In Quick Tip 305 - The Tidy Painter, artist/art teacher Dianne Mize shares her insight on how to keep your paint where it is supposed to be. www.diannemize...
Thank you! I saw the title and thought my aunt's sofa. She painted in a loft over her living roo Paint would sometimes fly down onto a white sofa. I inherited the sofa and love it.
@@kathleenlindley6157 my aunt usually kept the sofa covered with a blanket. However, when she had company are taught an art lesson, she would take the blanket off.
@@kathleenlindley6157 I could kick myself cuz I never took any lessons from her. I did go with her a couple of times to help her set up at art fairs. I was too embarrassed to draw or paint until I had cataract surgery. Cornea transplant and cataract surgery and the other eye and it went bad so I am attempting to draw and paint journal entries. My aunt was so much fun to be around! Thank you
A very good Tip Lesson. I especially liked the camera closeups of techniques of cleaning the tubes of paint and cleaning the brushes. Overall I would say that the camera work re-enforces what is being said by Dianne. A good system for those of us who are observing the and who can see it so well. Thanks.
This is wonderful. I have also found that after painting for as long as I have been painting. I just have become neater. It is very much being aware of your surroundings. One artist once told me to wear nice clothes. At the time I was appalled at the idea. Now I can paint in my nice clothes without getting paint all over myself. Excellent tips.
If your paint is kind of overflowing the mouth of the tube after you add paint to your pallet just tap the bottom of the tube on a solid surface (while holding the tube upright) and the paint will retreat into the tube.
Thank you for these great tips; before, during and after painting. Just keep everything clean, especially the brushes. Most important is brushes. They are expensive-keep them clean!
I'm inspired! I just cleaned all my paints, and looks like I'll be doing lots of yellow paintings, because the lid won't go back on and there's still heaps in the tube. Luckily the ultramarine is near the end so I can swap the lid in a couple of weeks. Thank you, Dianne. Very good tips. I'm pretty clean these days but I have lost a couple of tubes due to the build up.
Feel like I've been lectured for being lazy... but in a good way! I'm so messy and get paint all over where it shouldn't be. I'll follow your tips religiously. Thank you !
Aww God. I was both embarrassed and glad to watch to this. Such a logical thing to load sideways instead of up. Like i was. Why couldn't I think if that! Lol. Facepalm. Thank you for such wonderful and practical tips. Feel like a dummy.
Although I have learned for the most part, not to get paint on my person, almost without exception my paint tube caps are all totally mucked up with dried paint. So, sadly I've spent a good part of the day cleaning them up so they will screw on straight instead of lopsided, and have vowed in the future to keep them clean from now on. I've used Murphy's oil to get paint off of everything else, but didn't think to use for this project. So, thanks to you Dianne and thanks to the person that posed this question! One tip when you have as many to clean up as I do - used some disposable rubber gloves.
Hi Joani! I use toothpicks or qtips with a drop of Murphy's Oil Soap for the threads of the cap or the tube if they are badly messed up, although I'll now try Dianne's method as well. Also, if I can lift off the paint in a ring.... I use that ring in a painting somewhere.
Thanks for the tips I always end up with paint on my pants and face and just about every were including door handles and more now I know why I will take on board every thing you have shared in this tutorial huge help thanks .
I think these are great tips. I have personally noticed one more tip to not getting paint on myself. That is being aware of how I am positioned myself in relationship to the palette and painting etc. If I am sitting at my desk top easel quite close up with my pallette also in front of me I am more likely to brush my hand against wet paint...whether on my painting or on my easel. So advice is to give yourself ample space to work in if it is possible. And holding the brush at the end not like a pencil.
I always say 'How do you wear white and not get dirty?" lol 2 days ago I simple squeezed a tube of paint and it shot sideways at me and got on my glasses, hair and shirt. and I've been painting for many years. I always hold a paper towel. When you said Murphey's, I thought you meant Murphey's law . Good tip with the Murphey's oil as a cleaner! excellent tip right there. I tried a new brand of paint and the covers seem so small and hard to handle compared to the nice chunky size caps. Another good one is, when I'm at the end of the tube but I know there's a lot more paint in it, I wrap the tube in paper towel and squeeze the end with a plier, but it always results in a mess.
Murphy's oil soap. Makes perfect sense because it has oil in it much like brush soaps do. What do you use to soften up stiff brush bristles? I have three brushes that need the bristles brought back to life. I could use lacquer thinner but I'm sure there is something less harsh. Love your videos!!
Sometimes brushes are too far gone, but try soaking them overnight in Murphy's, the rinse them in lukewarm water and reshape them. If Murphy's won't loosen them up, harsh chemicals like lacquer thinner are apt to do more harm than good.
Wow, Dianne! Now I understand how your "feeder colors" always look so uniform. I would like to ask, however, if I can apply the "strings" of those colors vertically instead of horizontally, as I replenish them when needed. Thanks again for another clear and sensible Quick Tip.
Great! You know, Dianne, I may have taught oil painting in a post-high school setting at one time -- but I think, thanks to you, I am finally learning A-B-C-. It's also a pleasure to be able to ask you any way-out kind of question and be taken seriously! Thanks, teach.
O dear I’m such a Messe painter you describe me and my tubes to a t . I have started to clean them up but only because I can’t get any paint out . Such good advice but I might be past reform I will try . Your a great example . Jehovah bless 😉
A lot of great tips here as always Dianne! My question is, how do you have all those piles of paint around the edges of your palette and keep them from drying up? I would love to be able to put a larger quantity of paint out like that and just leave it but it only lasts a day or so.
My uncle was an oil painter in the 1960s and paint was much more difficult to get then. He said it was seen as an elegant career when you would visit someone in their space to paint their portrait or home. Therefore he insisted that being tidy was not just a question of being organisednl, it was very much influenced by economics and manners. He also disapproved the use of any aids such as rulers or tracings and said they were the tools of cheats, but I recently learned that Da Vinci had no such qualms about compasses or drawing on finely woven fabrics to transfer drawings so that made me feel a bit better about using T squares and graphite paper!
To an extent, I agree with your uncle, Gael. But my take is any tool is helpful until it becomes (or starts out) being a crutch. And by the way, there are a lot of things said about our artist forefathers and foremothers that are just not true.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction History is very much a matter of opinion, and I take much of what I read with a grain of salt. I agree, unless you were actually there or it was documented carefully, you cannot really know it to be true
Many thanks! I've seen many videos but yours are head and shoulders above the rest for teaching the CRAFT of painting vs just dabbing away and hoping for the best. That said, do you have a beginner's video like this one on laying out and using acrylics? I'd like to keep them on a palette and ready to use, and I'll buy one of those expensive, lidded palettes if YOU tell me it's worthwhile! Right now I'm stuck mixing as I go to keep them not too dry and not too wet. Thanks again! It's really lovely, in painting or any discipline, to watch a master at work.
Martha, I am not experienced enough with acrylics to adequately answer your question. Beyond using the Open acrylics which are slower drying and adding a retardant, the nature of the medium is that yes, you must mix as you go. The important thing is to build your skills for controlling the hues, values, and intensities of color mixing so that you're confident of what you reach for.
I have clean brushes, clean pallet, and clean tubes but somehow every time I walk out of my studio with paint on my face or on my clothes...😅I blame aliens.
Yet another helpful tip, - can you show the label of the Murphy’s solution or please suggest an alternative I can use, here in England. Thank you, take care.
I always got 'messy' after an hour or two. I can recommend 'Toilet tissue wipes' moist and suitable for face and hands, also tough. Camouflage clothing for butch artists is another tip, in the UK charity shops virtually give clothing away as does E.Bay.
Thanks for all your encouragement & tutorials, I love them. I’m in Australia where we don’t have "Murphy". What is it ? I’m guessing some sort of solvent.
@@carolinegreene372 , thank you for that. I’ll try Amazon here. I’m wondering what the soap I use is made from, it doesn’t have any aroma. I’ll check it out. :)
Mindfulness meditation could help this person. I mean that’s what tidiness is. Mindfulness on what you are doing. Presence in the moment. Focus. Something I need to go practice myself right now.
Can I add baby oil as an excellent hand cleaner instead of turps or OMS for paint on hands arms faces 😃 Somehow, dont ask me how, Im always sporting paint on my outter wrists lol.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction just an idea that works for me. I keep a container of baby wipes nearby which seems to work great at least for me if it is on my skin
Thank you for very useful tips. Also, I have a question. I paint with acrylics and I use baking papier on the wet paper towel to keep the paint fluid . But shortly the paint starts to dissolve the paper. Have some solution to avoid this, or other solution to paint in acrylic medium (maybe a quick tip)?
I haven't painted with acrylics since undergraduate school back in the '60s, but one thing you can do is to keep a fine mister handy and periodically give a very fine mist of water over your paints.
i wonder, how come you always have so much paint on your palette ( the surrounding ones ) and how do you prevail them to dry out? i usely squeeze alot of paint aswell but they tend to dry out pretty fast and i have to basically, scrape them off and throw them away, did you do or add something so it doesn't dry out that fast?
Diane, thanks for your wonderful tips. As per the question from Dzastater re the paints on the edge of your palette. I watched tip 115, and although the tips of laying out your color palette were great, I didn’t hear anything about the border layout. Do you actually use those to paint with or are they more of a reference to the colors you use? They look moist, but perhaps that’s just the appearance in the video.
@@Laura-ud8im Personally I think brushes with longer hairs are the answer, you can load your brush well, knowing it can harden in the ferrell and still have plenty of brush to paint with. I've had your problem, so many brushes in the bin.
Actually you can use Murphy soap on acrylic brushes that have paint dried close or in the ferrule. Let the soap sit a few minutes to.let it soak through. Then wash out. Using a good brush cleaner or dish soap such as Dawn and thoroughly rinse.
LOL!! I always thought my messiness was part of my artistic creativity.; :) Nevertheless, you pointed out a couple of things I should not be doing. Poop piles when putting my paint onto my palette. lol. I do have a question . I paint with acrylics. Can I still use the Murphy's Oil Soap to clean my paint tubes and brushes. Lastly one of my biggest problems is accidentally adding paint to other colors when creating shade or tone. Is there a way to prevent this?
Wipe excess off paintbrush onto towel, when you are mixing new tone swipe from one side of the color pile to transfer don’t swipe from the middle. I just use $1 pink zote bar to wash my oil bristle paint bushes, works very well for acrylic too just keep a bar and use little water to sud up and scrub into bar. But if it’s expensive brushes I’d check before ruining it. Use 5 brushes one for white one for darkest color and three for your red, blues, and yellows.
The key to keeping one color from accidently contaminating is to stay aware of what your brush is doing. Wiping your brush often is important, too. I don't know whether Murphy's works to reclaim brushes dried with acrylics. If I can find a brush I'm will to sacrifice, I will experiment to find out. For regular cleaning of brushes, perhaps stick to mild soap and water.
@@IntheStudioArtInstruction Yes, Murphy's Oil Soap works GREAT to remove dried acrylic paint as well. and just a drop will do it! If I have a badly gunked-on paintbrush, I put it in water with a drop of Murphy's Oil Soap at the beginning of a session and about an hour later, take it out and clean it with a paper towel. voila! It also works great with not-badly-gunked-paintbrushes, palette knives, etc.
John, that cheap mineral spirits is not refined and contains contaminants that could cause problems in the painting. Even though you might be using it just to clean brushes, still residues are risky.
I know that one. I cover my palette with plastic wrap when I have to be away from it. That, plus hissing at them when I see that aim towards the palette, works well.
Nothing worse than paint in the beard or paint tubes that you need a stoneblower to get open. I take no pride in admitting that I am the messiest painter in the universe. (But gradually getting tidier.)
