This is Cheryl again with a bonus for you. I have been working on another Color Module and wanted to see what you think. It is quite long, over 280 pages, and here is a sneak preview of Lessons 1 - 5. If you are interested in purchasing the entire lessons, I will be putting it out on Art Lessons Now Soon! Let me know what you think.

Send me a note: cheri@cheryljohnsonartist.com

COLOR MODULE

Value And Composition Do The Work, and Color Gets The Credit

46 Lessons To Help You Paint Like A Pro 

Buy it now. Color Theory

Artists Guide To Color

Color Theory, The Color Wheel, How to Choose a Color Scheme, and More 

Understanding color theory and principles will provide important understanding and guidance on the relationship between colors and the physiological impacts of choosing certain color combinations. 

Color theory is the critical fundamental area of painting. The importance of understanding color theory surpasses knowing how to mix colors. Review the basic color theory and schemes, starting with using primary colors. Mixing and blending the three primary colors enables you to mix almost any color in the rainbow. A solid knowledge of color theory is extremely important when painting and mixing your colors. 

Pursue your passions and have more joy every day!

Lesson 1: Using Color Theory

Create A Better Color Palette

Introduction - Alla Prima - Wet-on-Wet

When things go wrong in your painting, it usually is because your values are wrong, not your color choices. 

So how do you remedy that?

Values First — Colors Come Next.

Values are our beliefs, which are essential in living and working. 

In the Italian language, alla prima means a first attempt, or wet-on-wet: a basic painting technique in which paint is added over layers of previously applied wet paint. I usually paint in this manner.

Abstract painting and Abstract Expressionism are complex styles of Art to begin working in for many artists. 

Some painters think they can place colors around haphazardly, and they will make a great painting. Sometimes that happens, but not often.

I encourage you to think of values, composition, differences, Color, and focal points. 

Here are just a couple of questions I consider when I begin painting any painting: 

• How do I approach the surface? 

• How can I paint better, more expressive, and unique pictures? 

Alla Prima

I enjoy painting "Alla Prima." Alla Prima refers to a direct painting approach where the paint is applied to the surface wet on wet without letting earlier layers dry. In Italian, the term alla prima means "at first attempt." 

For some artists like myself in my early career, I was unaware of dryers on mediums that would speed up drying. The painting was time-consuming, especially considering the slow drying time of oil paint.

This is an example of what I want to share: learning from trial and error and mistakes. I cover much more in each color lesson, offering practical advice. I also talk about why color theory, harmony, and balance are the keys to strong works of Art. 

In this tutorial, I am going to be speaking about oil paints. However, so much can be done with acrylics, latex, gouache, watercolor, and even latex house paints. I plan to share the paints and brushes I use and discuss color relationships and theoretical issues of abstract Art. Finally, I will explain my diverse array of working methods. I love the process.

"Passion Process Painting" makes the painting experience more important than the outcome. This will help you develop your approaches to making your style of abstract paintings. Find your voice. 

I emphasize the importance of color scheme relationships and why values are the most important factor I consider. 

I plan to share with you things that have taken a lifetime to learn in the hope you will become a more confident painter. Our artistic voice, aesthetic, and what we consider beautiful change over time changes. 

Paint what you love. Choose the color palette you love. I urge you to learn fundamental painting principles. Then, apply color theory to your work. 

Paint with your style - your voice. 

"Color is a power which directly influences the soul." ~Wassily Kandinsky. 

See Wassily Kandinsky Wikipedia 

I also have always loved the works of Franz Kline. Kline was an American painter. He is associated with the Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. Reviewing his work gave me the courage to be bolder in my use of Color. 

FRANZ JOSEPH KLINE 1957 Oil and Charcoal on Paper 43 x 55.7 cm 

Example of a painting I created while studying these two great artists, Kandinsky and Kline. 

Cheryl Johnson- Mixed Media on Paper 28in. W x 38in. H - Embracing Red

Why Online Art Lessons and Training?

While online training can never compete with in-person training in terms of depth, it has several distinct advantages:

• You do not have to travel

• Videos allow you to see artists painting

• Much, much cheaper than workshops or classes

• Do it in your own time, anytime

• Go over things as often as you want

• Study at your own pace

• The new way to buy art lessons - "Online."

Explore Your Artistic Creative Voice

I encourage you to discover the invisible forces of the Universe flowing through each of us and allow them to become visible.

The essential artistic freedom we all have is the right to create freely, unburdened by pressures to perform.  

Trusting your creative impulse requires an attitude of confidence and a safe atmosphere that genuinely honors and respects individual differences without competition or comparison. 

Surround yourself with people who respect and encourage you to explore your passion. 

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy the process. This is your life, after all. Painting is a beautiful way to express your creativity. So let's learn a few tips that will help you with Color! 

I love Color and create vivid, impressionistic mixed media and oil paintings. My paintings are inspired by my emotions, travels, and the people I know and meet. My abstracts are often informed by nature or are spontaneous true abstract expressionists' works. 

I encourage you to explore Alla Prima, as wet-on-wet is a very expressive style. 

I embrace Color and utilize loose brush strokes using the wet-on-wet or alla prima technique to paint directly. You have chosen to review this material as something about my Art speaks to you, or you relate to it in some way, and that is wonderful. I am eager to share it with you. I have included various paintings from my work for your perusal. Fill your life with "MORE JOY EVERY DAY" — PAINT!

"Everything you can see in the world around you presents itself to your eyes only as an arrangement of patches of different colors." 

– John Ruskin

Lesson 2: Painting Abstractly

Abstract Art Finding New Favor

The Pendulum Swings: 

Is Abstract Art Experiencing A Renaissance?

Read Eric Sutphin /MutualArt DECEMBER 3, 2019

Ragen Moss, Senior Lender (with Mezzanine Lender, with Heart), 

2019, acrylic, polyethylene, aluminum, and steel hardware, 

53x30x22 inches (courtesy of the artist and Bridget Donahue).

Contemporary figurative painting has commanded much critical attention in recent years, but a spate of abstract shows signal a return to non-objectivity.

Abstraction is nebulous and shifting; its meaning can differ according to context, experience, and time. It can also be problematic.  

Labeling work as abstract immediately pits it against that which is representational. Some might argue that all Art is abstract since whatever its subject, the result is always removed from the "real world," hence, an abstraction of reality. 

The term "abstraction" is meant to describe a type of Art whose central aim is not to represent some aspect of the tangible world in pictorial terms. Instead, the people, places, and/or things they reference are altered, synthesized, reduced —abstracted—to the point where 'the what becomes secondary to the works' overall formal qualities like color, line, shape, and texture." 

Read Eric Sutphin /Mutual December 3, 2019

Lesson 3: Professional Artist Secrets

Business Of Being A Professional Paid Artist

My definition of a professional artist is purely my own and somewhat pragmatic - an artist who makes their living mainly or entirely through selling their Art.

Usually, somebody who is a practicing artist has sold their Art in galleries or online in some art marketing site. They may have also taught Art in a school or college or workshops and did some illustration work on a freelance basis.

However, you define yourself. If you want to grow your skills and knowledge, I can provide insight from my experience. 

Are There Secrets To Being An Artist?

Painting work that increases your joy and personal happiness is ideal. Obviously, to some artists, the goal is to market and sell. On the other hand, there are artists like Hilma af Klint, a woman and a Swedish artist who painted in her lifetime, did not want her work shown. She believed another realm inspired her works. She was part of a group called  "The Five," a circle of women who shared her belief in the importance of trying to make contact with the so-called "High Masters"—often by way of séances. They were interested, along with Klint, in the unconscious expression. She was a master of organic form and Color. Her paintings were among the first Western abstract Art. She produced a considerable body of abstract work. Her work predates the first purely abstract compositions by Kandinsky. She rarely exhibited. She instructed her family not to show her work as she felt the world was not ready and would not understand. She was considered asva mystic, deeply involved in spiritualism and theosophy. I had the privilege of seeing her exhibition at the Guggenheim. As Klint continued to paint, her work began to simplify. She also wrote extensive notebooks discussing her journey. 

An article entitled "Hilma af Klint: Paintings For The Future: Guggenheim.org states, "When Hilma af Klint began creating radically abstract paintings in 1906, they were like little that had been seen before: bold, colorful, and untethered from any recognizable references to the physical world. It was years before Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, and others would take similar strides to rid their own artwork of representational content. Yet while many of her better-known contemporaries published manifestos and exhibited widely, af Klint kept her groundbreaking paintings largely private. She rarely exhibited them and, convinced the world was not yet ready to understand her work, stipulated that it not be shown for twenty years following her death. Ultimately, her work was all but unseen until 1986, and only over the subsequent three decades have her paintings and works on paper begun to receive serious attention."

If anyone tells you they have the Secret to painting, do not believe them. However, she may have. However, a secret to life is worth sharing and applies to painting.

"The pictures were painted directly through me, without any preliminary drawings, and with great force. I had no idea what the paintings were supposed to depict; nevertheless, I worked swiftly and surely, without changing a single brush stroke."—Hilma Klint.

Hilma Klint made automatic drawings or paintings with little forethought. After 1915, once the Paintings for the Temple had been completed, Klimt recorded that her 'divine guidance' had ended. Hilma Klint -Primordial Chaos No.7 (1906-7) Chaos No.7 is one of 26 works that make up the first series of the larger Paintings for the Temple cycle, entitled Primordial Chaos. 

This primary sequence investigated the Universe's original essence in all its manifestations. I am focusing on Klimt as artists often expand their abilities by allowing automatic drawing or creation. 

Lesson 4: Starting A Painting?

For me, it starts off with the word DOT: 

— DESIRE —OPPORTUNITY —TIME.

You have the Desire, you make the Opportunity, and how you use your time is up to you. You start by placing one small DOT on a canvas that takes a walk, turns into a line, and then circles into shape. Next, you fill it with Color. Voila! You have created a painting. 

The Secret is "You and your passion and confidence" that has developed because of your attitude and Desire: the work you have put into enhancing your skills and knowledge. 

Becoming an artist is a journey. There are no secret tips or tricks. However, there are methods of dealing with Color, composition, and execution that will make your work more substantial and better. I love being an artist and cannot think of anything I enjoy more than painting. 

I believe the book "The Secret," about the Law of Attraction, is correct. Under the Law of Attraction, the order of the Universe is determined by the word "attraction." 

The attraction includes everything that comes into your life and everything that you experience. Attraction happens or is manifested through the magnetic power of your thoughts. 

The Secret is inside you. Your thoughts turn into actions. You have the Desire and passion, or you would not be reading this now. Yes, you can develop your talent. Some processes and methods work better for you than others. When you feel comfortable working with Color and know why you are making choices and how to mix and place colors in a balanced and interesting way, your work will be more pleasing to the eye and will simply become better. You will enhance your confidence when you believe you can develop your skills.

How many artists will share their ideas about the number one thing holding artists back right now? I agree. It's confidence. 

Start with believing with the conviction that your work is fantastic and worthy of buying. This is an attitude: a powerful and pivotal mindset for artists looking to succeed. Attitude directly impacts your Art. Art directly impacts your life.

Enhancing your skills is the right idea. Read, study, learn, and apply what you have learned: paint more.

Through the Law of Attraction — like attracts like. This means that people with low energy and enthusiasm -- people who lack confidence and are insecure -- attract each other.

In contrast, people with high energy and positive attitudes -- people who love and value themselves and their abilities -- also attract each other.  

My advice: develop relationships with positive people and artists who have developed their skills and ability and now have the confidence to show and sell their work. Start by feeling positive yourself. I am positive. I attracted you. Feel free to contact me anytime with questions: cheri@cheryljohnsonartist.com

I encourage you to experiment. 

Ways To Think About Being An Artist

Know what you truly want as a person and as an artist. Focus on being positive in all ways, talking to yourself and to others.

Be intentional with your actions and communication. What do you want to manifest? What is your deepest Desire? Visualize success. Visualize the end result as if it has already happened. See yourself already doing well painting, showing, and selling.

Be grateful for what you have and what is to come. Gratitude is an attitude of transformation. Go to galleries and museums. 

Mingle with other artists. Observe, talk to other artists, tell them you are an artist, and ask questions. Then, come home and apply what you have learned. Paint with confidence. Over time, I guarantee your confidence will grow.

An inspired action is essential. Many people may feel inspired when attempting to activate the Law of Attraction but fail to act on their positive passions and divine inspiration. 

Pick up a brush today. Take action. Paint.

Cheryl Johnson -  

åExperimentation Study Hawaii - See Master Art Class Video

Thank you for taking the time to review these tips on Color and more.

Please send me your comments or thoughts.

cheri@cheryljohnsonartist.com

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