In the last few days I've been varnishing all of the paintings I've done in the last one and half years since I began using oil paints. Most of the paintings are small in size, 6x8s or 5x7s but I also have some 12x16s - and just recently within the past month or two I've begun painting larger - 18x24, 20x20, and 24x36. But I started out only varnishing the smaller paintings because I wasn't sure how to go about it.. and the reason is because if you search "varnishing oil paintings" online, you will come across so many different explanations and solutions and problems that you will cry and never want to ever varnish your paintings. But since I don't want you to cry, I will share with you my process of varnishing my oil paintings with Gamblin's Gamvar.

At the end of May, I took a vacation out to the east coast to visit my family and while I was there I was able to go to Washington DC and check out the National Gallery of Art for the first time and saying it was amazing is an understatement. You can check out some footage I filmed while in the museum here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV7qwJzaZOQ

After returning home, my girlfriend decided she wanted a print of one of the Sargent paintings she fell in love with and saw at the museum, so we surfed the net and couldn't find any good prints of this painting unfortunately. I suggested that I could attempt to paint it since I had been wanting to paint something larger. This way, she gets what she wants to some extent and I get to learn from attempting to copy a Sargent - win-win situation.

When painting with oils, I usually use Gamsol Odorless Mineral Spirits [or Eco-Solve] in a Silicoil Brush Cleaning Tank to occasionally clean off my brush to apply fresh color to the painting I'm working on.

My transition from acrylics to oils was at times frustrating and a bit awkward but in the end it was a natural transition that was necessary for the way I paint and for taking my art to the next level.

The main point of this post is to discuss shadows and their temperature, color & other aspects in order to achieve a realistic image. A general guideline that has been talked about for years is "Warm light, cool shadows or Cool light, warms shadows".

I painted the same still life 5 times with different lighting and canvas sizes. I probably could've painted this with more drastic changes, such as moving the light source to the right, etc.. but I felt these subtleties would be more interesting and consistent.

Lately, I've been enjoying experimenting with my painting but at the same time honing in on a style or something close to it - some consistency at least. I wanted to take a few minutes and demonstrate some points with my recent works.

Slow-drying acrylic paints. I have been using Golden paints for a few years now and have found them to be of exceptional quality. The Open Acrylics are a bit expensive, but luckily I purchased mine from the UC Davis University Store where most of their paints and supplies are 30% cheaper than other stores - so, for 4 tubes of paint it was around $34. They will last me quite a while though so it is worth it.

I recently posted a video on my YouTube channel [here] addressing a subscriber's question dealing with creating a painting with less detail. It's questions like these that keep me on my toes and make me contemplate the madness behind my painting.

Keying a painting deals mainly with value [black and white], although it can also deal with color. But for now, I'm only going to discuss it in terms of value. Basically, keying a painting is determining which sets of values you are going to use throughout your work.

Choose a subject you are interested in, otherwise it won't seem fun to paint - it will be uninspired and feel like a chore. If you are unsure of what interests you, then you have some self-exploration to do.

I've come to realize that painting or any kind of art is a life-long journey with twists and turns rather than a destination or place that you arrive.

We are programmed by society to think that taking a break is not productive to creating anything and that we should work non-stop, but upon further inspection you will see how valuable it may be to take a break from your work.

Many aspiring artists get stuck in the rut of copying work from artists they enjoy but when attempting to create a piece of their own, they fall short. There is nothing too wrong with this in the beginning - the main problem comes when this is repeated and becomes habit. Now that we know one of the problems, we can fix it before it happens.

I always enjoy coming up with new ways to think about painting and art. The process of creating a painting or any kind of art can become stressful or even a burden after a while. So, When you change your perspective, you’re able approach your art from a different angle to make it fun and new again.