By Eric Fortune
Hello Neighbor. Today, I would like to give you a tour of my studio. Prepare yourself. This is where the Magic happens. Welcome….to My World.
Ok, so if we could all look past the raw wood beams, exposed drywall, and plaster you can see my work place. A bedroom turned studio.
As you can see I’ve altered my art desk a bit to allow it to hold multiple desk lamps at a further distance from the table’s surface. This gives me more consistent lighting as opposed to hot spots and shadows from a lamp that is too close to the painting. It does make the desk a little top heavy so I’ve placed small weights on the bottom to help keep it grounded. Was it worth it? Perhaps.
I have another portable art desk in front of my main desk. It comes in handy when I need to lay out ref, other paintings, the cutting board etc. But it’s also great for when art friends stop by to paint and hang out i.e. mostly just hang out.
The rest of the room is mostly for my computer, printer, etc. and hanging files for organizing invoices, clients and the like. I hope it’s not too weird that I have a bunch of my own paintings on the wall. I really just don’t have a lot of room for them and thought they would be even more weird scattered all over my house. Plus I’m obsessed with my own work and spend most of my days staring at old paintings wondering where it all went wrong…
These are a few photos of my basic set up while working. I’m right handed so I keep most of the supplies on the right side of my desk for easy access. I like my light shining in at a slight angle from the left. The windows to the room are also on my left side so that during the day shadows from my hands aren’t being cast onto the area I’m working on. There’s a small Tupperware container which I store my paints in. I lay a paper towel at the bottom and then set my paints onto the towel. Every now and then the paints need to be sprayed with water to prevent them from drying out. In this way I can keep my paints usable for quite some time. I prefer a basic round water color palette for mixing. Fairly simple. Some things that you may not notice that are very helpful when painting: my hair dryer on the left of my desk, and my eye dropper for adding water to paint mixtures. I love my eyedropper. Perhaps someday I’ll do a “What if I won the Lottery Dream Studio Edition”. Or I can sand down the compound and just finish the walls that are already there. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you enjoyed the visit.
A few art buddies actually did visit today. We spent some quality time enjoying this video prior to getting some painting done. Quite inspiring http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ILSDhI6Xg
Cool studio, Eric. By the way, what are desk lamps and where did you buy? I'm trying to find large and good quality lamps for computer desk and photo studio, but, as so far, I'm finding either crappy lamps or extremely overpriced.
Awesome little studio, looks very creative!
I think its great that you put up your own paintings. Besides the self-teaching aspect, it shows that you gave your best on each piece and hence are proud of it.
Same goes for Donato Giancola. He checks and signs everything leaving his shop … even his catalogues. Not putting value on autographs / signatures, but the reason behind it is commendable. Same goes for you putting up your own work.
Hmmm … really thought your new painting was bigger, like the one in the video demo. Its coming along nicely, btw!
Thanks Nico. It is helpful when I’m stuck on a painting or can’t wrap my brain around something to look at finished work or other’s work and see how they addressed issues.
Tonic- You should be able to find a desk lamp at your local art store. Be sure it’s a two light system; one warm light, and one cool light for balance. As an alternative light bulbs are also available in different temperature grades. The range is usually 2700 degrees(more yellow), 3500(neutral), and 6500(more cool) I bought a multi armed lamp and filled it with 3500’s. It offers decent light for my guests and isn’t too expensive. I can't help much with the photo studio question. Different lighting systems do different things and it depends on what the intentions are. What I can say is photo equipment can be fairly expensive and perhaps keep an eye out for used equipment. Thanks for the question.
Ever tried a pupose built wet pallete? (as opposed to tupperware and paper towel) like this: http://www.mastersonart.com/products/premier.htm
Seems to fit your painting style.
I also use eyedropper. I thought I was the only one. 🙂
Doh! an eyedropper, I always wondered how to add more water without wasting all my paint
Cool studio! I plan to make a break for becoming a full-time visual artist myself. I just have to figure out which is more feasible for me: a home studio or an outside studio.