Another excellent article I came accross for you, it may help, or not!

How to Market Your Art Effectively

Online Galleries or Bricks and Mortar Galleries

Times have changed since the IT revolution and these days the rest of the world is just a click away. Gone are the days when you had to travel long distances in order to admire a piece of artwork, or perhaps sometimes never getting to view it just because you were unable to make the trip.

Online art galleries have successfully solved such problems for art enthusiasts. Not only is it now possible to see work from artists all around the globe, but it is also an excellent platform for both budding and renowned artists to showcase their work on a much larger scale.

These online art galleries are a virtual platform to view, sell and buy pieces of art. The ease of every transaction is unimaginable. Now, irrespective of the time, you can browse through the gallery and place a bid with the click of a button. If you do not wish to be known then there is no better way of buying art than on an online auction, because here your identity is kept private. The payment gateways are completely secure and you can rest assured that your money is in safe hands.

In a traditional art gallery, there is always the risk of a piece of art being inauthentic. This is certainly not the case with online art galleries. Firstly, as a buyer, you have the option of interacting with the artist before making a purchase. Secondly, every purchase comes with a certificate of authenticity that guarantees an original purchase.

Obviously, there is much charm and intrigue associated with actually seeing a piece of art in person, but how many of us can actually do so? Daily commitments, travel costs and work related issues are just some of the reasons why most people cannot visit traditional art galleries. There may be others reasons too, but reasons related to daily living are the main reasons why you cannot indulge in your love for art in person as you would like to. This is where an online art gallery has a definite edge over a traditional art gallery. Now you can buy your art without spending a single extra penny on travel expenses because your only expense is the price of the artwork.

The advantages are not just for the buyer but for the artist too. A physical display in a traditional gallery would mean that only a select number of people would actually get to see the art, compared to the millions of viewers that would get to view it if displayed in an online gallery. When it comes to exposure, availability and recognition, a comparison between an online art gallery and a traditional art gallery is pointless. Apart from the exposure, online galleries also have various contests and awards for recognizing the talent of the artists and give handsome prizes to the winning artist or artists.

Even having your own personal website will not bring you as much traffic as an online art gallery. You may add your personal websites hyperlink to your art pieces and people who would like to contact you or view more of your work will have the option to do so. Times have changed and so have consumers. Today’s buyers want instant gratification without wasting any valuable time, and online art galleries amply provide for these needs.

If you are in America then you may find the authors link useful: To find out how to sell your artwork with Moun’Art, visit http://www.mounart.com.

Good tip! To save some scrolling push the F11 key, a much better view of the page.

Materials used: French Ultramarine, Light Red, Naples Yellow, Cobalt Blue, Burnt Umber, Prussian Blue and Cadmium Yellow.
The Watercolour paper I used here is Schut Noblesse 140lb not surface. The paper size is 14×10 inches and it has been stretched onto a ply board.
It is unfortunate that Schut Noblesse seems to be no longer available, I would now use Arches 140lb not surface.
I have painted this picture for a couple of reasons first is because it is so remote and yet not five miles from the nearest town, it is a fantastic part of Mid Wales that my wife and I love very much. It is a place that lends itself to the artist very much.

First of all I apply some masking fluid to the cottage then I sort of flick my brush loaded with masking fluid so that it lands on the paper randomly. I will leave this until the painting is finished, this then leaves the selected areas of the painting pure white.
Then when the masking fluid is dry I wet the whole sheet of paper and as the water settles in I drop weak mixtures of Naples Yellow and Cobalt Blue into the center and gently work the colour away to the sides of the sketch adding a little Light Red to the blue as I reach the edges. Just drop this colour in gently so as to avoid the pigment going ‘muddy’.

This is the point where I say the kettle needs boiling because to go on would start to make ‘muddy’ colours, my wife says any excuse will do! but the paper needs to be left to dry now or the pigment of the paint will start to go muddy. Dirty tide marks can also form which I hate because they look awful.
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Now everything is dry I can start to add some stronger colour to the outside of the painting. This will get darker as I reach the edges of the sketch.
The colour I choose for this is Naples Yellow, I feel the painting just needs a little more colour. I have decided that the sky is okay so I shall leave it alone.

I now want some warmth so I shall use a wash of Light Red and French Ultramarine with just a small amount of Burnt Umber added to increase the warmth. As the paper is almost dry I drop some Light Red into the field, and I think the painting needs a tiny amount of stronger yellow. I now change my mind and decide that the sky is in need of more colour so to do this I rewet the central area and gently drop some strong Naples Yellow on to the paper, I then leave it to dry.

Once dry I now re-wet all of the paper, with the exception of the sky and I apply a wash of Prussian Blue. Although it is a blue pigment it makes a nice cool green when mixed with a touch of yellow, any yellow is fine but Cadmium Yellow mixes well.
On its own Prussian Blue is nice pale greeny blue colour, add Burnt Umber to it and it then takes on a nice warm green.
Because I am looking down and there is no immediate detail to guide me it is a little difficult to gauge distance, paintings tend to work better if there is something close at hand ie: a tree, building, ditch, hedge, whatever, it gives a sense of distance to the composition. So I am going to focus any detail that there is into the center of the painting.
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Now at this point of the painting I need a to give the depth and contrast a little more thought. I begin by adding some strength to the dark parts of the painting, the hedge lines and the fences need a bit of lifting as well because I could finish up with a very flat picture.

I mix some Prussian Blue with some Light Red being careful not to overdo the water, I then apply the resulting mix to the stronger parts of the painting. As that begins to dry I add some Burnt Umber to the blue and red mix to make it darker, now I use even less water to avoid the awful tide marks that I mentioned earlier. When that has dried I now rub off some of the speckles of masking fluid and apply a weak wash of Cadmium Yellow to the main areas.
I take care not to rub the masking fluid off the fences because I want to keep some of them a nice clean white as this will enable me to create a strong contrast. In fact I will do the dark parts now so that the paint will be dry when I come to rub the masking fluid off.

At this point I think the house needs to be established with some very careful brush strokes I highlight the edge of the roof and the gable end, the windows done I think the whole painting is still to weak so when everything is dry I shall add strong colour to all of it.
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OK lets get and finish it, I mix a decent size wash using Light Red and Cadmium Yellow. I then wet all of the paper including the sky the way I do this without spoiling the painting is to hold the painting over the sink or take it outside, then I pour a glass of clean water over it.

Once the excess water has run off I drop my colour mixture into various parts of the scene. As that settles I add more stronger colour trying to remind myself that it will dry lighter than it looks when it is wet.

When all of this is dry I rub off the remaining masking fluid and add slight shadow to the speckles this is to give an impression of loose stones. The fence now needs a bit of definition, again with a dark mix of the colour I add some shadow. It is time now to let the whole painting dry so that I can give the old house some detail.

Because I have left the house until now I can add highlights without overdoing it. I feel the painting needs leaving now or else it could well get spoiled, it is so easy to ‘over-paint’ and you finish up with a mess.

The thing to notice here is that I have created a painting that is very rich with colour and depth but because I have painted the house as it is, the eye of the viewer is drawn in towards the center. I am happy with the result so I will say goodbye.
The thing to remember now is that you began with a piece of white paper, you now have a work of art, you did it and if it’s looked after it will last longer than you! That’s a thought isn’t it.

Creating depth with watercolour is an article by a fellow watercolourist, it is explained very well and I am happy to recommend Sue to you.
The only changes I have made are to the spelling of watercolour, as opposed to watercolor.

Watercolour paintings with depth have a realistic quality which can be achieved in several ways. Once you have these techniques mastered, your paintings will have a more dimensional feeling to them. The viewer will feel he is able to walk in, and through your watercolour.

One important thing to keep in mind when attempting to achieve depth in your watercolour paintings is to change values throughout your composition. Your values (as well as your colors) will become less intense as you move from the foreground to the background of your work. This imitates the way the eye actually sees, giving your painting authenticity.

Another way to emphasize depth in your painting is to vary your textures. Your subject matter in the foreground should have the most texture, while down-playing it in the rest of your piece. Again, this emphasizes the atmospheric perspective as seen through the human eye. Practice standing outside and observe the texture on the side of a building next to you. Then move your gaze to the structure behind it, then once more to a third building further in the distance. You will see how the texture fades away, the further back you look.

Blurring your edges in your background will also convey a feeling of depth. An example of this may be seen in a painting of some mountains. Those in the foreground should appear crisp with hard edges, while the mountains in the distance take on a softer quality. Sometimes an almost blurry, or unfocused background is called for. This can be accomplished by painting wet-in-wet, using plenty of water. I suggest with this technique to use two or three gradations to tie the areas together. This will bridge one section to the next, without an abrupt change. It will give your painting a nice flow.

Your use of colour is also a way to emphasize depth with watercolour. Cool colours recede and warm colours come forward. I suggest you get to know which of your reds are the warmest and which are the coolest. The same goes for your blues. There are warm blues and cool reds, and placed appropriately in your composition, will keep it interesting and give it dimension. There are also many colour mixtures which will help you achieve this sense of distance.

Experiment with these ideas and I’m sure you will find your watercolours have a credible and enjoyable quality to them. The more you use these techniques, the more they will become second-nature to you. Your paintings will have a beautiful and realistic sense of depth.

One of the most important aspects in watercolour painting is the sense of colour. Some people have the inborn talent of discerning colours. Most of us don’t have that innate gift and have to learn them from scratch. Happily, it is one talent that can be studied and mastered.

In watercolour painting, mixing colours have become an art in itself. A wrong shade here or there can either attract or repel a viewer. Of course, it may take a long time to master such a simple thing as colour. Happily again, some people are fast learners.

The basics

In school, we get to know that the basic colours are red, yellow and blue and that the secondary colours are green, orange and purple.

In basic art classes we are also taught that reds, oranges and yellow are named warm colours. Greens, blues and purples are cool colours.

Mixing

One of the first lessons in mixing colours is this — the most intense (and the purest) colour come from combining two primary colours that  lean toward the same secondary colour. On the other hand, the more colours you mix together, the less pure your mixtures will become.

The difficulty in mixing watercolour paints comes from the absence of a “colour neutral” tube colour for each of the primary colours red, yellow and blue. Some claim they have them but these are colours that are just close and that most of them have a colour bias or they lean towards some other colour.

Combinations

Mixing colours need not be very complicated if you try to think first on the colour you want to produce. If, for instance, you want pure vibrant purple, get it from a red and a blue that is biased towards purple.

A less intense purple can be had from the orange-biased red and a purple-biased ultramarine blue. For a dull purple, use the orange-biased red and the green-biased blue.

The same principle, more or less, governs colors that are opposite each other on the colour wheel (ex: red and green). When mixed together, these colours will simply neutralize each other, producing only grayish, brownish colour.

(One technique: To produce the colour you want, use no more than three colours. Begin with the lightest one; add the darker one little by little until you get the shade you want.)

Neutralization

Mixing more than two pigments or mixing two pigments that are biased on two completely different colours will always result in “neutralized” mixtures. (“Neutralized” here means less intense or less pure.)

However, these less intense mixtures can be wonderful colours, too, and you need to know how to mix them to play them off against brighter, purer colours.

The science and the art

Another forgotten fact is that mixing colours is a matter of proportion. How much of each one goes into the mix determines the colour shade of that mix. However, never over-mix your pigments.

It can be daunting but there is a way to try and make it a little easier. As a general rule of thumb you can try and think that everything that is above your eye level will come down and everything below your eye level will come up.

Just imagine looking down a railway line it will always go to a point, which is known as the vanishing point. Everything has one. If you look up at the sky and away into the distance you will see that it gets lighter, that is perspective too but with colour and tone.  Perspective does not just apply to a solid object it also applies to everything else that we can see. It is vital at this stage that you do not dwell on this too much. Also if you try and choose your subject with care, lots of open landscapes that do not offer a big challenge, are a better idea in the beginning.

To deal with perspective we need a few basic ground rules to follow. The first thing to remember is that perspective is determined by our eye level.
As we are all of differing heights there can be no fixed measurement for us to follow, so what we need are a few guidelines that do apply to us all.
If you are 6 feet tall and standing on level ground then it seems to me that eye level is about 5 feet 9 inches. Looking at a row of houses try and imagine standing by the front door which is 6 feet 9 inches high on average. See image above.

Now in your minds eye draw a line that stretches across the row of houses that corresponds with your 5feet 9inches eye level. That is a method that I use all of the time and you will be amazed at how accurate it is.

So, if the road is level try and imagine your eyeline running into the distance as far away as you can, now think of the road surface  itself, it is going upwards toward your eyeline, likewise the roof line, window line, are all coming down toward your eye-line. You then need to establish a vanishing point that is the point where all lines above and all lines below converge.
You will see that there is also a vanishing point going the ‘other way’ as well, the left hand side of the image.

But the other eye level, the point that the lines meet, is out of sight, you need to remember that it is there though or else the painting will look ‘wrong’.

When I take the same view and apply layers of Payne’s grey in washes, the same way that I did the view in ‘tonal value’, you can see how just the paint has created perspective on its own. It is no different than the linear perspective; it is just that I have combined the two, linear and tonal, to achieve the desired effect.

Very often you may wonder why we need colour. Well the answer is we don’t, not all of the time anyway but to produce a nice painting that is life like is a great feeling, and without the use of colour it would not look very exiting.

The use of tone value though is vital in the learning process, once this is understood it can only get easier.

Now we have the same drawing with colour applied, this first image is showing my first washes, the second image shows the result of my second washes.

I have seen some beautiful paintings that have had little colour used in their creation. I suppose I am back to the beginning where I said that if the composition is good and the content is balanced the result could be very appealing.

Like I said we don’t ‘need’ colour, but it does look more appealing don’t you think!

A lot of people do not realise that tone is more important than colour; it is tone and contrast that sets the painting. I always say that colour is the pretty part. The best way I think to do this is for me to set an example.

Using just one colour Payne’s gray, I will paint a view in monochrome; it is a view across fields in Meifod, on the North Shropshire Welsh border.

Now notice that I am painting the distance very pale, an explanation of this is simple, squint your eyes and look into the distance what you see is the main subject of your painting, it will be darker in the fore-ground and will progressively get lighter.

This is the tone value and all of the view in front will graduate away from you.  I will begin by laying a wash of pale colour across the whole sketch, notice I have made it darker in the foreground, I am now laying some colour for the distant trees and hillside, and last I have applied darker tones to the foreground trees.

What we have now is a small sketch done with just one colour.  If you look at the top of the image you will see the range of layers, numbered 1,2,3,4,5.

Before we start to paint we need to work out what we will be doing, what subject and why. There are a few golden rules, as I like to call them. I shall make a list of what I consider to be quite important things to be thinking of when you are beginning to do a sketch. First of all I think light is number one.

That sounds pretty obvious I know but you would be amazed at how many paintings you can see that seem to have very little light in their content. The result is sometimes a very nice painting that could look nicer, if only.
To avoid your painting looking flat you need to loo k for a light source it may come from an artificial source but almost always it will come from the sky. If that is the case it is reasonable to expect a shadow or two to appear somewhere in the painting.

Perspective is an awful word but I must use it. Next I would say is tone and contrast. Last I would say is colour itself. Why colour is last will become clear later. Light is top of my list because if you do not have light you cannot see.

Next I rate composition as very high in order of importance; together with the light it will make a successful painting of almost any subject. The trouble is that when you look at paintings that have been well thought out the composition is not immediately apparent, it is satisfying to the eye and it ‘looks right’. On the other hand one painting with ill thought out composition will always look ‘not quite right’ and you may never know why. Composition is all about content and position of content, I was once told that ‘what you leave out is as important as what you put in’ and I have found that to be true.

If you are painting say an old farm house and it looks a bit one sided re- arrange the landscape that is around the main building, if you think that a tree would make it look better, paint a tree. I quite often find that any old sheds or outbuildings can be re-positioned a little to make the balance look better.
Whatever it takes just do it, no one is ever going to know the difference. You can add anything that is sensible. Whatever you choose to add, try and position it in a logical place so that it leads the eye into the view that you are going to paint, for example you could use a hedge or a ditch a stream anything, even the sky itself, you will be amazed at the different cloud formations that are available for the artist to use to aid painting.