So, how did you arrive at your medium?
 

I was curious about how the artists at this site arrived at the choice of medium you use for your portraits. I have noticed some of you are bi-medium, but wondered how you came to prefer what you work the most with.

Having an "ADHD" personality it seemed right for me to move into graphic arts. The computer was a savior for me. It made me sure to have my technicals correct. Over the years I really started to miss "fine" arts, but found I would "dabble" on a painting and put it back in the corner for months. When I rediscovered pastels, I realized my problem was all of the pre/post work with acrylic/oil.

Getting out the paints, putting it on the palette, getting out the brushes and the water/turpentine, cleaning the palette, cleaning the brushes, putting away the paint, it was too much. My pastels get messy, but at the end of the day - I just close the door to my supplies.

On a suggestion that I look at "paintings" to help me with my edges, I began to wonder if I am really missing something focusing solely on pastels. :?

Side note... just what do you call a pastel work - a painting, drawing or pastel?

I'm into oil because it plays to all (well, not every one) of my neuroses. If it's not right the first time, I can fix it, and fix it again. And there are so many ways to apply it -- alla prima and impasto and layers, glazes and drybrush, scrubs and washes. Scrape or sand it off later if you have an entirely different take. Lovely stuff.

But if I had the time and instructional opportunity, I think I'd love to develop proficiency in pastels. How much fun it was to identify the color and temp you wanted and pick it up and lay it down, eliminating the intermediate mixing mystery. That works best, of course, once you have a huge array of pastels. Master pastellist Daniel Greene's pastel taboret is the size of a barn door, and he uses a lot of it. His art income is greater than mine, so the barn door is always full.

And there's nothing prettier than a pencil drawing well executed. It's the highest art form, in my estimation. There's no compromise, no hedging, it's on or it isn't, and when it's on, it's the best. You can color it later, but if the drawing isn't there, the portrait isn't there, whatever the colors.

As a child, I was what one would consider a doodler. No empty piece of paper, notebook or book for that matter was safe from my doodles. Since I preferred to doodle rather than listen to teachers' instructions, the medium at hand usually meant either pencils or pens. This habit carried over to adulthood. Given the challenging question on what I would like to become, when I grow up--the first reply was "an artist." Unfortunately a revolution in Iran came between my dream and me and I had to settle for studying German Literature. Phooey, I hated that one!

Some years later I tried to follow this dream in Salt Lake City. I took one look at the art department, got so scared and enrolled in what my husband enrolled in. Big mistake!

Soon after, the medium of choice would become crayons, because my daughter was born. I took over the child's coloring books!

The last try came in California at the ripe age of 30-something. This time it happened, one class led to another and voila, I made this into my career choice.

Frankly, being taught about art history and the qualities of different mediums at my local college has influenced my decision-making. After having to use the tools for a semester or so, regardless of how I felt about them, made me appreciate each medium's unique properties and the results that different artists have been able to achieve. (Att Moderators: I don't know how to make this any shorter.)

I love oils, because I adore the paintings of the Old Masters. The road to achieve luminous paintings seems to stretch to infinity. While I squish around the paint and smear my fingers through the buttery texture - I am in heaven!

Drawing has never left me and when I lose it with my oil paintings, there is always that cheap 2H pencil that winks at me, begging for a run around an empty page.

I started in charcoal, because I needed a medium that could be completed in ten minutes for public portrait drawing. I drew in charcoal for five years full time before adding pastel. Pencil came later because it is a more disciplined medium and harder to achieve a sense of flair in ten minutes.

I could not charge as much for it, and it took just as long. It is a more static medium and less forgiving than charcoal and pastel. Pencil was my first medium to study as a child, but the last one in which to gain any kind of mastery, if indeed I can say that I have a mastery in it.

Pencil is a fascinating medium to me. It is the most primary medium, all about basics. I use pencil in line mode first. I draw each line once, and build the drawing one line at a time, letting the form come as a result of carefully drawn lines.

A pencil sketch is ten minutes for me. It is not hurried, just simple. I like it that way. It is not the norm, I think. Most people use graphite in far more elaborate detail than do I. I consider myself a realist, in the sense that the goal of my work is to be a good likeness.

However, my work is impressionist due to the time frame I work in. I prefer the quick sketch to the long and labored oil, perhaps because I can make a little money with sketching, but would starve to death painting.

In 1995, I was at the World Fantasy Convention in Baltimore, MD. It was there that I met my first mentor, David Martin.

The "World" conventions are where sci-fi and fantasy professionals meet and swill and do deals - writers, editors, artists, art directors. I was with my wife as she is an author.

The art shows at these conventions are quite good as these are the cream of the crop in book cover, magazine, and game illustration - Michael Whelan, Steven Hickman, Steven Yule, Don Maitz, David Martin, etc.. Wonderful oil paintings with multiple figures and excellent detail.

I was not doing much art at the time, mostly airbrush southwest stuff, which, while graphic, was nowhere near the realistic figure work, I desired to do. I had come to a point of despair, as I could not find anyone willing to share information with me on technique so I could learn to do this amazing stuff. But I simply HAD to know how to do it - it made my heart ache.

So I decided to do something about it. I talked to an artist at the show and he advised me that if I wanted to learn, find an artist whose work you admire, and ask them if I could come and watch them paint.

David Martin was there, his work was wonderful, and he lived about an hour and a half from me. So I introduced myself, showed him some of my southwest slides, and we got to talking. The one thing I remember from that conversation is his statement:

"If you want to make real progress, then I recommend that you put your airbrush in a drawer and pick up a paint brush."

When I got home, I wrote him a letter asking him if I could come and watch him paint. He gave some additional advice to me, but politely said no.

I ran into him about a year later at yet another convention. We got to talking again, I asked him again and this time, he said yes. We did a total of about 12 sessions together where I learned the basics of oils and painting realistically. For the first 8 sessions, I did nothing but watch him work. For the last 4, we did a painting together where he painted about 60% of it and I did 40%. It was a painting from a Frank Frazetta pencil that Frazetta had never done as a painting using Frazetta's style and technique, and we did a dual painting where we painted the same image, but he had his canvas and I had mine.

I still have those paintings hanging in my studio and will likely have them forever. Even though they are not very good, they are special because they remind me of the valuable time another artist took to help me on my way.

I seem to be fortunate in that way as Bill Whitaker, may he live to be a thousand years old and never want, just did the same thing for me during three weeks last month.

Valuable time given up, dedication to helping another artist. A gift in the truest sense of the word.

Someday, when I am more confident in my ability, I hope to do the same for an artist just starting out. Pay it forward. I am so grateful.

Choices
 

Many of us have tried several mediums.

Dare I say it? Money.

Bronze sculptors get the most, then oil painters. I like all mediums and especially love a good watercolor. The truth is for flat art oils have long been thought of as THE old-fashioned/time-tested way portraits are done. Several of us do work in other mediums, but oils have always fetched the highest prices. Many galleries only hang oils.

I consider oils to be the easiest medium too. Maybe that's from experience but I don't think so. For me, it was a matter of choice. I once sold bronzes and may do those again, but oils dominate shows and galleries.

My mother bought me an oil painting kit while I was in my early teens and had yet reason to consider other possibilities. Until that time I was perfectly happy with my pencils and crayons.

In high school I was introduced to acrylics, pen & ink, scratchboard and other drawing and sculpting materials but continued to find the versatility of oil to be convenient and liked the tactile qualities that imparted quality and value to me. I loved the richness of color, the deep luminous effect of darks, the physical build up of opaque whites and the feeling of permanence.

In art school I struggled with watercolor and longed anxiously for my sophomore year to arrive when the painting requirements would switch to oil painting.

My first fulltime art job took me to American Greetings and had to learn/use the medium of choice for commercial studios, Designers Gouache. It was also my great fortune to be thrown together with a number of watercolorists on their way to becoming award winning members of AWS. Robert Laessig, Alan Chiara, and Morten Solberg among them. It was an experience much like Michael's but multiplied.

I don't do many watercolor portrait commissions (there is one on my website) in part because they are not as predictable if you do them in my style (see my post on edges ). As Tim suggested, the pricing expectations are lower as well.

I enjoy pastel a lot but find it difficult to price fairly. (I'm probably not telling you something that you have not already experienced). Dan Greene's pastel workshops are great. Take one if you can.

While oil is my first choice of media I have to say that I have gained a lot by working with others. I know that I am a better oil painter for having the experience. And I think it worth mentioning that the likes of Sargent, Wyeth and Kinstler display considerable skill in watercolor as well as their medium of choice.

I was reading the responses here and thinking about the reasons pastels are such a good fit for me, and that I was afraid I was missing something by not using or trying oils. Then while looking at Karin Wells

No. And many artists whose technique requires the complete drying of successive layers have more than one painting or project going on at a time, to eliminate as much down time as possible.

I never thought of myself as being bi-mediumed. However, it does go along with the fact that I've always considered myself to be quadra-sexual. Which is to say that I will do anything for a quarter.

As I stumbled through the art world trying to figure it all out, it was my assessment that the serious artist offered more than one medium. I've adjusted my thinking somewhat. It also seemed (rightly or wrongly) to me that the two preeminent mediums were oil followed by pastel. It was then clear, I had to go buy this stuff and figure out how to use it. I enjoy it all, but looking back, it was driven more by what I perceived the market to be.

Many years ago I met another artist in Arizona, as I was the owner of a shop having art supplies. She happened to do oils and after showing me her portfolio I was determined that I wanted to do that.

I have worked -- and still do somewhat -- in watercolor. I did not know watercolor until after years of oil painting. My love of mediums and one true love is my oils, its texture and even the smell of my studio when I enter it.

But I must say that after I had begun to paint in watercolor I began to work somewhat more quickly and more accurately in my oils as that is the quickness and spontaneity of the watercolor medium.

Watercolors helped me plan ahead more and know my direction. Very good learning experience. I still do some watercolors but they shall never surpass the beauty and romance of oils.

The medium is not the message, redux
 

Elizabeth asked me to resubmit this post from the Paints, Mediums, Brushes & Grounds section of the forum, so being the gentleman I am, here is the lastest installment of Marvin's greatest hits.

I have recently received several e-mail inquiries concerning my choice of mediums. This can be a touchy subject among otherwise likewise thinking artists, but what is life without a little controversy? We vehemently defend our precious mediums, sometimes bordering on religious fanaticism. I think that this lies in the fact that we have created a mystique about the secrets of the old masters, that somehow they were able to do great paintings due to a mystical alchemy. If only I could find that right medium then perhaps I could be the next ????? There is certainly validity to the advantageous use of a particular medium whose specific characteristics can be harnessed to one's best advantage.

I have a love-hate relationship with painting mediums. Primarily, I use them to keep my paint thin. My perfect medium would keep the paint wet all day and be dry the next. I would be able to easily blend adjoining colors and at the same time lay fresh paint over them immediately, with no disturbance. I would like to mix my medium into my paint piles and have them stay fresh all week. Of course I want it to be nontoxic, archival and to prevent my darks from sinking in.

I have tried many mediums since I switched from acrylics to oils a dozen or so years ago. I played around with Liquin for a long time and tried modifying it with various oils. I was, in particular, attracted to the enhanced flexibility of alkyd mediums. The fear of toxicity, the awful smell and premature yellowing eventually soured me. I tried different oils in combinations, including the infamous 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 combos. I like to work in thin layers; I had trouble with the over saturation of oil that eventually prevented additional paint from adhering to the surface. Yes, I worked fat over lean.

Another thing that worried me was the cracking of so many old master paintings in the museums, particularly in areas of thick paint application. I also don

I was painting with oils around the age of ten.I also did colored pencil, in high school, as well as oil. After my children were born I still did a lot of colored pencil portraits, a few watercolors, many colored pen & ink drawings, then several years of egg tempera.

I got tired of the tiny little lines and the hard edges, and started doing pastel in the hope that it would loosen me up. Eventually I found pastel to be difficult to store, transport, and frame. Now that I have a studio and enough money to spend on painting supplies and good linen panels with lead primer, I find oil to be easier to work with.

It's easy to store, transport and frame. I have learned so much about how to use oil in the last two years that I now really love it. I never really knew how to use it properly until just recently. Many little details make a huge difference between success or failure in oil. I just never had any knowledge of what to do before the internet.

I have two favorite mediums. One is: two parts black oil, one part double mastic varnish, one part turpentine.

Second favorite is: three parts unrefined Loriva walnut oil, and one part siccative de Courtrai.

I make my own linen/canvas panels, primed with white lead primer from New York Central Art Supply.

When I do pastel drawings I use Wallis Belgian Gray paper and a variety of pastels, starting with Conte' pencils and going softer in subsequent layers. I do use a little Grumbacher workable fixative.