AUTOGRAPHING OR SIGNING YOUR OIL PAINTINGS AND DATING IT.

Two issues are significant here. The one is how you sign your artwork and the other is if you should date it or not.
Autographing or signing – should you sign it very “professionally” or artistically or hide it? That it blends into your color range? Many questions, but the one you should answer is what are other artists, which are painting similar works as yours, what are they doing? Do you find reason in it?
I think the best option is to blend your artistic signature and date that the worked was completed into the artwork in such a manner that:-
1.It does not draw attention to itself.
2.It does not compete with the focus point or main area of interest of your painting.
3.It still contributes somewhat to the balance of the painting or at least does not skew the balance.
4.But it must still be clearly seen on inspection.
If you should do it differently like contrasting color or bright or very noticeable style etc. however, that is your prerogative.
Some artists only put their initials while others put the whole name and surname and even some only the name. If the style is very significant and can easily be distinguished then that could be done. Some artists also sign their work or index their work at the back of the painting as well as dating it.
As to dating your artwork – the older you are, the more important dating becomes. The problem is that you cannot go back to some work that now hangs in a gallery or in another country or in some unknown house or study. By dating it retrospective exhibition could be managed a little easier at a later age. The verdict? I think it is good to date your work.
Final thought and this is just an artist’s opinion – do you want to leave a legacy of artwork? Properly sign it somewhere and date it – alternatively if you only just want to make a sale then do whatever your artistic mind can come up with. Just be consistent or strive more or less to come to some place of doing it with some reason.Or make some artistic statement!

PRICING YOUR ARTWORK

The pricing of your works are really up to you. That’s the fact – you choose your price!
But you must remember that a good marketing person can sell your work for much higher amounts. However for you to be a serious artist and to avoid later problems with resale values or with "investors" and galleries, it is better that you determine your price. Whatever somebody else then sell it for has nothing to do with you. If works are overpriced and sold by a good salesperson and later are sold again and the price are significantly less, you as an artist get a bad reputation and it will influence your sales.
So how do you price your artwork?
The starting point is twice what it would have cost you to frame it. As your art style and quality of your work increase and you begin to sell more then increase it to two and a half or three times the framing price and later on raise it again. You will get a feel for your price! Beware though of cheap thin plastic frames - rather frame it properly! If a work does not need a frame but can hang as a board or canvass just like that ask yourself what it would have cost you to frame it and start with that.
If one work is of a much greater artistic value than some of your other work because it is just a better work, ask your price and motivate it that way! You are the artist - you ask your price! Sometimes the price can simply be doubled and your sales can increase if you have started with less rather than more!
It is always better to see your art being sold again by the original buyer for higher prices than lower. This way you get a good reputation and your work could enter certain markets as investment art! That is the ideal! This is why you must determine it carefully if you are a serious artist! You don't want to upset old customers and collectors!
Price your work carefully and be consistent and treat your customer with integrity!

VALUE OF THUMBNAIL DRAWING

The thumbnail drawing is made on very inexpensive paper and the drawing is made very roughly emphasizing the tonal values only in three – areas of white, dark and medium scale. Many of these drawings can be made so that one can find the ideal composition as well as the basic tonal values. The maximum size of the drawing is about 5cm by 10 cm but can be smaller. I choose this size because it easily fits on A4 ordinary printing paper and clipboard and therefore easy to handle out of doors. I also very roughly scale the drawing so that I can transfer the outline to my canvass or board.
The value of the thumbnail is simply this – if it works on this small scale in three tones and it makes sense, then it will work on a larger scale. Once it is transferred to my larger canvass, I work very intuitively and make further adjustments but I always have my reference material in the drawing and the actual photo. I have deliberately not just transferred a photo to my canvass – I first draw and already prepare my mind on problem areas when I am going to actually paint it.

HOW TO DEVELOP OR WHAT QUALIFIES YOUR ART STYLE

Because of my interest in oil painting in particular I have tried many methods over the years and finally came to a method of painting and only then I could see a sense of style coming out of my work. I thought of all the factors that influence style and made the following very simplistic list
1. Concentrate on a favorite medium.
2. Concentrate on a favorite theme.
3. Consistent execution - sameness of art pieces.
4. Favorite color palette.
5. Level of intellectual content and emotional intelligence is the same or slightly different.
6. Progression is in a clear and distinctive direction.
7. A favorite surface or some even has a favorite size.
8. External factors like extravagant framing or simplistic framing - ideally a painting style is separate from framing style.
9. Sameness of working methods ensures sameness of execution with regards to brushstrokes, binders, etc. etc.
10. Same source or reference material - working from a live model or in situ or "en plein air" is quite different than working in a studio with sketches and drawings made from source material.

METHOD OF THE MASTERS

Read a book on Van Eyck the Dutch painter. Very impressed with his attitude. 'As best I can' was his motto. Apart from that the classical method of seven layers was followewd. First they did a drawing - the actual size of painting or smaller. On transferring it to the canvas or board, they did it in great detail with ink. Then the whole canvas or board was given a wash with an olive green or brown sienna like layer mixed from various colours. After this they completed the first layer in a gray scale. Then a second gray scale followed. Then the first colour layer. Then the second colour layer. The third colour layer followed.And finally the highlights and thicker paint followed. Between each layer the painting was allowed to dry and before a new layer was started a dry onion was rubbed all over the painting. Then a thin layer of painting mixture was painted over and the next layer painted into this layer. This secured a good binding. The method of painting from thin to thick was strictly followed but it was done in such a way that previous layers shone through each new layer. So it was done very, very thinly. Various mixtures and formulas of painting mixtures existed at the time. The thing that impressed me is the shine and the good craftmanship. It is very good art. Love to do an art piece following this rigid method.

ON DOING SERIES

When doing a series of paintings one should firstly carefully plan the series. As I have discovered one should 1. Establish the concept out of your sourcematerial. You should have a feeling or passion for it- Write the concept down. 2. Establish the number for the series and start drawings. 3. Aquire enough surfaces to do the series simultaneously. 4. Now only start painting the series. Each painting must be halted so that the other in the same series should "catch up" first. The reason for not completing one fully is that your series might fastly differ in colour or emotional content and it might not stand as a series. 5. My subject matter, size, composition style, as well as manner of execution are more or less the same for all the paintings in the series. 6. The challenging parts are the drawings - redo it if they do dot not tie in with one another. 7. The last challenge is the unique qualifying element for each in the series - alike yet different! The concept must also be true to each painting in the series. That is the challenge!

ON PENCIL DRAWING

Draw with AM today. I have done the same drawing now three times. The first time from a photo that I have taken on A4 size. The second time on A2 size where I have divided the drawing into large blocks - trying to analyze the underlying structure. Today's drawing was completed from memory on A2 size - remembering the areas that influenced me and also now freely adapting the drawing in areas where the photo did not fit in a nice flow. Now I am trying to create the same flow or rhythm throughout the drawing by refining or removing or simplifying certain areas. I also worked a bit on the tonal values as a preparatory study for a painting. Maybe will do another drawing - more detailed comparing again with the reality and correcting some shapes that might be too distorted. AM's view is that I should consider studying German expressionist's like Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and others in my drawing and painting style since my art is now moving in a definite direction.