Pa'u Riders Of Old Hawai'i by Herb Kane

The new HawaiiArt.com is up and fully operational!  We will be in stealth mode until launch day but the only thing left to do is fill the site with beautiful artwork.  I hope to finish stocking the site by September 15th and expect to go live October 1st.  There are so many amazing features but lets get started with a big one right away.

Official Commemorative Painting for 2010 Merrie Monarch International Hula Festival by Rod Cameron • Oil on Belgium linen • 26 x 38" ( 66.5 x 97cm ) Contact art@hawaiiart.com to inquire about this painting.

By Rod Cameron

In painting much is said about light.  To wit “light is everything.”  I’d say with no pretense of being succinct, that understanding the light source, the shapes of the lights & shadows and the color temperatures of the main illumination is the best beginning for a painting.  And for the figure this is perhaps especially so!

For the painting, “Dancer for the Merrie Monarch”,  we were not standing on molten rocks,  but I wanted a strong, low light source as if from a bright heat on the ground.  To get the effect I placed a large theater lamp on the floor of the stage to the left of the model.  The stage is about three feet higher than where I was standing,  so we’re looking up towards her.  The lamp is approximately 1100w) with a photo quality, full spectrum gel.  This emits a warm light and casts cooler shadows.  Light coming up at the figure adds some mystery.  It’s interesting, because generally the light source is from above.  Use a low light source with care to avoid the “monster lighting” effect.

What would light be without shadows?  Placing the shadows correctly is the best way to bring out the lights and all the fun, brightly colored areas.

Try some of these suggestions when establishing shadows in your painting. Keep the shadows simple and unify their shapes.  Try to keep them in large areas, grouped together rather than splotchy parts through out the figure.  Watch for these four types of shadows:  main, core, reflected light and cast.  Note the edges of your shadow shapes.  Are they soft, lost, hard or semi hard?  Use the shadow to help display the movement and direction of your model.

Always look for interesting areas of shadows, but use them only to convey the over-all essence of what you are doing.  As an example, there were interesting leaf shadows on the hula dancer’s left arm, which I simplified and used  to help describe the volume of the muscle with it’s up-lifting direction.  Under her left foot which was raised, there is a gap before the cast shadow starts and fades into the distance.  This shadow indicates stepping or the movement of the dance.

All of this shadow work in a painting is really setting the stage for the light.  Try to find the brightest area hitting the model.  Know where it is, but fill it in towards the end.  Look for your lights to be middle, light and highlight.  Highlights are best put in at the last.  Build up your values in both the light and the shadowed areas progressively together starting with the darks.  I often like to use thicker paint in the lights.

Finally, conveying movement with both lights and shadows will unify all the areas of the painting. Your paintings will have the light and movement that can bring your figures to life.

At sunrise and sunset, the color of the light is changing very quickly. For even very ambitious plein air painters who manage to set up their easels at the crack of dawn, it’s nearly impossible to finish the painting and capture the lighting effects on the landscape before it changes. And it’s hard to remember exactly how it looked when you got the inspiration for your creation.

Rod Cameron, travels with other artists all the way from his home on the Big Island in Hawaii to central Europe and the Czech and Slovak Republics, to paint in Prague. Knowing how to handle the shadows in certain colored light can be very helpful when painting en plein air, and the time and the light is moving too fast.

Rod Cameron tells his students, “The magical light of Prague this early in the morning had a cool predominate cast, which brings the shadows to the warmer hues of the palate. Cool light equals warm shadows, or warm light gives cool shadows. This is the general rule.”

Even experienced plein air painting artists can benefit from this little reminder, especially when it’s early, and you’re in the moment. You want to capture the look and feel of cool, early morning, before the sun is up, and a few good rules of thumb can help take the guesswork out!

“The incredible buildings of the city create an interesting sky line across the horizon and I used the tall statue on the left, which had a natural gaze into the scene and the focal points of the painting,” said Rod Cameron while describing his painting titled, Charles Bridge. This Rod Cameron painting of the Charles bridge in Prague can be found on the web.

Go ahead! Travel halfway around the world. Get up at the crack of dawn, and capture in your paintings the beautiful places that you travel to with confidence! The light may be changing too quickly, but the architecture, skylines and statues aren’t. Create great value and color harmony with complimentary colors, then nudge the color in the shadows either warm or cool.  Notice that it gives your shadows a “real presence”.

It is believed that surfing by board and canoe was invented in Hawai‘i, for in all of their travels around the world and throughout the Pacific the 18th century expedition under Captain James Cook saw nothing like it until they reached these islands.

My first ride in a surfing canoe was in the mid-1930s, in my seventh year, but the memory of the experience has been indelible. The steersman was a tall broad-shouldered Hawaiian. On his seat, elevated to give him a better view over the heads of the others, he impressed me as the “king of the wave.” And what a wave it was! We rushed down a moving, ever-rising wall of roaring water, spray hissing along the sides of the canoe and sparkling in the afternoon sunlight.

But let’s hear about it from someone else. When he heard from webmaster Karen Kaufman of my plan to do this new painting, Daniel Hsu, now of California, wrote:

“I have been surfing for over 25 years and can recall surfing at “Queens” and “Canoes” on Waikiki with great fondness. From my experience in the ocean, the light Herb mentions in the late afternoon and the water’s surface texture sometimes overwhelms one with a sense of calmness. And, as you drop into a wave with the salt water in your mouth and that sea air in your nose, there is certain expectation for the moment to unfold. It is those moments that as surfers we remember for a lifetime.”

A closer view of the canoe…

This new painting is in the Artist’s Collection.
Oil on canvas, 40″ x 23″ ©2009 Herb Kawainui Kane. Framing is not yet selected.
A limited edition of 40 signed and numbered giclee prints on canvas will be produced at the size of the original or any size not less than 30″ x 17.25″

You can see more of Herb Kane’s work here. Contact art@hawaiiart.com for special pricing.

OPEN to 10 artists and their guests. May 25 – 31, 2010.  Join Artist Rod Cameron and Prague native, Jiri Balej, together with Artist Margaret Stanton for an exciting 5 day/6nights of painting, photographing and touring this exquisite, old European capital in a fun, relaxed atmosphere!

This painting workshop/tour includes three star hotel accommodations with amenities in the heart of Prague (one block from MoMA), 5 days of painting workshops with Rod Cameron in different locations, 2 evening figure painting sessions, Daily sightseeing tours, personal instruction, Airport meet and greet, train ride excursion & savings on food and entertainment. Register Now!

This open edition 11″ x 5.5″ Paper print is
double matted and measures 14″ x 11″
(total size with mat). Limited Editions are
as follows: 16″ x 8″ (actual print size) on
Paper (Edition size: 500) or Canvas (250).
28″ x 14.5″ Canvas (150). 18″ x 36″ Canvas
(150).  48″ x 24″ Canvas (75).

While this description is very comprehensive, there are issues here that may result in confusion and loss of sales.  This is because the passage creates more questions than it answers.  I had several customers call me about this listing which means there are probably 20 customers that simply moved on.

The problem is that the artist indicated that the 11 x 5.5 is a double matted print but doesnt say anything about mats on the other prints sizes.  While it seems likely that the customer would know that the canvas sizes are “unmatted” it is important to say this in your descriptions if you offer details about one of your sizes.  The above description leaves the customer thinking:

• Does the 16×8 have a mat?  It says ‘actual print size’…there must be one right?
• What about the other sizes? What types on mats do those have?

These questions with no visible answers can inhibit sales on the 16 x 8 size in this case particularly, and the product page as a whole.

IT IS BETTER TO SAY LESS OR EVEN TO REMOVE THE OPTION SIZE IF YOU FEEL THE LISTING IS GOING TO CREATE CONFUSION OR QUESTIONS.  CONFUSION OR CUSTOMER QUESTIONING IS TOXIC TO ECOMMERCE LISTINGS.

Here is an example of how I would have wrote this listing for optimal sales effectiveness.

The 11″ x 5.5″ and is an open edition paper print with a 14″ x 11″ double mat.  The 16″ x 8″ is an unmatted limited edition on paper.  All larger sizes are unmatted limited editions printed on canvas.  Each is hand signed by the artist.

Also, note how I omitted the edition sizes which appeared a bit cluttered vs. informative (just my opinion).  How many customers would not understand what all the edition sizes in parentheses are?  This folks are very likely to abandon the sale.

Good luck on implementing these tips.