Bill often used two brushes: one for light paint and one for dark paint. That saved him time so he didn't have to clean the brush when he switched colors. Notice in this clip how Bill corrects his mix. We've seen him do this before. He doesn't get frustrated or angry with himself, he just fixes the color to get it the way he wants. Also notice how he loads his fan brush. … [Read more...]
Pink highlights
Because Bill has spent time working on the right side of the painting. The side he moves to now has dried a bit - just enough to pull the paint off the palette knife. Notice, particularly, at the :58 second mark how he just lightly brushes the canvas and lets the paint be pulled off the knife. Bill is barely holding onto the palette knife. It takes a very light touch for this … [Read more...]
Streamline and Innovate!
At Alexander Art, we watch a lot of Bill's videos. We watch them in slow motion to analyze his brush strokes. We pay particular attention to how he mixes colors. We play them over and over, because we always find something that we didn't see before. It was during these viewings that we began to notice some interesting things. We paid close attention to how Bill used his … [Read more...]
“…without dark there is no light.”
Bill often makes this comment during his videos because it is so important and so basic to great art. In order to create the illusion of light in your painting you often have to surround it with dark. This was called chiaroscuro by the "Old Masters" and Bill understood not only the term but the technique. If you look at some of his candle paintings, you can see his mastery at … [Read more...]
…the mountains talk to you.”
Bill now works on the shadow side of the closest mountain. He uses exactly the same technique when highlighting with white. We're going to let you in on one of Bill's secrets. We've talked before about keeping your base mountain layer thin. You can see Bill did that with this mountain. Bill's secret, though, was to work on another part of the painting while a different … [Read more...]
“…I just let that paint fly on…”
Notice Bill's palette knife technique. He is allowing the paint to be pulled off the knife onto the canvas. There is no heavy pressure on the knife, just a delicate, light touch. The paint is thick enough, and the under layer is thin enough, that the two layers to work together beautifully. This is a technique well worth practicing if you want your mountains to show that … [Read more...]