make your painting look like a professional grade painting. I can't believe I'm telling you guys my secrets but then it is probably the biggest one. Okay, so shadows. Let's do the shadow of the avocado painting.
Let's go. And what I did was I just took that green I mix and added some blue, but if you want it. Like, let's make it a purple Lee because remember we looked at our color reference
And then just like that.
But you know what you can make it any color you want. If you want your avocado to look like it's sitting on top.
Of your piece like it looks like kind of more of a 3D effect, you're going to want to go cooler in the back.
And that's always kind of a good role rule from getting things to look more 3D
Okay so filling in my blue
There's a few questions.
Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it.
Address. So there's a few questions from people about our oil paints toxic or, you know, talking about them versus
Other pains when you're working with oil colors you're working with pure pigment and you're working with linseed oil.
American Farm linseed oil, which is the same as as flax oil. So if you've ever eaten a muffin with flaxseed on it or oatmeal with flaxseed in it. That's what you're painting with it. So it's basically as dangerous as a salad dressing.
The other question I had. There's a few folks asking, sort of, hey, what's the difference between
Gambling
Oil colors in our artists grade oil colors or other
Value paints and, you know, we're a company of painters and there's 25 of us here, and we've really tried to get in 19 1980 colors right
For painters starting out painters that paint big and painters on a budget and and what we're trying to give you with them is the real experience of
Color at its maximum and really feeling the difference from pigment to pigment as you mix them.
As you as a tent with them and to really have that experience of oil painting and really feeling luscious oil color.
Our approach is different than than other color houses. We use the same pigment that goes into our artists grade colors and there's no no substitution of something cheaper.
And as Eric mentioned, you know, we make these colors under the same roof here in Portland, Oregon, with the same care. The same equipment. Same people
And there's just a bit less pigment in them in a bit more linseed oil and a small amount of colorless pigment, which is which is basically marble dust and that's how this has been done for for centuries death.
I always Marvel. This is kind of like magic does
So the idea is you're really going to experience true color, but you're also going to get a great value. And we really we want folks that are out there painting and I see some young people out there.
And some kids out there painting and we want you to be successful. And we want you to really feel to feel color.
So I have a question. Pete, so I know like a lot of people think like a question that I always get asked is like if oil painting is so toxic, but
I know that you kind of touched on this, like how it's not toxic, but how has it become more modern. Why do people think that way. And why is half of how does it change, is it just changed because of the use of better products.
It's a great, it's a great question. I mean, oil colors themselves, as I mentioned, it's flax oil.
And and pigment and so that's that there's no issue there.
That the challenge is sort of media what mediums used to be made from and in the olden days.
There was a lot of turpentine around. And if any of you have ever been around turpentine. It's no fun and it actually doesn't even do a very good job of helping
People to oil paint and what Robert our founder is done and what we've done as a as a family is to move painting into the future and to get all of those harsh solvents.
Out of the painting process out of your studio out of your house and to replace it with with game. So as and also with
Some solvent free mediums that we'll talk about in in in a future class. So if you want to work without any solvent at all. Not even game so
We love you will help you do it game sauce terrific, but it isn't the only way to fin color in it isn't the only way to to clean and we'll talk more about that in a future future session.
So I have one more question, Pete. So the one of the things that I love about damn song. And let me just show everybody the bottle is that you can travel with it because, and I know that on the gambling website you can print out the travel stuff for this right. Is that still there.
That's, that's correct. And yes, technically you can fly with Gasol, although
I'm not too excited. Get on airplane. These days, myself. Anyway, and I can't guarantee that you won't have a problem with with TSA, but we we provide information on our website and a note. You can print out and put with your materials and your paints. If you put them in your, your checked.
And I traveled with it and I printed it out, and I've never had it taken away.
So, and I love it and I just want to say that, and I know it's like one of those things where it's like coming into the modern times with it, but it makes me feel better knowing that it doesn't have any harmful things you know that you can trouble with it and that it's okay.
All right, so I'm just like, I've been playing around with the color here and just messing around. I don't know about you guys, it does everyone have their shadows up. Should we do some background.
Okay, so I'm just kind of been playing with the greens and messing around with it. And that's the fun thing is that when you start getting into like blending and stuff. You can just
You can just go down the rabbit hole and just play AND PLAY. And play. Okay, so in the piece. My practice piece I did it blue because blue is an easy way
Like if you do a cool color. It's an easy way for your still life to sit on top. So I'm just going to do it again because I love altering is so pretty. And I just did sound blue with some white
I'm going to show you a really fun trick. Once I get my blue down
And for those of you are asking. We're gonna lighten things up a little bit. We had this setup yesterday, and it was sunny out and now it's a little more cloudy here so
Yeah, let me know if that looks better.
It has been so cloudy here this summer.
So in Portland, what they call this time of year when it's really gray in summer, they call it January.
Like it's like an extension of winter.
Because we're still waiting for summer.
Brush, if I want to. Or I can keep going with this. Maybe I'll do but your brush. What do you guys
Have you guys been switching your brushes, or just using one brush. I think it's always kind of fun to use different brushes, but it's also great practice to just use one because then you get to practicing on how to change your color.
Okay and I promised you a really fun trick. I'll show you. Let me get the color in
So I'm doing this blue
And if you guys don't finish. Or if you're still working on that Acaba Colorado, don't even worry about it. You can keep going, once this is all over
And remember I said last
You look at my reference photo. I have a bunch of stuff going on in the picture. I have a plate and some lemons and some other fun stuff and you don't always have to put that in your composition, you can always like make it more simple. If you want to
Okay, I'm just filling it in
Okay, so
So this is the trick. Okay, so I painted really thin and so the rule in oil painting the big rule is that over lean and we're going to get more into that next week when we go over to mediums.
But what that really means is like you're super, super thin layers. Go on the bottom and then your fat layers. Go on the top. And when I told you, like,
How a lot of people have rules in their practice, this is pretty much the only main rule because it's due to chemicals within the paint so
If you understand that one rule then you kind of know when you can kind of work around it. And that's the whole point of using mediums and using mineral spirits. Okay, so I have a really thin layer so
The cool trick is, OK, so I take some white on the side and a teeny bit of red. So I'm gonna make like a little pink.
And mix it in a little bit. And then I'm going to put it right down here. And what that's going to do for your composition is your eye is going to go here first. So when you look at your painting. It's going to go from here, this way.
And I like the idea of that because my shadows are here. And so it's like, oh, okay. So it's kind of like your line of sight.
Okay, there we go.
Alright, so you guys. We have about five or so minutes left, or 10 more minutes.
So if you have any questions for me or for Pete, or the team, let us know. Or you can save them for next week.
More that twinge of pink that I'm adding the more my eyes drawn to that. And it's also a warmer colors. So it's like, that's also why it's kind of bringing her eye to it. Okay, so I lost some of my avocado shadow or my avocado, the outside so means brush.
And so now, since I have all my color down. I can go all around like the edges.
Like the things that I kind of want to make sure that they pop out.
Okay. And another little secret. So we went over kind of the complementary colors so green is a complimentary color and the to read. So if we just take and I'm just gonna, I'm not going to clean my brush. Most of them dry it out.
And then just take a little bit of red and then go around this edge.
And look, do you see how it kind of makes your avocado. Sit up more
We have a. We have a few more minutes. Yeah, great.
So there's a couple questions from the group Eric questions for people is, do you always use a reference photo in your in your work.
Um, yes, I do a lot of reference photos.
It just makes it easier for me to play with, like the the composition. But usually I start out with something that I've seen in real life. And then I just snap like a cell phone photo like these are all cell phone photos so that PDF came from my cell phone.
And that's something easy that you can just do at home.
I would like to paint from life more, but it's really hard with my kids.
Okay, so I did that red edge and I'm kind of playing around with the color and kind of touching up but you can also take a little red and like, let's make it a little bit pink and see what it looks like.
And even see in the reference photo like this edge right here.
There. How cool is that you guys. And if you want to pull the lip up even more like that lip. You could even darken it
Here.
Erica. There's another question out there folks just kind of asking about how to you any tips for time management when you're painting.
Managing your studio time management, what, um, you know, time management is really a challenge for me honest.
It is so tough. So when I first started making art every day. I used to wake up really early in the morning, like I would wake up it before the kids would get up or when ever it finishes.
Feeding so I'd be up around like five o'clock in the morning to do painting because I like to paint. First thing you know now since ever is going into kindergarten, which, as you can tell, I'm pretty excited about.
That, you know, now it's like I kind of wake up around six but my daughter who's eight she's usually pretty chill, but she likes to wake up early, so
I usually how it works for me for time management is I usually like to paint. First thing, or I get the kids like their breakfast and whatever they need
To start their day. And then I hit the studio and I usually get more studio time in the afternoon. And so it's kind of like Chuck's I'll work like two to three hours and then
You know, I have to do some things with the kids and then go back into the studio and it's kind of like two to three hour increments for me.
There was another question out there and I'll try to answer it, but it was basically, what do I do when this gets hard and and I'm struggling a little bit and I i think that's life's great question and
There's a few few tips, but one of them. I would encourage you. This one's
A kind of a personal one. But a lot of people we talked to will say, Oh, you're, you must be an artist and a lot of folks say oh no I'm, I'm not an artist. I'm not very good at this. And so what I what I say to people is
I'm the greatest living painter on northeast 14th Avenue in Portland, Oregon on the west side of the street between not until a book and not counting my children, but
Give it a try. Sometime and call yourself the greatest living painter in whatever you consider your sandbox to be. And sometimes that helps to get unstuck. At the end of the day. It's so rewarding and the pains you create are the things your family's going to want
Down the road, but it isn't it doesn't come easy every day.
It does. I think how when I first started, I think what I think I'm looking at it a different way. Like, I looked at it like
If you know how do I make my imagination come alive. Like how do I make it come real in my paintings. Right.
And I think, you know, the not fun. Answer is like it just takes practice. And it takes time to figure out your style and
Don't give up. You can do it. I have tons of days all the time where I feel like I'm like what is
I can't believe I made this or whatever, you know, and sometimes, most of the time it's just in my mind like it's just me being like super critical of what I'm making because I'm so deep within my painting.
Or maybe I feel like I didn't get the color right or the composition right but i think you know like
Whatever you're making go all in. It's beautiful. You just might be so into it that you just can't see it quite yet. And you know it's half the fun is the experience of making it to
Another and I'm just like, deepening my colors.
So I think what I'm going to do is, let's see. I'm gonna work on my seed some more. So does anyone want to show us some progress pics to pee like any want to show up what they're making
Okay, Denise. I see yours, Deborah Portugal.
Jacob again Adrian. Oh, I like to play in the background on those avocados. Yep. That's awesome. And then Tate and I'm butchering all your names. Okay.
There is a beautiful young lady with a couple of fab fabulous avocados.
Zero, z six TV see
You look fabulous in your painting looks fabulous. We are holy cow Juliana I see yours. You went big Holy mackerel.
Let's see, there's a few more here Blanca Valerie. I see yours again.
Yeah, see,
And
Stella one list. I see yours.
Oh my god. If you went
To
You guys running
Behind me might be. I can't see your whole last name behind back, but I see the blue background on your have a cuddles. That's awesome. Oh my god. Chelsea Stern, I see yours.
I'm telling you, Erica, you and I better step it up here.
We better bring our a game.
Guy or
Tina. And let's see.
Your, your Tina. Yep. They're nice
Fabulous, fabulous Lucy Monroe, I see yours. Holy cow. We've got to have at least 100 know there's more
Abigail Perez, Jessica, I can see yours with the blue background. Very nice. And Sarah like putting in kind of a wash, have been wash on the background, a very nice teacher Laura nice looking good.
Fabulous. Holy cow Mirabelle saw yacht lindland yacht in lamb. I see you. Nice job.
Really nice job.
Thank you for inviting us into Jordan miles. I see yours to your another you gotta be under 15 right
Nope over 15
Oh, no.
Okay, sorry about that. And then Tiffany I see you. Yeah. Stacey herring nice with the orange background.
Andrew Holy mackerel.
really terrific.
Lose Lou. I see you, you're on your iPad, but I see your avocados. I like that background and the edge got on those
So P is like you can see everyone's different interpretation of something so simple as an avocado, like how they use the color and kind of their approach to it and like that's the whole fun about oil painting is it doesn't have to be a one.
Like one thing one one size fits all. It can go so many different directions. Don't you think
Do and you, you know, you show that in your work. But one of the things
Carry. And I've been painting more still life. And one of the nice things about still life is they stay still.
You know, kids move like all over the place. And if you're painting outside, you know, light moves and clouds move around and it's a total pain. So I would, if you're out there and you're
In your beginning. And if you're struggling or you're you're frustrated look for things that are fun to paint.
And that have some color and contrast and just simplify, simplify, simplify. You don't have to paint a whole bowl of fruit fruit.
Paint to oranges paint one orange paint a lemon don't cut the lemon just that makes it all harder just simplify, simplify, simplify and then you can always make your painting in your life more complicated but but
But to simplify and if you find yourself struggling to finish things or they just get frustrating.
Break it down. And you know, break it down into smaller subjects that have more color and just are more fun to paint.
Then, you know, a much more complicated scheme where you you don't have much contrast and you don't have much variation in in value from light to dark that that that makes everything harder.
Yeah, and you'll get the hang of it. You know, like, half of it is just playing, you know, and I know like people don't use that word a lot with oil painting, but I feel like
Because there's so many choices. That's what makes it so fun. So there isn't one right way. There's a lot of right ways to get there. And that's the whole fun of it and I hope, like I'm just providing you with some tips to just make it a little bit easier.
But one other question that I people that people have asked about, there's a lot. Been a lot of questions in the text about GAM saw and how it works.
So you know GAM sells your solvent, it sends your color during your painting. You can use it for brush clean up after your painting and we've designed it to be totally recyclable and reusable. So when you're done number if you asked about the glass jar.
That jar will
The pigments will settle to the bottom overnight and the top layer will be absolutely crystal clear all the pigments will settle out and you can just pour that off into a new container.
And you can really keep reusing that and reusing it over and over again, at some point, a long time down the road, you may get a little smell of kind of linseed oil that's gone bad.
And that point, you could refresh it, and with new game salt, but you can make it last a very, very long time. And that's what we want it saves you money. Yes.
And you don't want to throw it away, like this. Is this, like, I'm just showing everybody this is still good.
Like so what we're gonna do is just like what you were saying it's just I close it. Just get a glass jar with a lid.
And, you know, it'll be all down below. And you were saying that you can just pour it into another container or you can be lazy like me and just do one container and still use it.
Like I use the same container like every single time I don't even like some people do, but you don't have to. I mean, that's a good practice but
I'm just saying you don't really have to, and some people are like, Well, it kind of gets money. It kind of gets muddy.
And so don't worry about it. Okay. Like it's okay to play in the mud. That's what I say it's okay to give money. It's okay to get dirty permission granted.
Right, and I think we're getting close to being out of time. So is there any last minute questions that we need to talk about or is everybody getting pretty close to being finished with their awesome avocado piece.
So one other thing as a as a follow up to folks and
If you have questions, you know, this is the beginning of a conversation with us, not the end. And so we'll be back with three more sessions.
And then you can also email your questions to marry M ar y at gambling colors calm one caveat is we've been working like crazy through this pandemic and Mary is finally going to take a day off work.
That will be tomorrow. And so she's going to go drive and see some family. And so we we won't get back to your question until early next week, but we will get back to you. But right now, she she deserves a break and
We can also save them for next week because we'll be here. What day on Thursday next week 3pm so sign up, I'll be here and we can always answer all of your questions and more. And we're going to be talking about mediums next week and we'll be going through a few different kinds of mediums.
To kind of get started so that they're less intimidating, so we can play with the paint.
But, bring your questions and we have the experts here. And I think what's super important is that we do have the experts here that can answer your questions. So it's not like just googling it up and looking it up on a website. These are like you'll get the answers that you want or need
Okay, so. Are we all done, you guys. Yeah. Okay, so we're all done. Thanks. Thank you, Gamblin for having me. And thank you. Michaels, it has been fantastic. I can't wait to see all of your work on social media. Be sure to tag us. And what's the Instagram for Gamblin it's at
We're at gambling colors. Yeah.
At gambling pillars and
That in the text. Yeah.
Do it and then to follow me. If you're a new friend. It's at Erica leases EI K Le E Series, like the store. So we'll see you guys next week. And like I said, don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or you can save it for next week.
Bye guys.
