My Review of Grey Matters Paper Palettes

Originally submitted at Jerry’s Artarama Art Supplies

The Perfect Backdrop for Color Mixing This disposable paper palette offers the unique advantages of mixing on a toned, neutral grey background. Unlike other white colored paper palettes the neutral grey background lets you see color as it will appear on your painting. Each 50 sheet pad comes with a…

Grey Matters Paper Palettes

Perfect Solution for My Needs

By SixTwo from Portland, OR on 1/23/2013

 

5out of 5

Describe Yourself: Artist

Primary use: Business

Was this a gift?: No

I make my full time living from art, so good tools are important to me. This gray palette paper is just what I need for quick painting sessions between other demands of the day. I paint a lot of portrait commissions, and the gray color really helps with mixing light flesh tones (as compared to a white palette). The paper is pretty thin so you’ll need to support it (see photo). It has a smooth gloss coating so the paint doesn’t soak into it at all. Well worth a dime per session (I buy the 12 x 18 size and cut it in half). I’ve tried lots of other palette solutions and this is the best I’ve found so far. Give it a try!

(legalese)

Bib overalls

 

Acrylic on 15 x 17 panel, for Etsy commission, bib overalls requested to be included, from customer reference below:

Nov 3 Update

Approx. 9 x 12-1/2, and 11 x 17 respectively, acrylic on paper on panel.

 

First painting I’ve tried with backlit subject.

Anna 1

 

“Anna 1″ acrylic on 12 x 16 panel, using as reference a photo I took last spring. Thanks Anna!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anniversary Gift

This was commissioned as an anniversary gift from a son to his folks. Based on a nostalgic, romantic snapshot (below) from the 1970′s. They loved it

 

Group Portrait of Twelve

Portrait of twelve relatives commissioned by a local couple, B&L. Acrylic on panel, 20 x 32 inches.

Reference provided was actually a “photoshopped” composite of three different photos taken at different times and places.

Thanks B&L!

The portrait will be framed and hung on the brick wall behind.

Nice Turnout for my Portrait Presentation to OSA

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Whew! Everything went swimmingly for my presentation yesterday. I appreciated the overflow crowd in OSA’s main hall. I gave a whirlwind overview of how to develop your inner artist, develop artistic skill, market your work, sell your work, and use positive energy generated from that cycle to spin the next cycle…circling back with renewed confidence and enthusiasm to further developing artistic skills. I did a demo (under the slant mirror on the stage so people could see) of laying out a limited palette of colors, mixing flesh tones, & mixing “black.” Then I did a quick painting demo of roughing-in, from photo reference I took a few months ago. I enjoyed the process more than I thought I might, and look forward to similar opportunities that might come along in the future.

June 14 Presentation — You’re Invited!!!

I’ll be giving a one hour Portrait Painting demo and slide presentation at the Oregon Society of Artists, 2185 SW Park Place, Portland, on June 14 at 11 a.m. Free parking. I think they’ll have a potluck afterward.

You don’t have to be an OSA member to attend. As far as I can remember, this will be the first time I’ve had to speak in front of a crowd since 1977! At that rate, my next presentation will be when I’m 93, so you’d better come to this one.

Here’s the blurb from the OSA newsletter: (link will only work for this month, otherwise check the archives)

Coral

SOLD via Etsy

Completed commission for a family who by sheer coincidence (since they found me on Etsy) live ten minutes away, so I hand delivered it and got to see the subject of my painting!

Commission from Texas

SOLD via Etsy

Completed commission, just shipped to Texas. Acrylic on 16 x 25 panel.

 

Source snapshots, from which I “photoshopped” the composition together:

Anniversary Portrait

SOLD via Etsy

I worked on this anniversary portrait at the show, getting it about 90% done by Sunday. It was fun to be able to ask passersby and other OSA members for critique and recommendations. It’s for an Etsy commission; I sent my customer a digital image of it for approval last week and he said, “You are a genius!  I love it!  It is amazing!  I am so grateful to you.  I will pay for it tonight.  No changes necessary.  Thank you!!!!!” Music to my ears…very encouraging. I hope his wife likes it as well as he does, or better. It’s acrylic on a 16 x 26 hardwood panel, from customer supplied old snapshot:

Show went very well!

All the hard work preparing for the show was worth it! I had a great time painting for five days in a row, it was like a painting retreat. I received lots of positive comments, and many people said they would contact me for future commissions. I’m in communication with two prospects from the show who I think will follow through with commissions. I also got invited back by the show manager to be a demo artist at the Fall Home & Garden Show, Oct. 4-7, 2012 at the Expo Center. I’d like to be positioned with the Oregon Society of Artists again.

My booth (above) at the Spring Home & Garden Show about a week ago. As a designated “demo artist” I painted much of the time between 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. except for breaks.

I finished up a painting of one of my grandsons while at the show:

…thanks to Joel Bock Photography for permission to use one of his photos as reference. It was fun to work on Espen’s characteristic crooked little half grin.

I’m mostly recovered / caught up / unpacked from the show…and MORE than ready to dive back into painting.

Newlyweds Portrait

SOLD via Etsy

Commission for newlyweds in Texas, acrylic on panel. 22-1/2″ x 16″; given as a gift from relatives, who had this to say about it: “This is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!!!! It’s perfect!!!!!!!! My dear–they are going to LOVE this!!!!!! Amazing!!!!!!!! Thank you!! You really captured their beauty–aren’t they a stunning couple? <Name withheld> looks like a supermodel.”

Come see me Feb 22-26 @ Portland Home & Garden Show!

Yes it’s been awhile since my last post, but I’ve been getting a LOT done on the painting front! (including making frames, above)

Portland Home & Garden Show Feb 22-26 @ the Expo Center

Most importantly, I was invited by the Oregon Society of Artists to be one of their “anchor artists” at the Portland Home & Garden Show, next week: Feb 22-26! I’ve done shows for sculpture before, but this will be my debut with my “new” medium: portrait painting. I hope my banner and business cards arrive before Feb 22…and I finish making frames on time…and figure out how to light my booth…etc etc x etc.  At least paintings will be a hell of a lot easier to transport than ceramic sculpture!

I will be demonstrating painting for five days straight! I also plan to set up for doing mini photo shoots of willing passersby — head/shoulders shots for portrait painting reference. So come visit me and get your mug shot

The show is at the Expo Center near Jantzen Beach, Feb 22-26, 11-8 Wed Thur Fri, 10-8 Sat, 11-6 Sun, costs $10 to get in, but check around for discounts. There are three giant halls, the northernmost of which is staged with fully landscaped gardens, decks, fountains, koi ponds and so on. Around the entire perimeter of the garden room will be welders, sculptors and painters demonstrating their various crafts. I spoke with the show coordinator who has been fine tuning the ambience of this room of the show for the past dozen years. He loves art, and wants this giant indoor garden room to be one where show attendees will want to just hang out, relax, and enjoy themselves rather than scurrying to “do the show.” The OSA prez says the same thing — to just have fun like we do at the OSA center. Several OSA members will be demonstrating painting along the west wall of Building C, plus promoting the club and recruiting new members. Membership is just $30 per year.

Hope you can drop by for a chat! Bring a favorite hat/scarf/whatever for your mini photo shoot!

I’ve also been painting more portraits, including a commission from Texas, but am literally too busy to post the photos! Will do so after the show.

Okay, I’d better get back to building frames!

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Rosey again, different pose

Practice portrait of Rosey by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on corrugated cardboard bicycle carton, 9-1/4 x 13.

I enjoyed the process on this one, which is part of my goal in keeping things loose: to have fun painting!

( 1/5 addendum: I e-mailed a high resolution jpg of this to Rosey, who is currently in NYC, and she replied: ”Hey Steve!! This is awesome. I look simultaneously angry and proud. I love it. The loose style captures something really great. I showed this painting to my sister, and some friends — everyone has been so impressed! My sister said, ‘Whoahhh…that’s so badass!’”)

Practice Painting

Portrait by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on acid free paper, 14 x 17. SOLD

Another piece in my continuing effort to practice keeping things loose. I even crumpled up the paper before beginning, to make it less “precious” (which came back to haunt me after I finished the piece and decided to adhere it to a foamcore backing, but it turned out okay).

The background is pretty wild; I got a new set of palette knives and used one of them to pile on the paint.

The hair is just roughed in, but I decided it works with the background so resisted refining it.

DPW Challenge 111130

Acrylic on corrugated cardboard, 13-1/2 x 15-1/2, by Steve Eichenberger.

<—Photo I took last summer at Portland Saturday Market.

For this challenge, I tried to loosen up on brushstrokes as in this self portrait by Theodore Gericault —>

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Step by step

DPW Challenge

Portrait by Steve Eichenberger, acrylic on corrugated cardboard, 12.5 x 24.

Done in response to this week’s DPW challenge to emulate an artist we admire. This is my second exercise in as many days to experiment with the look and feel of some of Egon Schiele’s 500+ works.

Thanks to friend/neighbor/photographer Willy Paul for permission to use a photo he took of his wife, Kris, for me to use as painting reference. Achieving a likeness was not my focus, but rather to experiment with the broad white accenting strokes, black outlining, unfinished areas and so on that Schiele often uses.

DPW challenge

SOLD via Etsy

Very quick sketch in acrylics on corrugated cardboard, 12 x 16. This week’s DPW challenge was to try painting in the style of an artist we admire. I started out “thinking” Egon Schiele, but then forgot all about it much of the time I was painting… It served as a good “loosening up” exercise.